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

Long-term Europe-Africa Research and Innovation Partnership for Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture

Titre : Reschedule : RESilient to Climate CHange Extremes MeDiterranean AgricUltural Systems : LEveraging the Power of Soil Health and Associated Microbiota

Pays/Région : Greece ; Italy ; Tunisia ; Portugal

Date : Start date 2021-06-01 // End date 2024-06-01

Identifiant : 411-RESCHEDULE
Type de projet : Development and innovation oriented (research) project

Contexte
The projected shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns are predicted to affect Mediterranean ecosystems currently functioning near their tipping points adversely. The risk of loss of essential services provisioned by agroecosystems because of climate change highlights the need to re-evaluate the conventional, input-dependent farming systems and identify transition pathways toward more resilient and sustainable farming systems. In RESCHEDULE, we hypothesize that improvements in the adaptation of smallholder farms to climate change extremes in the Mediterranean Region at scales able to cause impact require the adoption of integrated and easily adjustable approaches that consider all the types of resilience (ecological, social, economic, institutional).

Présentation
RESCHEDULE principal goal is to develop scientifically-informed and locally-adapted solutions that improve the resilience of smallholder farms to climate change (SOM and nutrient depletion, desertification, erosion). Solutions targeting mainly on soil health restoration consistent with agroecology principles (no tillage, intercropping, tolerant to abiotic factors genotypes, soil microbiota) will be evaluated in an environmental gradient to design appropriate transition pathways of resilient and sustainable smallholder farms. It considers particularities in cropping systems (perennial vs annual) and environmental conditions for developing tailored solutions by implementing activities rooted in agroecology principles. Activities will investigate solutions with medium- to long-term adaptation potential focusing on the evaluation of drought and heat tolerant varieties/rootstocks and root microbiomes. Soil modelling simulations will be performed at the scale of the individual field for the evaluated technological adaptations, allowing the development of decision supporting systems (DSS) to ex- pand the outcomes to longer timescales and different scenarios of climate change. RESCHEDULE adopts a hierarchical strategy that considers incremental, and trans- formative adaptations. Our insights on the effects of climate change are theoreti- cally evaluated before their extensive evaluation in three experimental sites (GR, IT, TUN) characterized by contrasting conditions (cropping systems, social background economic prosperity, climate). To extend the outcomes of experimental sites in the long-term, modelling tools are employed under different climate change scenarios (RCPs) at the Global Change Experimental Facility (DE). Transition pathways are then evaluated to propagate the spread of adaptation strategies at larger scales.

Coordinateur : Technical University of Crete
Partenaires : Zen Agro Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) National Research Council, Italy (CNR) University of Evora Center of Biotechnology of Borj Cédria (CBBC)

Financement principal : Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) (H2020)
Budget : 1 433 499 EUR

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