Location:

Italy, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Morocco and Egypt

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Partners:

The Salt Doctors, Kafr-elSheikh university, UM6P University, ILVO, UNIFI, KU Leuven, University Karl Ossiecky, VU University, Salt Farm Foundation, Van Hall Larenstein

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Duration:

June 2021 - March 2024

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Project description:

The SALAD project is a large EU Horizon 2020 (ERA-NET CoFund FOSC) project with partners in a number of European and North African countries: Italy, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Morocco and Egypt. It addresses the research area of food security under climate change through saline agriculture, aligning vision, research and practice among European and African countries focusing on saline agriculture upscaling. SALAD aims at improving the resilience of food production in saline and potentially saline agricultural areas in the Mediterranean and North Sea regions by:

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* supporting the development and sustainable use of innovative salt-tolerant crops,

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* identifying and further developing crop cultivation adapted to saline conditions,

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* exploring and testing innovative market development techniques and instruments to upscale several crop/food chains across the EU and Africa,

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* exchanging knowledge and transferring practical and adaptive solutions.

 

Our role within SALAD is to bridge the gaps between the scientists at the universities, and the partners that plan to work with farmers and are doing field experiments. The Salt Doctors will assist with conducting pilots and experiments in The Netherlands, Italy, Morocco and Egypt to examine prospects for horizontal upscaling production from farm to regional scale under saline conditions. Also, we will engage a wide range of stakeholders and ensure the knowledge transfer "from science to practice".