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Project Topic
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The Mediterranean region has strong agricultural traditions associated with conventional agronomic practices. In various countries, such practices are not efficient under a climate change scenario, leading to reduced crops yield and productivity and thus resulting in reduced economic returns for local farmers. VALMEDALM project objective is to use intercrops within almond orchards as an integrated strategy, aligned with economic, social, and environmental aspects, and implemented across the Mediterranean basin, assisting in adapting the small-scale farming systems to climate change and to increase farmers' incomes, especially in those countries with lower reported productivity and valorisation outputs. To achieve these goals six demo sites will be implemented in different Mediterranean countries (Portugal, Croatia, Egypt, Morocco, Greece, Italy), to assess the effect of intercropping in almonds orchards and the role in pests and weed management. VALMEDALM will (i) provide an inventory of the intercropping practices and main pests from Mediterranean basin; (ii) produce guidelines for the best intercropping practices and pests and weeds management practices adapted to each local and Mediterranean region; (iii) provide a complete nutritional and functional portfolio of almonds and crops used as intercrop; (iv) establish training and demonstration sessions, networking platforms and dissemination strategies to enhance awareness among Mediterranean population (consumers, farmers, producers, industry). Sustainable production systems such as almonds orchards with implemented intercropping practices, as well as food education campaigns that also promote sustainable consumption will be promoted. This project will contribute to the adoption of sustainable and productive agricultural systems based on plants diversity, to increase farmers income and competitiveness of small producers in the Mediterranean markets. VALMEDALM is fully aligned with section 2 – Multitopic within the topic 2 - Farming systems - 2.2.1 (RIA) “Up-scaling field practices based on agroecology to increase ecosystem services and biodiversity, to adapt the small-scale farming systems to climate change and to increase farmers' incomes” of PRIMA.
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