Turning climate-related information into added value for traditional MEDiterranean Grape, OLive and Durum wheat food systems

Project Information

MED-GOLD

Grant agreement ID: 776467

DOI

10.3030/776467

Project closed

EC signature date 30 October 2017

Start date 1 December 2017

End date 31 May 2022

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Climate action, Environment, Resource Efficiency and Raw Materials

Total cost

€ 4 990 967,50

EU contribution

€ 4 990 967,50

Coordinated by

AGENZIA NAZIONALE PER LE NUOVE TECNOLOGIE, L'ENERGIA E LO SVILUPPO ECONOMICO SOSTENIBILE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - MED-GOLD (Turning climate-related information into added value for traditional MEDiterranean Grape, OLive and Durum wheat food systems)

Reporting period: 2020-06-01 to 2022-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

MED-GOLD (https://doi.org/10.3030/776467) was a 54-month research and innovation project that aimed to demonstrate the proof-of-concept for climate services in agriculture using three hallmarks of the Mediterranean food system: grape and wine, olive and olive oil, and durum wheat and pasta. The project prototyped climate services by developing case studies for these three major Mediterranean traditional systems.

Climate services – the transformation of climate-related data and information into customised projections, forecasts, and analyses for supporting decision-making at all levels – have the potential to become the intelligence behind a climate-resilient, low-carbon society. Agriculture is the economic sector most vulnerable to climate variability and change. Further, the Mediterranean region is under immediate threat of shifting climate patterns and associated ecological, economic, and social effects. Hence, developing a capacity to turn the increasingly big climate-related data into climate services that can inform decision-making in agriculture is a key priority at the Mediterranean, European, and global levels.

The long-term goal of this project was to make European agriculture and food systems more resilient to climate change, using climate services to minimize risks/costs and seize opportunities for added value. MED-GOLD aimed to develop climate services for the crop systems that are the basis for producing olive oil, wine, and pasta. These have utmost climatic, ecological, economic, and cultural relevance to the Mediterranean region and the world, as they are not only hallmarks of the globally-important Mediterranean diet heritage, but also food commodities with a global market. Moreover, the Mediterranean food system has a demonstrated potential for contrasting the increasing homogeneity in global food supplies, resulting in increased food security and significant health benefits, and for reducing the ecological footprint of the global food system. Hence, the potential for developing climate services with high added value to society is immense. To address added value directly, MED-GOLD co-designed pilot climate services involving both suppliers and users. The project reviewed the operational decision-making of major industrial European users to either identify key decisions or introduce new actions that can benefit from climate-related information at timescales from months to decades.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Prototype climate services were co-produced, tested, and validated with major industrial players of the global food system, using MED-GOLD linked methods for user engagement and cloud-based processing/visualization of data (i.e. the ICT platform). This enabled unprecedented replicability and scalability across regions, sectors, and users, as tested in Colombia for coffee—the world’s top agricultural commodity.

Online surveys and participatory workshops in five languages assessed the usability and upscaling potential of the services with a wider community of users not involved in the development of the services.

An ICT platform was developed as a scalable, modular, cloud computing system enabling services such as: running heritage crop system models; showing custom visualization dashboards; connecting existing decision support tools and simulation models to cutting-edge climate data sources (e.g. https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/); processing seasonal climate forecast data with on-the-fly bias correction. The platform was released as open source code (see https://github.com/medgold-ict-platform).

Colombian coffee provided a case study for testing the replicability of MED-GOLD climate services, showing high potential benefits in terms of informing regional crop management and policymaking.

Analysis of the EU market for climate services and development of a business plan provided a solid ground for the commercialization of the prototype services, by describing the value creation and service delivery processes.

The project built better informed and connected end-user and policymaking communities for the global olive oil, wine, and pasta food systems by presenting at 50+ international events; organizing 12 including 8 participatory workshops, organizing 2 online training events, 4 webinars, and publishing info sheets, user guides, infographics, videos, a policy brief, and a glossary—all in six languages (English, Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian). This added to multimedia and multi-language communication implemented throughout the project and 25 published scientific papers, plus a project’s special issue to appear in the journal Climate Services.

The COVID-19 emergency impacted the project significantly. Substantial effort was devoted to converting the planned face-to-face activities into online engagement. A major result was the MED-GOLD final showcase event with 300+ registered contacts from across the world and speakers from industry, NGOs, international institutions, and the policymaking community. Industry users from the MED-GOLD consortium shared success stories, and the event ultimately enabled participants to share and exchange ideas regarding the potential to apply and use the MED-GOLD pilot services in their own cross-sectoral decision-making contexts.

Key dissemination material produced by the project is available through the MED-GOLD Horizon 2020 Project community on Zenodo (https://zenodo.org/communities/med-gold/).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The MED-GOLD project exceeded expectations significantly. As a research and innovation project, MED-GOLD was expected to co-develop climate services at proof-of-concept (i.e. prototype) rather than real market level. By contrast, not only MED-GOLD was able to demonstrate the added value of the pilot climate services, but also addressed the replicability and marketability side of the services. To the point that major European and international institutions showed interest in the MED-GOLD climate services and ICT platform, creating real business opportunities already during the project lifecycle that were further pursued beyond the duration of the project.

The co-design and co-development work first revealed the incredible diversity of users and needs that challenge climate services in agriculture; a result that has rarely if ever been addressed in a research project.

The following are critical decisions identified where climate services can provide added value. Grape: siting, choice of scion variety and rootstock, control of pathogens and abiotic stress, and management of wine style. Olive: pest management, fertilization, irrigation, pruning, harvesting, and design of new orchards. Durum wheat: variety selection, purchase/selling of commodities, supply chain planning, breeding, and siting.

The added value generated by the project ranges from agricultural management to policymaking at the Mediterranean, European, and global levels.

The entire value chain for climate services in agriculture was represented in the project consortium, and the potential market for the services developed is global, with most producers and consumers currently located in the Mediterranean region. Engagement of potential users and development of a sound business model made MED-GOLD climate services ready for commercial settings, as demonstrated by ongoing business development.

Infographics MED-GOLD: ICT Platform

Infographics MED-GOLD: Final Table

Infographics MED-GOLD: Cover

Project logo

Infographics MED-GOLD: Granoduro

Infographics MED-GOLD: Dashboard

Infographics MED-GOLD: PBDM