EU Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Europe together with the present national policies of the Northern Africa countries, and UN SDGs goals, highlights the need of improving water irrigation management towards its sustainable use and economic saving. In this framework, the project, responds to the call objectives proposing a real-time operative water and economic management web-gis tool for parsimonious and precise irrigation optimizing crop yield and economic income, integrating farm analysis into water district one. The tool will allow to monitor and forecast the soil moisture behaviour at farm and district levels to define the right irrigation discharge, optimizing water and economic indicators. The tool supports different levels of stakeholder: i) farmers who control soil moisture avoiding plant water and saline stress, ii) irrigation consortia which allocates water among users; iii) water authorities which manage water withdraw from reservoirs. In addition, the tools present also the possibility to be used as simulator of water allocation supporting decision strategy at irrigation district scale in real time and for seasonal forecast scenarios. Multi satellite data, ground measurements, daily and seasonal meteorological forecast, soil water budget numerical modelling, crop growth model, and economic analysis will support the tool. The proposed tool and embedded methodology will be applied in different case studies of the Mediterranean area: Italy, Spain, Egypt Tunisia and Morocco and also in China characterized by different climatic conditions, fresh and saline water availability, crop types, irrigation practices, polices and water pricing. These case studies will be also used for diffusion of parsimonious irrigation practice through technology transfer and dedicated courses for farm and irrigation district people.

FOODLAND aims at enhancing the diversity of food production and consumption in six African countries displaying different stages of the nutrition transition. To this end, FOODLAND will create a network of 14 local Food Hubs that will aggregate relevant actors and serve as injection points for the introduction of innovations. FOODLAND has identified specific objectives addressing the organizational, technological, and nutritional needs of the local African food systems to be reached during the four-year project duration: 1. to detect behaviour and preferences of consumers and producers, in order to customize innovations to local sensitiveness; 2. to develop and implement organizational innovations, aimed at boosting coordination among food operators; 3. to develop, test, and validate (open) technological innovations in laboratory and in the field; 4. to disseminate knowledge of solutions towards malnutrition reduction and innovations. Through participative approaches in the Food Hubs, FOODLAND will create and validate (TRL 5) 12 prototypes for crop and fish farming and food processing systems that will deliver 17 novel food products. FOODLAND will empower smallholder farmers and food operators, will foster nutrition-responsive and sustainable agro-biodiversity, will reinforce the productivity and resilience of food supply chains, and will create new market opportunities at both the local and global scales, thereby encouraging the flourishing of rural communities. These achievements will benefit both African and European consumers by providing them with traditional-based, healthy, nutritious foods, while encouraging the diffusion of African diets and aiding the fight against malnutrition, particularly in women and children.