Climate Farm Demo is a European project focused on addressing the climate challenges facing agriculture and livestock in Europe. The project includes interesting topics for Almeria's agricultural sector, such as the use and management of water and crops, and the search for reward mechanisms for farmers who implement climate-smart practices.
Researcher Jorge Sánchez Molina, from UAL's Automation, Robotics, and Mechatronics (ARM) group, involved in the Climate Farm Demo project, explains a topic at an experimental farm.
This project's consortium is made up of 80 partners from 27 countries. COEXPHAL-UAL's Chair in horticulture, cooperative studies, and sustainable development, supports ten Living Labs (research spaces) in establishing and determining their strategic plans to develop and design climate solutions.
The Living Lab in the province of Almería is working with the university's Automation, Robotics, and Mechatronics (ARM) group and Jorge Sánchez Molina, in the search for alternative water sources, such as desalinated water and its use for irrigation in greenhouses. The demonstration farm included in this Living Lab is part of a network of demonstration farms within the project. COEXPHAL is the organizer and contact at the national level.
As part of the Climate Farm Demo project, the COEXPHAL-UAL Chair is working -among other topics- on the use and management of water and greenhouse crops with climate-smart practices.
Cultivation for animal grazing
Climate Farm Demo has just held the second face-to-face meeting of these 'research spaces'. The meeting took place in Lusignan, France, where the National Center for Agronomic Research (INRA) and its Living Lab, which focuses on adapting beef farms to climate change, are located. To this end, they follow different lines of work, such as the co-cultivation of different species for animal grazing.
This meeting brings together people from different nationalities and renowned institutions, such as the University of Almería (represented by the COEXPHAL-UAL Chair), every year to share their progress in their goal of achieving more sustainable and climate-smart innovations. The goals of this meeting include clarifying what the steps to follow in the following year are and giving the Living Labs the necessary support so that they can independently develop their work and achieve their goals.
Climate Farm Demo will last for seven years, from 2022 to 2029, and is funded by the European Union with 21 million euros.
For more information:
cgiagnocavo@ual.es
rhh410@ual.es
jorgesanchez@ual.es