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Project Topic
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The FAO estimates a 34% increase in the world population by 2050. As a result, the productivity of important staple crops such as cereals and horticultural species needs to be boosted by an estimated 43%. Against the mosaic global climate change and shifting arable land ranges, plant and soil sciences play a primordial role in finding solutions to the internationally shared challenges of ensuring sustainable agricultural and biomass production. In order to effectively meet these challenges and demands however, knowledge obtained from basic plant and soil sciences must be connected to innovative application in agriculture and plant cultivation. Hence, sustainable biological practices such as biofertilizers (compost and microorganisms) that boost plants yield, quality, and tolerance to abiotic stresses should be exploited to improve agricultural production. For this purpose, this project addresses all aspects of the global food system by being good for the consumer, good for the planet, and good for the farmer.By combining the complementary expertise of different research teams and companies from Morocco, France, Germany, Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Japan, and Mexico, in this project we aim (i) developing cultivation technologiesverified and demonstrated in the field.that can tackle some of the biggest challenges simultaneously, including food insecurity, malnutrition and other diet-related health issues, rural poverty, and mitigation of climate change, (ii) Exploitation of beneficial indigenousmicroorganismsas biofertilizersand agents to achieve sustainable and highly productive agriculture, and to mitigate climate change, and (iii) Recycling of green and agro-industrial waste into compost and biostimulantsthat can be reused in agriculture allowing the improvement of soil fertility and crops yield, and (iv) understanding of the phenotypes and molecular traits of useful food crops (cereals and horticultural crops) under a variety of environmental conditions
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