Course Image Restoration of environmental quality (Intermediate level)

Restoration of environmental quality (Intermediate level)

Estimated duration : 9h30

The intermediate level of Route 3 (Restoration of environmental quality) consists of four activities. Each activity includes a text to read, followed by a test comprising a few simple questions to measure your mastery of the subject. At the end of the intermediate level, a summary test will be offered to you. Its results will determine your access to the advanced level.

 
To implement appropriate solutions at the operational level to reduce environmental impacts and restore environmental quality, we first need to understand the origins of these impacts (such as inputs) and what damage is being caused. The objective should be to implement a global approach to managing the agricultural environment, such as integrated production or organic farming. Many sustainable production methods exist (conservation agriculture, permaculture, agroforestry, agroecology), and we will see what their characteristics and benefits are.
 
A risk analysis approach allows producers to better identify the nature and sources of risks. We will see that it is possible to use certain indicators to characterise the state of the environment and to monitor its evolution – whether favourable or not – following the measures put in place to conserve or preserve natural resources.
 
Life-cycle assessment is used to determine and quantify the impacts of agricultural practices on the environment, from the production or extraction of natural resources to end-of-life processing chains. In four steps, it identifies the points where a product can be improved. We will end this section with a look at the rational management of waste and its recovery. 

 

Course Image Restoration of environmental quality (Advanced level)

Restoration of environmental quality (Advanced level)

Estimated duration : 11h30

The advanced level of Route 3 (Restoration of environmental quality) consists of five activities. Each activity includes a text to read, followed by a test comprising a few simple questions to measure your mastery of the subject. At the end of Route 3, a summary test will be offered to you. Its results will determine your access to the certification test.

 

This section considers the farm-level techniques and methods that make it possible to reduce the impact of agricultural activities and restore a sufficient level of environmental quality. The objective is to achieve a more sustainable production and packaging system. Actions that can be taken for each of the key elements of the environment (water, soil, biodiversity, air) are reviewed. We will see that recycling and recovery make a significant contribution to improving environmental performance. It is possible to treat wastewater to re-use it; to recycle vegetable by-products or waste into recoverable organic matter, making it possible to preserve or even restore long-term soil fertility; and to extract new value-added products from certain “wastes”.

We will see that in the agricultural world there is no waste: everything is recyclable or recoverable, including to produce energy (e.g. heating or electricity by biomethanisation). Finally, as part of the overall objective of reducing polluting emissions, we will see that agriculture offers great opportunities to offset greenhouse gas emissions.