The project, financed by the European Commission through its Horizon 2020 programme, will set out the importance of biodiversity and sustainability in the agricultural sector

The sixth edition of the European Researchers’ Night, which will be held on 29 September in Cordoba, is the venue chosen for the public presentation of the Diverfarming European project.

Diverfarming arises from the need to face up to the negative effects that predominant farming practices are having on the land. Intensive agriculture, the implantation of monocropping, the excessive mechanisation and the high cost in resources to produce foods are some of the issues to be overcome with this work.

For five years, Diverfarming will follow the path of Horizon 2020 until it reaches its destination: a change in the mentality of European farmers that is extended to the agricultural sector as a whole.
The premises for this change will fundamentally be in the defence of biodiversity, improvement in environmental quality and medium to long-term sustainability. The tools Diverfarming puts forward to achieve these objectives are crop diversification and responsible use of the inputs involved in the farming process.

The research will be undertaken in eight different countries and will count on the efforts of 25 partners, who will work under the Technical University of Cartagena’s coordination. The research staff of the area of Edaphology and Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Cordoba, a partner in the project, will work side-by-side with the remaining European partners.

In “A change of vision in European agriculture”, one of ten micro-talks which are included in “Science in the Bar”, the UCO research staff will review the philosophy of Diverfarming, the benefits of crop diversification and the different crops susceptible to being combined in each of the different regions that are contemplated in the project.

The reason for this presentation lies in the very spirit of the project. To achieve a real change in Europe’s farming system it is considered necessary to reach the last link in the chain - the consumer. This type of activity seeks to raise awareness of the importance of building a sustainable farming sector, which respects biodiversity and offering greater productivity and benefits for the farmer.

The ‘Science in the Bar’ activity, which will take place at 9pm in Café Málaga, will consist in a total of 10 micro-talks in which several researchers from different knowledge areas will offer short friendly micro-talks. The presentations, each around five minutes long, will cover different themes such as the role played by social networks among young people, stained-glass technology in caliph times, the importance of biomass as a sustainable source, or the role of antioxidants against cancer.

Places for this activity are limited, so you must reserve online here. 
The European Researchers’ Night is a European project for science divulgation in a pleasant way that is promoted by the European Commission within the Marie Sktodowska-Curie actions of the Horizon 2020 programme. It has been held simultaneously in over 250 European cities since 2005. It is coordinated in Andalusia by the Fundación Descubre, with the participation of 13 scientific institutions from the eight provinces.