Boosting technologies of orphan legumes towards resilient farming systems in the Greater Mediterranean Region: from bench to open field – BENEFIT-Med

The current climate change scenario predicts that global warming will have a dramatic impact on the Mediterranean basin, posing additional threats to the sustainability of current farming systems. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically increased food insecurity. BENEFIT-Med will promote the use of orphan legumes by implementing innovative/sustainable priming treatments to improve seed germination under water/heat stress, fundamental to address increased productivity/food security by stakeholders. The final outcomes are a sustainable priming treatment to improve germination of climate-ready crops (Trigonella foenum-graecum L., trigonella; Lathyrus sativus L., grass pea; Pisum sativum var. arvense, forage pea) from high-quality seeds and directions on their cropping. Such main goal will be met by the following specific objectives: i) set up a cartography of vulnerable mediterranean sites and a Database to integrate available information on orphan legumes with knowledge gathered by BENEFIT-Med; ii) develop tailored ‘on-farm’ seed priming to improve seed germination under stress conditions along with a sustainable, circular process for implementation of inoculant its production in locus; iv) validate effect of priming on agronomic performance and yield stability in open-field trials set in Tunisia, and Morocco ; v) valorise the importance and properties of local legumes; vi) quantify the impact of climate change and variability on existing and new farming systems; vii) estimate the life cycle of the new farming system; viii) establish a multi-stakeholder platform to promote the new farming system at multiple levels, through a participatory model, with focus on specific training/capacity building activities.
BENEFIT-Med is a multidisciplinary project resulting from the synergic integration of eleven Partners: University of Pavia (Italy), University of Sfax (Tunisia), Agricultural University of Athens (Greece), Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l’Environnement (France), Associação BLC3-Campus de Tecnologia e Inovação (Portugal), Benaki Phytopatological Institute (Greece), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology-Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research (Germany), Institute Hassan II of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine (Morocco), University of Casablanca (Morocco),University FerhatAbbas-Setif 1 (Algeria), AGROLAND SA (Greece).
BENEFIT-Med meets the objective of the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA) call, “Section 2, Call: Multi-topic 2021, Topic: 2.2.1 (RIA) Up-scaling field practices based on agroecology principles to increase ecosystem services and biodiversity, to adapt the small farming systems to climate change and to increase farmers incomes”, by addressing the specific challenges of the call from the perspective of seed quality, proxy of crop performance, so far poorly explored in orphan legumes. The new cropping system will be made of climate-ready orphan legumes developed from high-quality seeds tailored through a multidisciplinary strategy that combines basic seed technology (priming) with state-of-the-art knowledge on the seed repair response that positively correlates with seed vigour. Biopriming will be carried with plant growth promoting bacteria, able to secrete high levels of a natural super-absorbent anionic biopolymer, poly-?-glutamate (PGA). This new seed formulation, based on natural microorganisms, will further enhance resilience in orphan legumes, permanently enhance soil properties, reduce irrigation, chemicals and fertilizers demand. The performance of this new farming system will be assessed looking at climate parameters and through socio-economic and ecological indicators, essential parameters for the engagement of relevant stakeholders, such as farmers’ associations and local governance, and in promoting technology transfer to local farmers.