As European agriculture faces intensifying climate challenges, two closely connected EU-funded projects—CARINA and WATERMELLON—are joining forces to promote innovative, sustainable, and resilient farming systems able to provide multiple feedstocks and so increasing farmer profit and general well-being.
While CARINA has been funded by the Horizon Europe framework programme, WATERMELLON received funding by the PRIMA (Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area) programme, but the share a number of partners committed to advancing agricultural innovations in the European farming systems, including the University of Bologna (UNIBO, coordinator of CARINA), CRES (Coordinator of WATERMELLON), INRAT, ICARDA, and Cooperativas Agroalimentarias de España.
The CARINA project, started in November 2022 and will end in October 2026, is demonstrating highly diversified cropping systems including camelina and carinata, across Europe and associate countries. The full valorization of the obtained CARINA feedstocks will be demonstrated, targeting different value chains, either feed, food and biobased, with a cascading approach. CARINA site-specific cropping systems have been established through the interaction with farmers, and other stakeholders by organizing training sessions, lighthouses and living labs. Training activities and farmer engagement are central to the project’s success, fostering greater awareness and uptake of sustainable and diversified cropping systems.
Building on this foundation, the newly launched WATERMELLON project takes the next step in climate adaptation by focusing on water scarcity, one of the most pressing issues in the Mediterranean region. WATERMELLON aims to revitalize ancestral water-harvesting techniques, combined with nature-based and modern agricultural solutions, while promoting underutilized drought-tolerant crops and smart irrigation in innovative cropping systems. Its goal is to strengthen the resilience of Mediterranean agriculture while ensuring food security, development of sustainable value chains, and environmental sustainability.
Together, CARINA and WATERMELLON form a strategic continuum, united by a shared vision: empowering smallholder farmers through science-based, low-impact, and locally adapted innovative farming solutions. Their synergy showcases how coordinated research and innovation can respond to the urgent challenges posed by climate change and resource scarcity in the Mediterranean area.