Sunflower Health Operational Group: Application of soil health and quality indicators for sustainable and efficient sunflower management in Aragon, Castile and León, Castile-La Mancha, Extremadura, and Andalusia
- Type Operational group
- Execution 2022 -2025
- Assigned Budget 533.449,65 €
- Scope Supraautonómico
- Autonomous community Andalucía; Aragón; Castilla y León; Castilla - La Mancha; Extremadura; Madrid, Comunidad de; Murcia, Región de
- Main source of financing PEPAC 2014-2020
- Project website https://saludgirasol.es
The Sunflower Task Force seeks to make a crop of productive interest profitable, and to move it from being residual and directed solely at marginal areas. It will seek profitability, along with sustainability and ecosystem benefits.
The Group will provide a set of parameters capable of identifying the quality and health of soils that support sunflower cultivation; these indicators will be constructed from physical, chemical, and biological properties and will be defined in a way that makes them simple and quick to measure.
Soil quality and health indicators for sunflower crops will provide useful information for managing soil fertility and crop management, with special emphasis on no-till planting, crop rotation, and conservation agriculture.
This will allow cultivation to shift toward sustainable, smart, climate-adapted agricultural systems and will help farmers comply with the new CAP's eco-schemes. The Task Force will generate a Guide for the Sustainability of Sunflower Cultivation and will carry out aspects related to the dissemination and appropriate transfer of results to the entire sector.
- Database with the history and current evolution of sunflower cultivation in Spain.
- Report on the types of management that promote greater sunflower productivity and sustainability, as well as on the varieties that offer the best results.
- A report on the most relevant factors for sunflower cultivation that serves as a tool for knowledge transfer.
- A set of reference indicators that allows farmers to evaluate soil quality and health.
- Reference report for knowledge transfer and drafting of the “Practical Guide for Sustainable Sunflower Cultivation.”
- Detailed report on the results and impact on farmers of agricultural activities in the "showcase" plots.
- Active and effective transfer of project objectives and tools.
- Database with the history and current evolution of sunflower cultivation in Spain.
- Report on the types of management that promote greater sunflower productivity and sustainability, as well as on the varieties that offer the best results.
- A report on the most relevant factors for sunflower cultivation that serves as a tool for knowledge transfer.
- A set of reference indicators that allows farmers to evaluate soil quality and health.
- Reference report for knowledge transfer and drafting of the “Practical Guide for Sustainable Sunflower Cultivation.”
- Detailed report on the results and impact on farmers of agricultural activities in the "showcase" plots.
- Active and effective transfer of project objectives and tools.
- Coordinator/entity name: ASAJA
- Coordinator/entity email: alvaro@asaja.com
- Asociación agraria de jóvenes agricultores (ASAJA)
- Fertinagro Biotech S.L.
- Centro de edafología y biología aplicada del Segura y Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CEBAS-CSIC)
- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)
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