LIVIGAGRO field visit in Sardinia coming soon!

What, who, where and why?

What: In order to assess specific needs of innovation, re-orient research towards satisfying firms' needs and evaluate the possibility of transferring ready-to-use innovations, based on specific agreements signed between research institutes and economic stakeholders, LIVINGAGRO project partners will organize twenty field visits in the four project countries (Italy, Greece, Lebanon and Jordan). Two of these visits will be held in Italy and one will be organized in Sardinia focusing on the islands' cork-oak silvopastoral systems.

Silvopastoral systems are the main agroforestry systems in the Mediterranean that strongly contribute to supporting local economies, providing both plant and animal products. Furthermore, their role in providing a wide range of ecosystem services is well recognized. Today there is a strong demand from farmers for an integrated system of good agroforestry practices that guarantees the sustainability of production, the transfer of innovation and the increase in profitability for the territories/actors involved.

LIVINGAGRO Project addresses these issues using an Open Innovation approach, based on the establishment of a Living Laboratory on silvopastoral systems that allows the co-creation of economic and social values and the interactions between supply and demand, eliminating geographical and cultural barriers. As part of the Project’s "Field trials", a demonstration test was set up at the Farm Mu in Monti for one of the innovations selected by the Living Lab: the introduction of mixtures of legumes to improve the productivity and quality of the forage resource, under a cork oak / dairy sheep silvopastoral system.

Who: This visit will offer researchers in the field of agroforestry from different parts of the Mediterranean, the opportunity to talk to farmers to assess their specific needs of innovation in agroforestry practices and to highlight innovation and knowledge gaps. While the preliminary results of the ongoing experimentation activity will be described, the need for re-orienting research towards firm’s needs and assess the possibility of transferring ready to use innovations will be discussed. In the second stop the need to recognize the ecosystem and landscape values of agroforestry systems will be discussed and innovations investigated.

Where: Farm "Mu" located in Monti, Sassari, north-east Sardinia, Italy

When: The field visit will be organized in the framework of a LIVINGAGRO workshop which will take place during EURAF 2022 (from 16th to 20th of May 2022) as a parallel session of the conference. The exact date of the visit will be set soon, stay tuned on LIVINGAGRO channels (official FB page) !