Climate change’s negative impacts are already being felt on farms, but the problem also works in reverse as agriculture is a major part of the climate problem currently generating over 20% of total greenhouse gas emissions. The need to develop climate smart agri-practices is greater than ever.
STARGATE research project develops a breakthrough, multiscale and holistic climate-smart agriculture (CSA) methodology, capitalizing innovations in the field of microclimate and weather risk management, as well as in the field of landscape design.
STARGATE is based on observation of the earth, weather intelligence and IoT technologies to support effective farm management and related options for adaptation to changes in climate, local and regional policy formulation leading to better landscape management.
The project implements the Living Lab approach by connecting research organisations, policy-making organisations, ICT companies, farmers and other stakeholders to shape a CSA multi-actor regional framework. Moreover, STARGATE studies the benefits of applying climate smart agri-practices to achieve sustainable agricultural development at the field and landscape level including livestock farming and agroforestry. STARGATE is leveraging access to these data and climate-smart decisions tools to foster easy and affordable adoption by farm management and policymaking bodies.
Furthermore, STARGATE provides many innovative components for the visualization of big data with an emphasis on geospatial visualisation and dynamic charting. Additionally, the project has been designed to ensure that its results may be further developed in other projects, or adapted to broader contexts, providing opportunities for influencing policies.
The project is well in symphony with the required actions to support sustainable agriculture and resilient agricultural management. It will run until September 2023 and it involves 26 partners from around the world, including Greece, Czech Republic, Israel, Spain, Latvia, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Portugal, Poland, Germany, Norway, and Belgium.
For further information visit the STARGATE website and/or contact Professor Dimitrios Moshou (dmoshou@auth.gr).
Source: Council Journal
