ABOUT US

Small-scale farms are the backbone of the Mediterranean farming sector, whereas agriculture advances are targeted to large farms; however, the average land farm shrinks and the ongoing climate change makes farming prohibitive, especially for small-scale farms. Mediterranean agriculture is relatively more intensive in terms of per ha labor and output, but undermined by strong land fragmentation, making farms too small to be viable due to high production cost. The result is land abandonment and rural population ageing, since farming sector is unattractive to young farmers. Although efforts have been made to reallocate small farms and increase average farm size, several factors have hampered the progress. Agriculture intensification and mono-crop cultural approach has caused soil degradation and organic matter loss, with high impact on small-scale farms viability. Besides, conventional crops cannot feed the growing population and alternative/complementary food sources such as wild edible plants (WEPs) could be an important addition to human diet. Mediterranean agro-ecosystems host a rich patrimony of WEPs that have always been an important food source, while they are able to grow under arduous conditions and low input regimes. The main goal of VALUEFARM is to exploit selected WEPs of the Mediterranean basin as alternative crops, focusing on small-scale farms through the production of high added value products. Innovative farming systems will be designed based on traditional cultivation knowledge to allow the shift from mono-crop approach to sustainable and diversified cultivation systems, as well as to soil improvement. Physical and living lab platforms will be key elements for transferring the proposed farming systems to the related stakeholders. The interdisciplinary approach of the consortium allows the elucidation of the complex interaction of plant x environment, with special focus on soil conditions.

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Period of Implementation

Sep 1, 2020 - Aug 31, 2024
Total Budget

EUR 1,261,435.00

OUR IMPACT

Goals

The main goal of VALUEFARM is to valorize Mediterranean small farms by introducing wild edible plants of the Mediterranean (WEPs) such as Crithmum maritimum, Portulaca oleraceae, Sonchus sp., Scolymus hispanicus, and Cichorium spinosum as complementary crops within a competitive farming sector and a climate-changing world and cropping them in a sustainable point of view. The assessment of using WEPs in arduous conditions (drought and salinity stress) and marginal soils with low organic matter, compacted, or eroded where conventional crops cannot be cultivated will also be carried out; we will also assess the contribution of WEPs cultivation to soil properties improvement by reducing or eradicating the use of agrochemicals, and by introducing the use of a more sustainable agriculture with biostimulants, biofertilizers and biopesticides and the use of tailored composts. Finally, the selected WEPs will be assessed for their nutritional value and bioactive compounds content in order to select and propose those farming systems that increase the quality of the final product and its added value.

Objectives

The key objectives of the proposal are summarized as follows: 1) to propagate and cultivate selected WEPs species, 2) to describe and evaluate agronomic performance of WEPs through laboratory-based research and farm experimentation in order to establish best practice guides of plant requirements with respect to mineral nutrition, soil and climate, environmental footprint (low GHG emissions, water and energy use), 3) to evaluate the potential of cultivating WEPs in degraded soils and assess their soil improvement properties, 4) to diversify existing farming systems from monocropping to agroecological systems rich in diversity through the incorporation of WEPs in mixed and intercropping systems and crop rotation programs combined with legumes, 5) to evaluate innovative approaches (biofertilizers, biostimulants or tailored composts that include beneficial microorganisms plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR); plant growth-promoting fungi (PGPF); arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF)), 6) to analyze chemical composition, nutritional value and bioactive compounds content of WEPs, 7) to increase knowledge and public awareness on the nutritional value and the bioactive compounds content of WEPs, as well as on their environmental impact (resistance/tolerance to drought and salinity stress factors), 8) to create physical labs through a network of farmers for the on-farm demonstration and to implement living lab platforms for technological transfer in each zone of the project of the obtained key results, both of which will facilitate the adaptation of Mediterranean small-scale farms to the proposed farming systems.

Problems and Needs Analysis

Mediterranean agriculture is characterized by much smaller farms, in terms of average land and labor units’ endowment and, above all, in terms of output, compared to the rest of the EU countries. Therefore, small-scale farms are considered to be the backbone of farming sector and crop production in the wider Mediterranean region and are essential to the preservation and development of rural area economies. Besides, the ever-increasing population and the continuous land occupation for human activities exert increasing pressure on the farming sector and thus farms’ size becomes smaller. Moreover, Mediterranean agriculture is severely affected by limited and highly irregular distribution of rainfalls and increasing incidences of weather extremities which have rendered the use of agricultural land prohibitive or not economically feasible, for many regions, especially for smallholders and family farmers. The current situation in most regions could be described by severe land fragmentation, especially in the arid and semi-arid regions of the Mediterranean, where farming is relatively more intensive in terms of both per ha labor and output, but it is undermined by a strong land fragmentation, making farms too small to generate an acceptable family income. The problem is more intense in Northern Africa countries where farm size is lower than Mediterranean Europe, with the exception of Tunisia. The results of this situation are land abandonment and the ageing of rural population, since farming sector is not competitive, viable and attractive to young farmers. The intensification of agriculture and the irrational use of agrochemicals have caused degradation of agricultural soils due to the deterioration of physicochemical properties and structure, and the dramatic loss of organic matter. Therefore, during the last decades the farming sector is caught in a vicious circle: the use of gradually degraded soils demands increased agrochemical inputs to achieve the expected yields, which concomitantly increases production cost and shrinks profit margins. Moreover, these practices have a negative environmental impact if they are not properly managed, i.e. increasing nutrient losses by leaching and runoff of nutrients, especially nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). Some of the reasons for these problems are the low use efficiency of fertilizers and the continuous long-term use.

Intervention Strategy(ies)

Soil microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, including AMF, could have a potential role in developing sustainable systems for plant growth through: i) solubilization of mineral phosphate; ii) biological nitrogen fixation; iii) ability to produce hormones; and iv) ability to produce ACC-deaminase to reduce the level of ethylene in root. The increasing demand for healthy food and natural antioxidants intake from Central and Northern Europe countries, combined with the development of local cuisine and the search concerning sustainable food, has rekindled the interest for the culinary use of WEPs. WEPs represent an extraordinary food source and basic ingredients in the so called “Mediterranean diet” that may be used to diversify and enrich modern diet with many colors and flavors, essential nutrients, minerals, fiber, vitamins, essential fatty acids and health promoting compounds. In addition, WEPs are very well-adapted to the local soil and climatic conditions and their cultivation should demand lower inputs (e.g. water, fertilizers, agrochemicals) than domesticated species. Moreover, Mediterranean flora includes several domesticated horticultural species, which have shown great adaptability under the diverse environment of the region, allowing farmers to produce food products even in arduous environments. Many wild and/or domesticated species have survived in the Mediterranean conditions because they have been adapted to soils with low level of organic matter, nutrients and limited water availability. The study of the selected WEPs in regard to be commercially exploited in small farms is highly important, and there is a scarcity of information in the scientific literature relative to their commercial use or cultivation practices, with only a few exceptions concerning information about specific WEPs. Therefore, VALUEFARM is of high importance not only for the increase of small-scale and family farmers’ income and the attraction of young farmers who tend to abandon rural regions, but also for the knowledge increase on the valorization of un/under-exploited species of the Mediterranean basin and the preservation of domesticated and wild biodiversity. Also the chemical and nutritional characterization of the species (WEPs) is indispensable for a better knowledge of their exploitation and composition, namely the compounds of interest, beneficial to the consumer's health.

Impact Pathway

1. The exploitation of WEPs in innovative farming systems; 2. The compilation of best practice guides regarding the cultivation of WEPs within the context of small-scale farming under diverse environmental conditions in order to assist farming management in regions and climates where conventional crops are difficult or unprofitable to grow; 3. The improvement of soil quality in small scale farms through sustainable farming techniques; 4. The adaptation of small-scale farming sector to the ongoing climate change with the adoption of alternative/complementary crops acclimatized to arduous conditions (water shortage, salinity, soil degradation) and redesigned farming systems tailor-made to small-scale farm needs and resilient to climate uncertainties; 5. The documentation of nutritional and chemical composition of WEPs so as to facilitate their further exploitation in pharmaceutics and cosmetics, in the design of “healthy” and “functional foods” and the better establishment of the so-called “Mediterranean diet”; 6. The definitive evaluation of the environmental footprint, climatic and soil requirements of WEPs under small-farm scale cultivation, focusing on their potential use as ameliorative species (e.g. in mixed-cropping, inter-cropping, successive cropping, crop rotation) and the sustainability of agro-ecosystems through the decrease of synthetic inputs, the optimized use of natural resources and circular bio-economy principles; 7. The demonstration and sharing of the created innovation with on-farm activities and the establishment of physical and living labs so as to allow integration and adoption of innovation among the targeted stakeholders during and after the completion of the project.

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