GO TECNOTRUF: New technologies in the management of truffle plantations to improve the economic performance of farms.
- Type Grupo operativo
- Status In progress
- Execution 2024 -2027
- Scope Supraautonómico
- Autonomous community Aragón; Madrid, Comunidad de
- Main source of financing PEPAC 2023-2027
TECNOTRUF aims to design an innovative production and marketing model for products and services related to black truffles that improves their production and quality, optimising the use of water resources and the profitability of the crop, while also having an impact on mitigating the effects of climate change and producing an environmentally sustainable balance.
The latest technology will be made available to the sector in order to meet the needs identified in the production of black truffles in plantations with different ecological conditions, which will provide them with an objective modernization, generating great socioeconomic wealth, capable of developing an economic sector that has an impact on the rural environment.
Expanding scientific knowledge will allow truffle growers to manage their crops more efficiently by carrying out work at the right time, thereby saving resources, leading to greater economic and environmental sustainability of the crop. It will also improve their decision-making capacity based on management needs and expected production results, optimising investment costs and staff recruitment.
The project aims to design an innovative global production and marketing model for products and services related to the black truffle, a hypogeous mycorrhizal fungus that grows symbiotically linked to a host tree. In this sense, TECNOTRUF will make available to the sector the latest available scientifically-based technology in order to cover the needs identified in the production of black truffles from truffle plantations, which will be the priority area of the project. Likewise, it seeks to innovate in the marketing channels for products derived from truffles and provide professionalism at a technical and comprehensive level.
- Definition of the study variables; Characterization of the plantations.
- Pilot design of Ecofis station; Implementation of the three stations.
- Camera-drone requirements; Camera-drone integration.
- Variables monitoring system; Production monitoring system; Multispectral flight; Geospatial data; Cloud database.
- Determination of optimal physiological state; Definition of cultural work; Execution of cultural work; Program evaluation.
- Quantification of truffle by-products; Alternatives for the valorisation of by-products; Protocol for the production of alternative products.
- Ecological quality seal; Sustainable forest management seal.
- Traceability system; CRM module.
The project aims to design an innovative global production and marketing model for products and services related to the black truffle, a hypogeous mycorrhizal fungus that grows symbiotically linked to a host tree.
TECNOTRUF will provide the sector with the latest scientifically based technology in order to meet the needs identified in the production of black truffles in plantations with different ecological conditions. It also seeks to innovate in the marketing channels for truffle-derived products.
TECNOTRUF will focus on the management of truffle plantations, which will be the priority area of the project. These plantations are made up of the union and collaboration of a host tree (90% of the plantations use Quercus ilex as a tree species) and the development of a fungus (Tuber melanosporum) and generate great socioeconomic wealth, capable of developing an economic sector that has a special impact on the rural environment and specifically on the most depopulated areas of our country. Therefore, the project is linked, as a secondary thematic area, to innovation in alternative marketing channels for this product and all the services associated with it.
On the other hand, the project incorporates innovative elements to three AEI-AGRI objectives. On the one hand, it promotes economic and environmental efficiency in the truffle farming sector, a sector that straddles agriculture and forestry, so that processes are optimized throughout the system and thus make it economically viable, productive and competitive, and also responsible, both at a social and environmental level. It also aims to intensify existing knowledge and provide the sector with professionalism, due to the scarcity of knowledge available at a technical and comprehensive level.
- Development of new technological procedures based on monitoring ecological variables to optimize the productivity of truffle plantations and improve the marketing of their derived products.
- Characterization of truffle plantations with different ecological characteristics.
- Development of new technologies for monitoring ecological variables to track the holm oak-truffle relationship.
- Development of an agronomic management plan to ensure sustainability and optimize the productivity of truffle plantations.
- Preliminary evaluation of three truffle plantations in the provinces of Castellón, Guadalajara and Teruel.
- Development and implementation of 3 ecophysiological stations for monitoring parameters of the oak-truffle complex. Integration of multispectral cameras in drones for monitoring the tree canopy.
- Development of a platform for monitoring ecophysiological, mycorrhizal and production variables in truffle plantations.
- Implementation of a pilot project for applied agronomic management in truffle farming.
- Establishment of a plan for the valorisation of truffle by-products.
- Implementation of a quality and sustainability seal for truffles.
- Development of an ICT system to ensure truffle traceability.
- Coordinator name: CLUSTER ASSOCIATION FOR THE EFFICIENT USE OF WATER-ZINNAE
- Postal address: CEEI Aragon C/María de Luna 11, Nave 6
- Coordinator email: mfernandez@zinnae.org
- Telephone: 649 10 75 06
The cultivation of black truffles (Tuber melanosporum Vittad.) has experienced great expansion during the last decades in various regions with a Mediterranean climate, whose main characteristic is the existence of a summer dry period with high temperatures and scarce rainfall. This is one of the reasons that explains the high complexity of truffle cultivation in its natural habitat, mainly because the optimal conditions for the symbiotic development of mycorrhiza are very specific in terms of water availability and abundance of nutrients.
Finding an appropriate irrigation regime and cultural treatments that allow for greater efficiency in the use of this resource in these Mediterranean conditions and better conservation of soil nutrients, both for the mycorrhization and growth phases, is one of the main challenges for truffle producers, given the variability and increasing scarcity of rainfall in this area.
The implementation of irrigation programmes based on “plant sensing” that take into account the possible negative impact of soil and atmospheric drought will be much more precise than those based solely on the estimation of soil moisture. In this way, the continuous monitoring of ecological and physiological variables that enable the monitoring of the holm oak-truffle relationship in response to soil and atmospheric drought is a fundamental challenge when establishing the irrigation needs of truffle plantations.
- Asociación Clúster para el uso eficiente del Agua-ZINNAE
- CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS - ESTACIÓN EXPERIMENTAL DE AULA DEI
- MYTRUFF SL
- LUZ COCINA ROMERO
- ARATECK ELECTRONICS, S.L
- QILEX, SOC. COOP.
- ACG SALVAMENTO Y RESCATE, S.L
- GEOSPATIUMLAB, S.L
- Asociación Clúster para el uso eficiente del Agua-ZINNAE
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