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Project Topic
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The main objective of the HANDYWATER project is gain new scientific knowledge in the improvement of water use efficiency and offer deliverable low-cost and lean solutions for enhancing irrigation efficiency and profitability in Mediterranean agriculture, without compromising environmental and economic sustainability. This general objective requires specific goals: i) To identify and boost low-cost crop monitoring technologies; ii) To quantify socio-economic and environmental benefits of the proposed irrigation practices; iii) To optimise the management of the crop at farm scale; iv) To redesign new water-saving solutions for improving irrigation efficiency and economic benefits of Mediterranean crops; v) To develop an easy-to-use decision support tool for enhancing irrigation efficiency at farm scale; vi) To test and evaluate the DST in different scenarios; vii) To overcome barriers in the adoption of innovative irrigation technologies and practices. All these objectives will be achieved by conveying existing and innovative irrigation technologies (sub-drip irrigation, higher/variable number of drippers, low flow/pressure drippers) and practices (regulated deficit irrigation, supplemental irrigation, mulching), resulting from close cooperation and co-learning strategy between the local stakeholders and the project consortium, into the development of a friendly-user DST and a mobile/PC application easy-to-use based on the “traffic light” recommendation system, for offering a cluster of smart and cheap solutions oriented to water and energy savings. HANDYWATER project will address the specific scope of this call (Topic 2.1.1) through a combination of technological and management solutions, together with training and technical activities, all substantially aimed at developing feasible, low-cost and lean technologies that can enhance water use efficiency at the level of smallholder farms, all of these focused to help Mediterranean farmers to increase yields and crop quality, allow water savings and higher efficiency in the use of water. In this respect, this project will benefit from the width and breadth of its consortium, composed of academic partners, a large enterprise and two SMEs, and research and innovation public sector bodies from 5 participating states (Egypt, Germany, Italy, Morocco and Spain). The relevance of HANDYWATER to the specific Call will be evidenced by the expected outputs, aimed to overcome technical, policy and socio-economic barriers in the adoption of the innovative irrigation technologies and practices; facilitating new technologies uptake in the everyday practice; promoting effective strategies disseminating knowledge; and developing innovative approaches while closely considering the needs and expectations of the smallholder farmers.
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