Increasing the resilience of agriculture in water and nutrient-scarce environments through digital innovations

Expected Outcome:

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• farmers have increased access to digital tools and advice to improve their resilience to water and nutrient scarcity;
• farmers are better prepared for the Green Transition and EU’s new plan for sustainable prosperity and competitiveness;
• biodiversity benefits from decreasing water, air and soil pollution while European dependency on mineral fertilisers is reduced.

Scope:

A key challenge for the agricultural sector is to provide food in a context of increasing global population, climate change and price volatility while reducing pollution and preserving natural resources and biodiversity for future generations. Farmers should be able to adopt innovative solutions to increase the resilience to water and to nutrient scarcity. Digital and data technologies offer solutions to monitor parameters (e.g. soil conditions, water and air quality, nutrients content and availability) in a cost-efficient manner while supporting decision-making on input management, adapt to climate change, contribute to cleaner air and biodiversity.

Proposals should:

• improve knowledge on the complex interactions between plant, soil, water, air and nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorus) in view of climate change in the EU and its impacts on crop production, farming systems (including crop protection use) and the environment, in a representative number of different pedoclimatic regions;
• develop and test monitoring devices and systems that can take into account the findings on the interactions described in the previous point, considering their easy integration into other farm management information systems (FMIS) or decision support systems (DSS), and the affordability and accessibility to farmers (such as low connectivity in certain rural areas, digital knowledge, health impairments/disability, etc.);
• develop and test AI-enabled decision support systems to better monitor and assess the effects of agricultural practices and land management measures in terms of water and nutrient use taking into account different pedoclimatic zones, local conditions and farm characteristics, their impact on pollution (water, soil) and benefits for biodiversity;
• create sets of high-quality AI training data to support the development of DSS with the objective to improve water and nutrient resilience of different farming systems, and make them publicly available, considering legal clarity, sustainable access, transparent documentation and metadata, harmonised and standardised protocols;
• identify potential barriers and enablers for translation of these R&I developments into practical and commercial digital tools and for the adoption by end-users (especially related to trust and transparency, and the needs of persons with disabilities such as accessibility of the information), as well as characterise remaining knowledge, training and/or advice gaps, and needs for policy feedback.

The projects under this topic are relevant to the EU policies related to the EU Vision for Agriculture and Food, the EU Action Plan for the Development of Organic Production^[1], Europe fit for the Digital Age, the Climate Adaptation Strategy, the Zero Pollution Action Plan, the Clean Air directives, the EU biodiversity strategy for 2030 and the European Water Resilience Strategy.

Proposals must implement the multi-actor approach, with a consortium based on a balanced mix of actors with complementary knowledge, including farmers, researchers, advisors, technology providers and business partners.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities.

Proposals should address various farming systems/approaches, one of which should be organic farming.

Where appropriate, proposals should use and complement capacities and infrastructures created under the Digital Europe Program (incl. European Data Spaces, EDIHs) as well as the EURO HPC and EU AI Factory infrastructures. Proposals should also comply with existing EU framework and strategies, and build upon the concepts and solutions developed in other EU initiatives aimed to facilitate data sharing, such as the Common European Agricultural Data Space (CEADS).

Proposals are encouraged to engage in international cooperation and to build on the results of relevant projects funded under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe and ensure collaboration with relevant ongoing and forthcoming projects under the PRIMA and Agriculture of Data partnerships, the JRC and the European Soil Observatory (EUSO).

[1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52021DC0141R%2801%29