CICLICA will follow a scientific approach based on experimental results to describe the operation of the framework and their analysis to get, on the one hand, feedback to improve the designed solutions and on the other hand to publish and disseminate the evaluation results and also disseminate and discuss the lessons learned and best practices based on the gained experience. The activities to be carried out during the project have been carefully designed to achieve the project goals and most importantly, to deliver maximum socioeconomic impact, transfer of knowledge, and deal with challenges in the water sector.
CICLICA project is organized in 6 work packages. The WPs that correspond to the main activities include: Support work packages: WP1 and WP6 provide general support to other work packages and aim to spread information about the project, transferring scientific and technological knowledge. Core technical work packages: include WP2, WP3, WP4. Finally, WP5 assesses the sustainability of the newly developed farming systems by ecological, economic, and social indicators.
WP2 will take place on the CEBAS-CSIC Agricultural and Water Research Platform located in Roldán-Balsicas WWTP installations, will be tested different on-farm practices and technologies under greenhouse conditions (future extreme climate scenario, no rain and higher temperatures). On soil conditions on both alternative crops, will investigate and demonstrate some simple innovative solutions throughout the principles of precision agriculture with the use of smart sensing tools and technologies (digital and spectral images analysis, and non-destructive on-farm sensing) to detect the abiotic stresses and crop health in order to introduce the needed information for precision on farm management practices at an adequate time and amount (irrigation schedulling); In combination with the use of SDI and NCW and low-quality water resources to mitigate regional water scarcity, through the use of different irrigation water qualities (brine, reclaimed water and rain water harvesting). Also, will be tested different organic mulching resulted from prunning wastes, and the prototype of novel eco-friendly superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) and Biofertilisation using indigenous mycorrhizal complex (AMF). Finally, the analysis of the temporal evolution of the irrigation bulb in depth based on simulations of the soil-water-plant interactions on the different treatments with the HYDRUS, will be developed for future scenarios.
WP3 will work on the most advanced biotechnologies applications on agriculture to against water and salinity stresses, optimizing crop productivity and reducing soil pollution. From one side, will be developeda genetic selection building an effective strategy climatic scenario and improved use efficiency of water resources, developing plant genotypes on the alternative crops adapted to environmental challenges. This task will be reached increasing the knowledge of the extent of genetic variation, diversity and genetic relationships between genotypes through the evaluation of several wild locally cultivated carob and jojoba trees. This task will be the foundation for developing an improved rootstock cultivar adapted to drought stresses situations. On the other side, the development of an eco-friendly superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) and Biofertilisation using indigenous mycorrhizal complex (AMF).
WP4 (LIVING LABS) (1) Between all the agricultural practices and technologies tested on the Agricultural and Water Research Platform, some will be selected to be tested on the comercial living labs in Spain, Egypt and finally implemented in the demo-site for validation Algeria. (2) develop integrated packages for on-farm management practices aiming to increasing the resilience of the farming system to climate change. (3) Through the analysis of the add-value components in each crop and how the different agricultural practices affect, we aim to introduce some alternative crops to be more integrated in the current business model of the farming system in Mediterranean region, in order to regulate its capacity to face abiotic stresses, and improve its resilience to climate change. WP5 will provide policy guidelines to manage and improve the resilience of the studied farming systems (in the previous WPs), through the LCA methodology, conducted in each Living Lab/ Demo site, and will help to identify the environmental risks of existing as well as identify strategic improvement opportunities. WP6 related to dissemination and exploitation activities.
