Project hub

Above all other considerations, creating a sustainable food system necessitates the restoration of primary production to the 'guardians' of the land, namely the proprietors of small and medium-sized farms and agricultural structures situated in rural areas. The EU-funded GUARDIANS project is designed to bolster agroecological farming models using economical and people-centred digital solutions. These solutions will undergo testing on 22 small and medium-sized farms encompassing diverse production types across six pilot initiatives led by farming cooperatives in four countries. The objective is to assist owners of such farms in bridging the technological divide that separates them from larger farms. This objective is pursued through a co-creative approach that involves farmers, agricultural stakeholders, scientists, technicians, and SMEs.

Wetlands can sequester carbon and regulate the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases. However, wetlands are disappearing in Europe at an alarming rate, and less than 20 % remain in good ecological condition. The EU-funded WET HORIZONS project will advance crucial knowledge and develop new tools and methods for rapid large-scale wetland restoration, including a mobile app for the visualisation of wetland status and a decision support system for policy makers. The project will update and improve existing data available from pristine, drained and rewetted peatlands, floodplains and coastal wetlands. It will model the effects of ordinary restoration measures under diverse conditions and analyse the potential socio-economic impacts to deliver recommendations and best management practices.

Addressing the overexploitation and unsustainable management of land across Europe is essential for addressing the climate and biodiversity crises. The EU-funded MOSAIC project is working to understand and influence how land across Europe is managed. To that end, it will study how land use decisions are made and to what extent climate change and biodiversity issues are currently incorporated. The project team will work with local people and organisations in six case study locations to establish Policy Labs, each one of which will develop robust policy options. Then, state-of-the-art modelling will be used to explore the impact of these different policies. Project results will be made available online through a series of tools, which will support land use decision makers in developing and implementing innovative and effective policies.

In efforts to bolster the resilience and sustainability of remote regions, it’s important to consider the efficient management of agricultural and forest residues and waste. In this context, the EU-funded PYRAGRAF project aims to develop a mobile, solar-assisted unit, showcasing pyrolytic conversion technology that turns crop residues and waste into valuable products while reducing carbon footprints. This mobile unit comprises a solar-assisted gasifier burner, biomass dryer and integrated pyrolysis reactor. This system harnesses renewable sources like solar energy and biomass to produce valuable products. Overall, the project’s multifaceted approach yields biochar, wood vinegar ecosystems services, upgraded pyrogas and bio-oil. Field demonstrations across Germany, Portugal and Türkiye involve local stakeholders and will showcase the unit’s potential.

Agriculture sensors provide data assisting farmers in monitoring and optimising crops by adapting to changes in the environmental conditions. Integrating these data with other data derived from satellites could further enhance regional agricultural monitoring but would require a paradigm shift in the data ownership and governance models. The vision of the EU-funded ScaleAgData project is to gain insight into how integrated data streams should be governed to the benefit of all stakeholders, especially the farmers. By upscaling these data, this wealth of information can be shared with a larger farmer community, thus shrinking the technological inequality in the sector. Specific attention will be paid to innovations in sensor technology, edge computing, data analytics and novel Earth observation products.