SIRAM

The project SIRAM (Sustainable Innovations for Regenerative Agriculture in the Mediterranean area) aims at developing, scaling-up and disseminate innovative regenerative agriculture approaches to tackle issues related to climate change, desertification, loss of biodiversity excessive use of chemical and low incomes in small-holders farms in the Mediterranean. The tested approaches will be in line with the main principles of regenerative agriculture, namely the adoption of no-tillage practices, the use of cover-crops, the screening of local varieties with resistant traits, the synergic application of biostimulant and bioprotecting microbial strains co-formulated with organic fertilizers from recycled wastes. The project goals will be achieved through a lab-to-farm approach that starts from the molecular and chemical screening of existing crop varieties, microbial strains and organic waste biomasses, in order to select and tailor the best ones which will be tested in 8 case studies representing different Mediterranean scenarios under different pedoclimatic conditions but facing common issues. SIRAM will adopt a systemic approach focused on the tripartite soil-plant-microbiome system. At soil level, mechanisms of soil organic matter stabilisation and greenhouse gases reduction through no-till, cover crops and amendments will be tested; at microbial level, advancements in the understating of basic mechanisms through which certain microorganisms induce plant systematic resistances to insects and fungal attacks will be provided; at plant level the focus will be on the selection of resistant local varieties and on the understanding and exploitation of mechanisms by which plants can select beneficial microorganisms in the rhizosphere, especially after biotic and abiotic stresses (e.g. severe pathogens outbreaks and climate change related droughts).