Working together for ecological agriculture – Pfaffenhofen and Turrialba

The city of Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm set up the so called “Soil Alliance” in 2018 with the aim of working with farmers and members of the public to restore, maintain and preserve healthy and fertile soils and biological diversity. When the Municipal Partnership for Sustainability with Turrialba in Costa Rica was established in 2020, ecological farming and maintaining healthy soil became one of the priorities for their collaboration. Pfaffenhofen’s innovative approach was recognised in the 2024 “Kommune bewegt Welt” (“Municipalities move the world”) awards, when Pfaffenhofen achieved third place in the competition for medium-sized municipalities.

To engage with other municipalities on this topic, Pfaffenhofen and Turrialba presented their activities at the virtual event for “Ecological Agriculture in Municipalities and Municipal Partnerships” on 22 October 2024. They showed that maintaining healthy soils is of vital importance to solving many of the challenges that municipalities face. Their presentation illustrated how to design a partnership between the municipal administration and farmers and outlined specific steps which municipalities and municipal partnerships can take towards sustainable agriculture.

For Pfaffenhofen, species extinction was the initial focus and the city came to the realisation that local agriculture was central to preserving biodiversity. With the unanimous support of the city council, the Pfaffenhofen Soil Alliance was set up in 2018 and placed in the city administration. Since then, about 140 agricultural farms have joined the Soil Alliance.

The issue of ecological farming is not just gaining ground in Pfaffenhofen. Through the city’s involvement in the Municipal Partnerships for Sustainability project which began in 2020, the topic also found a foothold in the newly formed partnership with the municipality of Turrialba in Costa Rica. Following initial technical discussions between representatives of the two municipalities, it quickly became clear that joint efforts to promote ecological agriculture and maintain soil quality should form one of the priorities for their collaboration in future. The result of this was the “tropicalisation” of the Soil Alliance in 2023, when a soil alliance was set up in Turrialba as part of a small-scale project funded by the Service Agency. It was designed to account for local structural factors in Costa Rica.

Despite the fact that the municipalities of Pfaffenhofen and Turrialba are on different continents, they still have much in common. Both are agricultural in character and shaped by the cultivation of special crops and monocultures. In Pfaffenhofen’s case, hops are the dominant crop, while farming in Turrialba focuses on coffee and sugar cane. In addition to this, both municipalities are at risk of flooding. Flooding in southern Germany in June 2024 hit the region around Pfaffenhofen very hard, causing millions of euros’ worth of damage. Turrialba is also frequently affected by flooding, partly due to its location at the foot of the volcano with which it shares its name and the two rivers which flow through the centre of the town.

Both municipalities are therefore aware of the direct link between agriculture, soil quality, flood protection, climate action and species protection. Monocultural farming, the intensive use of chemical fertilisers and soil compaction from heavy agricultural machinery cause soil degradation and contribute to species loss. This degradation prevents the soil from absorbing water. Long periods of low rainfall also cause the ground to dry out, which in turn increases the risk of flooding and can also reduce evaporation of water. This disrupts the local water cycle which is normally responsible for 70% of rainfall. Soil degradation also denies people and animals access to vital natural resources which can in turn cause an exodus from rural areas.

While agriculture may play a significant role in soil degradation, it also has great potential leverage in protecting the soil and therefore helping to protect the climate and preserve species. On the one hand it contributes to damage, but on the other hand it suffers from the effects of soil degradation, excess acidification and pests. Agriculture is also of central importance to safeguarding against flooding. In this regard, agriculture is both a cause and a solution to the problem. Pfaffenhofen and Turrialba have recognised this situation and are determined to take responsibility. By supporting local farmers in converting to organic farming as part of the soil alliance, the two municipalities are also contributing to groundwater quality and flood protection, making a difference in areas which are the direct responsibility of the respective municipalities.

Improving soil quality while restoring, maintaining and preserving biodiversity demands a concerted effort on the part of municipalities, farmers and the public. Sharing ideas and creating a network of a wide range of stakeholders is vital to achieving this.

At the beginning of the project, Pfaffenhofen was not aware of any other German municipality which was taking a comparable approach in the area of ecological agriculture. Consequently, the city had to plough its own furrow by creating the Soil Alliance. As a first step, representatives of the Pfaffenhofen’s 180 agricultural farms were invited to an exchange forum. A key priority for the city was to express its appreciation for members of the agricultural sector as citizens of Pfaffenhofen and key stakeholders in the Soil Alliance. To this end, the city decided to hold a kick-off event in the great hall of Pfaffenhofen town hall. Invitations were sent out and around 100 guests attended.

The next step involved holding information events, offering training and arranging visits to organic farms. A core group was set up to focus on the issue of soil. Soil courses offered participants fresh ideas on how to farm their land organically and provided a forum to share ideas and network with local farmers and other experienced practitioners and experts. Among those who supported the work of the Soil Alliance was a soil sciences expert from the Bioland Foundation. In total, the City of Pfaffenhofen allocated a budget of around 1 million euros over three years to the Soil Alliance.

Sharing practical experience and establishing a network were also the priority when the approach was implemented in Pfaffenhofen’s partner municipality of Turrialba to “tropicalise” the Soil Alliance. The first meeting brought together 53 farmers, and workshops offered additional practical training. These focused on topics such as producing organic fertiliser by re-using plant material and intercropping by planting coffee and banana plants alongside one another. Nortico Cacao Farm provided expert support for the implementation of the project, with funding from the Fund for Small-Scale Projects.

Sharing expertise, providing training and advice, and cooperating closely with local farmers are key priorities for both municipalities. The municipal administrations support farmers with the process of transitioning to organic farming. They also support conventional businesses which are not switching fully to organic farming but are still adopting individual measures. Instead of imposing a set of rules on the farmers, they are encouraged to join the collaboration through proven and practical solutions. They are offered resources and a network is being built up which includes external experts and the tourism sector.

The Soil Alliance can already celebrate many successes: organically farmed land in the Pfaffenhofen district has more than doubled in area, many agricultural farms have switched to organic farming, and Turrialba is approaching its goal of working with 25 farmers to plant 15,000 cacao plants and cultivate them in a sustainable way. Nevertheless, there remain challenges to overcome.

For example, creating regional value chains (such as by selling organic produce from local farms in local markets) can generate secure incomes and retain profits in the region. However, it can also be challenging to develop such chains in the Global South, where organic produce is often grown for export and can often be more difficult to sell locally due to higher prices. Furthermore, yields often fall initially after a farm transitions to organic farming. In Turrialba’s case, the reduction compared to conventional agriculture has been estimated to range from 20 to 40%. Likewise in Pfaffenhofen, 95% of the hops grown there are for the export market and cannot be sold locally.

Against this background, both municipalities openly discuss the risks and challenges, working with local farmers to find solutions. In Turrialba, for example, a fixed price has been agreed for cacao. Cacao is also being grown on land which was previously not used for agriculture, which allows farmers to generate additional income. The municipal administration also provides a small financial incentive to support farmers directly. In addition to this, Turrialba is combining premium-quality cacao which is mainly grown for export and tourism and produce for the local market which is affordable for local consumers. While higher prices can compensate for lost income, other financial support such as agricultural subsidies can also offset the imbalance. According to Joseph Amberger, Project Manager of the Pfaffenhofen Soil Alliance, businesses in Pfaffenhofen are better off after transitioning to organic farming.

It goes without saying that the work of a city administration and maintaining a partnership with a municipality 9,500km away generates emissions, and these in turn exacerbate climate change. The City of Pfaffenhofen aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2030, but since it was not possible to eliminate all the emissions caused by the city administration, innovative thinking was required. The city followed the recommendation of the High-Level Commission on Carbon Pricing and Competitiveness, according to which a price of 50 to 100 US dollars per ton of CO2 is required by 2030, and set a price of currently 80 euros per ton of CO2 for the city's own emissions. The annual costs calculated this way for offsetting the CO2 emissions caused were included in the project budget for climate protection measures in the city of Pfaffenhofen's administrative budget. Two-thirds of the funds were invested in the Bioland Foundation's Soil Climate Fund. This enabled emissions to be offset locally and farmers to be additionally rewarded. The remaining third was used to finance projects in Turrialba, such as the planting of cocoa trees, agroforestry systems and the continuation of educational programmes for farmers. Certification was deliberately avoided due to the effort and high costs involved.  

Both municipal partners benefit enormously from sharing knowledge and expertise, as can be seen in the fact that, not only has the Soil Alliance been ‘tropicalised’, but  Pfaffenhofen has in turn gained from Turrialba’s experience in agroforestry, where land is used for both trees and agriculture. Sharing this kind of expertise is quite literally bearing fruit in Pfaffenhofen, where the first apples grown under the agroforestry method have already been harvested. Pfaffenhofen and Turrialba are going hand-in-hand along the journey towards sustainable and ecological agriculture, promoting the maintenance of natural resources for people, animals and plants.