The LIFE AgroPaper® Consortium, formed by 6 partners (Smurfit Kappa, AN Group, Floreale Holding, Florette Ibérica, CEBAS – CSIC and SEAE), intends to ensure with this European project that the results obtained will be disseminated at European and international level. This is why it recognises the need to replicate and transfer the results of the project to other contexts/regions/farmers with the same purpose, abandoning plastic mulching and promoting the use of paper mulching. 

As the LIFE AgroPaper® Consortium points out, this will “contribute to conservation efforts by avoiding the use of single-use plastic mulch and the release of plastic particles and microplastics into the soil and the environment, using practices, methodologies and actions already successfully implemented in this project”.

A structure based on 5 pillars

The LIFE AgroPaper® project in all its fields is structured on the basis of 5 pillars that will contribute towards the main objective: promoting plastic-free agriculture. 

These pillars are:

1. A systematised production process, with detailed protocols for each of the different types of AgroPaper® mulch sheets, depending on the different weights, widths, colours and screen prints.

2. Protocolised field tests, with specifications based on the type of pedoclimatic conditions of the fields, the crop for which it is used, the management of the farm and the tools used for the installation of the mulch.

3. Systematised and protocolised laboratory tests and analyses characterising the paper used, its impacts on soil fertility, carbon and organic matter content and biological activity.

4. Interlocution with farmers, technicians and researchers who have used AGROPAPER in their greenhouses, farms and plots outside the project, to gather complementary information and identify bottlenecks for its replicability and transferability.

5. Engagement with the different parties involved in the food chain, through seminars, trainings and meetings.

The development of this European project – Towards to zero plastic soil management agricultural practices – LIFE AgroPaper® (LIFE 19 ENV/ES/000404) – is possible thanks to the financial support of the LIFE programme of the European Union.