HANDYWATER

The aim is to improve water use efficiency in Mediterranean agriculture. Therefore, the project focuses on gaining new knowledge and providing cost-effective and lean solutions. This is to promote the adoption of efficient irrigation innovations by smallholder farmers, as well as to increase the environmental and economic sustainability of various farming practices that have high water demand and are widespread in the Mediterranean region. These include, e.g. citrus (as an intensive cropping system) and olives (as a rainfed cropping system).

Tasks:

• Identify and promote low-cost crop monitoring technologies
• Develop other solutions to improve irrigation efficiency and economic benefits of Mediterranean crops
• Optimize crop management on an agricultural scale
• Develop an easy-to-use decision support system to improve irrigation efficiency at the agricultural scale
• Implementation and evaluation of different application scenarios

IAK Agrar Consulting GmbH is working on approaches to develop the decision support system during the project period.

Project partners:

• Institut Valencià diInvestigacions Agràries (IVIA), Moncada (Valencia)
• Asdron Spain SL (ASDRON), Valencia (Spain)
• Università degli Studi di Catania (UNICT), Catania
• Irritec S.p.A. (IRRITEC), Rocca di Caprileone
• Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH – UFZ, Leipzig
• Benha University (BENHA), Benha
• Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II (IAV), Rabat
• Ibn Zohr University (UIZ), Agadi

Funding program:

funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Funding code:

01DH21013B