Research

The research project brings together several different research fields with the aim of developing and implementing innovative solutions for agriculture. The focus is on the integration of technologies to increase efficiency, save resources and adapt to climate change. Project management (work package 1) defines the organisational framework. Work package 2 involves the collection of project-specific data, which serves as the basis for the development of rough concepts in the practical trials (work package 4). Practically relevant data generated in WP4 will be analysed in WP2 and will also be incorporated into the design of WP5, which deals with responses to climate change. Data preparation and collection (work package 3) utilises the information collected in WP2 in order to process and make it available. Various methods such as interfaces via API or protocols with co-operation partners are used here. Practical trials (work package 4) are carried out in collaboration with end beneficiaries and technical experts. The aim is to use resources more efficiently, save energy and minimise the environmental impact of agriculture. Work package 5 is dedicated to the response to climate change. Based on the data from WP2 and WP3 as well as external climate data, strategies are being developed to adapt agriculture to changing climatic conditions, and semi-autonomous and autonomous agricultural technology is the focus of WP6, which researches innovative technologies for efficient use in agriculture. Work package 7 deals with PV energy concepts on farms, while work package 8 ensures the transfer of knowledge in order to put the solutions developed into practice. The overall concept aims to make agriculture more sustainable and efficient by integrating state-of-the-art technologies and comprehensive expertise.

The project will explore the land, gender and climate nexus in 4 African countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Mali and Guinea). It will analyze how women's right to land is affected by the climate crisis in Africa and show the various ways in which protecting women's right to land can effectively contribute to addressing the climate challenge. Since 2020, the 4 grassroots organizations engaged in the research project on Women’s Right to Communal Land – CNOP-G (Guinea), COFERSA (Mali), KPL (Kenya) and PWC (Tanzania) - have documented and supported efforts to advance women’s right to land within communal land governance systems. This project has delivered 5 key findings, which were elaborated collectively during a international knowledge exchange (Kenya, October 2022), building on individual research conducted in 2020-2022 in the national contexts. First, it has highlighted the importance of protecting and recognizing communal ownership while most development actors have promoted land markets, land titling and individual land ownership as ways to ensure gender equality when it comes to land. Second, it has shown the importance of boosting the participation of women and youth in communal land governance. Opening spaces for a diversity of women and youth (using an interectional approach) to participate in more horizontal and transparent communal land governance institutions is key to promoting women’s right to land in the long run. Third, to ensure that women fully participate, putting an end to gender-based violence (GBV) is key. One of the direct impacts of violence is that it generates fear, trauma and inhibits participation. Fourth, the project has shown that women’s right to own and inherit land continues to be violated. Gender-based discrimination is very high when it comes to land succession. Finally, the project has documented the need to ensure women’s secured access to land in communal land systems, highlighting that individual ownership is not necessarily the best option. Customary systems can perform well when it comes to ensuring that everyone gets access to land, but guarantees must be provided by customary leaders/village chiefs to ensure that certain categories of women and youth are not excluded and can work the land over long periods. Women are not isolated from but are pillars of their communities. For this reason, efforts to secure women’s access to land will be more successful if they support community cohesion and community needs.

The Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy highlighted the relevance of higher animal welfare standards in future EU agricultural policy. One of the foreseen activities is to link the CAP financial support to Member States (MSs) with welfare indicators; however currently there are no simple, reliable indicators of welfare that can be easily collected across the EU to identify farms at risk of poor welfare. Mortality has been suggested as a possible indicator but used alone it is not a sufficiently sensitive welfare proxy. EFSA has developed a risk-based model for the farm-level assessment of dairy cow welfare which considers additional variables alongside mortality. This model has the potential to be used for EU dairy welfare monitoring, but it requires testing with data from commercial herds prior to application. This project aims to carry out data collection activities in the field of dairy cow welfare on-farm based on the risk-based model developed by EFSA. The ultimate goal is to test (and if needed, optimise) the risk-based model to provide a basis for future monitoring dairy cow welfare in the EU.