Several partnerships with the "4 per 1000" Initiative

The FARM Foundation shares with the international "4 per 1000" initiative the vision of agriculture as a source of solutions to combat climate change and a guarantor of the resilience of rural areas. Engaged together in a partnership signed in October 2022, joint actions were carried out in 2023 and 2024.

To make the voice of producers heard at international scientific and political conferences co-organized by the “4 per 1000” Initiative.

The regional conference "West Africa", in Ivory Coast in May 2023, organized by the International Initiative “4 per 1,000”, the Ministry of State for Agriculture and Rural Development of Ivory Coast and CIRAD, focused on the preservation and restoration of forest soils, particularly in the cocoa sector. FARM invited Joséphine Francis, Vice-President of ROPPA and farmer in Liberia, to share her experience on agroforestry.

FARM also has financed the participation of producers to the regional conference in India in September 2023, organized by the “4 per 1000” Initiative with the “Heartfulness Institute”The event brought together decision-makers and experts from Asia-Pacific countries. The objective was to to debate the opportunities and best strategies to implement to store carbon and improve soil health in these countries. FARM funded the arrival of one farmer and four farmers from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines to make their voices heard by regional decision-makers.

Strengthening the sharing of experience on measuring the impact of the agroecological transition

During a seminar on “MRV” tools and methods (Monitoring Reporting Verification) in Montpellier in November 2023, FARM and the “4 per 1000” Initiative brought together around forty participants in Montpellier, public and private actors, research, public authorities and businesses, to share thoughts on tools for measuring the impact of practices implemented for an agroecological transition in agriculture in the North and the South. This was an opportunity to clarify the needs of stakeholders in terms of methodology and services provided by MRV tools.

Understanding agroecology and its impacts by studying pioneering farms on 4 continents

A group of students from the Rhône-Alpes Higher Institute of Agriculture (ISARA) was mobilized by FARM and the International Initiative "4 per 1000". The purpose of the study requested from ISARA and its students is to produce an analysis grid to document a series of farms that have implemented agroecological practices participating in the achievement of carbon sequestration targets in soils, which is proposed by the international "4 per 1000" Initiative. The study allowed to assess the impact of agricultural practices in 4 concrete cases : arboriculture in agroforestry in Brazil, market gardening and agroforestry in Tanzania, market gardening in organic agriculture in India and mixed crop-livestock in organic agriculture in France.

• What does 4 per 1000 mean?
  As a reminder, the international initiative "4 per 1000" was launched by France during COP21 in 2015Its aim is to create synergy between the various public and private actors (States, communities, businesses, professional organizations, NGOs, research establishments, etc.) in order to move towards a real agroecological transition agriculture and to implement concrete actions to natural carbon storage in the soils.

Each year, approximately 30% of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is recovered by plants thanks to photosynthesisWhen they die and decompose, living organisms in the soil, such as bacteria, fungi or earthworms, transform them into organic matter. This organic matter – rich in carbon – is essential to human nutrition because it retains water, nitrogen and phosphorus, essential for plant growth.

But it also represents enormous carbon storage potential: the world's soils contain 2 to 3 times more carbon than the atmosphere. If the level of carbon stored by soils in the top 30 to 40 centimeters of soil increased by 0.4% (or 4‰) per year, the annual increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere would be considerably reduced. Hence the expression "4 per 1000".

Find articles from the FARM team on the subject:

• How to improve soil health in West Africa? – FARM Foundation (fondation-farm.org)
• Soil Fertility in West Africa – FARM Foundation (fondation-farm.org)
• What tools are available to measure the impact of the agroecological transition in the North and South? – FARM Foundation (fondation-farm.org)