Project: Towards circular horticulture: closing the loop on Mediterranean greenhouses
| Acronym | HortiMED |
| Project Topic | HortiMED is driven by the requirements of the Mediterranean horticultural communities, the increased competition and urgent need for technological update, climate-related constrains and the ever-growing food demand. The aim of HortiMED is to provide farmers with innovative tools to enable resource efficient year round greenhouse cultivation by harnessing the potential of both simple and advanced technologies for smart nutrient, irrigation and climate control, and integrated pest management taking into account their feasibility and cost-effectiveness at individual greenhouse level. HortiMED’s approach pivots around 2 main axes: 1-enabling smart greenhouse management through a Decision Support System (DSS) that integrates sensors, smart algorithms, efficient greenhouse control procedures and applies artificial intelligence techniques for enhanced adaptive greenhouse management; and 2-increasing circularity of horticulture by using biological agro-ecological technologies to close the loop in Mediterranean greenhouses through aquaponics. The core of HortiMED will be a user-friendly and flexible DSS capable of delivering: 1-Expert advisory services to help farmers in intensive knowledge tasks where climatic, crop and nutrient variables decisively influence crop growth and productivity (i.e. integrated pest management, precise water and fertilisers’ needs); and 2-Efficient and cost-effective partial or full automation of greenhouse systems. HortiMED DSS will handle a wide range of heterogeneous data and will apply Artificial Intelligence techniques to continuously learn from historical databases to forecast production yields and expected greenhouse conditions, allowing to develop enhanced adaptive smart algorithms for climate, irrigation and nutrient control and automation. HortiMED technologies will be validated in low, medium and high technology greenhouses from Egypt, Algeria and Spain to demonstrate their economic feasibility and environmental sustainability. |
| Network | PRIMA |
| Call | Section 1 Call 2019 - Farming Systems (Innovation Action) |
Project partner
| Number | Name | Role | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | INKOA SISTEMAS S.L. | Coordinator | Spain |
| 2 | Université Mohamed Khider Biskra, UoB | Partner | Algeria |
| 3 | National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, NIOF | Partner | Egypt |
| 4 | Universidad de Deusto | Partner | Spain |