A university in Portugal coordinates with the European project to promote agrobiodiversity

Portugal

Published Aug 27, 2021

Tridge summary

Developing solutions and tools to “foster agrobiodiversity, combating the agricultural paradigm of monoculture and industrialized agriculture”, is the aim of the new European project Radiant. Funded by the Horizon 2020 program of the European Union, for more than 5.9 million euros, this initiative is coordinated by the Center for Biotechnology and Fine Chemistry (CBQF), of the School of Biotechnology (ESB) of the Catholic University of Portugal in Porto.

Original content

With a duration of four years, the project “Radiant – Realizing Dynamic Value Chains with Underutilized Crops”, involves 29 entities from 12 countries – Germany, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Slovenia, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Countries Netherlands, United Kingdom – and has the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) as a partner. The initiative has 20 pilot farms, designated as “Aurora farms”, “which cover different agro-ecologies across Europe and where good practices will be tested and demonstrated,” says the Catholic University. According to Marta Vasconcelos, researcher at CBQF and coordinator of Radiant, «to carry out the project, 45 participatory farmers will also be recruited to facilitate the integration of underutilized crops, carrying out an adaptive management of agrobiodiversity through tools built by the project itself». This initiative has several purposes: “demonstrate successful transitions to inclusive agrobiodiversity systems; ...

Source: Flefrevista