The TRANSITION project meets in Vic to face its final phase

The consortium of the TRANSITION project, coordinated from the UVic-UCC BETA Technology Center, met this week in Vic to face the last months of work. With a focus on the agroecosystems of the Mediterranean region, its main objective is to work to understand the role that agroforestry systems and certain new types of mixed crops can play in increasing their resilience to global change.

In the Mediterranean region, global change may lead to the need to transform some of the conventional agricultural practices carried out there and incorporate new models that are more sustainable in the long term. This includes both the adoption of new types of agroforestry systems, as well as new combinations of mixed crops.

With a participatory approach and both theoretical and practical work based on the monitoring of case studies, the results of the project should serve to provide a good understanding of the barriers that limit the implementation of these new practices. With the experience gathered at different levels, it aims to contribute to the development of new tools for decision-making and the preparation of a road map with recommendations well aligned with the priorities of the farmers themselves.

Apart from the two days of work at the UVic-UCC facilities, the meeting also included a day of visiting several farms that are applying innovative agroforestry techniques or that are testing new types of cultivation in Osona, La Segarra and the Solsonès

The TRANSITION project involves partners from six different countries and focuses on five study areas (three in the northern Mediterranean region, France, Italy and Spain, and two in the southern Mediterranean, Algeria and Egypt). It also has climate modeling experts from Greece.