Priorities for sustainable management of water:
- Better understanding of water resources availability, especially for catchments and aquifers of medium or small size, which is the most common scenario.
- The successful adoption of new irrigation strategies and technologies and their integration into farm management practices and the off-farm constraints;
- A new holistic approach addressing soil and underground water degradation accompanied by land and water monitoring mechanisms must be promoted;
- Efficient governance at different levels: watersheds, districts, national;
- Use of alternative water sources, e.g. treated waste water or water from desalination, through efficient and competitive technologies;
Priorities for sustainable farming systems:
- development of production systems able to cope with climate risk and uncertainty;
- restore or development of new varieties and hybrids, crops and breeds, taking into consideration the richness of Mediterranean biodiversity, through long-term programs to share resources and objectives;
- cope with emergence of animal and plant pests and diseases;
- Adoption of innovations and achieving changes in farming practices also from the socio/economic point of view;
Priorities Mediterranean Food value chain:
- introduction of ambitious agricultural and food policies ;
- the integration of small producers into formal supply channels;
- shift towards more eco-innovative and sustainable business models, in particular for SMEs
- development of new processing technologies and valorisation of agricultural products and by-products for better valorising the local typical products, to boost rural economy, and to create new jobs
- better understanding of the complex relationship between diet and health in the Mediterranean context, as well as genetic, epigenetic and behavioural determinants of chronic disease;