| Summary: |
RL1 "This research line addresses a multidisciplinary approach under the scope of circular agriculture and the binomial Soil Health and Food. It demonstrates how different scientific human capital of the North region can collaborate and contribute for the environmental and economic sustainability of an important value chain of the Entre o Douro e Minho agrarian region, the horticulture (mainly of vegetables), carried out both under greenhouse/soilless and under open field's production systems. The collaborative work with multiple expertise represents a strong task force to test or upscale existing approaches and innovate delivering new ones to reduce pressures on this sector. This task force represents the way complex problems faced by our societies on food production systems should work contributing directly for environmental protection, the production of safety food items, reduction of wastes and for highest economic incomes (reducing the resources needed); indirectly to combat climate changes, to increase the number of years with health, after the 65 years and for the competitiveness of the sector in markets each day more demanding for sustainable products. The organizational structure of the project in just one RL1, was intentional to demonstrate the multidisciplinary and close connection of the work of research teams from the 4 R&D units of the Faculties of Science and Engineer of the University of Porto involved in this RL and in the S4H_Soil & Food project.
The research line combines chemical and organic remediation approaches to deal with soils contamination with metals/metalloids (source: plant protection products) and soils salinity/sodicity (source: inorganic fertilization); several engineer based approaches to valorize substrates from soilless production systems and of other horticulture organic wastes for the extraction of components with nutraceutical added-value for application on food and cosmetics industries, or even in the improvement of  |
Summary
RL1 "This research line addresses a multidisciplinary approach under the scope of circular agriculture and the binomial Soil Health and Food. It demonstrates how different scientific human capital of the North region can collaborate and contribute for the environmental and economic sustainability of an important value chain of the Entre o Douro e Minho agrarian region, the horticulture (mainly of vegetables), carried out both under greenhouse/soilless and under open field's production systems. The collaborative work with multiple expertise represents a strong task force to test or upscale existing approaches and innovate delivering new ones to reduce pressures on this sector. This task force represents the way complex problems faced by our societies on food production systems should work contributing directly for environmental protection, the production of safety food items, reduction of wastes and for highest economic incomes (reducing the resources needed); indirectly to combat climate changes, to increase the number of years with health, after the 65 years and for the competitiveness of the sector in markets each day more demanding for sustainable products. The organizational structure of the project in just one RL1, was intentional to demonstrate the multidisciplinary and close connection of the work of research teams from the 4 R&D units of the Faculties of Science and Engineer of the University of Porto involved in this RL and in the S4H_Soil & Food project.
The research line combines chemical and organic remediation approaches to deal with soils contamination with metals/metalloids (source: plant protection products) and soils salinity/sodicity (source: inorganic fertilization); several engineer based approaches to valorize substrates from soilless production systems and of other horticulture organic wastes for the extraction of components with nutraceutical added-value for application on food and cosmetics industries, or even in the improvement of soil properties; the upscaling of processes is also considered; the test of the soil remediation approaches (including the incorporation of soilless substrates after inspection for the extraction of added value components in soils) under more relevant environmental conditions on soils quality and horticulture products quality; the analysis of consumers awareness of the binomial soil health and food, and their acceptance of products from remediated soils. To guarantee the transference of knowledge and main outcomes of the RL/project a "Going to Local" methodology will be applied to keep a strict contact with main stakeholders and end-users from the horticulture sector (mainly from the Entre o Douro region, but also from other regions) as well as with other groups of the society (academia, schools and general public)." |