DSCATT

DSCATT proposes to explore the potential for carbon sequestration in cultivated soils, while encouraging sustainable intensification of agriculture.

The project aims to identify and examine the interactions between biophysical and socio-economic factors across temporal and spatial scales. Better knowledge of the practices that lead to carbon sequestration and the conditions for their adoption and adjustments by stakeholders will help to better take soil carbon into account in existing and alternative agricultural systems and agricultural policies.

To achieve these goals, transdisciplinary, multi-scale, systemic and multi-actor approaches are needed.

The DSCATT project contributes to the objectives of the 4 per 1000 initiative .

DSCATT works on 4 sites (Senegal, Zimbabwe, Kenya and France). The project revolves around three interdependent scales: the field, the farm and the territory or the village.

In the field, research focuses on the links between biomass production and carbon sequestration in the soil, under different soil and climate conditions. At the level of the territory (or the network of farmers), the different compartments of the agro-ecosystems and the flows of organic matter will be studied. The project will analyze the role of socio-economic and biophysical contexts, before testing several possible changes and their impacts on the dynamics of carbon sequestration in soils, the economic performance of farms and food security.

DSCATT will connect knowledge on the processes governing the preservation of C sequestration and the multiple objectives and constraints of farmers.