The European Green Deal (COM2019 640 final), an essential part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda implementation, sets ambitious goals for the economy and especially for the agricultural sector, aiming to preserve the stock of natural capital and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. To achieve these objectives, the document emphasizes the importance of digital technologies, highlighting the key-role of the agri-food sector and the importance of the Farm to Fork strategy as operational tool to implement the Green Deal in the agricultural sector.
Coherently with this perspective, in the recently published report of the 5th SCAR (European Commission’s Standing Committee on Agricultural Research) (“Resilience and transformation”), three main key goals are identified:
- Ensuring nutritious, healthy and sustainable food for all
- Setting up full circularity of food and agricultural systems
- Restoring diversity in our food, farm and social systems
How to shape future agricultural and rural systems to obtain a safe operating space is becoming a key-question for researchers and policy makers. Knowledge and innovation are identified as priority tools for achieving these goals.
The Objectives of the Center
The Center conducts research and promotes the development of innovative technologies in the agricultural sector to improve the quantity and quality of production, ensuring sustainable adaptation to climate change through prevention, resistance, and resilience to risks (such as drought, health emergencies, and soil degradation). The adoption of agroecological principles and conservation agriculture, combined with the selection of new productive varieties and the rediscovery of ancient crops, will enable the diversification of production and support local supply chains, reducing waste, surpluses, and environmental impacts. The Center leverages enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence and advanced production techniques to promote precision agriculture aimed at reducing agrochemicals and greenhouse gas emissions, thus preserving natural resources and reducing productivity losses and waste. Through biotechnological approaches and the circular economy, it will also be possible to valorize waste biomass, fostering the development of alternative supply chains that can make activities sustainable, even for small and medium-sized farmers. Another key focus of the Center is the application of artificial intelligence systems in agriculture and its related sectors to enhance safety, traceability, and the authenticity of agricultural supply chains and products. The research and innovation actions of the Agritech Center are also crucial for identifying effective solutions for marginal agricultural areas and those at risk of erosion, generating innovation and the aggregation of stakeholders to promote resilience and sustainability in agricultural, agri-food, and non-food production enterprises.
Programme
Research programme
Producing sufficient and safe food for a growing population without over-exploiting natural resources is one of the major problems that our society must face, finding solutions which are sustainable in the long term. This is a global challenge, placed in a difficult context of unstable climate, increasing competition for land, water and energy, in an increasingly urbanized and globalized world. The importance and the breadth of this challenge requires a significant research effort that is far beyond the capacity of any single institution. To adequately address this issue, it is mandatory to develop an integrated, large-scale, multi-disciplinary research programme.
This is the ambition of Agritech partners, which, by building upon pre-existing collaborative research, higher education initiatives, networking of infrastructures and large equipment sharing, have defined a programme motivated by the need to:
- Combine the top research expertise required to adequately address in a truly multidisciplinary context the multifaceted problems associated with sustainable agriculture.
- Integrate the research infrastructures and equipment available at each site.
- Exploit and apply the most suitable Key Enabling Technologies (KET) that can allow a profitable advance in productivity, sustainability, ecological and digital transition in the agricultural sector.
- Work with companies and farmers to co-design research efforts and exploit at the best the results to increase the resilience and economic competitiveness of agri-food supply chains.
- Develop and disseminate new models and organizational capabilities to create and implement large- scale, strategic research programmes that cross discipline boundaries and industrial sectors.
- Train the next generation of Agritech scientists and managers to generate the necessary human capital and skills required.
- Support policy makers and influence public opinion to promote a social context favoring the development of stable and equitable agri-food supply chains.
The main characteristic of Agritech research programme is its structural organization, which reflects the high level of integration among a broad diversity of participating research institutions and companies.
DIFARMA
WP 8.3. Nutrient and organic matter recovery from wastes to reduce the use of agrochemicals and closing waste cycle
Task 8.3.2 Valorisation and biological regeneration of wastes as resources, organic fertilisers, or amendments to improve carbon storage and soil quality
