The third issue of VISCA Newsletter has been released. It recaps our activities and prelimenary results since the beginning of the project. Also, the date of the Final Conferene is set for the 15 December 2020 (pre-registration is available). Check it out here and subscribe to receive the next issue of our newsletter!

VISCA DSS is integrating climate and agricultural models with farmers’ management specifications in order to design short practices, medium- and long-term adaptation strategies to climate change.

In the Douro Valley, where our Portuguese demonstration site is located, the combination of abundant rainfall in March and April of 2020 and a very warm winter influenced the precocity of this year’s growth cycle, with budbreak recorded three weeks earlier than average. These conditions caused recurrent and earlier than expected outbreaks of downy mildew. However, with the predictions supplied by VISCA, the Symington viticulture team was able to plan a very effective treatment schedule, which successfully contained the disease.

Flowering also advanced earlier, arriving two weeks ahead of the regional average, and in order to safeguard good fruit set and ensure a healthy crop, the team at Symington continues to rely on timely VISCA predictions to plan ahead and keep disease pressures at bay.

DSS showing that budbreak has been achieved (May 2020)

Pictures of Ataíde vineyard of first week of May 2020 showing the phenological stage of bloom

During April, VISCA DSS predicted higher rainfall than normal in Douro. This increase of precipitation would risk the spread of grape diseases causing some loss of crops. To avoid this loss, the Viticulturists of Symington have decided to make 4 treatments sprays instead of 3 with an earlier positioning than usual in the calendar, to block the downy mildew cycle.

On November 12th 2019, our partners made a presentation about VISCA DSS where practical information from the project was shared with vineyards growers of Raimat and Agropixel. Interesting exchanges were made with the participants and the feedback was gathered as inputs for exploitation activities.

The aim of VISCA DSS is to integrate climate and agricultural models with farmers’ management specifications in order to design short practices, medium- and long-term adaptation strategies to climate change.

Agriculture, including food-related industries and services, is one of the main economic sectors in the EU which provides over 44 million jobs (EC, 2019). The diverse climate, fertile soil, quality standards and technical expertise of the European farmers have made the EU a leading actor in this sector globally.

However, agriculture is currently facing deep economic, technological and regulatory changes where the impacts of climate change and resulting natural disasters exacerbate the challenges. That’s why the EU has been investing in diverse projects and initiatives to foster innovation and improve the efficiency of this sector.

With the support of the Common Dissemination Booster team, a new publication titled: 'Providing Innovative Solutions to Improve the Efficiency of the Agriculture Sector' presents a cluster of 4 innovative EU-funded projects VISCA, WEAM4i, OpIRIS & IRRIMAN. It briefly presents the issues and challenges as well as the results and solutions brought by these projects. You may click here to download the 2-pager.

One of the objectives of VISCA project is to evaluate the replicability potential in the wine sector in different countries globally as well as to evaluate the replicability of the tool in other crops such as (olive oil, cereals, etc.). This evaluation involves exploring EU funding mechanisms for further deployment. During VISCA 2^nd Stakeholders’ Workshop, end-users and members from the Project Advisory Board participated at a session to gather inputs on the challenges, requirements and funding for the replicability of VISCA which are summarised below.

Climate change: Challenges facing the Agriculture sector

Climate change is threatening different varieties of agriculture species such as wine-grapes, olives and cereals which might cause a significant reduction in crop quantity and quality. Some of the impacts of climate change include the following:  

• Drought and heat waves - in southern regions of the Mediterranean basin– more frequent drought periods together with higher temperatures, especially during the summer, have resulted in water scarcity and, consequently, less water is available for irrigation.
• Frost - In northern and southern Europe, e.g. Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, agricultural productivity has been facing longer frost periods than usual which damage the crops.
• Wildfires - Warmer and drier conditions are expected throughout Europe in the coming decades which will probably exacerbate wildfires. According to the Emergency Management Service of the EU agency Copernicus as of March 1, there have been 480 wildfires in 2019 across Europe.[1]
• Extreme events - High intensity rainfall and/or hail, among other extreme events, have been extended and become more severe in Europe and beyond. The rate of these events is expected to increase due to climate change.[2]

The main challenges of the wine-grapes, olive and cereals sectors in the context of climate change were identified as the following:

• To keep the quality and production of crops
• To deal with extreme events and variations in climate conditions
• To manage the irrigation efficiently according to existent resources and weather conditions
• To prevent or minimize crop diseases and pests especially with their increasing rate due to climate change

Check out the new publication of the European Commission: Climate Change Adaptation - Research, Science and Innovation which is featuring VISCA project  among other EU-funded research projects which are using climate information to assess the effects of future warming on industries as diverse as farming to insurance!

Climate Change Adaptation: Research, Science and Innovation

Organised by Mastroberardino and the University of Naples (Department of Agricultural Sciences), VISCA project - which is developing climate services to make the wine industry resilient to climate change - held its 2nd General meeting on 10th-11th December 2018 followed by the 2nd Stakeholders Workshop on 12th December 2018 in the premises of Mastroberardino and the Department of Agriculture – Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II who are part of our consortium.

Organised by the Regional Chamber of Agriculture in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and a multi-sector committee on 16 - 18  October 2018 in Avignon, France, the MED'Agri trade faire was entirely dedicated to the  agricultural production and the agri-technology.

A lot of showcase of innovative techniques were presented during the event. MED'Agri is aimed at professionals of all the agricultural production sectors and farmers and in particular those represented in the South of the France: market gardening, arboriculture, viticulture, olive growing, breeding and also horticulture, beekeeping, truffle, aromatic and fragrant plants, etc. VISCA project was presented at a dedicated stand by SEMIDE as well as the projects involved at the Common Dissemination Booster: WEAM4i and OpIRIS.

For further information, check the official website.