ClimateChange Adaptability of cropping and Farming systems for Europe (Climate-CAFE)

Supported by the metaprogramme Adaptation of Agriculture and Forests to Climate Change (AAFCC) of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), the project Climate-CAFE aims at assessing the adaptive capacity to climate change of Europeans arable cropping and farming systems, through the modelling and simulation of innovative strategies co-designed with actors (group of farmers, advisers and actors of the agricultural sector).

Three broad categories of strategies were identified: (1) resistance strategies, minimizing the impact of short-term climate change with simple adjustments and easy to implement, (2) resilience, which will require a systemic adaptation cropping systems across the field or farm, (3) a drastic transformation of cropping and farming systems.

The objective is to evaluate different adaptation strategies in two IPCC scenarios in the near future (2050) and far (2100), considering various European pedoclimates, sweeping the wide range of agricultural situations of major European cultures, from Finland to the South of Spain (North-South gradient) and Scotland to the east of Germany (West-East gradient).