📋 Tender Overview
Reference: LIFE23-CCA-IT-IMAGE-LIFE/101156343
Acronym: LIFE23-CCA-IT-IMAGE LIFE
Start Date: 01/11/2024
End Date: 31/10/2028
Total Eligible Budget: 2,640,474 €
EU Contribution: 1,584,282 €
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Maize currently accounts for about 42% of the cereals used in animal feed for the production of Parmigiano Reggiano, one of Italy's most important dairy products and one of the world's most famous cheeses with an European Union (EU) Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) label.
However, maize is increasingly suffering from the impacts of climate change, in particular high temperatures and drought conditions over the summer period, which drastically reduce its yields. In addition, the contamination of maize by aflatoxins is spreading, also as a potential consequence of the climate crisis, often making most of the local production unsuitable for Parmigiano Reggiano supply chains, forcing farmers to import grains, frequently from outside Europe. To improve the resilience of the Parmigiano Reggiano supply chain it is, therefore, a priority to test both alternative crops, with similar nutritional values to maize such as sorghum, and appropriate rotation schemes with new feed crops.
OBJECTIVES
The project’s main objective is to extend resilient agricultural principles and the cultivation of resilient crops to a regional level, creating an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable model for producing Parmigiano Reggiano.
The specific objectives are to:
- improve climate change adaptation capacities by adopting sorghum as a resilient crop, taking advantage of its adaptive traits to fortify yields against the main impacts of droughts, heatwaves and other extreme weather events, and include it in the cultivation plans of the cooperatives involved in the Parmigiano Reggiano's value chain
optimise the agronomic performance of resilient crops by adopting improved agroecosystem management techniques – such as preserving soil fertility, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – to strengthen the link with the territory and the economic sustainability of the Parmigiano Reggiano supply chain
increase the amount of feed produced in the PDO area, reducing farmers’ dependence on market purchases of raw materials
evaluate the potential of dietary rations with alternative crops to reduce methane emissions and nitrogen excretion and to enhance the efficient use of feed and water by cows
promote the concept of resilience across the Parmigiano Reggiano's value chain, both in a technical sense and improving the current narrative, in order to facilitate farmers’ transition towards the application of the proposed innovations.
RESULTS
The project’s expected results are as follows:
- at least 15% of the maize within the Parmigiano Reggiano DOP – amounting to circa 6 000 tonnes or the equivalent to 750 hectares (ha) – will be substituted with sorghum grain as a raw material for feeding dairy cows
impl
