CHALLENGES

Despite the fact that everybody recognises the need for more sustainable practices in agriculture, there are still no strong drivers to achieve these laudable aims. On the contrary, a step in that direction often requires an important investment in a business sector where primary production actors have low margins and high risks associated with extreme weather conditions, pests and diseases that threaten their crops.

This is amongst the main challenges SAPIENCE aims to address: produce evidence of what behavioural changes could be easily sustained and incentivised with the support of relevant stakeholders, starting from reducing the use of irrigation water.

The challenge here is to show how excessive use of water can be curbed without affecting the production, enabling agriculture ecosystems to comply with EU water policies, while ripening the benefits of a more precise crop monitoring and control.