VENUS: Converting marginal lands of the mediterranean basin into productive and sustainable agro-ecosystems using low water demanding neglected and underutilized species.

 

VENUS aims to use the under exploited potential of neglected and underutilized species (NUS) to promote new agricultural production systems in order to:

 

• Improve soil and water conservation in agricultural lands of the Mediterranean area subjected to land degradation and desertification;
• Offer new marketing opportunities to small farmer in areas characterized by low agricultural productivity due to water scarcity and/or limiting soil conditions with consequent socio-economic decline;
• Offer a scalable option in the Mediterranean semi-arid areas due to the relative simple technique of growth and management and product processing, which presents low to null conflict with other cropping systems and resources’ users for agricultural and civil operations.

 

The socio-economic feasibility and sustainability of the VENUS approach is based on a strong multi-stakeholder co-participatory approach. Scientists and managers/landowners of successful experience of NUS marketing in their area work in the project to consolidate the knowledge on the environmental benefits of NUS and to define best practices suitable to be transferred to other farmers in their areas and in other countries of the project and beyond.

 

VENUS aims to provide a clear socioeconomic assessment and cost benefit analysis of the proposed solutions, which can support scalability and transferability strategies. User-friendly online overlay and interactive maps are generated to support the choice of suitable areas where the combination of the optimum environmental and socio-economic conditions makes NUS cultivation a win-win option for local business and environmental sustainability.

Our main tasks

• Project identity, content management, basic dissemination/communication channels.
• VENUS public events for knowledge transfer and stakeholders’ engagement.
• Dissemination of scientific outputs and networking.
• Development of VE-NUS platform for multi-actor engagement.

Partners

CAUDARELLA DI MICHELE RUSSO | CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE | CONSORZIO DI BONIFICA ADIGE EUGANEO | ELGO DIMITRA | FACULTÉ DES SCIENCES ET TECHNIQUES DE MOHAMMEDIA | IDENER.AI | INRGREF | NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH CENTER | NWRC NATIONAL WATER RESEARCH CENTER | PARTICIPATORY DEVELOPMENT SOLUTIONS | RINCI | UNIVERSITÀ VANVITELLI | UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY HOUARI BOUMEDIENE

Start date – finish date

06 / 2024 - 05 / 2027