Climate-Resilient Cropping Systems for Risk Optimisation

The aim of the project Climate-Resilient Cropping Systems for Risk Optimisation – With Particular Emphasis on Arable Farming Strategies and Their Regional Requirements (KARO) is to further develop existing crop production systems in a region-specific manner to make them more resilient to the effects of climate change.

Together with the Julius Kühn Institute, the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Justus Liebig University Giessen, the project examines climatic, crop production, plant health and environmental risks, as well as business and economic risks. Based on an established network of stakeholders in three focus regions with markedly different climatic conditions in northern, eastern and south-western Germany, potential adaptation scenarios are assessed and their effects quantified, discussed with stakeholders, and used to identify potential improvements to regional cropping systems. Some of these are then tested for feasibility in demonstration projects on farms and presented as part of knowledge transfer.