Project description
Innovative safe and sustainable plant nutrition and protection solutions
Agrochemicals encompass a range of chemical products including fertilisers, plant biostimulants, and agricultural pesticides employed toenhance crop yield by providing essential nutrients, mitigate plant diseases and weeds in agriculture. Despite these benefits, the misuse of most common agrochemicals has severe negative impacts on human health and the environment. For that reason, new EU policies focus on avoiding or reducing the use of these products. The EU-funded AGRO4AGRI project aims to pioneer solutions for plant nutrition and protection safe for the environment and for farmers. These include nano and bio-based controlled delivery fertilisers, plant bio-stimulants, and bio-pesticides based on RNAi technology. The project’s objective is to enhance the efficiency of agrochemicals to cut their use by more than 50%.
Objective
Agrochemicals are chemical products used in agriculture such as fertilizers, plant-biostimulants or pesticides. The application of fertilizers in synergistic combination with biostimulants provides the nutrients required for enhancing the crops yield, while pesticides are used to reduce the risk of loss from plant diseases and weeds on agricultural production.
Today, the agricultural sector faces several challenges, namely:
- Loss and leaching of fertilisers: Effectiveness of fertilisers must be enhanced through controlled delivery of nutrients ingredients to enhance their availability to the plants for longer periods.
- Large amounts of pesticides used: It is necessary to reduce the use of pesticides, increase the selectivity and avoid pest resistance.
- Bioaccumulation and bioconcentration: It is necessary to avoid soil and groundwater accumulation and bioconcentration in the flora and fauna.
- Highly dependency of water availability: An increase of water use efficiency and water management is essential due to water risks.
In this context, nano and biotechnology strategies have recently gained more interest in the agricultural sector compared to conventional agricultural techniques.
AGRO4AGRI seeks to provide ground-breaking and Safe and Sustainable by Design solutions for plant nutrition and protection consisting of nano and biobased controlled delivery fertilisers and plant biostimulants, and target-specific biopesticides based on RNAi technology, both for enhanced agrochemicals use efficiency. AGRO4AGRI involves R&D and validation stages, aiming to minimize in the long term the use of agrochemicals in agriculture in more than 50% to be aligned with the Farm to Fork Strategy, among other EU initiatives. Further project developments include the evaluation of safety, social and economic impacts, activities to promote society and policy makers engagement to bring wider impacts and better fulfil EU targets and position Europe at the forefront of the agroindustry.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
This project's classification has been human-validated.
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture agronomy plant protection
- agricultural sciences agriculture, forestry, and fisheries agriculture sustainable agriculture
- engineering and technology nanotechnology nano-materials bulk nanostructured materials
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics RNA
- engineering and technology industrial biotechnology biomaterials
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.2.4 - Digital, Industry and Space
MAIN PROGRAMME
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HORIZON.2.4.4 - Advanced Materials
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-RIA - HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-CL4-2023-RESILIENCE-01-TWO-STAGE
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
46980 Paterna Valencia
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.