Europe faces huge and urgent challenges of increasing crop productivity whilst reducing use of synthetic fertilisers and nutrient losses. This proposal is to establish a self-sustaining, multi-actor, Thematic Network called “NUTRI-CHECK NET” that builds farm-level adoption of best field-specific nutrient management practices across Europe. In nine countries farmers’ Crop Nutrition Clubs (CNC) will identify and share the nature of their uncertainties about crop nutrition, their challenges and barriers to change. Decision-systems and nutrition tools (including commercial products, services, and recent research outputs) will be assembled by national experts from across Europe, including leading farmers, into a common online NUTRI-CHECK NET platform. CNCs will then evaluate effectiveness of new protocols and tools selected from the a toolbox to meet their main challenges. Thence they will co-create and adopt farm- and field-specific ‘measure-to-manage’ approaches that address their crop nutrition challenge(s). Evaluations of protocols and tools by farmers and experts will address their ease of use, trustworthiness, costs, and benefits. Initial and final evaluations will be shared across the Network to define ‘best practices’, which will be demonstrated and disseminated widely, including through liaison with other relevant Thematic Networks and EIP-AGRI. The toolbox and best practices will be held accessible and improvable in perpetua on EU FarmBook. Widespread adoption of ‘measure-to-manage’ or ‘check-to-change’ approaches to crop nutrition will enhance nutrient recycling and crop productivity, whilst reducing synthetic fertiliser use and nutrient losses across Europe.

Healthy soils are of major importance for the future of the European horticultural and agricultural crop production. Especially in intensive production systems, soilborne diseases are a major factor with a negative impact on soil health. Newly developed best practices and sound crop rotations permit to maintain, improve or re-establish soil health in Europe. The BEST4SOIL project will build a community of practice network across Europe by inter-connecting growers, advisers, educators and researchers. Through this network, knowledge ready for practice on 4 best practices for the control of soilborne diseases (compost/organic amendments; green manures/cover crops; anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD); and (bio)solarisation) will be promoted. Open-access databases with information on the range of pathogens affecting host plants will help the practitioners to build appropriate crop rotations and innovative control strategies. As innovative tool will BEST4SOIL provide tutorial videos (youtube), easily understandable also to growers with limited language skills. Videos, databases and factsheets are edited in 22 official EU languages to facilitate the innovation management of practitioners throughout Europe. The information will be freely accessible and highly comprehensible to guarantee a smooth knowledge transfer from research to practice. BEST4SOIL will deploy local facilitators to set up a network with active communities of practice resulting in an intensive knowledge exchange. The consortium of BEST4SOIL includes advisers, breeder, communicators, educators, growers, and researchers from eight European countries. Together with facilitators in at least twelve more countries, the network will interconnect an important part of the European growers, advisers and educators, the main stakeholders of BEST4SOIL.

VALERECO target is to promote adoption and understanding the value of legume crops towards transition to sustainable, productive, climate-neutral, environment-friendly and resilient farming systems. The project aims to quantify and enhance the environmental and economic value of ES provided by 4 minor or underutilized and 8 major legume crops. It seeks to encourage diversification of farming practices throughout the EU and Associated Countries, which can contribute to healthier and sustainable diets and climate change resilience. The identification will be achieved through: (1) a thorough analysis on the ecosystem-services legacy and (2) the investigation of gateways for penetration of legumes and their associated ES to the new CAP. The valorization will be implemented through the establishment of nine Living Labs (LLs) to conduct: (1) behavioural design strategies to promote the adoption of legumes in production and consumption, (2) on-station participatory trials to assess the performance of major and minor-underutilised legume crops in diversified farming systems, (3) to demonstrate and co-create technical economically and environmentally assessed solutions for legumes inclusion in cropping systems. The dissemination will be realized through: (1) the development of a Digital Legume Information Hub (DLIH) to upscale and maximize the uptake of VALERECO’s results, (2) the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) to support the decision-making of farmers and advisors for legumes adoption, and (3) the generation of capacity building material made available to the public through an E-learning Platform.

The EU is the leading region for the production of organic fruits, with a rapidly expanding production and a demand for organic products which grows every year. However, at the same time, the amount and value of organic imports from outside the EU is increasing. For organic fruit farmers in the EU this poses a challenge to succeed in an increasingly competitive market. In addition, organic fruit growing is a very demanding farming activity. This is because, the sector faces specific problems that cannot be solved using conventional approaches based on the use of synthetics substances. As organic fruit growers cannot rely on synthetic inputs, many of them have, on a local level, developed competitive strategies to improve plant health. Moreover, there is considerable research on improving organic fruit growing systems. The problem, however, is that this knowledge is not easily accessible to farmers all over Europe and remains either locally known or only available in the scientific sphere. The sector is in need of a network focused on organic fruit production that bridges the gap between science and practice and makes locally found solutions available to other fruit growers in Europe. Therefore, the specific objectives of BioFruitNet are: 1) Collect and synthesize existing knowledge ready for practise, 2) Create a stable European innovation network, 3) Strengthen established networks, 4) Widely distribute solutions, 5) Extend the Organic Farm Knowledge Platform. To achieve these objectives, we will first carry a thorough mapping exercise to find relevant networks at national level in partner countries and beyond (WP1). Then, compile all existing practical and scientific knowledge relevant to organic fruit farmers (WP2) and select the best practices (WP3). We will then focus on adapting and translating all best practices in an easy-to-understand format like practice abstracts (WP4) and disseminate the information through high impact channels (WP5).