Cultivating Resilience: Climate Change Adaptation Strategies for Greenhouses to Enhance Yield and Resource Efficiency
Coordinated by: Universidad de Almería
Coordinator: Jorge Antonio Sánchez Molina
Contact info: jorgesanchez@ual.es
Fechas: 1/09/2024-31/07/2028
Resume:
Climate change poses enormous challenges to greenhouse agriculture, impacting productivity, resource consumption, and sustainability alike. The LIFE ACCLIMATE project addresses this pressing issue through an innovative and comprehensive approach. Its primary objective is to develop, demonstrate and replicate a groundbreaking solution capable of empowering greenhouse agriculture to adapt sustainably to the current rapid shifting climatic conditions.
The proposed approach combines digital control technologies with resource-efficient practices and it promises several key advantages. It will enhance productivity while reducing water, energy, and fertilizer consumption, addressing both resource efficiency and environmental concerns at the same time. It will eliminate the need for chemical pesticides, promoting sustainable and eco-friendly agricultural practices. Also, LIFE ACCLIMATE will pioneer novel greenhouse control systems leveraging data gathered by autonomous aerial and terrestrial robots. These robots supply data and images, which are harnessed by advanced productivity and resource use prediction models based on Artificial Intelligence.
The demonstrators and replicators planned in Spain, focusing on tomato, pepper, cucumber and lettuce, underscore the nation’s significance in the greenhouse sector and its vulnerability to climate change, especially in the Almeria region. Rising temperatures in southern Spain are intensifying irrigation and cooling needs, fostering pest and disease outbreaks while reducing productivity. Even traditionally temperate Spanish northern regions are nowadays grappling with hotter summers. Thus, energy-intensive heating systems are becoming indispensable in northern areas requiring energy efficiency improvements to curb emissions in a context of soaring energy costs. That’s why the project’s replicability plan will play a crucial role in adopting this innovative approach in other contexts, settings and European regions.
- UNIVERSIDAD DE ALMERIA Coordinator
- FUNDACION CAJAMAR Partner
- FUNDACION CENTRO TECNOLOGICO DE COMPONENTES Partner
- ASOCIACION DE EMPRESAS TECNOLOGICAS INNOVALIA Partner
- DOMCA SA Partner
- ALERION TECHNOLOGIES SL Partner
- PLATAFORMA TIERRA SAU Partner
- AGROBIGDATE SOLUTIONS SL Partner
- GARAIA SDAD COOP Partner
- ACORDE TECHNOLOGIES SA Partner
- UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID Partner
- AGROBIO SL Partner
The project LIFE23-CCA-ES-LIFE-ACCLIMATE is co-financed by the European Union through the LIFE Programme Under Grant Agreement No 101157315