Story Transcript
1st JOINT CALLS 2018
PROJECTS SELECTED FOR FUNDING SECTION 1 & SECTION 2 TUNISIA
Content
Introduction .........................................................................................................................4 Section 1
Pillar: MANAGEMENT OF WATER FIT4REUSE ...........................................................................................................................................8
Pillar: Farming Systems
SUPROMED...........................................................................................................................................10 SUSTAINOLIVE ...................................................................................................................................12
Pillar: Agro-Food Chain
DAINME-SME ......................................................................................................................................14 MEDITOMATO...........................................................................................................16
Section 2
Pillar: MANAGEMENT OF WATER ALTOS .....................................................................................................................................................20 CONSIRS ...............................................................................................................................................22 INWAT ....................................................................................................................................................24 KARMA ...................................................................................................................................................26 MEDSAL .................................................................................................................................................28 PRECIMED ............................................................................................................................................30 Sustain-COAST ....................................................................................................................................32 SWATCH .................................................................................................................................................34
Pillar: Farming Systems
ADAPT-HERD ......................................................................................................................................36 Blue-Med ...............................................................................................................................................38 FREECLIMB ..........................................................................................................................................40 GeMed ....................................................................................................................................................42 GENDIBAR ............................................................................................................................................44 IMPRESA ...............................................................................................................................................46 INTOMED ..............................................................................................................................................48 LAGMED ................................................................................................................................................50 ZeroParasitic .......................................................................................................................................52
Pillar: Agro-Food Chain
ArtiSaneFood ......................................................................................................................................54 BOOMERANG ......................................................................................................................................56 MILKQUA ..............................................................................................................................................55 VEGGIE-MED-CHEESES .......................................................................................................60
Introduction The overall objective of the PRIMA programme is to build research and innovation capacities and to develop knowledge and common innovative solutions for agro-food systems, to make them sustainable, and for integrated water provision and management in the Mediterranean area, to make those systems and that provision and management more climate resilient, efficient, cost-effective and environmentally and socially sustainable, and to contribute to solving water scarcity, food security, nutrition, health, well-being and migration problems upstream. The scale of the research and innovation necessary to address the challenges in the Mediterranean area is immense due to the systemic character of the major bottlenecks. The scope of research and innovation is complex, multidisciplinary and requires a multi-actor and cross-border approach. A collaborative approach among PRIMA Participating States can help to increase the required scale and scope, by pooling financial and intellectual resources.
The PRIMA Annual Work Plan for 2018 (AWP 2018) covers the priorities described in the PRIMA SRIA under the three PRIMA thematic areas: Integrated and sustainable management of water for arid and semi-arid Mediterranean areas; 2. Sustainable farming systems under Mediterranean environmental constraints; 3. Sustainable Mediterranean agro-food value chain for regional and local development. PRIMA programmes support research and innovation through distinct types of actions/activities: - Section 1: Research & Innovation Actions (RIA), and Innovation Actions (IA) - Section 2: Research and Innovation Activities (RIA) based on national rules - Section 3: National research programmes (PSIAs) The Partnership is characterized by a strong strategic dimension based on the principle of equal footing applied through co-decision, co-financing and co-management and a distinctive geographical focus on the Mediterranean region. Currently, 19 Euro-Mediterranean countries participate in PRIMA. 11 EU countries: Cyprus, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. 8 non-EU countries: Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey.
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The EU financial contribution, including EFTA credits, is equal to the contribution of the participating States to PRIMA. The EU financial contribution does not exceed EUR 220 million.
Participating States shall make arrangements for their national funding bodies to make contributions, in cash or in kind, of at least EUR 220 000 000 for the period from 7 August 2017 to 31 December 2028. The PRIMA Program has completed to the selection of the winning projects of the 2018 calls. Being the first cycle of calls, this selection represents a fundamental moment in the framework of the implementation of the Partnership and, at the same time, the starting point for its profitable prosecution.
After two stages of evaluation by independent experts, conducted according to the strict rules of the European Framework Program for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020, the overall results of 2018 are very encouraging for Tunisian research and innovation in a crucial sector ..
Funded projects by country
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SECTION 1 1ST STAGE WATER
177
FARMING
197
AGRO FOOD 83
2ND STAGE WATER
9
FARMING
12
AGRO FOOD 9
FUNDED WATER
3
FARMING
3
103 PARTNERS
AGRO FOOD 3
Chai
2
ne de valeurs Agro-food value chain
3
Agroalimentaires
2
FarmingAgricole systems Système Management o f water
33
1
00
33
11 Tunisie
22
Selected Projects
33
FIT4REUSE Water Reuse And Water Desalination Agricultural And Food Production
For
Project title: SaFe and sustaInable soluTions FOR the integRatEd USE of non-conventional water resources in the Mediterranean agricultural sector Total budget: 2.020.000,00 € Duration: 36 months Project coordinator: University of Bologna; Italy Tunisian partner: Atef Jaouani Consortium Partner Country Tunisia Spain
France
Greece Italy
Turkey
Affiliation University of Tunis El Manar, Higher Institute for Applied Biological Sciences of Tunis, UTM-ISSBAT BIOAZUL SL, BIOAZUL Ecofilae, ECOFILAE
National Technical University of Athens, NTUA Marche Polytechnic University, UNIVPM
National Institute for Environmental Protection and Research, ISPRA Istanbul Technical University, ITU
Project Summary
8
The Mediterranean region is characterized by limited availability of water resources both in time and space. In the future, competition for water is expected to increase, making the agricultural sector the largest vulnerable water user in the Mediterranean basin. The exploitation of unconventional water resources in a safe and sustainable way could help solve this problem and bring benefits to the entire region. Objectives and contents: -Facing the challenges related to the use of unconventional waters (eg, purified wastewater and desalted waters) through three levels: -Innovation in treatment technology;
MANAGEMENT OF WATER
-Application in simulated / relevant environments; -Evaluation and regulation, guaranteed by the inclusion of governmental, industrial and research partners from different areas of the Mediterranean. The first level will focus on the treatment and desalination of waste water and saline and / or brackish water, in particular through the combination of «natural» solutions (phytodepuration) and intensive treatments (anaerobic reactors, membranes, nanomaterials). Once quality water complies with the standards required by current legislation, the second level of the Project provides for direct and indirect study of water reuse schemes. In particular, the various technologies and practices for irrigation will be analyzed, as well as the effects that unconventional water resources have on the ground and on the safety of crops for human consumption. The third level will study the results obtained and analyze the economic, social and environmental impacts of the proposed solutions. Finally, Impacts and expected results: Overall, since FIT4REUSE aims to contribute to a regular, sustainable and safe water supply in agriculture, it will have a tangible positive impact on society, the economy and the environment. Innovative, sustainable and low-cost solutions will be developed and adapted to Mediterranean conditions. The project will improve the efficiency of water management systems, reduce the negative impact on the environment and influence public perception through the inclusion of all stakeholders involved, thus providing the basis for a change in policies and consequently for a wider application of unconventional water resources. In particular, FIT4REUSE aims to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change and can serve as an example for other regions with similar contexts. Furthermore,
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SUPROMED Improving The Sustainability Of Mediterranean Agro-Ecosystems Project title: Sustainable Production in water limited environments of Mediterranean agro-ecosystem Total budget: 2.030.000,00 € Duration: Duration : 36 months Project coordinator: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, UCLM ; Spain Tunisian partner: Hacib Amami , Tarek Jarrahi Consortium Partner Country Tunisia Spain
France Greece Lebanon
Affiliation Institut National de Recherche en Génie Rural,Eaux et Forêts National Institute of Field Crops, INGC
Instituto Técnico Agronómico Provincial, ITAP
Grupo Hispatec Informatica Empresarial S.A., HISPATEC SEMIDE, SEMIDE University of Thessaly ; UTH 3DSA ; 3DSA DIFAF, DIFAF Lebanese University, Faculty of Agronomy, ULFA
Project Summary
10
SUPROMED is a new project co-funded under the PRIMA 2018 programme section I Farming Systems, for a period of 3 years. The project will start in October 2019 and it is composed of a multidisciplinary team of ten partners from five countries Spain, France , Greece , Lebanon and Tunisia. The main objective of SUPROMED is to enhance the economic and environmental sustainability of Mediterranean farming systems through a more efficient management of water, energy and fertilizers. SUPROMED is combining different models and tools: water, energy and fertilisation management models, meteorological and climatic tools in order to
FARMING SYSTEMS
develop, implement and validate an end user’s IT platform aiming to provide effective advice for more efficient crop management Objectives, contents and expected results : Provide a water management system for agricultural and livestock production that is resilient to climate change. In particular, an IT platform will be released to end users specifically designed to inform farmers about efficient water management in Mediterranean agricultural and livestock systems. The Project will provide a variety of models and tools (MOPECO, IREY, DOPIR or DOPIR-SOLAR). on an online platform in order to increase the production and earnings of farmers by 10-15% through a 15-30% reduction in the use of water and other components such as energy and fertilizers, while decreasing the environmental impact. SUPROMED also aims to generate 10-15% of highly qualified jobs directly or indirectly e a ,to favor a 10-20% increase in the adoption of technological and organizational innovations in Mediterranean farms. The project consists of 6 work packages.
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SUSTAINOLIVE Improving The Sustainability Of Mediterranean Agro-Ecosystems Project title: Novel approaches to promote the Sustainability of Oive groves in the Mediterranean Total budget: 2.032.690,17 € Duration : 36 months Project coordinator: University of Jaén, UJA Spain Tunisian partner: Sofian Abdelhamid Consortium Partner Country Tunisia
Spain
Affiliation Institut de l’Olivier, Tunisie
Andalusian Institute for Research and Training in Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Ecological Production, IFAPA Laboratorio de Historia de los Agroecosistemas (UPO) University of Granada, UGR
Institute of Agriculture and Food Research and Technology, Alejandro Gallego Barrera S.L.U (TEKIEROVERDE), TKV Denomination of Estepa Origen, CRDOP. ESTEPA
Greece
Italy
Marocco
Portugal
12
Hellenic Agricultural Organization ‘DEMETER’, ELGO Agricultural Cooperative of Kalamata, ACK
NILEAS Producers Group Company A.C., NGC University of Parma, UNIPR
Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, UNIRC
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM UNIVERSITÉ DE BOLOGNE Italian Association for Organic Agriculture, AIAB Consorzio Olivicolo Italiano SCRL (UNAPROL)
University Abdelmalek Essaadi, UAE
Cooperative -Zouia , Ass. Tismounine AT Coopérative Oumnia Bellota (COB) Esporão Lda (ESP)
University of Évora (ICAAM-UEVORA)
Centre for the Study and Promotion of Alentejo Olive Oil ,
Olive grove cultivation is a key socio-economic asset and is the dominant landscape of many regions of the Mediterranean olive oil producing countries. During the last decades, the intensification of the low-input traditional olive oil farming has resulted in a low-nature-value olive grove farming, thus provoking negative environmental impacts such as soil erosion, run-offs, soil fertility loss and degradation of habitats, among others. The objective of SUSTAINOLIVE is to enhance the sustainability of the olive grove farming throughout the implementation and promotion of novel sustainable technological solutions (STSs) that are based on agroecological concepts, and on knowledge exchange and co-creation among key actors and end-users. To achieve this, SUSTAINOLIVE will i) identified the diversity of pedoclimatic, landscape, socio-economic and policy conditions, along with the heterogeneity in the technological knowledge, that is encountered across the main Mediterranean olive oil producing countries (Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Tunisia and Morocco), thanks to the active participation of end-users in a participatory platform, ii) identify an array of STSs and strategies adapted to the wide diversity of the olive grove cultivation, iii) evaluate a wide range of variables related to ecosystems services and socio-economic and Life-Cycle assessment in a network of olive farms which have already implemented the identified STSs, and iv) implement innovative technologies (e.g. composting, struvite production) for reusing olive mill by-products for agricultural purposes. The relevance of SUSTAINOLIVE are that it: i) is end-users led to speed up STSs adoption, ii) boost innovative cropping and livestock systems with limited resources and environmental constrains allowing adaptation of the olive grove farming to climate change, iii) improve synergies between livestock and olive oil production, iv) considers a range of different olive farming systems.
FARMING SYSTEMS
Project summary
13
DAINME-SME Implementing Innovation In Mediterranean Ago-Food Chains By Smallholders And SMEs Project title: Dairy Innovation for Mediterranean SME Total budget: 1.956.857,00 € Duration: 36 months Project coordinator: Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentaria, IRTA ;Spain Tunisien Partner: Sana Jaballah
Consortium Partner Country Tunisia Spain
Egypt
France Italy
Turkey
14
Affiliation Centre
Technique
Agroalimentaire
Tunisien,
Unión de Productores de Caprino, UNIPROCA Ekonek S.L., Ekonek;
CTAA
Food and Agro Industries Technology Center, FAITC APEXAGRI, APEXAGRI
Alimenta Srl, Alimenta
SPREAD EUROPEAN SAFETY GEIE, SPES EGE University
Enka Süt Ve Gida Mamülleri Sanayi Ve Ticaret A.s, SÜT OFIS
The market for dairy products in Mediterranean countries is substantially different from the countries of Northern Europe and Eastern Europe. Cow’s milk is mainly processed into UHT milk and fermented milk and most of the production of other ruminants (mainly sheep, but also goat and buffalo), is transformed into cheese (Manchego, Pericino, Beyaz Peynir, Mozzarella, Feta ). The dairy sector is very important for the economy of rural areas and for maintaining biodiversity. The products are an important part of the Mediterranean diet, with high nutritional levels of protein. However, the lack of adequate valorisation of whey proteins represents an important gap for companies. The valorisation of milk and whey for “small” volumes (for example 100 m3 / day), is very complex, as high volumes are needed (1,000 m3 / day), to amortize the necessary investments in equipment. The protein fractionation for goat and sheep milk is not completely developed and one of the objectives of the Project is to take a step forward in this technology. The objective of the Project is to improve the circular economy of the dairy sector SMEs in the Mediterranean countries. The proposed solutions are developed to solve problems especially for small transformers through the introduction of innovative technologies and the development of new dairy products. These technologies are already used in other food sectors (such as animal feed), with reliable results. The general objectives are: -valorisation of milk, especially from grazing ruminants (goats and sheep) and by-products of dairies, through the separation of -precious protein fractions or through their transformation into fresh food.
AGRO-FOOD VALUE CHAIN
Project Summary
15
MEDITOMATO Implementing Innovation In Mediterranean Agro-Food Chains By Smallholders And SMEs Project title: Bringing innovation and sustainability along the whole value chain in the MEDiterranan TOMATO industry Total budget: 1.999.380,50 Duration: 36 months Project coordinator: Ingeniería y Control Electrónico S.L., INGE;Spain Tunisien Partner: Mohamed Hachicha Consortium Partner Country Tunisia Spain Germany Greece Italy
Turkey
Affiliation Institut National de Recherche en Génie Rural, Eaux et Forêts, INRGREF Centro Nacional de Tecnología y Seguridad Alimentaria, GRUPO EMPRESARIAL LA CAÑA, S.L., GLC FUNDACION TEKNIKER, TEKN
Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, WUPP; Future Intelligence Ltd, FINT
DIADIKASIA BUSINESS CONSULTING S.A., DIAD ARCA 2010 a.r.l. soc.coop., ARCA Uludag University, ULUD
Project Summary
The tomato sector is particularly important in the European Union and e specially in the Mediterranean area. In fact, the list of the ten most important countries for tomato processing includes Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Tunisia (no other European country outside the PRIMA area belongs to this group) which represent about 33% of the total world quantity of processed tomatoes and more
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AGRO-FOOD VALUE CHAIN
than 12 million tons. Irrigation and fertilization are among the main factors that impact on primary tomato production and also on economic and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, one of the major objectives of the agri-food industry is the development of traceable methods to certify the final quality of the products. Objectives and contents: Implement innovative technological solutions throughout the tomato value chain (production, processing and distribution), in order to allow the sector (including small owners and SMEs) to make improvements at different levels (environmental, safety and quality, sustainability, traceability, efficiency and water management), which will contribute to the rural and social development of the agri-food sector in the Mediterranean, based on quality, safe and sustainable production. Meditomato is strictly based on the application of ICT technologies. The project includes all ICT levels, from the Internet of Things (with Vis-NIR quality sensors, sensors of fertigation, etc.) to the collection and analysis of data (through the global web platform with the implementation of automatic learning of algorithms to obtain optimized strategies) also including the use of recognition systems for traceability (eg code bar) or communication protocols.
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SECTION 2 1ST STAGE WATER
88
FARMING
165
AGRO FOOD 107
2ND STAGE WATER
22
FARMING
49
AGRO FOOD 32
FUNDED WATER
9
FARMING
12
231 PARTNERS
AGRO FOOD 6
15%
CHAINE DE VALEURS AGROALIMENTAIRES
Agro-food value chain
22% 33%
FarmingAGRICOLE systems SYSTÉME
44% 30%
Management water GESTIONoDEf L'EAU
0%
33% 10%2 Tunisie
0%
30%4
0%
50
Selected Projects projets sélec onnés
19
ALTOS
Water Resources Availability And Quality Within Catchments And Aquifers Project title: Managing water resources within Mediterranean agrosystems by accounting for spatial structures and connectivities Total budget: 1114235 € Project coordinator: Frédéric Jacob Name of institution: LISAH Laboratoire d’étude des Interactions Sol – Agrosystème – Hydrosystème ; France Consortium Country
Tunisia
France Spain Italy
Lebanon
Partner Jalel Aouissi
Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie, INAT
Riadh Abdelfattah
Ecole supérieure des communications de Tunis, Sup’Com
Rim Ztouna Chebbi Fethi Lachaal gilles Boulet
Hector Nieto
Montaldo Nicola Ali Fadel
Ihab Jomaa
Morocco Said Khabba
20
Affiliation
Institut National de Recherche en Génie Rural, Eaux et Forêts, INRGREF Centre de Recherche et technologies des eaux, certe Centre d’études spatiales biosphère, CESBIO
de
des la
Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries, IRTA
Dipartimento di Ingegneria civile, ambientale ed architettura, University of Cagliari, UNICA National Council for Scientific Research - Lebanon, CNRS-L Lebanese Agricultural Institute, LARI
Research
Unverisité Caddi Ayyad / Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, UCAM / FSS
The ALTOS project aims to improve water management models for rainfed and irrigated agriculture, by considering the modulation of spatial structures and connectivities induced by hydro-agricultural infrastructures and practices (e.g., modulating regional land use to drive upstream / downstream water repartition). Four study sites are considered for integrated analysis in Morocco, Lebanon and Tunisia; and two study sites are considered for methodological developments in Spain and Italy. WP1 deals with monitoring and modelling tools for characterizing spatial structures. It includes the use of innovative sensors for structure observations, and of innovative methods for data processing. WP2 addresses innovative monitoring tools for characterizing processes induced by spatial structures (.e.g, water flows). It includes several protocols relying on complementary measurements. WP3 addresses innovative modelling for simulating individual (e.g., evapotranspiration) and combined (e.g., hydrological cycle) processes. It includes multi-objectives / multi-criteria calibration procedures relying on distributed / nested measurements. WP4 simulates matter fluxes and storages for possible structure modulations, to next conduct an integrated analysis with end-users on the basis of participative seminars. It also cross-analyses irrigated and rainfed agrosystems, by addressing vulnerabilities and adaptation margins. WP5 deals with (1) the sharing of data and methods within the ALTOS consortium, and (2) the results dissemination and exploitation. For this latter item, we rely on long-term collaborations with several stakeholders (farmer associations, resource managers, engineering offices). Expected outcomes are related to SDG #2 (sustainable agriculture), #6 (water supply services), and #12 (responsible consumption and production). ALTOS contributes to PRIMA outcome indicators, including (1) newly modelling routines, (2) new irrigation technologies, and (3) innovative farming system.
MANAGEMENT OF WATER
Project summary
21
CONSIRS IRRIGATION PRACTICES
TECHNOLOGIES
AND
Project title: A novel Condensation Supported Greenhouse Irrigation System Total budget: 747880 € Project coordinator: Martin Buchholz Name of institution: TUB Technische Universität Berlin; Germany Consortium Country Tunisia Algeria Egypt
Partner
Affiliation
Mohamed Thameur CHaibi
Institut National de Recherche en Génie Rural, Eaux et Forêts (INRGREF), INGREF
Mohamed Nour
Cairo University, CAI
Ahmed Nourani
Project summary
Centre de Recherche Scientifique et Technique sur les Régions Arides, CRSTRA
A new approach for irrigation water management is proposed as a combination of irrigation scheduling and water recycling using techniques of evapo-condensation in closed loop greenhouses. The system allows to solve the problem of increased salinity content in water supply by dilution with the produced condensed water. Moreover, within a specific irrigation scheduling scheme, low quality water like pre-treated waste water can be converted through the condensation process into safe fresh water, solving the problems of biological crop contamination. The project is based on results from precursor projects and will mainly focus on the further development of the system in direction of market readiness by improving the technology in terms of first the adaptation to the level of farm management in MENA countries and second of proper functioning within hot/arid climate conditions by advanced methods of greenhouse climate control. The main technological improvement is provided by a combination of two methods of air humidity condensation, with (1) condensation yields directly
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MANAGEMENT OF WATER
into cooling water from a thermal storage for a first period of the day with cool generated during a first night period and (2) absorption of water vapor into a liquid desiccant in a second part of daytime addressing higher storage temperatures. The regeneration of desiccant is then performed during colder night time periods, where further condensation is collected on the internal greenhouse surface. Besides, a closed irrigation water cycle with fertilization, water filtering and strong water is proposed. The system will be implemented in several greenhouse prototypes at locations of the North African partner countries. Based on the results, feasibility studies and regional water balances for different pilot regions (Biskra/AL, Nabeul/TU and Western Desert/EG) will be addressed in a later stage of the project.
23
INWAT SUSTAINABLE, INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT
WATER
Project title: Quality and management of intermittent rivers and associated groundwaters in the Mediterranean basins (INWAT) Total budget: 1519000 € Project coordinator: Sandra Perez Name of institution: CSIC Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas; Spain Consortium Country
Partner
Tunisia
Samia Khadar
Centre des Recherches et des Technologies des Eaux, CERTE
Algeria
Taha-Hocine Debieche
Université Mohamed Benyahia - Jijel, Univ-jijel
Spain
Acuna Vincenç
Germany Daniel Hering France
Chiron Serge
Jordan
Alraggad Marwan M.
Italy
Turkey
Gentile Francesco Sureyya Meric
Project summary
24
Affiliation
Institut catala de recerca del aigua, ICRA
Seddik
Universität Duisburg-Essen, UDE University of Montpellier, UM
University of Bari Aldo Moro, UNIBA University of Jordan, UJ
Namik Kemal Üniversitesi, NKU
Water scarcity has various negative side-effects on river ecosystem and riverine biodiversity with the deteriorated water quality and quantity. Due to global climate change, a continuous increase in the proportion of intermittent rivers and aquifers is envisaged that will make them the dominant water bodies in the Mediterranean basin. To our best knowledge, hydrological, physico-chemical and ecological processes in intermittent rivers are scarce and not sufficiently supporting specific management options under the characteristic flush and drought conditions of intermittent rivers. The INWAT project aims at
MANAGEMENT OF WATER
estimating intermittent river and groundwater quality and evaluating environmental problems associated to water scarcity in the seven Mediterranean catchments (Spain, France, Italy, Turkey, Jordan, Tunisia, Algeria) representing a wide range of management scenarios to ensure the transferability and further impact of the developed decision-support system from EU members to EU associated and MENA countries. Specific objectives are: (i) To develop innovative methods for hydrological monitoring and innovative hydrological modelling tools tailor-made to intermittent rivers representing the widest possible diversity of management scenarios under water scarcity conditions, such as sea intrusion and groundwater recharge, groundwater water quality issues. (ii) To improve the knowledge and capacity on pollution sources and processes naturally attenuating contamination by chemicals in intermittent rivers and aquifers. (iii) To develop methodologies for monitoring and assessing the ecological status of intermittent rivers with a particular focus on the development and refinement of novel biological indicators including metagenomic approaches. (iv) To develop a decision-support system with stakeholders involved in water management for the design of management actions to help minimizing and mitigating the effects of global change in water-scarce regions.
25
KARMA Water Resources Availability And Quality Within Catchments And Aquifers Project title: Karst Aquifer Resources availability and quality in the Mediterranean Area Total budget: 1457224 € Project coordinator: Nico Goldscheider Name of institution: KIT Karlsruhe Institute of Technology; Germany Consortium Country Tunisia
Germany Spain
France Italy
Lebanon
Partner Rachida Bouhlila
Ecole National d’Ingénieurs de Tunis
Andreo Bartolomé
University of Malaga, UMA
Thomas Himmelsbach Jourde Hervé
Petitta Marco
Joanna Doummar
Project summary
26
Affiliation Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, BGR University of Montpellier, UM University of Rome, URO
American University of Beirut, AUB
Karstified carbonate rocks constitute 21.6 % of the European land surface and contain abundant groundwater resources. These karst aquifers contribute substantially to the freshwater supply of most Mediterranean countries and many large cities, e.g., Rome and Beirut. However, karst aquifers are highly variable in terms of water availability and quality, and vulnerable to contamination and climate change. Therefore, they require specific investigation and management approaches. The main objective of the proposed KARMA project is to achieve substantial progress in the hydrogeological understanding and sustainable management of karst water resources across several scales. Based on our recently accomplished World Karst Aquifer Map, the project will deliver a detailed karst aquifer map at the scale of the entire Mediterranean area with valuable information, noticeably
MANAGEMENT OF WATER
for stakeholders, on recharge, groundwater vulnerability and ground waterdependent ecosystems. At catchment scale, five karst systems in Spain, France, Italy, Lebanon and Tunisia will serve as field observatories. Tracer tests, hydrologic monitoring and isotope studies will be applied to better quantify recharge and dynamic water balances. New generic models will allow a better understanding of karst hydrodynamic processes at different spatiotemporal scales, and thus better predictions concerning climatic and human impacts. At local scale, novel early-warning systems for microbial and chemical contamination will be developed, based on water-quality monitoring at karst springs. The resulting karst aquifer map will be a major tool for stakeholders and governments for transboundary water resources management in the entire Mediterranean region. The new generation of modeling tools proposed in this project will allow better long-term predictions of climate-change impacts and improved management decisions. Early-warning systems will be useful for water suppliers to identify short-term contamination at springs.
27
MEDSAL Water Resources Availability And Quality Within Catchments And Aquifers Project title: Salinization of critical groundwater reserves in coastal Mediterranean areas: Identification, Risk Assessment and Sustainable Management with the use of integrated modelling and smart ICT tools Total budget: 1268000 € Project coordinator: Tziritis Evangelos Name of institution: HAO Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter”, Soil and Water Resources Institute Greece Consortium Country
Partner
Tunisia
Fadoua Hamzaoui
Algeria
Menani Mohamed Mobilisation and Water Resources Redha Management Laboratory, Batna MGRE
Greece
Germany Cyprus Italy
Turkey
Petros Daras
Faculty of Science of Tunis
Center for Research and Technology-HELLAS, Information Technologies Institute,
Christoph Kulis
University of Applied Sciences, Lübeck, Germany / Civil Engineering, Laboratory for Hydrology and International Water Management,
Kyriakidis Phaedon
Cyprus University of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering and Geomatics,
Thakur Jay Krishna
FidelibusI Maria Dolores Guler Cüneyt
Project summary
28
Affiliation
Environment and Information Technology Centre, UIZ
Polytechnic University of Bari, DICATECh Dept, POLIBA Mersin University, Faculty of Engineering, MEU
MEDSAL Project aims to secure availability and quality of groundwater reserves in Mediterranean coastal areas, which are one of the most vulnerable regions in
MANAGEMENT OF WATER
the world in terms of water scarcity and quality degradation. This objective will be addressed by providing a novel holistic approach directed towards sustainable management of coastal aquifers are affected by increased salinization risk. The proposed framework is envisaged to integrate different tools, techniques and methods – such as environmental isotopes, hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical modelling, advanced geostatistics and deep learning techniques – into an innovative assessment and management approach to: a) identify salinization sources (single or multiple) and decipher their governing processes, b) assess potential interactions with other compartments (small scale) and with other systems at basin (large) scale, c) forecast the spatiotemporal evolution of primary salinization and secondary impacts, d) perform risk assessment under variable climatic projections, and e) develop a public web-GIS observatory to support monitoring, management and decision making. MEDSAL project is strongly collaborative and carefully designed to have an impact and contribute to demand and policy-driven research. It responds to Call Section 2 and specifically to Topic 1.1.1 “Water resources availability and quality within catchments and aquifers”. Corresponding to Topic’s challenge, it clearly contributes to the development of innovative integrated approaches and tools to ensure the availability of groundwater resources and, in particular, to deal with seawater intrusion and salinization risks. Overall, in line with Thematic Area 1, MEDSAL aims to secure water availability in terms of quality and quantity and enhance sustainable water resources management of arid and semi-arid areas through innovative tools and techniques; thus providing integrated solutions to improve resilience to water scarcity conditions.
29
PRECIMED IRRIGATION PRACTICES
TECHNOLOGIES
AND
Project title: Precision Irrigation Management to Improve Water Use Efficiency in the Mediterranean Region Total budget: 810780 € Project coordinator: María Fernanda Ortuno Name of institution: CSIC Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; Spain Consortium Country
Partner
Tunisia Khouloud Boukadi Spain
Skarmeta Antonio
Algeria Semiani Mohammed Greece Katsoulas Nikolaos
Project summary
30
Affiliation Multimedia, InfoRmation Systems and Advanced Computing Laboratory (MIRACL) - University Of sfax Odin Solutins, OdinS
National Institute of Agronomic Research of Algeria, INRAA University of Thessaly, UTH
The main objective of PRECIMED will be to build a data driven irrigation management system in order to improve Water an Nutrient Use Efficiency (WUE and NUE, respectively) in the Mediterranean Region, by integrating the knowledge about fertilizers and irrigation water management with Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), which will be respectful with the environment and socioeconomically profitable. The solution provided by PRECIMED is a system that can be easily accessed and handled by the end-user through customer-friendly interfaces like mobile phones, tablets or PC. Its system will be comprised of several subsystems; Data Acquisition subsystem, DSS subsystem (Decision Support System), and User Interaction subsystem, each of them composed of different sources of information and component like state of-the-art agronomical sensor, soil and crop databases, automatic meteorological databases, etc. PRECIMED will be able to collect large amount of crop data, which will be processed and analyzed by the system, after which it will provide
MANAGEMENT OF WATER
feedback about crop needs and real time recommendations to the farmers with respect to irrigation and fertilization best practices. The application of this irrigation technology will improve the life of Mediterranean farmers and also will permit to save water and fertilizers in one Region with important problems of water stress and soil contamination. The challenge is to create stronger bridges between the two shores of the Mediterranean basin, which is composed of EU and non-EU countries. In this sense, the consortium is made up of SMEs, Research centers, and end users that will collaborate to validate the system, from both sides of the Mediterranean: Tunisia, Algeria, Spain, and Greece. PRECIMED will also explore profitable business models to make the system marketable and will involve the end-user, from the beginning of the development phase, by means of SCRUM methodology. It will allow the consortium to reach a useful system, tested and validated by supporting farmers in the different participating countries, and therefore to reduce the gap between application developers and agricultural players.
31
Sustain-COAST SUSTAINABLE, INTEGRATED WATER MANAGEMENT Project title: Sustainable coastal groundwater management and pollution reduction through innovative governance in a changing climate Total budget: 1125374,66 (€) Project coordinator: Karatzas Georgios Name of institution: TUC Technical University of Crete; Greece Consortium Country Tunisia
Partner Hanen Akrout
Water Researches and Technologies Center, CERTE
Eric Mino
Euro-Mediterranean Information System on know-how in the Water sector, SEMIDE
Germany Seifeddine Jomaa France
Italy
Schafer Gerhard Roggero PierPaolo
Turkey Mehmet Ali Kurt
Project summary
32
Affiliation
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, UFZ
Laboratoire d’hydrologie et de géochimie de Strasbourg (UMR 7517), LHYGES Nucleo Ricerca Desertificazione Università degli Studi di Sassari, NRD-UNISS Mersin University, MEU
The need for the implementation of innovative governance of water resources in general and coastal aquifers in particular taking into account the technological development as well as socio-economic factors has become a worldwide necessity. In compliance with the challenges and scope of the PRIMA call topic 1.1.2 entitled “Sustainable, integrated water management”,
MANAGEMENT OF WATER
Sustain-COAST main goal is to implement a new innovative governance approach of coastal aquifers between multiple water users and beneficiaries under severe changing climate conditions in 4 countries located in the both sides of the Mediterranean Sea (Greece, Tunisia, Italy and Turkey).For this aim, this project intends to establish an adapted multi-criteria decision supporting system (DSS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) platform with an online access for water stakeholders and policy makers. This DSS and platform will be based on: i) an active and continuous social participation and learning, ii) the use of advanced technologies and tools, such as optical sensors and remote sensing capacities, iii) the use of various available numerical models (Feflow and Modflow) for the prediction of these coastal aquifers quantity and quality progress in time and iv) the use of smart, adapted and visualized web applications. On the other hand, this project will permit the preservation of the studied coastal aquifers against anthropogenic pollution through the promotion of the local water management concept which is based on the 4R principles (Reduce; Recycle; Reuse and Recover). The main outcomes of this project will be communicated and disseminated by using the best practices and means for the highest profit of all the concerned actors. Thanks to this project, Mediterranean coastal groundwater will be managed in harmony and enthusiasm under the responsibility of all the concerned actors taking into account the local socio-economic context and the meteo-climatic trends.
IAA
Agrifoods industries
ANPE
National Agency for the Protection of the Environment
API
Promotion Agency Industry and Innovation
ONAS National Office of Sanitation
CRDA Nabeul
Regional Commissariat for Agricultural Development (Nabeul)
GDA
Agricultural Development Groupings
AEDS Association of Environment and Development of Soliman
REACT Association Research in Action
SOTIPAPIER
Paper mill
TMM Tannery
Office of Planning and Hydraulic Balance 4
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SWATCH
SUSTAINABLE, INTEGRATED WATER MANAGEMENT Project title: Strategies for increasing the WATer use efficiency of semi-arid Mediterranean watersheds and agrosilvopastoral systems under climate CHange Total budget: 1390397 € Project coordinator: Montaldo Nicola Name of institution: UNICA, Dipartimento di Ingegneria civile, ambientale ed architettura, Università di Cagliari, Italy Consortium Country
Partner
Tunisia Zoubeida Bargaoui Italy
Sistu Giovanni
Patteri Giuliano
Algeria Meddi Mohamed
Cyprus Bruggeman Adriana Egypt Spain France
El Moustafa Ashraf M. Del Campo-Garcia Antonio Dámaso Ara Pilar
Domec Jean- christophe
Project summary
34
Affiliation Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Tunis, Ente Acque della Sardegna, ENAS
Agenzia forestale regionale per lo sviluppo del territorio e dell’ambiente della Sardegna Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Hydraulique, Energy, Environment and Water Research Center, The Cyprus Institute, CyI
Irrigation and Hydraulics Faculty of Engineering, UNIAS
Universitat Politècnica de València,
Dept.,
Conselleria De Agricultura,Medio Ambiente, Cambio Climatico Y De sarrollo Rural, GVA INRA Bordeaux Sciences Agro UMR 1391,
The overarching goal of this research project is to develop and apply innovative methodologies to increase the social-ecological water use efficiency of managed ecosystems along the Mediterranean biome and climate types. We will focus on a diverse set of seasonally dry ecosystems, spanning a large gradient of mean
MANAGEMENT OF WATER
annual rainfall (from 35 to 935 mm/y) across the Mediterranean biome. Case studies will examine the Mediterranean Sea basin from west to east and north to south providing the exceptional opportunity to develop, identify and compare water resources management and planning strategies for contrasting climate conditions in the Mediterranean region. We will define innovative strategies for the water sustainability in the Mediterranean region under current and future climate change scenarios, optimizing water infrastructure (e.g., reservoirs, wells network design) and water uses (irrigation, animal production systems, drinking and industrial activities). Strategies will be defined with stakeholders and government authorities, which will be actively involved in the project. To improve predictive technical tools for water resources assessment, we propose to develop innovative methodologies and techniques to better estimate evapotranspiration, the main parameter of the water budget in semi-arid and arid climates. To do so we propose to combine the use of eddy covariance and tree sapflow observations. In addition, advanced technical tools (remote sensing observations) will be developed to monitor the main state variables explaining energy and water balance at the land surface, and to include those observations in data assimilation systems to predict watershed hydrological cycles. The analysis of climate and land use scenarios will provide the inputs for the water resources management and planning to optimally use both surface water and groundwater. Ultimately, we will establish a transnational Mediterranean river monitoring system for sharing knowledge and data.
35
ADAPT-HERD ADAPTATION OF AGRICULTURE TO CLIMATE CHANGE Project title: Management strategies to improve herd resilience and efficiency by harnessing the adaptive capacities of small ruminants Total budget: 707278 € Project coordinator: Laurence Puillet Name of institution: MoSAR Modélisation Systémique Appliquée aux Ruminants Consortium Country
Tunisia
Partner Naziha Atti Mohamed Aziza Hugo Valls-Fox
France
Douhard Frederic Eliel Gonzalez-Garcia
Spain
Egypt
36
Joy Torrens Margalida Aboul Naga Adel
Affiliation Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique de Tunisie Ecole Supérieure d’Agriculture du Kef, ESAK Systèmes d’Elevage Méditerranéens et Tropicaux, SELMET
Génétique Physiologie et Systèmes d’Elevage, GenPhySE Systèmes d’Elevage Méditerranéens et Tropicaux, SELMET
Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Agroalimentaria, CITA Animal Production Institute, APRI
Research
The objective of ADAPT-HERD is to develop management simulation tools to implement innovative strategies for resilience and efficiency (R&E) in small ruminants herds, based on harnessing animal adaptive capacities. These tools will address a wide range of current feed resource constraints in the Mediterranean area (Egypt, France, Spain and Tunisia) and the future perturbations induced by climate change. The locally tailored management solutions will improve the ability of livestock systems to adapt to climate change by: i) managing early- life nutrition to safeguard adult adaptive capacities; ii) managing reproduction to find the best match between feed supply and herd demand; iii) tailoring group feeding strategies depending on animals’ adaptive capacities and iv) managing herd demography with replacement and culling to adjust feed demand. To achieve this, ADAPT-HERD brings together information from animal and herd levels with: i) a fine- grained experimental approach (adaptive mechanisms and trade-offs); ii) field phenotyping of local breeds (adaptation to local conditions) and iii)local production environment characterization. These multi-level information will be used to develop computer models and test scenarios. Interfacing and disseminating project’s deliverables as a user-friendly t oolbox will be achieved with a participatory modelling framework. The toolbox will help to adapt agricultural practices to change in resource availability by proposing different technical solutions of herd management aimed at facing feed resource perturbat ions induced by climate change. The challenge is not to find an optimal strategy for R&E, but to explore how management strategies impact the relationship between R&E. These strategies will be grounded in a deep understanding of how local breeds adapt to feed resource constraints. They will be complementary to on-going projects that focus on genetic selection and breeding solutions to improve R&E in small ruminants.
FARMING SYSTEMS
Project summary
37
Blue-Med PREVENTING and CONTROLLING EMERGENCE OF ANIMAL AND PLANT DISEASES Project title: A novel integrated and sustainable approach to monitor and control Bluetongue in the Mediterranean region Total budget: 747283 € Project coordinator: Giovanni Savini Name of institution: IZSAM Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise; Italy Consortium Country Tunisia France Egypt
Partner
Affiliation
Salah Hammami
National School of Veterinary Medicine of Sidi Thabet, ENMV
Sahar Elnahta
National Research Center, NRC
Stephan Zientara
Project summar
Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail,ANSES
It is well established that world’s climate change influences the emergence of diseases particularly vector-borne diseases (VBDs). This project deals with Bluetongue (BT) which has been one of the most feared VBDs affecting the Mediterranean region. BT virus (BTV) is characterized by having multiple serotypes with scarce to null cross-reactivity between them causing obvious consequences in terms of prophylactic countermeasures. The majority of the recent BTV epidemics occurring in the Mediterranean region have been shown to be strictly related. Considering the high costs of recent European BTV incursions which ranged from 85 million to 1.4 billion/year, a coordinated surveillance program and common research projects within Mediterranean countries are of fundamental importance. The BlueMed consortium, which encloses important Institutions from Italy, France, Tunisia and Egypt, through a multidisciplinary approach, intends to develop an integrated operating model to prevent, tackle and control BTV epidemics in the Mediterranean region. The capacity to define,
38
FARMING SYSTEMS
detect and respond to the emergence of new BTV strains or re-emergence of old strains will be achieved through an integrative surveillance program where entomological, virological and serological data will be integrated with relevant climatic and environmental variables. New applications with a web interface and technologies will be created and used to develop models and integrate this multiple source surveillance data. We will provide an up-to date molecular epidemiological map of BTV strains circulating in the Mediterranean region and we will verify the capability of portable next generation sequencing platforms to identify BTV, directly in the field. This project will also characterize antigenically the isolated strains by antigenic cartography providing crucial information upon the best strain to be used for vaccine production
39
ADAPTATION CHANGE
FREECLIMB
OF
AGRICULTURE
TO
CLIMATE
Project title: FRUIT CROPS ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN Total budget: 1828417,6€ Project coordinator: Daniele Bassi Name of institution: UMIL Università degli Studi di Milano (La Statale); Italy
Consortium Country Tunisia Italy Algeria Egypt Spain
France Morocco Turkey Greece
Partner Sofiane Abdelhamid Olfa Boussadia Marco Caruso
Gentile Alessandra Biscarini Filippo Tellah Sihem
Khelifi Douadi Ahmed Rania
Eduardo Iban
Bénédicte Quiltit-Turion Véronique Decroocq Ahmed El Bakkali Kuden Ayzin
Drogoudi Pavlina
Koubouris Georgios
Project summary
40
Affiliation Institut de l’olivier, IO
Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria, CREA University of Catania
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, CNR
Ecole Nationale Supérieure Agronomique UNIVERSITE FRERES MENTOURI
Agricultural Research Center, ARC
Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica CRAG INRA-GAFL
INRA Biologie du Fruit et Pathologie, INRA-Morocco
CUKUROVA UNIVERSITY, CU
Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources
Institute of Olive Tree, Subtropical Crops and Viticulture, IOSV
The FREECLIMB project is build to match objective 1 of the PRIMA framework in developing smart and sustainable farming systems to maintain natural resources and to increase production efficiency. The project targets major fruit tree species with the aim of improving the availability of breeding and germplasm material adapted to
FARMING SYSTEMS
limited external resources (input) and future climatic scenarios in the Mediterranean area, through the characterization and exploitation of local biodiversity. This target will be particularly relevant for Mediterranean agriculture where cropping systems have to cope with preservation (or restoration) of the natural resources in a very constrained environmental context (climate change, water scarcity). The project will focus on key ideotypes elaborated in collaboration with Fruit Farming Actors (FFAs, breeders, nurseries, growers) with the core objective of providing diverse germplasm, tools and methods to accelerate exploitation, breeding and selection of resilient varieties in key traditional fruit crops of Mediterranean agriculture (stone fruits such as peach, apricot and almond; Citrus spp.; grape; olive).To these ends, the project will pursue the following specific objectives: i) developing and applying protocols (e.g. phenotyping methods) and integrated tools (e.g. genotyping methods, data analysis) to support the characterization, exploitation and selection of varieties adapted to a range of agro-ecological and management conditions; ii) dissecting the genetic bases of traits/processes linked to sustainability and plant resilience to biotic and abiotic stress, with particular focus on disentangling genotype x environment x management interaction (GxExM); iii) unravelling the molecular, biochemical and physiological basis of plant adaptation to different environmental (soil and climate) and agronomic conditions (water and fertilizer management) and to biotic/abiotic (single or multiple) stresses; iv) developing and applying genomics-based breeding tools to improve introgression and selection efficiency; v) devising adaptation strategies to cope with the combined effects of multiple stresses occurring under field conditions (e.g heat and drought, pests and diseases); vi) exploiting germplasm resources, by identifying and characterizing spontaneous and domesticated sources of biodiversity; vii) transferring project results through training and dissemination activities dedicated especially to breeders, nurseries and growers, particularly in those countries where fruit production is less developed. Considering southern countries prefigure climate change scenarios predicted for northern ones, FREECLIMB will strongly benefit from collaboration between the south and north Mediterranean shores: for each species targeted by the project at least two countries are involved one from the north and one from the south. The balanced composition of the consortium ensures an equal footing approach with particular attention to co-ownership of results, mutual interest, and shared benefits.
41
GeMed PREVENTING and CONTROLLING EMERGENCE OF ANIMAL AND PLANT DISEASES Project title: Prevention and control of new and invasive geminiviruses infecting vegetables in the Mediterranean Total budget: Project coordinator: Peterschmit Michel Name of institution: CIRAD; France Consortium Country Tunisia France Italy
Jordan
Partner Mnari-Hattab Monia
Clémence Plissonneau Vaira Anna Maria Ballardini Massimiliano
Anfoka Ghandi
Morocco Belabess Zineb
Project summary
42
Affiliation Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique de Tunisie, INRAT Gautier Semences, GAUTIER CNR, CNR; Italy
ESASEM spa, ESASEM
Al-Balqa’ Applied University, BAU
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, INRA;Morocco
Tomatoes and cucurbits are among the major vegetables grown in the Mediterranean, ranking 2nd and 3rd after potatoes. Their intensive production, with year round crops and a limited number of cultivars expose them permanently to the emergence and invasions of pathogens including viruses. Geminiviruses are among the most worrying viruses of these crops due to their economic impact, the frequent introduction of new exotic species into the Mediterranean and the continuous emergence of potentially invasive and resistance breaking strains generated by recombination. Prevention and control of these viruses is the major objective of GeMed project. It will be tackled by virologists, entomologists, geneticists, breeders, biologists and computer scientists. The specific objectives are within the major challenges of topic 1.2.2, (i) broadening the knowledge of the ecology of new and potentially invasive
FARMING SYSTEMS
geminiviruses with the involvement of partners located at the four cardinal points of the Mediterranean, (ii) understanding outbreak phenomena of invasive recombinant geminiviruses with field observations and analysis of plant-virus interaction using resistance-breaking viral clones and deep small RNA-ome and transcriptome sequencing and bioinformatics (iii) diversifying integrated pest management solutions against insect vectors with plant derived metabolites and against viruses with RNA vaccination of crop plants. The innovation potential of GeMed is in the exploration of molecular mechanisms underpinning an outbreak phenomenon, the search of new resistance genes, and validation of exogenous RNAi based plant protection approaches. Stakeholder knowledge and the potential of exploitation and dissemination of the result is embedded in the consortium with full participation of two seed companies and the association with various professional organisations interested in GeMed. Larger dissemination will be done via International plant protection organisations (EPPO, ProMED).
43
GENDIBAR ADAPTATION CHANGE
OF
AGRICULTURE
TO
CLIMATE
Project title: Utilization of local genetic diversity to understand and exploit barley adaptation to harsh environments and for pre-breeding Total budget: 1383966 € Project coordinator: Fricano Agostino Name of institution: CREA-GB Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria – Centro di Genomica e Bioinformatica; Italy Consortium Country
Partner
Tunisia
Moez Hanin
Algeria
Djemel Abderrahmane
Italy
Perego Alessia
Germany Acosta, Ivan Egypt Spain
Turkey
Khaled Solimane Slafer Gustavo
Igartua Ernesto Agri Nevzat
Project summary
44
Affiliation University of Sfax Biotechnology, USIB
-
Institute
of
Università degli Studi di Milano, UNIMI École Nationale Agronomique, ENSA
Supérieure
Max Planck Institut für Pflanzenzüchtungsforschung, MPIPZ
Ain Shams University, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of genetics, ASUDG Universidad de Lleida, UdL
Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, CSIC TEKFEN Tarim, TEKFEN
GENDIBAR aims to achieve the following objectives: (i)harnessing barley diversity to detect new alleles that have the potential to cope with projected climate change, shifts of agro- ecological zones of the Mediterranean and resistance to powdery mildew,
FARMING SYSTEMS
(ii) creating new knowledge and molecular tools to assess and appraise the genetic bases of heat tolerance and intolerance at vulnerable stages of barley development, (iii) providing new hypotheses for adopting better agricultural practices to minimize the effects of climate change in current and future Mediterranean environments, (iv) improving model-aided ideotype design for the different agro-ecological zones, (v) enabling the creation of tolerant and resilient barley varieties exploiting barley diversity. To reach the aforementioned objectives, GENDIBAR will: (i) exploit the pattern of genetic variants detected in selected panels of barley landraces, (ii) combine morphological and RNA expression analyses to identify key genes involved in the differential response to heat stress during sensitive stages of barley development in field and controlled conditions, (iii) exploit morphological and physiological traits measured in Mediterranean landraces to improve crop simulation models for designing heat tolerant ideotypes and (iv) identifying other possible agricultural practices for barley farming, (v) conduct pre-breeding programs using cutting-edge technologies. Overall, GENDIBAR will provide new knowledge to fill the existing research gaps to adapt barley farming in relation to the projected climate change and shifts of the Mediterranean agro-ecological zones and will valorize barley biodiversity applying targeted pre-breeding. ying targeted pre-breeding.
45
IMPRESA ADAPTATION CHANGE
OF
AGRICULTURE
TO
CLIMATE
Project title: IMProving RESilience to Abiotic stresses in durum wheat: enhancing knowledge by genetic, physiological and “omics” approaches and increasing Mediterranean germplasm biodiversity by crop wild relatives-based introgressiomics Total budget:767600 € Project coordinator: Ceoloni Carla Name of institution: DAFNE Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie e Forestali – Università degli Studi della Tuscia; Italy Consortium Country Tunisia Italy
Algeria Turkey
Partner Brini Faïçal
Center of Biotechnology of Sfax, CBS;
Rouabhi, Amar
Université Ferhat Abbas Sétif1, UFAS;
Giorgi Debora
Hanane Menasria Özberk Irfan
Project summary
46
Affiliation Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, ENEA; Centre de Recherche Scientifique et Technique sur les Régions Arides, CRSTRA ; University of Harran, HU
Sustainable production and management of biological resources are key agricultural drivers within a changing world. Agriculture needs to improve crop performance and to address environmental challenges so as to ensure adequate food supply whilst safeguarding the environment. This rationale definitely applies to durum wheat (DW), strategic commodity for Italy (Coordinator) and staple crop for several other Mediterranean, including North African and Near-Eastern, countries (e.g. Tunisia, Algeria and Turkey, Partners). The concept for IMPRESA
FARMING SYSTEMS
is to integrate extensive trials of genetic resources, under natural and induced stress conditions, with intensive study of mechanisms and genes that increase DW performance under abiotic stress to improve knowledge of the processes contributing to drought, heat and salinity tolerance, and to set-up solid bases to exploit the new knowledge through the breeding pipeline. As domestication and breeding processes have shrunk natural crop diversity, IMPRESA aims to widen DW genetic basis by resorting to wild wheat relatives (WWRs), naturally adapted to stressful environments, hence valuable sources for tolerance genes. DW-WWR materials include DW introgression lines already engineered with small alien chromosome segments enhancing yield-related traits of potential relevance also under abiotic stress conditions, and synthetic amphiploids involving various wild genomes from which further novel target traits can be identified and transferred into country-adapted DWs via “introgressiomics” strategies. Materials will be subjected to controlled stresses and extensively phenotyped at the plant (physiological, yield-related traits) and molecular (metabolites, transcripts, genes) levels. For effective trans-national breeding exploitation, genetic, physiological and «omics»-derived information will be validated in different environments and cropping systems (minimum tillage, bed planting) of participant countries.
47
INTOMED PREVENTING and CONTROLLING EMERGENCE OF ANIMAL AND PLANT DISEASES Project title: Innovative tools to combat crop pests in the Mediterranean Total budget: 853000 € Project coordinator: Papadopoulou Kalliope Name of institution: UTH University to Thessaly, Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology; Greece Consortium Country Tunisia Greece Spain
France
Partner
Affiliation
Msaad Guerfali Meriem
Centre National des Sciences Technologies Nucléaires, CNSTN
Pappas Maria
Democritus University of Thrace, DUTH;
Ben Romdhane Salma
Arrianas Dimitrios Flors Victor Enric Frago
Morocco Mentag Rachid Portugal Baptista Paula
Project summary
Centre Technique des agrumes, CTA ;
et
PHYTOTHREPTIKI, PHYTOTHREPTIKI; Jaume I University, UJI
UMR PVBMT («Peuplements Végétaux et Bio-agresseurs en Milieu Tropical» ), CIRAD National Institute of Agricultural Rresearch of Morocco, INRA-Morocco Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, IPB
INTOMED develops novel, effective and sustainable tools that utilize (a) interactions between plants and soil-borne beneficial microbes and (b) natural key plant (metabolites and peptides) and bacterially-expressed RNA molecules to enhance the resistance of economically important Mediterranean crops, i.e. tomato, olive and citrus, to major agricultural arthropod pests and pathogens. Soil-borne beneficial microbes have long been recognized for their ability to
48
FARMING SYSTEMS
improve plant growth and nutrition and prime the plant immune system against pathogens and herbivores in plants. We thus aim to first, assess the potential of selected marketed and laboratory-owned strains of beneficial microbes, including endophytes, for their ability to improve crop resistance to arthropods and pathogens and second, study the molecular mechanisms involved in promising microbe-plant-pest combinations with the aim to also identify plant secondary metabolites and peptides that mediate enhanced resistance and technically support future commercial biocontrol products. INTOMED also exploits the development of a GMO-free and effective pest control tool i.e. exogenous delivery of RNA molecules having the potential to trigger RNA interference (RNAi) against targeted pathogens/pests in both vegetables and fruit trees. Pilot demonstration trials, targeting end-users (farmers, SMEs) will assess promising beneficial microbes and plant molecules. In addition, INTOMED will increase public awareness of the nature of the proposed tools and analyse the impact of their acceptance. Our consortium includes 9 academic and industrial partners from Greece, Spain, France, Morocco, Portugal and Tunisia. INTOMED will generate new knowledge on plant-microbe-pest interactions and develop novel sustainable tools to prevent outbreaks of economically important pests and pathogens in the Mediterranean. Pests / Pathogens B. tabaci T. absoluta A. lycopersici T. ur cae C. michiganensis V. dahliae C. capitata T. ur cae E. ceratoniae B. oleae V. dahliae P. savastanoi
WP3 Biological control at mul -trophic levels WP4 Molecularm echanisms WP5 Development of molecular innova ve tools WP6 Demonstra on and pilot applica on by end-users WP7 Socio-economic analysis of current situa on and acceptance
WP2 Dissemina on & Communica on
Organisms
Bene cial
Innova ve Tools
Molecular
WP1 Management and project coordina on
AMF: Rhizoglomusi rregularis, Funneliformis mosseae, Clareidoglomus etunicatum, Clareidoglomusl amellosum PGPF: Trichoderma sp., Fusarium sp., Purpureocilium lilacinum, Epicoccum nigrum, Beauveria bassiana PGPR: Pseudomonas spp. Predators: Macrolophus pygmaeus, Nesidiocoris tenuis, Amblyseiuss wirskii, Phytoseiulus persimilis, Euseius s pulates Parasitoids: Psy alia concolor, Eretmoceruse remicus
49
LAGMED
PREVENTING and CONTROLLING EMERGENCE OF ANIMAL AND PLANT DISEASES Project title: Improvement of preventive actions to emerging LAGoviruses in the MEDiterranean basin: development and optimisation of methodologies for pathogen detection and control Total budget: 902399,95 € Project coordinator: Joana Abrantes Name of institution: CIBIO/InBIO-UP Rede de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Biologia Evolutiva; Portugal Consortium Country Tunisia Algeria Spain
France
Italy
Partner Messadi Lilia
Faten Ben Chahida Ain Baziz Hacina Blanco Esther Rouco Carlos
Le Gall-Recule Ghislaine Marchandeau Stéphane
Bertagnol Stephane Capucci Lorenzo
Project summary
Affiliation École Nationale de Vétérinaire de Sidi Thabet
Médecine
Ecole Nationale Supérieure Vétérinaire (ENSV) Alger Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria Universidad de Córdoba
Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l’alimentation, de l’environnement et du travail Office national de la chasse et de la faune sauvage
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique Istituto zooprofilattico sperimentale della lombardia e dell’emilia romagna,
In the last 30 years, European rabbit populations have been decimated by
50
the rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD). RHD is caused by a Lagovirus of the family Caliciviridae, RHD virus (RHDV) which causes a fulminant hepatitis that
FARMING SYSTEMS
leads to death within 48-72h. In 2010, a new variant of RHDV (GI.2) emerged in France with unique characteristics such as an ability to kill rabbits