Friendly Fruit
The Friendly Fruit project aims to test sustainable agricultural practices in various regions, and create an adequate framework to define, test and promote them, starting with strawberries and apples.
Current fruit production emits greenhouse gases just like any agriculture. Fruit trees are those that use the highest level of phytosanitary products and those that emit high levels of GHG for production, transport and storage. Therefore, best practices can have a big impact on GHG emissions.
Research Institutes and Experimental centers are adding their expertise to assess the impacts of these practices on agronomic performance, the environment and social organization, which will be implemented through Supply Chains of Corporate Partners at the Farm Level and all this knowledge will be disseminated to have an industrial-level impact. Friendly Fruit aims not only to define, systematize and implement agricultural practices for various types of climate and soil, but also, thanks to an active policy of dissemination and training, empower farmers with essential knowledge so that they can take a practical step towards more sustainable agriculture and adaptation to climate change.
Friendly Fruit focuses on the following goals that have the greatest impacts on the environment and human health:
- phytosanitary control,
- efficiency of water use,
- soil quality and biodiversity,
- use of new energy, and
- mitigation of the effects of global warming.
Several innovations are being introduced, such as pest-resistant and high-performance fruit varieties, mechanical weeding systems designed to decrease herbicide use, better fertilization management, and intelligent underground sensors that monitor water levels.
Friendly Fruit is a 3-year project, started in January 2018, bringing together partners and carrying out experiences in France, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Morocco.
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