A S-DSS tool to support CAP implementation at regional scale

The new CAP for 2023-2027 - strongly connected to the European Green Deal and, thus, to Farm to Fork and biodiversity strategies - was recently formally adopted, paving the way for a fairer, greener and more performance-based CAP. It will seek to ensure a sustainable future for European farmers, providing more targeted sup- port to smaller farms, and allowing greater flexibility for EU countries to adapt measures to local conditions. The current priority is to overcome the serious environmental problems raised by intensive agriculture (pollution, biodiversity loss, climate change, and the abandonment of extensive systems of high natural value, among others), as well as socioeconomic problems, also linked to agricultural intensification (mainly rural depopulation, increased regional inequalities and speculation with agricultural products and land). More specifically, article 12 states that "Member States shall define, at national or regional level, minimum standards and good practices taking into account specific characteristics of the ar- eas concerned, including soil and climatic conditions, existing farming system, land use, crop rotation, farming practices and farm structures". Hence, a proper implementation of the CAP, indeed, requires (i) to know the pedoclimate of the specific area of interest; (ii) to evaluate the best suite of farm management practices for that specific pedoclimate that may enable to perform the required Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs) and Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) and (iii) to select, from the above farm management practices, the most relevant ones on the base of the specific farm structure/system. Among the many others, we here present the best practice tool, implemented within the LandSupport S-DSS for the evaluation of optimized agronomic solutions for i) enhancing crop production, ii) improving soil fertility and iii) reducing nitrate leaching, at different spatio-tem- poral scales. The tool is based on the process-based ARMOSA model, specifically enhanced to be launched in real time through the LandSupport platform and whose results were com- bined to easily get the best combination of farming systems (conventional vs organic) - cover crop insertion (yes vs no) - nitrogen fertilization rates (standard vs reduced vs highly reduced) - tillage solutions (conventional vs minimum vs no tillage) - crop residues retainment (yes vs no) for a particular region of interest, characterized by a specific pedoclimatic condition.