CHANGE-UP - Innovative agro-ecological APProaches to achieving resilience to climate CHANGE in Mediterranean countries

Cereals are the base for human nutrition and are largely cultivated in the Mediterranean area. Among cereals, wheat is the most widely grown and plays a very important role in food security with 61 M ha in Europe, 7.1 M ha in Northern Africa and about 8 M ha in Eastern Mediterranean countries (FAOSTAT 2018). Climate change (including its associated events such as droughts, floods and new pests) has already resulted in unstable wheat production and increased vulnerability of the rural population as well as in serious alteration of biological and ecological patterns with regional water shortages, biodiversity decrease, soil fertility loss, soil erosion and crop yield instability. It is therefore crucial to enhance cereal – and wheat mainly – production and resilience. Intensive agricultural systems based on optimising the productivity of monocultures through large quantities of external inputs are widely criticised today for their negative environmental impacts including soil erosion and degradation, chemical contamination, loss of biodiversity, and fossil fuel use. Conversely, highly diversified cropping systems based on ecological principles have been shown to have potential advantages in productivity, stability of outputs, resilience to disruption and ecological sustainability, although they are sometimes considered harder to manage.

The technological strategy is based on the integration of Evolutionary Populations of cereals (barley, common wheat, durum wheat, triticale) under crop rotation with a range of leguminous plants and of New Perennial Grains (NPGs, perennial wheat lines). Cereal EPs possess a high degree of within crop genetic diversity (heterogeneity), thus holding an inherent higher buffering capacity than homogeneous varieties to adapt to various abiotic and biotic stresses. NPGs are new species obtained by hybridization and/or domestication holding great potential in ameliorating soil physical-chemical properties, biodiversity and food web composition. NPGs and EPs embrace the agroecological principle of assuring optimized and stabilized yields by taking advantage of the synergies they can establish with the various elements of the environment such as soil properties, rainfalls and moisture level, biotic characteristics, thus reducing or nullifying the need for external inputs. Overall, the adoption of NPGs and EPs combined with good farming practices (i.e. crop rotation with legumes) effectively addresses the complex of challenges imposed by climate change, since these systems together combine adaptation and mitigation strategies to the impacts of both long and short-term climate changes. CHANGE-UP will ensure that the integration of such systems is effective not only from the technical, but also from the economic and social viewpoints, increasing wealth and favouring the social inclusion process of all actors of the value chain, identifying and assessing specific value chain policies aimed to introduce such innovations in the standard agricultural practices. The active involvement of the different stakeholders in each partner country will be fundamental to ensure the efficacy of the new cropping systems and for developing local, context-specific and adoptable solutions. The project appoints TRL 5 and TRL 6 where the technological solutions will be validated and demonstrated in relevant environments for cereal farming across Mediterranean countries, mainly farmer’s fields in the case of EPs and experimental farm in the case of NPGs.

The farming system adopted will limit yield losses due to climate extremes and diseases, and secure farmers’ income since EPs have the capability of continuously adapting to the conditions under which they are grown while NPGs guarantee soil restoration, grains and forage for animals on degraded soils, promoting the ecological and economic rehabilitation of agricultural land. The project will assess and increase the economic and social sustainability of farming activity by identifying drivers and gaps and taking actions for improvements with focus on local specificities and readiness of transferability. At least 200 farmers (with the target of 50% women farmers) will participate at different levels, directly in the experimental work by either hosting the field trials or evaluating the field trials, workshops and T-groups, or by dissemination activities (field visits, events). The project will quantify the mean increased incomes and satisfaction of the farmers due to cereal yield stability and increase (5-10%), together with the reduced use of agrochemicals (at least 50%) achieved thanks to rotation practices, crop diversification (legumes), EPs and NPGs adoption. Women and men farmers hosting the field trials will have the capacity and receive the necessary support, to access, maintain and increase their income from the use of EPs that increase production while at the same time maintaining yield stability and ecosystem resilience under changing climate conditions. Farmers will be left with seeds and practices so that they can continue to use them well beyond the project duration. They will be the testimonials for further extension of the approach towards a more farmer centered seed and food production system where local farmers and small business enterprises engage in local value chains to produce and sell high quality foods.