Informations et ressources scientifiques
sur le développement des zones arides et semi-arides

Titre : CerealMed : Enhancing diversity in Mediterranean cereal farming systems

Pays/Région : Italy ; Egypt ; Morocco ; Spain ; Lebanon ; Turkey ; Greece

Date : Start date 2020-06-01 // End date 2023-05-31

Identifiant : 244-CEREALMED
Type de projet : Development and innovation oriented (research) project

Contexte
Climate change is already having profound consequences on people’s lives and life diversity of our planet. The livelihoods of farmers, who have contributed least to climate change, are already suffering most from the global temperature increase and the associated extreme weather events that damage infrastructure, erode natural resources, increase the risk of devastating crop disease epidemics and endanger species, ultimately affecting food security. Moreover, the current intensive agriculture schemes are not only unsuitable for a sustainable agriculture in the forecast of the climate change scenario, but also led to a widespread decline in crop and soil-microbiome biodiversity. On the other hand, the biodiversity based agriculture relies on high diversification of the farming system in terms of crop genetics diversity (both at species and genotype level) and of management practices with beneficial effects on the ecosystem as a whole.

Objectif
CerealMed will pursue and achieve the following specific objectives : evaluate the available wheat, lentil and chickpea biodiversity, both domesticated relatives and landraces, by testing collections/populations for adaptation to different environmental conditions, disease resistance and quality traits across the Mediterranean region, create new wheat, lentil and chickpea-related biodiversity through the development of “new germplasm” by inter-generic and interspecific crosses such the example of Tritordeum. valorise the wheat, lentil and chickpea biodiversity by re-designing and optimizing a sustainable wheat-based cropping system. Biodiversity-based agriculture practices considering the spatial and temporal combinations of wheat and legumes (rotation/consociation) will be tested under conservative agriculture management, together with the use of tailored microorganisms applications, to achieve relevant ecosystem targets :
* Agricultural targets : new high nutritional, value-added food products as well as new alternative products from cereal straw or farming side products ;
* Environmental targets : restoration of soil fertility, enrichment of soil biodiversity, reduction of chemical input (mineral fertilizer, pesticides). compare the different options of biodiversity-based wheat farming in respect to more traditional/local agricultural systems in term of environmental and technical-economic outcomes/consequences to assess their profitability and their sustainability at regional level.

Coordinateur : University of Bari Aldo Moro
Partenaires : Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA) University of Bologna Beni Suef University CSIC - Spanish National Research Council University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) Agricultural University of Athens American University of Beirut (AUB) Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA-MAROC) University Hassan 1st Cukurova University (CUNI)

Financement principal : Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) (H2020)
Budget : 1 198 570 EUR

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