MAICh and Other Partners Present Achievements of LIVINGAGRO Project in Lebanon

Dr. Panagiotis Kalaitzis, Studies/Research Coordinator for the Department of Horticultural Genetics & Biotechnology at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICh), presented the work his team did for the LIVINGAGRO - Cross Border Living Laboratories for Agroforestry project at the project’s final conference in Lebanon on August 8. Dr. Konstantinos Blazakis, a postdoctoral researcher in the department, then presented the Greek team’s work on LIVINGAGRO at the project’s final steering committee meeting.

Open to the public, the conference took place at the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute (LARI) headquarters in Tal Amara, Bekaa, Lebanon. At the conference, project partners presented the main results of the LIVINGAGRO project during the four years of its implementation, highlighting the benefits and impacts achieved in agroforestry for multifunctional olive systems and agroforestry for grazed woodlands.

Project partners from Greece, Lebanon, Jordan, and Italy—the four countries involved in the project—provided an overview of the project and the ways it helped beneficiaries in the Mediterranean region. More specifically, the partners highlighted the results of the main field trials and experiments and mentioned innovations that had been identified and technologies and practices that had been introduced to help maximize profitability, sustainability, and biodiversity, taking into consideration the challenges that economic stakeholders are facing, such as limited resources and environmental constraints.

For instance, Dr. Kalaitzis discussed LIVINGAGRO and stakeholder involvement: the experience of B2Bs, business courses and technology transfer workshops, part of a work package he oversaw with the team at MAICh. He explained how the B2B (brokerage) events brought together innovators with stakeholders who could benefit from their innovations, with innovators presenting their work and inviting stakeholders to discuss the ways it could help them. He mentioned two examples of innovations from the Department regarding olive oil authentication and olive tree abiotic stress tolerance.

Dr. Kalaitzis also described the business courses presented by Greek experts from the ATHENA Research & Innovation Center in Lebanon and Jordan, where dozens of stakeholders attended training courses on innovative enterprise creation in the agri-food sector that covered various legal and economic issues. And he provided an overview of numerous online technology transfer workshops that shared some of the latest innovations in agroforestry with the public.

The Cross Border Living Laboratories for Agroforestry (LIVINGAGRO) Project is co-funded by the European Union through the ENI CBC Med Programme 2014 – 2020 and implemented in Italy, Greece, Lebanon and Jordan. The project aims to support education, research and development, innovation, and technology transfer, including sharing of research results, by establishing two Living Labs, one for multifunctional olive systems (Living Lab 1) and the other for grazed woodlands (Living Lab 2). The total budget of LIVINGAGRO project amounts to 3.3 Million € with an EU contribution of 2.9 Million € (90%).

For more information on the project and on agroforestry and its benefits, and to register for access to free online e-learning courses, business courses, a discussion forum, and more, see its ICT platform: https://livingagrolab.eu/.