FrontAgNexus

Coordinatore di progetto: Universität der Bundeswehr München.

Ambiti di ricerca: Agronomia e sistemi colturali erbacei e ortofloricoli

Responsabile Scientifico: Francesco Orsini

Durata: 01/05/2023 - 31/04/2026

Gruppo di ricerca: Francesco Orsini, Giuseppina Pennisi, Giorgio Gianquinto, Vito Aurelio Cerasola, Elisa Appolloni, Vivek Jadhav, Ilaria Zauli, Alessandro Pistillo, Giovanni Bazzocchi, Agata Morelli, Andrea D’Aprile, Matteo Landolfo

The Mediterranean Region is one of the climate change hotspots in the world due to water scarcity and reliance on climate-sensitive agriculture. Thus, boosting climate change adaptation and mitigation through actions and innovations that reduce pressure on the water, energy, food, and ecosystems (WEFE) Nexus, including biodiversity is paramount. FrontAg Nexus responds to this challenge by identifying sustainable frontier agriculture production systems that in-crease regional food and nutrition security and conserve the environment. Furthermore, factors that foster the adoption of an integrated resource-management approach, considering the interconnections of the WEFE Nexus and the growing population in the Region will be analysed.

FrontAg Nexus follows a WEFE Nexus thinking and a multi-actor approach, involving 6 Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy, Israel Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey) as well as one of the world’s driest countries, Jordan. FrontAg Nexus contributes to the community of practice by identifying, incorporating and sharing frontier agricultural solutions. Frontier agricul-ture comprises climate-smart and water-saving technologies such as hydroponics, aquaponics, and insect farming (BSF: Black Soldier Fly larvae breeding), whose energy efficiency can be increased through agrophotovoltaic. These frontier agricultural solutions are the basis for socio-innovative adaptation experiments (i.e., demonstration cases) because they require limited arable land, water, energy, or wealth and reduce organic waste.

FrontAg Nexus will show that frontier agriculture improves livelihood security by delivering safe and nutritious food and reducing rural-urban migration linked to local resource scarcity. Frontier agriculture is also suitable for urban, refugee, and Bedouin communities. Capacity-development activities will take place at the producer and policy level. At the pro-ducer level, this will be done by showcasing positive experiences and establishing a communities-supporting-communi-ties collaboration. At the policy level, FrontAg Nexus will demonstrate how integrating frontier agriculture into the Nexus approach improves not only the environmental but also the socio-economic situation of all stakeholders. FrontAg Nexus guides production and policy transformation in the Mediterranean Region by adhering to the EU Taxonomy Reg-ulation.