Better fruit from smart business
Improving Mediterranean supply chain through innovative agro-food business models to strengthen small-scale farmers competitiveness, using prickly pear and fig as case study.
The InovFarmer.MED proposal focus on PRIMA’s Thematic Area 3 – Sustainable Mediterranean agro-food value chain for regional and local development, addressing specifically the topic 2.3.1 “Increasing the resilience of smallscale farms to global challenges and COVID-like crisis by using adapted technologies, smart agri-food supply chain and crisis management tools”. Knowing that environmental and social changes are deeply affecting Euro Mediterranean agro-food systems, and that COVID-19 outbreak imposing restrictions on movement, has demonstrated the fragility of the Mediterranean food systems, already distressed by climate change, population growth and scarcity of resources, the InovFarmer.MED consortium has developed a empowerment strategy addressing vulnerabilities of the producers in particular, smallholder farmers, to establish lines of resilience to face these challenges.
InovFarmer.MED will address, as case-study, the value-chains of two traditional agrifood products with high potential economic relevance and social significance for small-scale farmers of Mediterranean basin: fig (Ficus carica) and prickly pear (Opuntia ficus indica).
InovFarmer.MED intends to respond to the following challenges:
Increase food production by training smallholders on efficient agroecological practices, eco-friendly technologies and tools that preserve the healthiness and quality of fig and prickly pear;
Evaluate the impact of a change-management in production, transformation and commercialization methods providing smallholders evidence-based monitoring;
Increase smallholders income by co-creating new business models that are crisis resilient;
Improve access to market by creating new channels that cope with movement restrictions and unexpected product stocks;
Reduce food loss by leveraging transformed products and by-products exploitation.
WORKPACKAGES
WP1- Project Management and Coordination: Leader Polytechnic University of Viseu
The project management role comprises the following main activities: (a)
Decision making and conflict resolution; (b) Administrative and financial
management; (c) Governance and Communication;(d) Impact assurance; (e)
Data management and protection. The objective of this WP is the management
and coordination of all relevant aspects related to the project in both
administrative and technical terms.
WP2- Agro-Food Value Chain Monitoring and Evaluation: Leader INRAE
WP2 will ensure an initial assessment of the local needs, monitoring and
evaluation of the technical and methodological solutions deployed, including
technological, operational, and economical aspects. Furthermore, lessons
learned during the process and recommendations for future actions in the field
will be compiled. The main objectives are:
1.Overview on the state of the art of the actual productions, food processing
and areas for improvement.
2. Improvement of technical, processing and economical parameters to produce
high quality of fig and prickly pear supply chain.
3. Deliver recommendations for small-scale producer and processor.
WP3- Piloting Agroecological Techniques & Technologies: Leader ENSV
WP3's goal is to support smallholders in the embedding of new practices,
quality control methodologies, preservation and processing technologies that
improve fig and prickly pear value chain efficiency and fruit quality.
Moreover, a zero-waste value chain and at the same time economic valuation is
also intended. The product development integrating the previous elements is a
main activity to carry out within this WP and constitutes the backbone of the
experimental procedure. All tasks encompassed in this WP will have a strong
interactive involvement between the various partners (IPV, UA, Chantron,
ENSV, INRAE, ACICT and UIZ).
The main objectives are:
1. Controlling and monitoring of the fruit’s physicochemical properties during
maturation process.
2. Prediction of the best harvest time allowing small producers to adapt the fruit
harvest for quality improvement.
3. Preservation and enhancement of fig and prickly pear quality in both fresh
and processed products.
4. Develop and optimize innovative solutions for the use of figs and prickly pear
in the different markets of the four pilots.
WP4- Strategies for Smalholder Empowerment: Leader ACICT
This WP aims to produce a sound strategy to involve smallholders, SMEs and
other stakeholders to provide secure technology transfer and best practices and
guidelines. In order to reach these objectives, WP4 will:
i) collect data about the main problems and current cultivation practices,
including socioeconomic barriers, namely related to gender, based on surveys
next to smallholders;
ii) disseminate and capacity building on the best practices using a peer to peer
methodology, defined as “farmers field school” approach;
iii) disseminate guidelines to be used as a innovative roadmaps for fig and
prickly pears from production to consumption;
iv) promote a common platform for the exchange of sustainable farming
practices and uses in order to increase the sustainability of project after its end,
and contributing to empower the sector at a long term.
WP5- Co-Creation of Resilient Business Models: Leader Polytechnic University of Viseu
The need to design new, more resilient business models arises from the great
weaknesses of traditional models, which are currently still in operation. These
traditional business models have been an obstacle to the quantitative and
qualitative reinforcement of production and, consequently, a significant
impediment to improving the economic and financial conditions of small
farmers.
The main objectives of these WP are:
1) To develop innovative strategies to build resilient business models
encompassing user-centric digital services that support smallholders to better
manage their stocks and more efficient process orientated management tools
with more evidence-based control on relevant value chain operations.
2) To design resilient business models in a co-creative process involving multi-
actor approach, improving the interconnection between farmers, small producer
organizations, processors, retailers and consumers.
3) To use different technologies and digital platforms, such as mobile apps and
e-commerce, in order to increase the profitability of small farmers in
communities from the Mediterranean basin.
WP6- Communication, dissemination and exploitation of findings: Leader TAConsulting
This WP will elaborate the strategies to maximise the impact of the
InovFarmer.MED in a broad sense, from communication to exploitation of
results. These include the elaboration of plans to ensure the sustainability and
transferability of project results in the piloting countries. The communication and
dissemination plan will be designed to facilitate stakeholder interactions, which
can be beneficial to the different WPs.
Communication activities will include the dissemination of project results, for
example scientific publications, and the organization of workshops and activities
with relevant stakeholders. Therefore, as an integral way to achieve the
expected results, we intend raise awareness and influence the elements and
organizations that participate in the value chain, of the Fig and the Prickly Pear,
namely, Small Scale Farmers, Farmers Associations, Small and medium-sized
companies in the sector, Agri-food industry companies. Retailers, Consumers
and Policymakers.
PROJECT TEAM
IPViseu - Polytechnic University of Viseu
● Dulcineia Wessel (Project Coordinator);
● Cláudia Neves (Co-coordinator);
● Cristina Amaro da Costa
● Odete Lopes (WP5 Leader)
● Carlos Catorze Pereira
● António Jordão
● João Neves
● Daniela Costa
UA - Universidade de Aveiro
● Manuel António Coimbra
● Elisabete Coelho
● Susana Cardoso
Chatron Lda
● Carlos Brandão
● Goreti Oliveira
F4S – Food4Sustainability
● Nuno Serra
● Sílvia Moreira
● Thaís Brum
● Cláudia Costa (WP4 Leader)
TA Consulting – Pais da Costa & Esteves Pereira – Consultoria Lda
● Pedro Costa (WP6 Leader)
● Joana Santos
INRAE - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique
● Carine Le Bourvellec (WP2 Leader)
ENSV – Ecole Nationale Supérieure Vétérinaire
● Meriem-Hind Ben-Mehdi i (WP3 Leader)
ACICT – Arab Company for Information and Communication Technology
● Yasser Dessouky
● Essam Abdelmawla
UIZ – University Ibnou Zohr
● Aissam El Finiti
● Abdelhamid El Mousadik
● Rachida El Boullani
SVU – South Valley University
● Mahmoud Sayed
● Youssuf Gherbawy