Benefits assessment of on-farm regenerative agricultural practices on durum wheat systems to promote climate emergy-based sustainability and food security in the Mediterranean area

In the Mediterranean region, crop production and food security are closely linked to the adaptation of cropping systems to multiple abiotic stresses, i.e. drought and salinity. Traditionally, monoculture practices are widespread in this area resulting in impaired the soil fertility and productivity. Furthermore, crop production is facing many challenges, such as climate change and population increase, particularly severe in the Mediterranean dry lands. Τhe strategic goal of BIOACT is to provide solutions for improving agroecosystem resilience to climate change, for decreasing GHG emissions and increasing carbon storage, and for reducing chemical inputs and waste production in the Mediterranean area. In this context, regenerative agriculture practices are considered as an efficient agronomic approach to improve soil and water conservation, to restore soil biodiversity, through the exploitation of wild crop relatives and the application of microorganisms-enriched composted organic waste, and to promote food security. The proposed approach aims to improve wheat-based agroecosystem by developing a set of regenerative farming practices exploiting the biodiversity of wheat germplasm. This will be achieved by harnessing the selected drought tolerant durum wheat genotype from PRIMA EXPLOWHEAT project. Climate and stress-resilient wheat lines will be incorporated in intercropped wheat-legume systems in arid and marginal lands thriving in the Med region, to improve crop yield and quality and soil fertility. In addition, the functional indigenous microbial diversity will be explored to empower the wheat-legume intercropped system. BIOACT proposes a concept based on two main aspects: 1-introducing the cultivation of high-performance durum wheat cultivars in arid and marginal land of Mediterranean area; 2- developing agroecological practices exploiting the microbiome of the soil-wheat system. BIOACT will develop regenerative agricultural practices based on durum wheat plants intercropped with legume. Wheat and legume residues will be composted with wheat associated microbiome and enriched with Trichoderma to obtain an enriched compost to be incorporated before the successive wheat crop. Application of endophytic fungi as Trichoderma spp. could mitigate the harmful impact of abiotic and biotic stress and stimulate plant growth mainly enhancing the macronutrient availability from the organic substrate, while reducing in particular the potential lack of N, increasing NutUE and minimizing agro-chemical inputs decrease of losses due to Fusarium culmorum and associated mycotoxins negative impacts.