considerable resources of agricultural land
and forest land. However, to exploit this
potential, many weaknesses must be overcome. These include, among others, a large
share of the poor and the poorest arable soils,
large share of acid soils, high risk of erosion,
low level of ecological stability of the land
surface, as well a large share of phytocenoses
of tree-stands with pine dominance, which
reduces the importance of their ecological and
protective functions.
3. Opportunities that have to be sought include,
among others, the growing importance of
intercropping, short-rotation plantations, and
areas with nitrogen-fixing crops, which has
attracted attention both within agrienvironment measures, which provide direct
payments to EU farmers who subscribe, on a
voluntary basis, to environmental commitments related to the preservation of the
environment and maintaining the countryside
and for its environmental beneficiary effects.
There is also growing interest in small-scale
agricultural biogas plants, which mainly use
manure and agricultural residues of the farm.
4. Numerous threats that ought to be alleviated
include, among others, constant and systematic decrease in the agricultural area, which is
related to the urbanization and industrialization of the country, housing development,
road expansion, and afforestation. In recent
decades an increase in the frequency and
severity of summer droughts is reported.
Limited access to water and weather anomalies and extreme phenomena can be a significant barrier for both food production and the
development of green technologies.
5. The goal of local governments and agricultural producers should be to identify and
eliminate weaknesses and potential risks
hindering the maintenance or increase of the
ability to absorb CO 2 and reduction of GHG
emissions from agricultural lands and soils
while implementing the vision of a low carbon economy in rural areas. This requires the
implementation of the relevant principles of
the functioning of a low carbon economy and
low carbon development directions of rural
areas, including in particular:
• the increased use of manure and organic
fertilizers by farmers and management of
non-used organic waste from the agricultural activity for the purpose of energy
production;
• the increase of carbon sequestration in the
soil, in particular by preventing erosion
and maintaining the correct structure and
high content of nutrients in the soil;
• introduction of grassland and the application of appropriate agricultural practices
such as mulching and intercropping;
• use of uncultivated and marginal lands for
growing energy crops;
• liming the acidic and highly acidic soil;
• increasing green areas and forest cover, as
well as use agroforestry systems, which
may provide diverse ecosystem services
and economic benefits that conventional
agriculture cannot;
• introducing good practices and low carbon
technologies in the agro-food sector.
6. Policies targeting CO 2 sequestration and reduction of GHG emissions in rural areas should be
viewed in the context of integrated resources
management, nexus-oriented governance and as
tools for climate change adaptation and for
achieving several resource-related SDGs.
References
Agricultural Market Agency (2016) Register of producers
of agricultural biogas (as at November 4, 2016).
Agricultural Market Agency, Warsaw
Ammirato S, Felicetti AM, Della Gala M, Frega N,
Palmiro Volpentesta A (2017) Sustainable development for rural areas: a survey on the agritourism rural
networks. In: Camarinha‒Matos LM, Afsarmanesh H,
Fornasiero Rosanna (eds) Collaboration in a data-rich
world. PRO-VE 2017. IFIP advances in information
and communication technology, vol 506. Springer,
Cham, pp 564‒574. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3319-65151-4_50
Amundson R, Biardeau L (2018) Opinion: soil carbon
sequestration is an elusive climate mitigation tool.
Proc Natl Acad Sci 115(46):11652–11656. https://doi.
org/10.1073/pnas.1815901115
160
P. Wiśniewski
and forest land. However, to exploit this
potential, many weaknesses must be overcome. These include, among others, a large
share of the poor and the poorest arable soils,
large share of acid soils, high risk of erosion,
low level of ecological stability of the land
surface, as well a large share of phytocenoses
of tree-stands with pine dominance, which
reduces the importance of their ecological and
protective functions.
3. Opportunities that have to be sought include,
among others, the growing importance of
intercropping, short-rotation plantations, and
areas with nitrogen-fixing crops, which has
attracted attention both within agrienvironment measures, which provide direct
payments to EU farmers who subscribe, on a
voluntary basis, to environmental commitments related to the preservation of the
environment and maintaining the countryside
and for its environmental beneficiary effects.
There is also growing interest in small-scale
agricultural biogas plants, which mainly use
manure and agricultural residues of the farm.
4. Numerous threats that ought to be alleviated
include, among others, constant and systematic decrease in the agricultural area, which is
related to the urbanization and industrialization of the country, housing development,
road expansion, and afforestation. In recent
decades an increase in the frequency and
severity of summer droughts is reported.
Limited access to water and weather anomalies and extreme phenomena can be a significant barrier for both food production and the
development of green technologies.
5. The goal of local governments and agricultural producers should be to identify and
eliminate weaknesses and potential risks
hindering the maintenance or increase of the
ability to absorb CO 2 and reduction of GHG
emissions from agricultural lands and soils
while implementing the vision of a low carbon economy in rural areas. This requires the
implementation of the relevant principles of
the functioning of a low carbon economy and
low carbon development directions of rural
areas, including in particular:
• the increased use of manure and organic
fertilizers by farmers and management of
non-used organic waste from the agricultural activity for the purpose of energy
production;
• the increase of carbon sequestration in the
soil, in particular by preventing erosion
and maintaining the correct structure and
high content of nutrients in the soil;
• introduction of grassland and the application of appropriate agricultural practices
such as mulching and intercropping;
• use of uncultivated and marginal lands for
growing energy crops;
• liming the acidic and highly acidic soil;
• increasing green areas and forest cover, as
well as use agroforestry systems, which
may provide diverse ecosystem services
and economic benefits that conventional
agriculture cannot;
• introducing good practices and low carbon
technologies in the agro-food sector.
6. Policies targeting CO 2 sequestration and reduction of GHG emissions in rural areas should be
viewed in the context of integrated resources
management, nexus-oriented governance and as
tools for climate change adaptation and for
achieving several resource-related SDGs.
References
Agricultural Market Agency (2016) Register of producers
of agricultural biogas (as at November 4, 2016).
Agricultural Market Agency, Warsaw
Ammirato S, Felicetti AM, Della Gala M, Frega N,
Palmiro Volpentesta A (2017) Sustainable development for rural areas: a survey on the agritourism rural
networks. In: Camarinha‒Matos LM, Afsarmanesh H,
Fornasiero Rosanna (eds) Collaboration in a data-rich
world. PRO-VE 2017. IFIP advances in information
and communication technology, vol 506. Springer,
Cham, pp 564‒574. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3319-65151-4_50
Amundson R, Biardeau L (2018) Opinion: soil carbon
sequestration is an elusive climate mitigation tool.
Proc Natl Acad Sci 115(46):11652–11656. https://doi.
org/10.1073/pnas.1815901115
160
P. Wiśniewski