Description
General Information
Title: Sustainable Food Production in Sardinia
Location: Sardinia, Italy
Core themes: Agriculture
Sectors involved: Agriculture, Environment, Water, Energy, Food security
Context and challenges
Background: Climate variability, water scarcity, land degradation, and declining crop yields have long been pressing issues in Sardinia. The region’s limited freshwater resources, coupled with its unique climate characteristics, make agricultural production increasingly challenging. Climate change projections indicate rising temperatures and more erratic rainfall patterns, leading to prolonged droughts and greater stress on water availability. These shifts threaten agriculture, local ecosystems, and food security, particularly for staple crops like durum wheat. Addressing these challenges is crucial to ensuring long-term sustainability in Sardinia’s agricultural sector.
Key challenges: One of the primary challenges is enhancing sustainable food production while adapting to climate change. Rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and prolonged droughts demand climate-resilient farming practices and improved water efficiency. Raising consumer awareness about sustainable food choices is also critical, as is strengthening local food supply chains. By improving product traceability, food safety, and local economic development, Sardinia can build a more resilient food system that benefits both farmers and consumers.
Why was this Case study selected for ARSINOE: This project addresses the major issues related to climate change in Europe. Due to its central position in the Mediterranean Region, Sardinia is an ideal location to explore the detrimental effect of climate change in crucial sectors such as agricultural production and staple food security in an area hosting biological diversity as well as socio-cultural richness from three continents. Similarly, the adaptation and mitigation interventions studied and adopted in Sardinia can be successfully upscaled to the whole Mediterranean region, contributing to preserve end/or enhance strategic food and social security of the area.
Objectives
Main goals: The primary goal of the ARSINOE project in Sardinia was to address the projected climate challenges, including rising air temperatures, erratic rainfall, and increasing land degradation, by implementing innovative adaptation and mitigation strategies including use of genetic resources, conservative agriculture and sustainable irrigation for rainfed crops. The project focused on enhancing the sustainability of local agricultural practices, particularly for durum wheat production, which is of significant agronomic and economic importance to Sardinia and the Mediterranean region. By combining these strategies, ARSINOE aimed to improve crop yields and stabilise staple food production within local food chains. This allows to ensure more resilient agricultural systems in the face of climate change.
Expected outcomes and benefits: The expected outcomes of the ARSINOE project include strengthened local food infrastructure, particularly through improved storage and food processing systems for durum wheat. By focusing on enhancing the sustainability of durum wheat production, the project aimed to reduce the dependency on imported wheat, thereby lowering greenhouse gas emissions associated with transport. Additionally, the project encouraged the adoption of irrigation systems powered entirely by clean energy, further reducing the environmental impact of agricultural practices, soil natural fertility of agricultural soils was preserved and/or restored. These innovations not only support the local economy and enhance food security in Sardinia but also contribute to mitigating climate change by reducing carbon footprints and fostering more sustainable agricultural practices.
Methodology & Approach
Innovative solutions developed, tested and implemented: The participatory approach with stakeholders, encouraged by ARSINOE allowed to identify four key focus areas playing a strategic role in resilience through systemic solutions and innovations: (1) digital adaptation – Integrating digital tools such as weather forecasting systems, decision-support tools (DSS), and blockchain applications; (2); certification branding and consumer awareness – Promoting certified products from local food supply chains; (3) technological integration – Deploying sensors, water storage solutions, and renewable energy-powered systems; (4) circular economy with zero waste – Developing organic fertilizers and soil amendments to support sustainable food production.
Stakeholder engagement and participatory processes: The four focus areas have been identified in collaboration with the stakeholders engaged in the participatory process. Three living labs in the time span of about 18 months were organised. Other formal and informal meetings with stakeholder have taken place in the following months (e.g. field days, dissemination meetings, other private and public meetings). Stakeholders are engaged through a stakeholder map and regularly updated on ARSINOE activities via meetings and newsletters.
OTI solution selected and used: (1) Digital adaptation: Lobelia.AgroClimate for South Sardinia (LASS) introduces a user-friendly platform aiming at addressing critical agricultural challenges posed by climate change in addition to supporting agricultural adaptation strategies. Through a climate risk module, the LASS evaluates climate hazard indicators, such as extreme temperature, precipitation extremes and drought for historical as well as future climate change conditions, in order to identify the suitability of staple crops (i.e. durum wheat) to withstand the impacts of climate change. (2) Certification branding and consumer awareness: COMITATO PROMOTORE PANE
COCCOI DOP: Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) for Pane Coccoi. This action means to protect the name of a Sardinian traditional durum wheat bread with a PGI (i.e. Protected Geographical Origin) brand; (3) Technological integration: Integrating Rain harvest and solar pumping Sarda Energia. The proposed innovation combines multiple technologies aiming at: collecting rainwater from roofs and impervious surfaces; storing water in reservoirs; using water for aid irrigation of durum wheat fields; pumping irrigation water. (4) Circular Economy with Zero Waste ConcimiBiologici srl: use of protein-based bio-stimulants on slaughterhouse waste in order to produce protein hydrolysates rich in peptides and amino-acids; these hydrolysates, are classified as bio-stimulants according to the EU regulation 1009/2019 on fertilizers.
Key results & Achievements
Summary of main outcomes: (1) Use of genetic resources: the AGRIS experimental farm of S. Michele is an outstanding plant breeding station for the genetic improvement of durum wheat. Hundreds of thousands of genotypes are selected every year in order to release new durum wheat cultivars adapted to climate change conditions in the drought-prone areas of Sardinia and central-southern Italy. With ARSINOE, particularly emphasis to resilience in the selection process has been given and currently some interesting high-yielding and heat-resistant durum wheat genotypes have been isolated as possible candidates for releasing as new cultivars in the short term. (2) Conservative agriculture: conservative agronomic practices are crucial in preserving and/or restoring the natural fertility of agricultural soils. In the framework of ARSINOE, Agris emphasizes the importance of conservative agronomic techniques such as minimum tillage and sod seeding in: (i) addressing water scarcity by limiting evapotranspiration; (ii) increasing Water Use Efficiency (WUE) by optimizing the soil-water-plant interactions; (iii) mitigating the impact of climate change by increasing carbon-sequestering into the soils. (3) New crop management: the innovative use of smart irrigation in durum wheat is proving to be effective to tackle alternating durum wheat yields due to increasing year-to-year variability caused by climate change and enhance/stabilize durum wheat production in climate change conditions. A study on the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus is underway to assess the long-term sustainability of this approach. (4) Staple food security: the combined effect of selected durum wheat genotypes and conservative agricultural techniques allows to offset and even outweigh the detrimental impact of climate change contributing to enhance wheat production and preserve soil security in threatened areas where cultivation is at risk.
Impact on local communities and ecosystems: Emphasis on local food supply chain is crucial for: (1) ensuring a fair durum wheat profitability for farmers and end-use producers (i.e. millers, breadmakers and pastamakers); (2) maintaining social cohesion of communities. The spreading use of environment-friendly crop management techniques, based on conservative agriculture and circular economy, is essential to preserve the health of the soils and protect the agricultural ecosystems of Sardinia and the Mediterranean Region.
Lessons learned: The lessons learned so far can be summarized into three points: (1) it is still possible to tackle the negative effect of climate change on staple food production in Sardinia with a mixed approach combining use of genetic resources, innovative crop management and local food chains where circular economy principles and the use of renewable resources play a crucial role; (2) Effective dissemination and communication of results are essential for the project's long-term success; (3) an informed approach aimed at bridging the communication gap between rural and urban worlds in developing sustainable and effective policies to ensure food security in climate change conditions is paramount.
Replicability & Scalability
Potential for replication in other regions: Sardinia is in the middle of the Mediterranean Region and shares similar environmental conditions with most countries from the southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Therefore, results and conclusions referring to the Sardinian case study can be successfully replicated and exported to most of the agricultural areas of these countries.
Key success factors and barriers to consider: Dissemination and communication are key factors for the success of ARSINOE activities linked with the Sardinian case study. Increasingly harsh growing conditions due to climate change in the decades to come, in the absence of concrete mitigation strategies at the world level, can be an insurmountable barrier that prevents the implementation of any large-scale agricultural activity in Sardinia and the Mediterranean Region.
Next steps & sustainability
How results will be maintained beyond ARSINOE: Agricultural innovations (i.e. conservation agriculture and innovative crop management) can be easily maintained as they already prove to be a win-win approach when compared with conventional practices. Concerning technological innovations, demonstration and dissemination activities must be set and organised in the long run.
Future collaborations or follow-up initiatives: Similar initiatives and large-scale international projects involving other countries of the Mediterranean area are to be planned (e.g. Interreg MED projects).
Contact & Further Information
Key contacts:
Marco Dettori, Agenzia Regionale per la Ricerca in Agricoltura
Website: https://arsinoe-project.eu/
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