Project

Ground Zero? Let’s get real on regeneration!

Regenerative agriculture aims to secure food production/supply while reducing carbon footprints, improving soil health and enhancing biodiversity. Yet, we don’t know well enough which agricultural practices lead to what outcomes and what indicators and methods are best used to assess and monitor these (at scale). This project addresses these knowledge gaps for the case of cocoa and coffee production and primary processing by conducting baseline data collection and on-farm field experiments in Mexico, Colombia and Zambia for coffee, and Ecuador and Ivory Coast for cocoa.

Background

Regenerative agriculture is promoted as a pathway to combat climate change and produce food while reducing carbon emissions, improving soil health and enhancing biodiversity. Yet, the evidence on the best practices to meet these objectives is incomplete or contradictory and there are few suitable indicators and methods for monitoring progress towards them. Developing robust and scalable monitoring frameworks is a priority for the private sector in coffee and cocoa supply chains.

Project description

The Ground Zero project seeks to:

  1. Benchmark carbon footprints, soil health and biodiversity in cocoa and coffee production and primary processing at source of origin.
  2. Provide a series of robust, easily measurable and verifiable indicators and tools that can be deployed for monitoring in cocoa and coffee supply chains.
  3. Explore opportunities to achieve positive impacts on carbon footprints, soil health and biodiversity in cocoa and coffee production and primary processing.

To address these objectives, the project conducts baseline measurements and on-farm field experiments with different fertilisation strategies and organic amendments for greenhouse gas emissions and soil health, and biodiversity assessments comparing different production system types. Activities are in Mexico, Colombia and Zambia for coffee, and Ecuador and Ivory Coast for cocoa.
The project is led by Wageningen University and Research in collaboration with the Nestlé Institute of Agricultural Sciences (NIAS), Olam Food Ingredients, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and ETH Zurich.

Publications