O InnovPlantProtect (InPP) promotes the seminar “Six years of innovation: The path of CoLABs for the future of the agricultural and agri-food sectors”, on the next day June 11th, from 09h30 until 11h00, in center stage at Espaço InsectERA, located in the Central Cloisters of the National Center for Agricultural Exhibitions and Markets (CNEMA) in Santarém.
The seminar aims to present the practical results and real impact of six Collaborative Laboratories (CoLABs) in Portugal - InnovPlantProtect, Colab4Food, FeedInov, Food4Sustainability, MORE and SmartFarmCoLAB. These interface infrastructures are essential pillars of the National Innovation System (SNI) and play a growing and essential role in the dynamics of innovation for agriculture and agri-food.
The event will be attended by members of the teams and partners of each of the CoLABs, who will talk about their vision of the added value of these interface and innovation entities, from the point of view of those who collaborate directly with them.
The initiative, which is part of the National Agriculture Fair (FNA) 2025, which this year has the theme “Biosolutions” and will be the stage for exploring the innovations that are shaping the future of the sector, brings together different representatives of the innovation ecosystem to show the role of CoLABs in stimulating the transfer of knowledge and making innovation available to agriculture and agri-food in Portugal, creating value and attracting highly qualified human resources to the country.
See the full program in the image below.
The registration for the event is free, but mandatory due to the limited capacity of the space. Guarantee your presence by filling in the available form here.
We look forward to welcoming you for a morning of sharing and debate on the future of innovation in the agricultural and agri-food sectors!
Estamos em contagem decrescente para a Feira Nacional de Agricultura (FNA), uma das maiores feiras agrícolas do país!
É já de 7 a 15 de junho que o InPP vai estar na 61ª edição da Feira Nacional de Agricultura, que se realiza no CNEMA – Centro Nacional de Exposições, em Santarém.
O tema da edição deste ano é “Biosoluções”e pretende destacar a importância das soluções e tecnologias inovadoras no setor agroalimentar e na promoção de práticas mais sustentáveis e eficientes.
A FNA reúne agricultores, empresários e especialistas dos setores agroalimentar, pecuário e agrícola e é um excelente espaço para aumentar a nossa rede de contactos, trocar conhecimentos e apresentar as mais recentes tendências e soluções agrícolas que a nossa equipa tem desenvolvido.
Vai poder encontrar-nos no stand nº.18, à entrada do Espaço dos claustros, dedicado à Agenda InsectERA, entre as 10h e as 20h.
InnovPlantProtect (InPP) took part in the National Olive Growing Fair (FNO 25) in Campo Maior, from May 23 to 25, presenting its latest biological and digital innovations for crop protection, including projects focused on biopesticides for olive diseases and early detection of fungi that cause gafa, and monitoring insect vectors of the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, which attacks olive groves. The Elvas CoLAB was present with its own stand to demonstrate its strengths and the impact of its research on agricultural sustainability, inviting producers, technicians and researchers to learn about its innovative bio-based and digital solutions and to actively participate in the discussion of the sector's challenges.
The collaborative laboratory (CoLAB) welcomed visitors at the stand no. 14, located at thematic area at the Campo Maior Municipal Garden, to showcase their activity, the ongoing projects that are developing solutions to the main olive diseases, the patents already submitted, the apps for agricultural management and the bio-based and digital products and services they have to offer the agricultural sector and the market. Throughout the three days of the fair, some of InPP's researchers were at the stand to demonstrate to visitors the various features of the Elvas CoLAB, which has been developing innovation that it hopes will contribute to the sustainability of agricultural systems.
InPP announced ValorCannBio project, which is processing biomass that is not used in the medical cannabis industry to develop effective and sustainable biopesticides against gafa and tuberculosis, The project will be carried out in the municipality of Elvas, which is responsible for decimating entire harvests, leading to severe economic losses and compromising food quality. The impact of this project will be felt in the municipality of Elvas, where the project is being developed, but it is expected that it will extend to the entire olive-growing region from Trás-os-Montes to the Algarve, where production losses are increasing due to these diseases. O AlViGen project was also one of the protagonists and is using cutting-edge technology to detecting and identifying the strains of fungi that cause gafa, long before the symptoms become visible. The project team has used traps to collect spores that circulate in the air to monitor the presence of fungi, which can give farmers an important advantage in preventing infections and protecting their crops, reducing production losses.
O SNM_XylellaVt project, The SNM_XylellaVt project, led by DRAPCENTRO and in which InPP actively participates, was also highlighted at FNO. SNM_XylellaVt is monitor the insect vectors of the bacteria Xyllela fastidiosa, in particular the foam leafhopper, the insect responsible for transmitting the bacterium, which attacks various agricultural and forestry crops, and in particular olive groves. The project team is developing new tools, such as risk prediction models which, in the presence of the bacterium, whether in plants or insect vectors, will allow the National Agricultural Warning Service (SNAA) to alert, in real time, about the economic attack levels (EAL) for these insects, thus allowing prevent infection of the main crops. As part of this project, the team has also developed an online platform where citizens can report the sighting of foams, which are signs of the presence of the insect vectors of X. fastidiosa, This will help to map its temporal and spatial distribution and to plan measures to combat this bacterium.
The FNO, organized jointly by the Campo Maior City Council and the Centre for the Study and Promotion of Olive Oil in the Alentejo (CEPAAL), is an event that aims to enhance national olive growing, and in particular Portuguese olive oil, boosting the local economy and bringing together professionals from the sector - producers, technicians, or researchers - from all over the country to discuss challenges and trends in the Portuguese olive and olive oil sector.
InnovPlantProtect (InPP) celebrated during the 38th Ovibeja two partnership protocols, with the Centro Operativo e de Tecnologia de Regadio (COTR) and with the Portugal Nuts - Dried Fruit Promotion Association.
Within the scope of the partnership with COTR, InPP proposes to develop, together with the competence center for national irrigation and its members, strategies to solve the challenges posed to agricultural production by pests and diseases, as well as providing services to the organization's member partners. The COTR, for its part, is willing to provide support in mapping the main challenges facing its members in terms of pests and diseases, and to make them aware of the InPP and its capabilities.
Gonçalo Morais Tristão, chairman of the board of COTR, and Pedro Fevereiro, executive director of InPP
The protocol with Portugal Nuts aims to collaborate on projects on the challenges facing nuts, including the development of new sustainable products and analytical and digital services for crop protection against pests and diseases, particularly for nut crops. Portugal Nuts, for its part, aims to put its members in touch with the InPP, introduce them to the services provided by CoLAB and support the InPP in identifying producers who meet the conditions for carrying out pilot projects and field trials.
João Roseiro, member of the board of Portugal Nuts, representing SLM Partners, and Pedro Fevereiro, executive director of InPP
The collaborative laboratory (CoLAB) InnovPlantProtect (InPP) was present at the Ovibeja 2022, no stand 64 of Institutional Pavilion, The event will take place at the Manuel de Castro e Brito Fair and Exhibition Park, in Beja, between April 21 and 25, 2022.
At the stand, it was possible to find out more about InPP's activity in the field of developing bio-inspired solutions for protecting crops against pests and diseases, including specific services and products that CoLAB is already prepared to offer to different sectors.
Part of the 33-strong team of researchers was on site throughout the five days of the fair to demonstrate InPP's various capabilities to visitors.
The Department of New Biopesticides, for example, showed biological control agents (BCA) - fungi and bacteria in Petri dishes - as well as healthy rice plants infected with the fungus Magnaportheoryzae, which causes rice pyriculariosis, and some BCA which inhibit the M. oryzae. The Department of Formulations and Process Development took samples demonstrating the encapsulation of active biocontrol agents (pre- and post-processing), allowing visitors to produce alginate “balls” (small capsules) with their own hands.
Researchers from the Department of Data Management and Risk Analysis talked about microbiome analysis and the development of risk models, and demonstrated the dashboard of a weather calculator developed at InPP. In terms of Protection of Specific Crops, It was also possible to learn more about the laboratory services we offer, namely molecular identification and diagnosis, as well as how biocontrol tests work. in vitro, and monitor the work carried out on the wheat disease yellow rust, among many others.
Videos, photos and presentations were always available on a monitor, so that visitors could virtually “enter” our house, laboratories, fieldwork, events and other initiatives, as well as chat with the team present to welcome them.
Within the Saturday, April 23rd at 3pm, In the ACOS Auditorium, the InPP organized a colloquium on the subject of “Protecting crops to feed the world: from soil microorganisms to pest and disease monitoring techniques”.
The executive director of InPP took part in this conference, Pedro February, who presented CoLAB, iLaria Marengo, director of the Monitoring and Diagnostics department, who spoke about remote sensing applied to crop protection, and Ricardo Ramiro, director of the Data Management and Risk Analysis department, who addressed the topic of the soil microbiome.
Pedro Fevereiro also took part in the seminar ACOS - The Southern Farmers' Association organized on the 23rd at 10:30 a.m., entitled “How to feed the planet?”, the theme of Ovibeja 2022, at the ACOS Auditorium, and at the colloquium “The European Green Agenda. Agricultural sustainability and food sovereignty”, which took place at the Friday, April 22nd at 4pm, at the Expobeja Auditorium.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
“Consultório das Plantas” was the name of the activity aimed at the youngest that InPP held on Saturday 23rd, at around 4pm, as part of the programming of the Alentejo Agricultural and Agri-Food Biotechnology Center (Centro de Biotecnologia Agricola e Agro-Alimentar do Alentejo) (CEBAL) at the 38th Ovibeja.
To demonstrate the importance of treating diseased plants with environmentally sustainable solutions, InPP researcher Tânia Pinto took samples of olive trees infected with peacock's eye, a disease caused by the fungus Spilocaea oleaginea, and Petri dishes with fungi, to explain the importance of analyzing the pathogen in search of a solution.
Dr. Tânia sprayed the diseased sample with a “biomedicine” spray and showed examples of healthy olive trees so that the young visitors could see the difference.
Within the sunday late morning, The executive director of InPP, Pedro Fevereiro, will be with CEBAL for an informal chat with visitors.
PARTNERSHIP PROTOCOLS
At Ovibeja, InPP signed two partnership protocols with COTR - Centro Operativo e de Tecnologia de Regadio and Portugal Nuts - Associação Promoção Frutos Secos, with a view to collaborating in the development of solutions to protect crops against pests and diseases. Read more.
Today, three classes from Alcáçova Primary School planted nearly two dozen trees next to the Amoreira Aqueduct in Elvas, in an initiative that brought together the school, the InnovPlantProtect sustainability team, the Elven municipality and Bolschare.
It was with tiny hands and feet, but a lot of gumption and willpower, that around 50 students from the 2nd, 3rd and 4th years of school from the Alcáçova Primary School, In Elvas, they took shovels, hoes, watering cans, buckets and 19 one-meter-high almond trees to plant them in the area around the so-called “Amoreira arches” in Rossio de São Francisco, next to the historic Elven aqueduct.
They had the help of the teachers, the technicians from SOF Jardins and the researchers from the sustainability team of the InnovPlantProtect (InPP), InPP Greeners, which launched this action, Cláudia Almeida Silva, Cátia Patrício, Cristina Azevedo e Joana Castro. And the weather: after initially being planned to mark World Tree Day 2022, on March 21, the activity took place this afternoon, April 6, with the sun shining.
The area where the planting took place belongs to the Elvas City Council (CME) and the almond trees were donated by Bolschare. With this action, InPP Greeners sought to make elementary school students aware of the importance of trees for life. The almond trees were chosen because not only are they part of the work being carried out by InPP, but they are also of great economic interest to the region and are very beautiful landscape trees.
The CME immediately embraced this initiative “for obvious reasons”, says Councillor Hermenegildo Rodrigues, who was on the ground today accompanying the activities. “As decision-makers, we have to value changes in habits and attitudes when it comes to the ecological footprint and, above all, involve those who will be the future decision-makers,” said the councillor.
Simão, aged 7, was one of those who tried his hand at eating an almond - there are already mature almond trees there; he was surprised when InPP department director and Greeners member Cristina Azevedo showed the children the drupe's epicarp, with its characteristic green color. For Simão, “if there weren't trees, the world wouldn't have trees”, which are also very important “because they give us apples and pears”.
This was “a very rich initiative, because the students need this kind of activity, which involves them, associates them with the city and gives them the ‘power to do’”, observed Ana Teresa Babinha, a 2nd grade teacher. “And there was an opportunity for everyone to do it, to try their hand at planting,” said the teacher, who praised the action for getting the children to actually “get their hands dirty”.
Ana Teresa Babinha also highlighted the fact that the students will now be responsible for looking after these almond trees, in a system yet to be defined by the school. What's more, it's an activity “that will come to life in the classroom”, because it's an opportunity to approach the topic of the importance of trees in a new way in the context of formal learning.
The InPP Greeners are InnovPlantProtect's (InPP) sustainability team, created at the end of 2021 to share knowledge and good practices that lead to the creation of more sustainable laboratories and institutions, as well as promoting the adoption of more sustainable behaviors by all citizens. Follow them on Twitter at @InPPGreeners or contact them by email at inpp.greeners@iplantprotect.pt.
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