Climate Challenges for Perennial Fruit Crops: Success of the 1st Bar Camp and working group on Vine and Apple Initiated as Part of the Erasmus+ NEWCLIM Project.
Last Thursday, October 24th, the Newclim team and PhD students from France, Germany, and Chile came together for an engaging online Bar Camp to discuss viticulture and apple cultivation within their respective national contexts. This meeting followed the group’s initial meeting in June at the SLU Alnarp campus in Sweden, where the groundwork for addressing climate challenges in perennial fruit crops was first laid.
The Bar Camp provided a platform for researchers from the partners universities to provide knowledge about local contexts of vine and apple in France, Germany, and Chile. Dr. Anne Pellegrino and Dr. Gerhard Buck-Sorlin, along with Patrice Lallemand from the Vine and Wine division of the Institut Agro, presented the context of the French vine and apple sectors. Dr. Jochen Bogs presented vine and apple context in Germany and Emilio Villalobos Soublett presented the Chilean context. The goal of this Bar Camp was to deepen the collective understanding of regional contexts and foster collaborative solutions.
Following step: a Collaborative Working Group to identify challenges in each country.
Following the success of the Bar Camp, a dedicated working group of PhD students gathered on November 27th to identify challenges raised by climate change and its impact on vine and apple in Chile, Germany and France. These challenges will be the basis for further development of CBL (Challenge-Based Learning) courses scenarios that will be developed in the Newclim Erasmus + project.
Key challenges identified:
Sweden:
How to adapt to extreme meteorological variation (extreme weather)?
How to tackle the issue of new pest?
How to build the know-how of cold viticulture?
How to get a more favorable context to adapt perennial fruit crops to climate change through communication?
Chile
How to grow grapevine and apple towards southern zones prone to cold and wet conditions particularly at flowering period?
How to adapt to arid area in the North?
What would be the business model continuing producing grape in North Chile ?
What would be the socio-economic impact of introducing new varieties for the exportation of Chilean wines?
France
How to reduce the use of pesticides and/or increase the efficiency of treatments while facing the evolution of diseases linked to climate changes ?
Which technological improvement to reduce the costs and make fruit/wine production more profitable for producers?
Towards more rapid and local breeding program for releasing new varieties/rootstocks adapted to the multiples abiotic constraints resulting from climate changes?
Is there any new business model (other than ones related to conventional/organic production) to limit the pollution while ensuring sufficient benefit for the producers?
Germany
How to face the cumulated and unpredictable biotic and abiotic constraints resulting from climate changes through management practices?
How to maintain the classical wine style produced from emblematic varieties such as Riesling?
How to introduce new varieties to anticipate the weather forecasts (winegrower and consumer acceptance)?
How to anticipate the biotic risks related to climate change and reduce the use of pesticides?
How to keep healthy soils in the long term?
How to keep the oenotourism activities and their environmental/economical repercussion for the area concerned?
Newclim Erasmus Project Summer Course
A success for the 1st Newclim seminar in Sweden.
From June 24 to 27, 16 PhD and master students from the 4 partner universities of the Newclim project gathered on the SLU Alnarp campus (Sweden) in order to be part of a seminar aiming at developing challenge-based learning (CBL) activities. The participating universities are the Intistut Agro (France), the SLU (Sweden), the HochSchule Ludwigsahafen - Weincampus (Germany) and the University of Chile (Chile).
The CBL is an inclusive active learning method focused on real-life cases. This methodology aims at developing students’ problem-solving skills through challenges. This approach is based on a call to action and engagement. It will be experienced by master students next year in Germany.
During this seminar, the participants attended workshops run by university professors to define essential questions and challenges raised by the impact of climate change on perennial fruit crop production, especially vines and apples. The specific context of the Swedish production of apples and wine has been explored through farm visits, meetings with farmers and participation in the agricultural fair for professional farmers.
A central topic emerged from these discussions: the exploration of new regions of culture for the vine and the apple at higher latitudes in colder regions. This first Newclim seminar set the first step in the construction of the CBL’s (engagement step). In the coming months, it will allow us to develop a network of online resources accessible to master students who will attend the next steps of the CBL (investigation and action).
Three-day project meeting of the NEWCLIM consortium at the Wine Campus Neustadt.
From May 29 to 31, the Neustadt Weincampus hosted a partner project meeting of the Erasmus + Newclim cooperation partnership. Professor Gerhard BUCK-SORLIN and Jessica Agnel (Newclim Project Manager), from the Intistut Agro (France), professors Lotta NORDMARK, Annie DROTTBERGER (horticulture lecturer and Project Manager), and Erik Alexandersson from the SLU (Sweden), and professor Dominik DURNER and Karin FRANZEN (Newclim Project Manager) from the HochSchule Ludwigsahafen - Weincampus (Germany), worked on the design of the future Newclim online platform about climate change and its impact on viticulture and apple production.
During these 3 days of work, besides visiting local ecological vineyards such as Rummel Biowein, Landau and Müller-Catoirthe partners brainstormed about the needs covered by the future Newclim platform and how they will be fulfilled through the latter.
2024: A new team for the Erasmus + cooperation project Newclim
Following the kick-off meeting of Newclim that occurred in Dijon in December 2023, Newclim’s team has grown up. Jessica Agnel joined the team in January as the general coordinator of the project. Jessica AGNEL was hired by the Institut Agro Montpellier to coordinate the implementation of Newclim. With a degree in European studies, she has been working as a European project manager for 12 years. All throughout her career, she has specialised in the fields of formal and non-formal education, social economy and entrepreneurship, citizenship, and interculturality.
She was followed by Karin Franzen who was hired in February to coordinate the Newclim project for the Weincampus Neustadt. Franzen holds degrees in oenology and beverage technology engineering from Hochschule Geisenheim University and also studied oenology at the University of Champagne Reims. In addition to several years in research project management with a focus on organic viticulture and knowledge transfer, she has practical experience in viticulture and oenology due to her family background.
Jessica and Karin joined Annie Drottberger to form the coordinating team for the Newclim project. Annie Drottberger is a lecturer and PhD holder in horticultural science, especially business administration, from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, the Department of Biosystems and Technology in Alnarp, Sweden. Her PhD project involved the adoption of knowledge and innovations in sustainable horticultural production systems.
December 2023 - A successful kick off meeting of the Erasmus Newclim project
A successful kick off meeting of the Erasmus Newclim project:
“New trainings to manage climate & ecological transitions in perennial fruit crops“ The first conference of the Newclim project, an education initiative co-funded by the Erasmus+Programme took place on the 11& 12th of December at Institut Agro Dijon (France).
Climate change poses a significant challenge to agriculture and specially to perennial fruit crops such as grapevine and apple. Indeed, the long lifespan and the duration of the cycle of production slow down the adoption of new varieties and/or the improvement of cultivation management methods to adapt to environmental fluctuations. In addition, these crops are highly susceptible to a range of pests and diseases, while there is an imperious society demand for a reduction of inputs, particularly of phytosanitary compounds. In this regard, new educational programs are needed to train undergraduates and graduates, but also professional players, about how to run more resilient cropping systems integrating up-to-date scientific and technical advances.
The Newclim project aims at enhancing cooperation between EU universities from France (L’Institut Agro - IA), Sweden (The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences - SLU), Germany (Weincampus Neustadt, Ludwigshafen University of Business and Society –LUBS) and partners from Chile (The University of Chile), with a focus on how to integrate the climate transition and smarter practices in the agricultural sector, focusing on two major economic value fruit crops. The project will be dedicated to the production of a digital platform displaying open source educational materials. Those educational materials will be fed by research resources on the topic issued from the scientific and educational activities of the four universities.
Newclim will also develop students' and staff's digital competencies through e-learning opportunities and disseminate the final deliverables to a broad audience. Throughout the project’s kick off meeting, participants reviewed the project goals and expectations of the different stakeholders with respect to the project outcome. The five work package (WP) leaders (P. Lallemand & C.Tarragon – IA, D. Durner & J. Bogs– LUBS, L.Nordmark– SLU) also presented the content, objectives, activities and tasks that will be planned over the next months.
