The Unit for Scientific Culture and Innovation will coordinate the actions of diffusing results among European farmers

Bring about a change in the mentality among European farmers. That is the priority objective of the communication and diffusion strategy designed by the Unit for Scientific Culture and Innovation (UCC+i) of the University of Cordoba for the Diverfarming project, financed by the European Commission through its Horizon 2020 programme. To do so, the UCO has designed a calendar of actions that will lead the UCC+i and the project’s communication team to work in favour of the creation of farmers’ communities that put the researchers’ proposals regarding new agronomic and agro-industrial management systems into practice, to favour an increase in the number of crops, increasing biodiversity, and reducing the inputs required.

To achieve this, the communication plan designed by the UCO and advanced by the technical coordinator of the UCC+i, Elena Lázaro, during the Kick off meeting held in mid-May in Cartagena and reviewed by the project coordinator in the meeting held last Monday in Murcia, envisages the use of different online and offline communication tools, amongst which special attention will be placed on personal communication and the transfer of results across the different digital platforms.

In total, sixty researchers from universities, research institutes, agrarian, logistics and machinery companies from eight European countries have met this week in the Technical University of Cartagena to agree on the roadmap for this five-year-long project. In the debates held over the last three days, all the participants have coincided in highlighting that the diversification of crops under low-input management practices can be an alternative to the current intensive agricultural models, with improvements in environmental quality and therefore in the long-term sustainability of agrarian systems, but also offering economic benefits to the farmer.

Luis Parras and Beatriz Lozano, researchers from the areas of Edaphology and Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Cordoba will also work on exclusively scientific aspects. Ms. Lozano has moreover been designated as the regional coordinator for the South Mediterranean area.