Last May 22nd the University of Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum (UNIBO) as lead partner of the 4CE-MED project celebrated its Final Meeting in Bologna, (Italy). After more than four years of work, the 4CE-MED project has nearly ended and has achieved the envisioned targets. The Final Meeting was an opportunity where all partners presented the results that the project has obtained over the project’s lifetime. Locally tailor-made 4CE-MED solutions for adopting camelina as a cash cover crop were presented to assure short-term economic profit to Mediterranean farmers. Also, the socio-economic barriers and local conditions were discussed among the consortium partners to stimulate the dissemination of Conservation Agriculture (CA) in the Mediterranean countries.
During the meeting, testimonies were heard from farmers and key players from the seven participating countries. All participants had the chance to get to know more about good practices and local situation of the involved countries (Algeria, Greece, France, Italy, Morocco, Spain, and Tunisia) on Innovative, Diversified, and Resilient farming systems and listen to a panel discussion about which challenges to address to rebalance the position not only of the farmer but also of the market. After a networking lunch, the findings of UNTWIST, one of the linked projects to the 4CE-MED community, were presented, highlighting the most relevant results as the Adaptation Plant Hub and the developed camelina crop protocols in four of the territories where the project trials have been carried out: France, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.
At the end of the meeting, remarks and suggestions were made by the PRIMA Program project officer M. Fabrice Dentressangle on how to increase the impacts beyond 4CE-MED and a clear acknowledgement of the developed work by all involved partners was expressed.
After the meeting, a visit to the Experimental Farm of UNIBO located at Cadriano (Bologna) was organized. Partners learned about different trials related to the CARINA project, also part of the 4CE-MED community.
Closing the Final Meeting, critical thinking took place by M. Berti and A.L. Fernando, Advisory Board Members, to help gain new insights and explore new opportunities for camelina crops in the Mediterranean countries.
