The Climate Farm Demo (CFD) project aims to create a unique panEuropean network of Pilot Demo Farmers covering 27 countries and all pedo-climatic areas.
Its overall objective is to accelerate the adoption of Climate Smart Farming practices and solutions by farmers with a view to adapting agricultural production systems to climate change and to achieving a carbon neutral agricultural sector by 2050.
To support farmers in this transition they first need insight in the current GHG emissions and carbon removals on their farms in order to create action plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Over the last decade a range of farm level GHG assessment tools have been developed for different farming systems.
Most tools were developed to calculate the carbon footprint of crops or livestock products, which is increasingly being demanded by the food industry.
Other tools were developed as farm level tools to provide insights in nutrient flows and emissions on the farm.
Some tools are more appropriate as monitoring tools, whereas others have possibilities to also perform simulations with alternative management, which can be used for creating action plans.

Also, geographically there is a large variation, where countries in Western Europe have multiple tools available, while in Central-eastern European countries often no tools are yet developed.

The main objective for the use of these tools is to help farmers and advisors to determine their baseline GHG emissions and to assist in the development of the action plans.
A comparison of the GHG performance of farms among countries is not the focus of the project.
Therefore, the project decided not to use only a single tool for all farms but instead allow farmers and advisors to work with the tools they already might use in their country.
However, the selected tools should be of sufficient quality and comply with to a certain scientific standard.
Here are the steps followed, and the criteria observed to validate the tools.

First screening:

Only tools meeting the following criteria can be considered for further evaluation:

1. Tool that assesses a farm’s GHG emissions covering scopes 1, 2 and 3
2. Sufficiently advanced in their development so that the tool can be used directly by farmers/advisors for the development of the action plans and
3. Sufficient documentation material should be available to perform the evaluation.

Next, here is the important information to observe to evaluate the tools: Information on features that are relevant for the development of an action plan for the farms.
An important aspect is to what extent the tools are sensitive to certain mitigation practices, as the practices that will be implemented on those farms should ideally be reflected in the following GHG assessment.
Below the full list of topics to be considered:

• General information
o Covered production systems o Available languages
o Scope of the tool o Cost of the tool

• Features for development of an action plan
o Description of farm
o Type of GHG emissions and carbon storage included
o Benchmark possibility
o Other environmental impacts o List of mitigation options
o Economic impact results o Action plan simulation possibility

• Support for advisors
o Training possibilities (cost, format, support)
o Documentation (user guide, methodology documentation)
o Data handling

• Sensitivity to mitigation practices
o Enteric fermentation
o Manure management
o Nitrogen management in the field
o Energy consumption
o Fertilizer emission factors (related to production emission)
o Feed emission factors
o Carbon storage

Based on the assessment, the project selected 18 tools that can be used by farmers and advisors in the Climate Farm Demo project, which cover the major agricultural production systems. Here is the list of selected tools: Agnav, Agrecalc, Agrösfar, Biocode, Bovid CO2, CAP’2ER, Carbon F&L, Convis, Cool Farm Tool, DECiDE, ES Green Tool, Farm Carbon Calculator, Geep, GES&VIT, Klimrek, KLIR, Kringloopwijzer (ANCA), TEKla.