Plastics are widely used in agriculture, but they create challenges for the environment. About 80% of the plastic waste in farming is generated by plastic mulch films. Collecting this waste is difficult and significant parts of it stay in the fields, generating microplastics that end up in rivers and oceans. A Spanish Operational Group is encouraging farmers in their region to use biodegradable mulch films and providing solutions for accelerating the degradation progress. Read on. |
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A French Operational Group has been working on mechanical weed control techniques in organic viticulture to substitute application of herbicides, while controlling fossil fuel consumption and reducing production costs. Surveys, evaluations and monitoring were carried out with organic winegrowers in Occitanie followed by field experiments on 2 different soil ‘itineraries’ (step-by-step procedures). Read more. |
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EIP-AGRI SERVICE POINT ACTIVITIES
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In the context of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, and potentially other future crises, innovation can contribute to strengthening the resilience and adaptive capacity of agriculture and forestry. In particular, the COVID-19 crisis has shown the importance and resilience of short food supply chains, adapted to local conditions that provide consumers with nutritious, seasonal foods for which farmers are paid a fair price while ensuring that food systems continue to function when borders were closed. Find out what the EIP-AGRI network has been doing. |
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The EIP-AGRI has run over 40 Focus Groups on a wide variety of topics. Watch this new animated video to find out how they link research and practice, how they have tackled agricultural challenges and how the whole agricultural community can benefit from Focus Group results. Watch the video. |
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This new EIP-AGRI factsheet presents ideas to ensure the sustainability of beekeeping, which is currently facing challenges linked to pests and diseases, intensification of agriculture and climate change. Based on the work by the EIP-AGRI Focus Group on bee health, this factsheet presents a list of priorities to keep bee colonies healthy, recommendations for good practices, ideas for Operational Groups and research needs. Download the factsheet. |
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Over 90 people attended the online EIP-AGRI Workshop: Shaping the EU mission ‘Caring for soil is caring for life’ which took place on 20-21 October 2020. To restore soil health in the EU and beyond, the European Commission has established this Mission: Caring for Soil is Caring for Life. Mission Board members presented the different actions proposed by the mission, innovative farmers presented inspiring examples, and interactive sessions enabled participants to discuss urgent research and innovation needs from practice and practical needs for implementation. You can watch the workshop videos and download documents from the event here. |
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EIP-AGRI NETWORK ACTIVITIES
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On 15 and 16 October 2020 the European Commission held the 'Farm to Fork' conference. The event provided an important opportunity to debate the implementation of the recently adopted Farm to Fork Strategy and it provided a forum for discussion on the challenges and opportunities linked to the transition to sustainable food systems. You can watch videos from the event here. You can also still take a virtual tour of the Digital Gallery which is full of interesting resources including many from the EIP-AGRI network. |
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LIFE project Soil4Life promotes the sustainable use of soil. You can download here a Soil Management Toolkit which aims to inspire actions (however large or small) that positively contribute to the regeneration and restoration of soil. They also have an online platform (in Italian) providing videos and texts to train farmers sustainable agricultural practices. Find out more. |
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The European Commission has launched an online survey that aims to identify agroecology living labs and research infrastructures in Europe. Agroecology means working better with nature to support agricultural production. Are you involved in co-developing agroecological farm practices, on real commercial farms, with different stakeholders including scientists? In these experiments, do groups of farms team up to achieve a positive environmental impact at landscape scale in their locality or region? Do these experiments look at social, economic and behavioural aspects alongside pure agricultural ones? If yes to all, please complete the survey by 15 December 2020. |
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The Horizon 2020 multi-actor project DIVERSify has released the first three films of their Growing Beyond Monoculture mini-documentary web series. They present findings from research trials and work with farmers from both Europe and internationally on issues, challenges and ideas for growing crop mixtures as a way to increase resilience against climate change, while increasing biodiversity and carbon sequestration. Watch the films here. |
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SUSTAINOLIVE is a Horizon 2020 project seeking to improve the sustainability of the olive oil sector, through the implementation and promotion of a set of innovative sustainable management solutions, based on agroecological concepts. The project has 22 partners from Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Tunisia and Morocco including olive growers` associations and universities and research. They have produced many useful materials such as videos and newsletters, find out more about the project here. |
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Non-Food Crops (NFC) are used to produce a wide range of bio-based products including polymers, lubricants, construction materials, pharmaceuticals, as well as bioenergy and fuels. The PANACEA Horizon 2020 Thematic Network has created a platform about NFCs in the following crop categories: oil, carbohydrates, lignocellulosic or speciality crops. You can even add your own NFCs to the platform through their Android App. |
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The third Citizen Engagement and Deliberative Democracy Festival will happen online from 6-12 December 2020. As part of this event, you can apply for a social innovation prize – projects will be judged on innovativeness, societal engagement, and impact. The aim of the event is to reach out to different services across EU institutions, civil society organisations and leading citizen engagement and deliberative democracy practitioners from Member States. During this festival there will also be a virtual exhibition showcasing citizen engagement projects – you can send in entries to the call for projects. Deadline for both - 10 November. |
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ICT-AGRI-FOOD forum on ‘Best practices to bring research results to market’
On 19 November 2020, ERANET ICT-AGRI-FOOD will host their high-level exchange forum on ‘Best practices to bring research results to market’. This is an opportunity for agrifood actors to exchange on ways to accelerate the transition of research results to the market. For more info and to register, click here. There is also as second networking event organised on 10 December – ‘Go-To-Market & Partnership Event’, more information here.
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This call is for transnational research proposals on ‘Conservation and restoration of degraded ecosystems and their biodiversity’. It has a focus on aquatic systems but all environments are eligible. Theme suggestions include: biological and biophysical processes at stake for conservation/restoration, trade-offs and synergies between targets, benefits and policies for conservation and restoration, or effectiveness and upscaling of conservation and restoration actions. Partnerships must have organisations from a minimum of 3 participating countries. Deadline 7 December 2020. |
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Multifunctional Hedges innovation Operational Group project from Spain.
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SEND US INPUT FOR THE EIP-AGRI NEWSLETTER
If you have relevant information for the EIP-AGRI network based on innovation in agriculture - a video, a funding opportunity, an inspirational idea, a call for contributions, a survey, a report, then please do send it to us servicepoint@eip-agri.eu.
Newsletters go out on the second Tuesday of every month, so please send the info to us at least 4 weeks before that date.
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