EUROPEAN CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE FEDERATION

Their core work

ECAF is the pan-European federation representing farmers, industry associations, and organisations that practise conservation agriculture — a system built on minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and diversified rotations. Their core function is to bridge the gap between agricultural research and actual farming practice: they bring a continent-wide network of practitioners into research projects, facilitate knowledge transfer to farmers, and advocate for policy conditions that support sustainable tillage systems. In H2020 consortia, they typically serve as the practitioner voice and dissemination channel, connecting scientific outputs to the farming communities that must eventually adopt them.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (SolACE, starting 2017), ECAF's engagement was rooted in the biophysical and agronomic dimensions of soil health — rhizosphere microbiomes, root traits, genotype selection, and the efficient use of water and nutrients. This reflects conservation agriculture's traditional scientific core: how plants and soils interact when tillage is removed. By 2020, with AgroFossilFree, the framing shifted from soil biology and crop physiology toward farm energy systems and the decarbonisation of agricultural inputs. The trajectory suggests ECAF is expanding its policy and advocacy scope from "how to farm without ploughing" toward "how to farm without fossil fuels" — a natural extension, but a significant widening of their agenda.

ECAF is moving from soil-centred agronomy toward the farm energy transition, positioning themselves as a voice for conservation agriculture within Europe's broader decarbonisation agenda.

How they like to work

ECAF has never led an H2020 project — both participations were as consortium partner, consistent with their identity as a federation rather than a research producer. Despite only two projects, they accumulated 41 unique consortium partners across 17 countries, suggesting they join large, multi-actor projects where their value is reach and legitimacy, not laboratory output. Working with them likely means gaining access to their practitioner network and a credible channel for on-farm validation and dissemination across Europe.

ECAF has built an unusually broad network for an organisation of its size — 41 partners across 17 countries from just two projects, indicating they participate in large, diverse consortia. Their Brussels base and federation structure suggest strong ties to national farming associations and agricultural policy circles across the EU.

What sets them apart

Most H2020 food and agriculture partners are universities or research institutes; ECAF is a practitioner federation, meaning they represent the farmers who would actually implement what the research produces. This gives them credibility with farming communities that academic partners typically lack, and makes them valuable for projects that need on-farm testing, adoption pathways, or policy uptake. Any consortium trying to demonstrate real-world impact beyond the lab should consider them as a dissemination and stakeholder engagement partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SolACE
  A flagship soil-health project spanning five years (2017–2022) with an unusually rich set of agronomic keywords — from rhizosphere microbiomes to genomic selection — reflecting deep, cross-disciplinary engagement with crop-soil systems under conservation agriculture.
• AgroFossilFree
  ECAF's highest-funded project (EUR 80,812) and a strategic pivot, signalling their expansion from soil biology into the farm energy transition and fossil-input elimination agenda.