Establishing a forum dedicated to carbon farming Research and Innovation (R&I) within the CARBONICA platform represents a significant initiative to foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and community building across various regions and expertise.
This forum is envisioned as an online space that gathers experts from all three Widening Countries (Cyprus, Greece, and North Macedonia) to pool their knowledge, experiences, and insights regarding carbon farming. It transcends geographical boundaries, encouraging participation from local experts and diaspora communities, fostering a diverse and global perspective on the subject.
At its core, this space is inclusive and inviting, welcoming project partners, stakeholders (such as farmers, researchers, policymakers, and environmentalists), and individuals enthusiastic about contributing to climate-resilient agriculture and carbon farming innovations.
Online Roundtable #9: Carbon Farming Practices: Synergies for Resilient and Sustainable Food Systems
Date: March 30, 2026
Lead Working Group: Cyprus
Moderator: Maria Prantsidou, Eratosthenes Centre of Excellence, Cyprus
Working Group speakers:
- Thanos Arampatzis, Reframe Food, Greece (CARBONICA’s Project Coordination team)
Invited Diaspora expert speaker:
- Ioannis Manikas, Senior Researcher, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Greek Diaspora (Academia)
MAP Representatives invited speakers:
- Irene Christoforou, Technical Manager of the Geochemistry Laboratory, Geological Survey Department of Cyprus, Cyprus (Policy)
- Elias Papanikolaou, IT consultant in Agri Business, Greece (Business)
- Riste Zlatevski, owner of “Darion DOO, North Macedonia (Farmer)
Key outcomes
- Carbon farming must be embedded within resilient and food-secure systems
Discussions emphasised that carbon farming can only deliver meaningful impact when integrated with food security, biodiversity, and climate resilience objectives, aligned with the EU policy frameworks. By improving soil fertility, water retention, and ecosystem stability, carbon farming supports more reliable yields, reduced input costs, and stable food production, contributing directly to the availability, accessibility, and quality of food under climate stress.
- Moving from carbon as a metric to resilience as a governance objective
A key concept highlighted was the need to move beyond carbon as a standalone metric toward carbon farming as a tool for systemic resilience. This implies aligning policies, monitoring systems, and practices to support long-term food system stability rather than focusing solely on carbon accounting.
- Multi-actor platforms and living labs are key to translating knowledge into practice
The CARBONICA approach demonstrated how multi-actor platforms and living labs bring together farmers, researchers, local authorities, industry, and policymakers to identify needs, co-develop solutions, and test them under real farming conditions. These mechanisms are essential to ensure that carbon farming innovations are practical, locally adapted, and scalable.
- Synergies between EU initiatives can reduce fragmentation and increase impact
The exchange with the ECO-READY project highlighted strong opportunities for collaboration through shared living labs, data integration into observatories, and joint policy engagement. Aligning efforts across projects can enhance monitoring capacity and support coordinated responses to climate and food security challenges.
- Carbon farming solutions must be viable for mainstream farmers and intermediaries
A key takeaway from the business perspective was that the success of climate and soil policies will depend on whether they work for the average farmer, advisor, cooperative, and agri-food business, not only for exceptional frontrunners. Adoption requires solutions that are simple, regionally adapted, and feasible under real economic pressures.
- Clear economic incentives and shared value-chain responsibility are critical for adoption
Speakers emphasised that financial viability is a precondition for uptake. Farmers, advisors, and cooperatives are unlikely to adopt new practices unless these reduce costs, protect income, or create reliable market opportunities, while industry must also take a more active role in sharing transition risks and rewarding sustainable production.
- EU soil policy frameworks will play a critical enabling role
The EU Soil Monitoring Law introduces a structured approach to soil health assessment, monitoring, and reporting, requiring Member States to establish soil districts, apply common indicators, and report regularly on soil conditions. By improving data consistency, transparency, public access to information, and support mechanisms for land managers, the framework can play a major role in enabling carbon farming, although implementation may be constrained by costs, limited expertise, and harmonisation challenges.
- Practical, low-cost solutions demonstrate immediate potential
The farmer case from North Macedonia showed how cover crops, minimal soil disturbance, and targeted organic inputs can improve soil moisture retention, soil health, and orchard resilience with limited machinery, labour, and input costs. This example highlighted that carbon farming can succeed when practices are practical, affordable, and adapted to on-farm realities.
- Co-design and cross-sector collaboration are essential for future scaling
The roundtable highlighted the opportunity to co-design next-generation, climate-smart and food-secure solutions through collaboration across projects, sectors, and regions. Integrating scientific evidence, policy frameworks, and farmer knowledge will be key to scaling impact.
📎 A one-page summary of the roundtable outcomes is available in the attached PDF.
💬 We invite forum members to share their views by responding to the pinned poll above. Your input helps enrich the discussion and reflect diverse perspectives from across the carbon farming community!
📸 Participants and speakers during the CARBONICA Roundtable #9:
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