Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Programme 2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB North Sea

Date of latest update: 2024-09-18

Description

Description (EN):

Resource consumption and carbon emissions are major drivers of climate change. In order to reduce these, we have to look for alternative ways of production in agriculture, alongside other large economic players. As a highly important sector in all the countries of the NSR, agriculture could contribute significantly in developing green business strategies and fostering environmental protection, alongside economic growth.This project aims to promote resource efficiency by (re)using degraded farmland and reducing fresh water consumption. 10 open field labs will be set up in each participating region to demonstrate innovative methods of farming on saline soil with natural adaptation processes in plants and crops. Thinking green” in this way means a real change of perspective in farming and food producing, a change of behavior of the consumers of food, and, for authorities, re-thinking water management and changing policies on environment and agriculture in coastal areas.As all coastal zones have to cope with sea level rise, our shared challenge is to create awareness for salinization and offer new methods of farming across the NSR. Further to setting up ‘living labs’ in each participating country to conduct experiments with the salt tolerance of crops, we will develop training modules for farmers on saline farming and creating new business strategies. A joint asset will be the branding of our products as terroir-based quality food to support green economies across the NSR.

Achievements (EN):

Main achievements of the SalFar project were the installation of the test fields in the various North Sea Region region countries: we planned for 10 originally, by the end of the project we have 26! Project partners got very enthousiast on the first results on salt tolerance of plants and through transnational knowledge exchange more and more ideas came up what to test next: from different varieties of potatoes to carrots, beets and brassicas, various sorts of grains, like wheat, oats and barley, as well as grass varieties as fodder for cattle. Halophytes, like Salicornia, Choclearia Officinalis, Karkalla, Ice Plant and Oyster Leaf and many others growing in the Waddensea as a natural salty habitat, were cultivated in greenhouses and offered to innovative regional restaurants to experiment with new creation of dishes. The dinner performance of the Hygiene Museum Dresden in July 2021 was one of the highlights in this, as the event spotlighted the challenges we face in future, namely being able to provide enough food for a growing population under increasingly difficult farming conditions due to climate change. https://mailchi.mp/6ac882ffb37b/what-will-we-eat-in-future-when-climate-changes-alter-the-conditions-for-food-production. SalFar's mid-term conference "Saline Futures - Addressing climate change and food security", 10-13 September 2019 in Leeuwarden attracted more than 200 participants from all over the world, researchers, farmers, food producers and policy makers. Next to the scientific papers presented, there were transnational farmer workshops and cross-border excursions to the three testfield locations: Salt Farm Foundation Texel, De Zilte Smaak Terschelling (Netherlands) and Ökowerk Emden (Germany). Keynote speeches were streamed, please see: https://www.waddenacademie.nl/salinefutures/programme. As a result of this conference, we published the book "Future of Sustainable Agriculture in Saline Environments" containing 33 science and practice articles on saline agriculture. The 400 p. book is available as a print version and online. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/48840 After the mid-term conference, partner meetings were organised online due to Covid-19 restrictions. Fortunately our field tests could be continued and results were discussed during our scientific committee meetings as usual. The next highlight was then the first face-to-face partner meeting in October 2021 in Bruges, where a lot of energy was set free again and the final conference was planned. This took place in Groningen on 5-6 April 2022 with some 120 participants again from many countries outside the North Sea Region, like Italy, Spain, Greece, Morocco. We can conclude that the subject "Saline Farming" is of great importance for those and many other countries as well, where agriculture is suffering even more seriously from degraded farmland than the NSR countries right now. Knowledge sharing on new farming methods is a question of surviving in difficult circumstances, in particular with the war in Ukraine hampering the export of wheat and maize to African countries. During the SalFar final conference, representatives of INSAS and the FAO held keynote speeches, the Dutch minister for agriculture promoted saline farming as a future farming method, participants visited our test fields in Northern Netherlands and were treated to a "saline dinner". Finally, the "Inspiration Guide on Saline Farming" was presented as a book for farmers and other entrepreneurs, who want to start with saline agriculture and develop new business plans for regional and sustainable farming. It is available in all 6 NSR languages on the project website.

Website: https://northsearegion.eu/salfar

Thematic information

Sustainable management of natural resources Agriculture and fisheries and forestry

Specific Objective: Promote the development and adoption of products, services and processes to accelerate greening of the North Sea Region economy

Thematic Objective: (06) preserving and protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency by:

Investment Priority: (06g) supporting industrial transition towards a resource- efficient economy, promoting green growth, eco-innovation and environmental performance management in the public and private sectors

Partners (17)

Lead Partner: Provincie Groningen

Address: Sint Jansstraat 4, 9700 AP Groningen, Netherlands

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.provinciegroningen.nl

Total budget: EUR 1 192 471.00

ERDF budget: EUR 596 235.00

Norges miljø- og biovitenskapelige universitet

Name: Norges miljø- og biovitenskapelige universitet

Address: Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management (MINA), Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1430 Ås, Norway

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.nmbu.no/en

Total budget: EUR 626 109.00

Stichting ‘De Zilte Smaak’

Name: Stichting ‘De Zilte Smaak’

Address: Dorpsstraat 25, 8896 JA Hoorn, Terschelling, Netherlands

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.deziltesmaak.nl

Total budget: EUR 84 407.00

ERDF budget: EUR 42 203.00

Aarhus Universitet

Name: Aarhus Universitet

Address: Agro Food Park 48, 8200 Aarhus, Denmark

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.food.au.dk

Total budget: EUR 324 432.00

ERDF budget: EUR 162 216.00

Emder Bürgerstiftung Regionales Umweltbildungszentrum Ökowerk Emden

Name: Emder Bürgerstiftung Regionales Umweltbildungszentrum Ökowerk Emden

Address: Kaierweg 40 a, D-26725 Emden, Germany

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.oekowerk-emden.de

Total budget: EUR 765 515.00

ERDF budget: EUR 382 757.00

EV Instituut voor Landbouw- en Visserijonderzoek

Name: EV Instituut voor Landbouw- en Visserijonderzoek

Address: Burgemeester van Ganseerghelaan 115 box 2, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.ilvo.vlaanderen.be

Total budget: EUR 250 863.00

ERDF budget: EUR 125 431.00

FBCD A/S

Name: FBCD A/S

Address: Niels Pedersens Alle 2, 8830 Tjele, Denmark

Legal status: private

Website: http://foodbiocluster.dk

Total budget: EUR 375 616.00

ERDF budget: EUR 187 808.00

Göteborgs Universitet, Institutionen för Biologi och Miljövetenskap

Name: Göteborgs Universitet, Institutionen för Biologi och Miljövetenskap

Address: Medicinaregatan 18, 40530 Göteborg, Sweden

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.bioenv.gu.se

Total budget: EUR 309 064.00

ERDF budget: EUR 154 532.00

SAGRO I/S

Name: SAGRO I/S

Address: Majsmarken 1, 7190 Billund, Denmark

Legal status: private

Website: https://www.sagro.dk/

Total budget: EUR 238 803.00

ERDF budget: EUR 119 401.00

Salt Farm Foundation

Name: Salt Farm Foundation

Address: Noorder Haaks 1, 1797 SJ Den Hoorn, Texel, Netherlands

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.saltfarmfoundation.nl

Total budget: EUR 493 501.00

ERDF budget: EUR 246 750.00

SFMT

Name: SFMT

Address: Clausewitzstraße 105, D-26125 Oldenburg, Germany

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.sfmt.de

Smagen af Danmark

Name: Smagen af Danmark

Address: Sejerøvej 28, DK-4592 Sejerø, Denmark

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.horsekaer.dk

Stichting Proefboerderijen Noordelijke Akkerbouw

Name: Stichting Proefboerderijen Noordelijke Akkerbouw

Address: Hooge Zuidwal 1, 9853 TJ Munnekezijl, Netherlands

Legal status: private

Website: http://www.spna.nl

Total budget: EUR 270 243.00

ERDF budget: EUR 135 121.00

University of Lincoln

Name: University of Lincoln

Address: Brayford Pool United Kingdom, LN6 7TS Lincoln, United Kingdom

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.lincoln.ac.uk

Total budget: EUR 565 186.00

ERDF budget: EUR 282 593.00

Vlaamse Landmaatschappij

Name: Vlaamse Landmaatschappij

Address: Velodroomstraat 28, 8200 Brugge, Belgium

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.vlm.be

Total budget: EUR 382 699.00

ERDF budget: EUR 191 349.00

Vlaamse Overheid, Instituut voor Landbouw- en Visserijonderzoek

Name: Vlaamse Overheid, Instituut voor Landbouw- en Visserijonderzoek

Address: Burgemeester Van Gansberghelaan 115 box 2, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.ilvo.vlaanderen.be

Waddenacademie

Name: Waddenacademie

Address: Ruiterskwartier 121 A, 8911 BS Leeuwarden, Netherlands

Legal status: public

Website: http://www.waddenacademie.nl

Total budget: EUR 268 466.00

ERDF budget: EUR 134 233.00

Partners map

Partners and Projects info

Norwegian University of Life Sciences

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

Foundation ‘The Saline Taste’

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

Province of Groningen

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

University of Aarhus

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

Foundation of the Citizens of Emden Regional Environmental Education Centre Ökowerk Emden

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

EV Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

Food & Bio Cluster Denmark

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

University of Gothenburg, Department of Biological & Environmental Sciences

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

SAGRO

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

Salt Farm Foundation

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

SFMT

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

Taste of Denmark

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

Foundation of the Northern Arable trialfarms

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

University of Lincoln

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

Vlaamse Landmaatschappij

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

Flemish Region, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Partners and Projects info

Wadden sea Academy

Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Lead partner

Project partner

Summary

Project name (EN): Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Project acronym: SalFar

Project start date: 2017-06-12

Project end date: 2022-06-30

Project status: closed

Relevant precedent projects:

BIOSAFOR, FP6

Relevant subsequent projects:

SoilSalAdapt, Horizon 2020
BoerenMetenWater, EU funded
BilKK, Ökowerk
REST COAST, Horizon 2020
WaterLANDS, Horizon 2020

Relevant linked projects:

Agrobridges, Horizon 2020
Fairways water quality, Horizon 2020
FRESH4Cs
Grenspark
SALAD, ETA Net

Total budget/expenditure: EUR 6 147 375.00

Total EU funding (amount): EUR 2 760 629.00

Co-financing sources:

ERDF: Amount, .

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

Financing programme

2014 - 2020 INTERREG VB North Sea

Last month that data in keep.eu was retrieved from the Programme's website or received from the Programme

2023-02-14

No. of projects in keep.eu / Total no. of projects (% of projects in keep.eu)

73 / 73 (100%)

No. of project partnerships in keep.eu / Total no. of project partnerships (% of project partnerships in keep.eu)

871 / 871 (100%)

Notes on the data

Information provided by the Programme. Achievements were retrieved by Interact from the Programme website (http://www.northsearegion.eu/), or a website directly linked from it, on 2021-09-20 and 2023-01-12.

The financial data featured in keep.eu for this programme, it's projects and its partners is not exact and should be taken as a reference only.

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Saline Farming - Innovative agriculture to protect the environment and stimulate economic growth

Description

Thematic information

Partners (17)

Partners map

Summary

Information regarding the data in keep.eu on the programme financing this project

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