MHE Tomato Egg Bull Operational Group: Ecological Heterogeneous Material as an innovative biodiversity conservation strategy
- Type Operational group
- Status In progress
- Execution 2024 -2025
- Assigned Budget 257.770,00 €
- Scope Autonómico
- Autonomous community Andalucía
- Project website GO MHE TOMATE HUEVO TORO
Maintaining the phenotypic and genetic diversity of seed populations from different farmers. Producing and marketing Organic Heterogeneous Material for Toro's Egg Tomato under Regulations EU No. 2018/848 and EU No. 2021/1189, applicable at the national level since January 1, 2022, will allow for an increase in production and likely the productivity of end users. This will strengthen the sustainability of productive activity by maintaining cultivated diversity.
Climate change mitigation and adaptation, as it addresses this issue by promoting the diversity that characterizes the protection option for the variety we chose: the Organic Heterogeneous Material for the Huevo de Toro tomato. Improve water management in tomato crops of this variety, as we address the comparison of water efficiency in leaves and fruits. Move toward a low-carbon economy and/or increase carbon capture in the agricultural sector, as the project focuses on organic and local cultivation.
- To gain a deeper understanding of the cultivation techniques for traditional tomato varieties being implemented in the Guadalhorce Valley.
- To access a representative sample of the cultivated tomato diversity still in the hands of farmers in the Guadalhorce Valley to assess their potential differences in response to variables affected by climate change.
- To carry out a phenotypic, molecular, physical-chemical and organoleptic characterization of the ecotypes that make up the tomato variety "Huevo de Toro"
- Implement a seed extraction protocol that can be performed by farmers themselves.
- Evaluate the suitability of selected genetic materials under climate change conditions: reduced water availability and increased plant pathological problems.
- Design sustainable packaging and labeling for the production and marketing of ecologically diverse plant reproductive materials.
The loss of agrobiodiversity is one of the global problems facing food production. This is a fact that is echoed in international publications, in all relevant documentation from the FAO, and in many producers and academics aware of the problem. This situation is even more dramatic when we consider the climate change scenario we are already facing.
According to the FAO's 2008 guidance, over the next 50 to 100 years, changes in weather conditions in crop fields will need to be offset by germplasm adapted to these new conditions. To achieve this, we will need to utilize related germplasm that is more adaptable to the prevailing conditions. Technologies such as gene editing can also contribute, and, no less importantly, agrobiodiversity itself, adapted locally by the work of generations of farmers who, harvest after harvest, have selected seeds from plants with characteristics tailored to each territory and its climatic conditions at any given time.
In this context, the recovery and preservation of traditional varieties cultivated "in situ" by the producers themselves is one of the pillars we need to work on and support to successfully address food security in the coming decades, both locally and globally.
The MHE tomato project aims to lay and complete all the necessary foundations for implementing the new EU regulatory framework for seeds, which it calls and defines in detail as "Ecological Heterogeneous Material" (EHM).
- Coordinator/entity name: GUADALHORCE VALLEY RURAL DEVELOPMENT GROUP
- Postal address: C/ Caña, S/N. 29569. Cerralba-PIZARRA (Málaga)
- Coordinator/entity email: info@valledelguadalhorce.com
- Telephone: 952483868
- GRUPO DE DESARROLLO RURAL VALLE DEL GUADALHORCE
- GRUPO DE DESARROLLO RURAL VALLE DEL GUADALHORCE (info@valledelguadalhorce.com)
- ASOCIACIÓN TOMATE HUEVO TORO, FRUTAS Y VERDURAS DEL GUADALHORCE (info@tomatehuevotoroguadalhorce.com)
- UNIVERSIDAD DE MÁLAGA (quefe@uma.es)
- CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS (CSIC) (rafael.fernandez@csic.es)
- Semilleros y Ornamentales Los LLanos S.L. (info@semillerolosllanos.es.)
- GRUPO DE DESARROLLO RURAL VALLE DEL GUADALHORCE
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