Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RADIANT (ReAlising DynamIc vAlue chaiNs for underuTilised crops)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2023-03-01 do 2024-08-31
The RADIANT project proposes inclusive and strategic solutions, supported by practical tools and stakeholder engagement methods, to establish Dynamic Value Chains (DVCs) for underutilised crops (UCs). UCs have significant potential in addressing hunger, malnutrition, and inequality, but they are often overlooked. RADIANT focuses on a core collection of 15 well-developed UCs to promote their inclusion in biodiverse value chains. The project includes 20 farm-based partners called AURORA Farms, which serve as hubs for knowledge sharing and co-creation, showcasing the integration of UCs in value chains and connecting farmers with consumers. The project's objectives are to showcase successful transitions to agrobiodiversity-inclusive systems, promote best practices in land management and marketing, improve UC management and breeding through participatory and ex-situ approaches, highlight the functional traits of UCs (nutrition, health, and environmental benefits), develop a coherent framework for quantifying UCs' value along value chains, create new markets for UCs in existing agrifood systems, and build capacity among farmers, civil society, and policymakers to embrace agrobiodiversity and enable the transition.
The RADIANT project has established several key activities, including seven CREATOR workshops and two Gourmet events in different regions (Figure 1). In addition, all participatory farmers recruited in the first period to grow UCs and develop Dynamic Value Chains (DVCs) are finalising their trials and data have been collected alongside Transition Diaries. Significant progress has been achieved in the development of the e-RADIANT app and the CROP-Base EU tool, with the former now available for download on the Google/Apple store. Partners are characterizing selected UC collections, developing multi-environment field phenotyping, identifying stress tolerance/resistance sources, and assessing quality and health traits. The participatory approaches in AURORA FARMs to genetic improvement are being performed to valorise locally grown indigenous varieties and develop improved indigenous varieties and new varieties (Figure 2). New breeding strategies and tools will deliver molecular markers linked to the traits of interest for marker-assisted selection of selected UCs such as GWAS studies. Innovative and sustainable agroecological management practices are being performed covering a range of sustainable farming practices, cultivation systems/modern technologies, seed priming technologies and the use of biofertilizers and biostimulants for increased resilience and nutritional content. Sixteen scientific publications have been produced. Four videos and brochures were produced by the FAO in collaboration with UNISG for 4 Aurora Farms. A self-assessment tool was developed and tested for farmers to assess the ecosystem services provided by the inclusion of UCs in their farms. To recognize the potential of UCs in short processing chains a Mobile Processing Unit was successfully tested to process tomato landraces and a second mobile processing has been tested on yellow peas. Several approaches have been implemented for the development of innovative food, feed and technical products (Figure 3). Three scientific papers and four Deliverables reports were submitted. Additionally, data was collected from RADIANT partners focused on assessing the resilience of UC value chains. Six separate farm systems and value chains have been assessed in terms of environmental and/or economic performance. The Environmental and land use consequences of replacing milk and beef with plant-based alternatives were demonstrated in a scientific publication and two deliverable reports were submitted. The impact of key policy fields on UCs at the EU level was assessed through a literature review and policy document analysis. JHI has continued running focus groups with farmers and consumers to understand their expectations and preferences for UCs. An easily identifiable labelling concept that promotes UCs will be generated and the acceptability and readability of such a label will be assessed and optimised. To identify policy windows of opportunity and potential actions to promote UCs, ESSRG are being performed a Delphi process. The Delphi results will inform policy briefs, reports, and recommendations to promote agroecological farming by strengthening UC value chains. A policy e-booklet was developed, and one deliverable report has been submitted. The Agrobiodiversity data warehouse platform has been fully loaded. A four-level approach was developed for the Transformation Avenues DSS. The Aurora Farms Traceability System Requirements template was provided to Aurora Farms. Furthermore, 15 business briefs were developed. One deliverable report was produced. Regarding communication activities, CM led project branding, developed the communication strategy, supported RADIANT's UC-Cluster, and contributed to capacity-building for UC farmers and new consumer-producer communication channels. UC-Cluster activities foster collaboration among SFS-01-c projects has been developed. The Agrobiodiversity toolbox was hosted on the RADIANT website. The exploitation workshops detailed the characterisation table conducted. The project's quality guidelines, risk and data management, and ethics-related reports have not changed, and the metadata repository was updated. Overall, the RADIANT project (Figure 4) made significant progress in various research areas related to UCs, including value chains, breeding, sustainability, policy analysis, and communication.
RADIANT aims to gather evidence and strategically apply it to promote the effective adoption of UCs across different regions and socio-economies in EU Member States. The expected outcomes include optimized tools such as CropBASE-EU and the e-RADIANT App, which will facilitate knowledge transfer for farmers to select the best UCs for their specific region and value chain options. Multi-environment field phenotyping will allow the identification of UC accessions adapted to changing climatic conditions, resistant to diseases, and with improved nutrient efficiency. Genetic breeding predictive models will be developed based on project research, enabling the cultivation of UCs with increased nutritional value. Guidelines for Food Business Operators will be established, ensuring accurate labelling based on scientific data. The project will develop a self-assessment tool for farmers to evaluate the ecosystem services provided by UCs. Advanced technologies will be engineered to shorten the supply chain and provide competitive advantages to farmers. A framework for assessing the environmental sustainability and resilience of UC value chains will be created, along with a traceability system based on blockchain technology. The Underutilised Crops Cluster, will enable collaboration and knowledge co-creation among stakeholders interested in UC value chains. The research will contribute to understanding the performance and sustainability of European UC farms, including adaptability, environmental impact, cost prices, economic feasibility, and policy considerations. By promoting UCs and sustainable farming practices, the project aims to support territorial development and contribute to the societal discourse on agricultural diversity and sustainability.