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A technical workshop in Sidi Bouzid (Tunisia) has been achieved on Friday 27 November by the INGC team. The workshop was held with the Leader farmer to raise awareness on the use of seed drills for sowing cereals. This region is known for the low rate of use of agricultural mechanisation , especially the seed drill for cereals. In addition, in this region, cereals are sown manually or with fertiliser spreaders, which distorts sowing rates and leads to heterogeneous emergence. Around 12 participants took part in this workshop.
The PRIMA Foundation and the Italian Secretariat of PRIMA have promoted an online debate on Future Scenarios for the EuroMED Agrifood, in collaboration with Union for the Mediterranean.The panel discussed main trends and issues in agri-food, with the intervention of Strategic Programme Leader on Food Systems Jamie Morrison.
A synthesis has been prepared based on the results of the EuroMed Survey that has been launched in the frame of PRIMA (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) in the last months. The self-administered survey was meant to understand the situation of the EuroMed agrifood system in light of the COVID pandemic, the emerging trends, the new challenges as well as the transformations to be positively induced. The following pages include an initial summary of the main findings, based on more than 180 answers received, and some preliminary remarks, which take into account the notes, comments and analyses sent by the experts. In Annex, each surveyquestion is presented and briefly commented. The current working document will be further developed and enriched with a summary of the online debate co-organized by PRIMA and the Union for the Mediterranean on July 15, as well as additional notes and contributions from PRIMA-partnering institutions.
Link to read the document : Future Scenarios for EuroMed Agrifood
On 13 November 2020, a technical workshop about the improvement of irrigation management with SUPROMED in annual crops was organized by SUPROMED project coordinator UCLM with the contribution of the partners ITAP and HISPATEC.
The workshop was an occasion to gather farmers, technicians and managers of companies linked to irrigation to discuss and reflect on how to increase the
production and quality of agricultural products with a proper design and management of irrigation in order to meet the demand of industry and market.
In addition to that, the workshop aimed to make some trainings on new models and disseminate the results of the first year of SUPROMED project.
Around 200 participants took part in this workshop.
You can watch the videos of the workshop (in Spanish):
Inauguracion jornada
Riogo subterraneo
Resultados en lensos
Resultados en herbaceos
Mesa redonda
El proyecto supromed
El modelo mopeco
Mopeco en lenosos
On November 17, an experimental field for oat was realized by INGC team in Souk Al-Jadid, Sidi Bouzid (Tunisia) and a process of soil preparation was carried out in the west of Sidi Bouzid in order to concentrate an experimental field to grow durum wheat.
Soil samples were also taken at different depths to determine the humidity in order to tighten the irrigation process.
An online meeting was held on 19 November 2020, between the INGC team, the representative from OpenIOS company (Tunisia) and HISPATEC team (Spain) within the SUPROMED project. The objective of the meeting was to discuss the different ways of integrating the IREY application into the SUPROMED end users platform.
A field visit to the demosite in the Bekaa Valley has been achieved on Saturday 7 November last by the ULFA team. Meetings were held with the Leader Farmers to prepare for the next phase of the project regarding the installation of sensors and weather station, the beginning of the growing season, the choice of plantation (wheat, onion, potato, silage corn), as well as management practices in the pilot peach orchard and vineyards. In addition, the scope of the visit also was the preparation for the training program which should be starting next month at Taanayel Domain in the demosite. The team visited the pilot plots and discussed with the farmers the modality of implementation of next year activities on site.
The first SUPROMED annual meeting was organized remotely by the project coordinator “The University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain” from 14 to 16 October 2020. The meeting was held remotely due to the travel restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the first day of the meeting, SUPROMED partners presented the current status of the project and the achieved tasks during the first year. They presented the preliminary results of the work achieved in the 3 demo sites, Eastern Manchain Spain, Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia and South Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.
For the second day, Partners discuss their progress about the development and calibration of models and tools. Spanish partner in charge of the development of the platform “Hispatec " with collaboration of UCLM, presented the first version of the platform with the available models.
The last day was held with the participation of the project officer Fabrice Dentressangle, partners discussed currents status of WP’s, the problems and delays due to Covid 19 and agreed on a list of solutions to solve the first year problems. They planned next actions for the second year.
