ARI Biennial Review for 2018-2019

based on the inputs of the farmers. Then the backend system will be able to estimate the irrigation demand for each farmer and plot and will communicate this output both with the frontend system to inform the farmer and the WISENSE Platform, which will transfer this information to the CropWATER Valve to provide automatically the estimated water quantity to the crops without any human intervention. The proposed product is expected to contribute and have an effective impact on water saving and smart management of water resources since lack of water is one of the most serious problems that Cyprus has been facing for centuries, and agriculture accounts for about 69% of the total water consumption. (G. Papadavid, G. Adamides) RESOURCE project: BalkanMed (INTERREG). The project reflects the jointly identified need to strengthen the collaboration between the competent authorities and institutions of the participating countries, capitalising on experiences and results achieved in past projects, with the aim to improve their existing institutional capacity in terms of natural resource management and related legal framework implementation. This common need was identified by the iBEC (LP) which addressed the Ministry of Rural Development & Food of Greece (Observer partner) and the Ministry of Environment of Albania (PP5) and jointly initiated a consultation procedure among stakeholders of the Balkan-Med area. The process resulted in the development of the present partnership that includes the involvement of Ministries from four (4) participating countries. Partners jointly shaped the specific project idea and contributed to the project’s detailed design through meetings and efforts that took place since the beginning of January 2016. These efforts resulted in creating communication channels and in developing this Project Proposal through joint coordinated efforts. The Re-Source project tackles the need for improved transnational governance capacity in relation to the following three fields: 1) irrigational water management, 2) codes of good agricultural practices (CGAP), and 3) soil erosion risk assessment. Τhe proposed project aims to capitalise on results from previous, namely digital tools produced within the “Digital Convergence” framework and the ”AGRO-LESS” project (ETCP Greece-Bulgaria 2007-2013) and expand its use within the Balkan territory into five (5) Balkan-Med countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia and Cyprus) in order to promote governance capacity and legal framework implementation in all three aforementioned fields. The project will be based on the system of digital services already established within iBEC (through the two projects mentioned above), and will further develop, with an emphasis on the following three services: 1) application of precise irrigation: a digital model for the application of precise irrigation in space and time will be further upgraded, customised and applied within the Greek and Albanian territories; 2) application of codes of good agricultural practices: a digital tool for the evaluation of the implementation of the CGAP (a set of more efficient, environmentally friendly practices in agriculture on a national and European basis) will be customised and applied within the Cyprus and North Macedonia territories; 3) application of soil erosion risk assessment: a digital model for the large-scale risk assessment of soil erosion will be customised for use within the Bulgarian territory. (G. Papadavid, G. Adamides, A.Stylianou) The LIFE+ project titled “Adaptation to climate change impacts on the Mediterranean islands’ agriculture” (ADAPT2CLIMA) aimed to increase knowledge on the vulnerability of EU Mediterranean agriculture to climate change and to support decision making for adaptation planning in Crete (Greece), Sicily (Italy) and Cyprus (http://adapt2clima.eu/en ). A set of climatic, hydrological and crop simulation models for the assessment of climate change impacts on agriculture were deployed, and a decision support tool for the elaboration of adaptation strategies for the agricultural sector was created (https://tool.adapt2clima.eu/) . In the frame of the project, the National Adaptation Strategy of Cyprus Agriculture to Climate Change was developed. The strategy contains a summary of future changes in climate conditions and their impacts on crops and water resources, a strategy for efficient water use in agriculture and implementation and a monitoring plan with specific indicators. It complements the National Strategy on Climate Change and enables policy makers to integrate adaptation measures in the forthcoming Rural Development Programming Period 2021-2027 and the Climate Change Action plan. (M. Markou, A. Stylianou, G. Papadavid) 63 RURAL DEVELOPMENT