Veg-Adapt - ADAPTING MEDITERRANEAN VEGETABLE CROPS TO CLIMATE CHANGE-INDUCED MULTIPLE STRESS

VEG-ADAPT addresses the PRIMA topic “1.2.1. Adaptation of Agriculture to the climate change” by tackling vegetable crops adaptation to environmental constraints for Mediterranean agriculture. Climate change is dramatically impacting the Mediterranean area and solutions need to be found to adapt agricultural practices to rising temperatures, drought and soil salinity, and increasing occurrence of extreme events with the northern part of the region experiencing similar conditions to those existing today on the southern shores. Adapting to climate change is therefore a common necessity for Mediterranean agriculture. Research is needed to better understand how plants, soil biota and animals adapt to environmental constraints and why certain varieties/breeds are tolerant or resilient to biotic and abiotic single or multiple stresses, such as drought, multiple summer stresses, warm winters, salinity, Primary focus should be on biological adaptation mechanisms and genotype-environment-management interactions (resulting in adapted and productive phenotypes), as well as on valorising local genotypes taking advantage of spontaneous and domesticated biodiversity in the Mediterranean agricultural and animal husbandry systems.The richness of Mediterranean biodiversity is an asset that can be used to restore or develop new varieties and hybrids, crops and breeds that are adapted to the environment and may be used for genetic improvement. Moreover, production of new breeds/hybrids/varieties adapted to the Mediterranean conditions and able to face climate change should be pursued.

VEG-ADAPT will provide biological solutions to climate change-dependent constraints to vegetable crop in the Mediterranean by discovering novel molecular and genetic mechanisms that may increase plant adaptation to multiple, often concurrent, stresses, i.e. drought, heat, salinity.Furthermore, VEG-ADAPT will provide practical solutions to farmers of all Mediterranean countries by selecting local and neglected stress-tolerant varieties and landraces of tomato, pepper, and melon from Spain, Turkey, Italy, Southern Greece, Jordan and Morocco and by profiling new hybrids that may be used as tolerant rootstocks or as breeding parents, and by testing and demonstrating their tolerance under different management techniques. VEG-ADAPT will uncover and characterize novel stress tolerance mechanisms in tomato, pepper, and melon, focusing on physiological (hormones) and genetic markers (QTLs) with the potential of application to set up novel breeding and crop management tools. Vegetable production in Mediterranean countries relies on small farms where application of high-tech equipment is not straightforward, and on industrial farms where sustainability is an added value. Taking this in consideration, VEG-ADAPT will rely heavily on biological innovation, in particular knowledge-driven identification of physiological processes and related genetic markers to be exploited to select existing and novel genotypes, and sustainable, low-cost improvements of crop management techniques. VEG-ADAPT will proceed to a thorough selection of local genotypes under conditions of climate change-induced stress (drought, heat, and salt), and based on markers of adaptation developed within the project. Selected tolerant genotypes will be grown and demonstrated under field conditions and different crop management techniques as well as multiple stress in order to provide the best solutions to farmers.VEG-ADAPT is committed to explore the biodiversity of three major vegetable crops to gather information, to develop genetic markers, and to select tolerant genotypes to be used for breeding or as rootstocks in the Mediterranean. Furthermore, VEG-ADAPT will allow for breeding of new hybrids, that will contribute to widen the genotype choice for Mediterranean vegetable farmers confronted with climate change-induced stress.

VEG-ADAPT is developed in response to concerned actors’ needs to enhance their capacities to develop, issue and implement appropriate crop management strategies, thus ensuring that Mediterranean agriculture remains productive. Policymakers request science-based advice and support for policy implementation. VEG-ADAPT will provide recommendations for policies and regulation concerning management of agricultural water (in the EU, within the implementation framework of Directive 2000/60/EC). Consumers and society demand safe, healthy, and sustainable water and food. VEG-ADAPT solutions for sustainability will contribute to securing vegetable production while reducing the environmental load, in particular on water availability and quality. Non-agricultural water users and society at large will benefit also of the lower water mark and environmental quality of plants grown following VEG-ADAPT guidelines. Organic, low-input and conventional farmers need practical solutions for increasing vegetable resilience to multiple stress induced by climate change, avoiding production losses and reducing resource inputs and production costs. They will have at their disposal new management practices and resilient genotypes/rootstocks . Extension services require continuous update on biological processes and derived techniques that can mitigate climate change effects in crops. They will obtain and discuss the novel knowledge and guidelines developed by the project. Companies, in particular SMEs, strive for innovation that can be turned into marketable technology and know-how. They will benefit from innovations developed by the project and made available in accordance with Open Data principles. Researchers, it is widely recognised that there is a paucity of plant scientists with respect to the gravity of the challenges agriculture is facing worldwide, due to climate change conditions and growing population. VEG-ADAPT will contribute to filling this gap through the technical training and International secondments offered to scientists/technicians/practitioners within and outside the Consortium. Additionally, its communication strategy specifically aims at raising the awareness in society about such challenges, and at recruiting the youngest to plant sciences. VEG-ADAPT is thus expected to build EU capacity both directly and indirectly.