New research project titled "Impacts of Climate-Smart and Water-Saving Frontier Agriculture on the WEFE Nexus in Arid Mediterranean Regions"
Duration: May 1, 2023 – April 30, 2026 (3 years)
Project ID: 2242-Call 2022 Section 1 Nexus WEFE IA
Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Gertrud Buchenrieder (UniBw M)
Scientific Lead & Co-Coordinator: Dr. Wubneshe Desalegen Biru (UniBw M)
The Mediterranean region is one of the global hotspots for climate change, facing water scarcity and dependency on climate-sensitive agriculture. Therefore, it is crucial to promote climate change adaptation and mitigation through innovations and measures that alleviate pressure on the water, energy, food, and ecosystem (WEFE) nexus, including biodiversity. FrontAg Nexus addresses this challenge by identifying and enabling access to circular agri-food technologies (Frontier Agriculture) in the Mediterranean region that enhance regional food and nutrition security while protecting the environment. Additionally, the project analyzes factors that promote the adoption of an integrated resource management approach, considering the interconnectedness of the WEFE nexus and the region’s growing population.
FrontAg Nexus adopts the WEFE-Nexus concept and a multi-stakeholder approach, involving five Mediterranean countries (Italy, Israel, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey) and one of the world’s driest countries, Jordan. The project contributes to the practice community by identifying, prototyping, and making available circular agri-food technologies that sustainably push the boundaries of current food production. These agricultural approaches include climate-smart and water-saving technologies such as hydroponics (soilless farming), recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS), and insect farming (for organic fertilizer production). The energy efficiency of these technologies will be enhanced using agrivoltaics. These climate-smart agricultural approaches form the basis for socio-innovative adaptation experiments (i.e., demonstration scenarios) as they require minimal arable land, water, energy, or financial resources and reduce organic waste.
FrontAg Nexus will demonstrate that circular agri-food technologies improve livelihoods by providing safe and nutritious food and reducing rural-urban migration linked to local resource scarcity. These approaches are ideally suited not only for rural areas but also for urban, refugee, and Bedouin communities. Capacity-building measures will be conducted at both the producer and policy levels. At the producer level, this will involve sharing positive experiences and fostering a culture of mutual support at the community level. At the policy level, FrontAg Nexus will illustrate how integrating climate-smart agriculture into the nexus approach improves both the ecological and socioeconomic conditions for all stakeholders. The project accompanies the transformation of production and policy in the Mediterranean region by adhering to the EU Taxonomy Regulation.