Get to know MAGIC project: MArginal Lands for Growing Industrial Crops – Turning a burden into an opportunity.
The Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES), PANACEA Coordinator, also leads this H2020 funded project for the promotion of the sustainable development of resource-efficient and economically profitable industrial crops grown on marginal lands.
The project comprises 25 partners, many also engaged in PANACEA, ensuring thus the succesful dissemination from MAGIC findings.
A Decision Support System (DSS) will be developed and validated with the active involvement of farmers and end users. In parallel, current and future marginal lands in Europe facing natural constraints will be mapped, characterised and analysed to provide a spatially explicit classification that will serve as a basis for developing sustainable best-practice options for industrial crops.
The most promising crop species will be identified taking advantage of the profound experience of the consortium and in a multi-actor approach with stakeholders. Further investigation actions include the creation of new breeding tools and strategies towards better crop varieties, the identification and optimization of appropriate agronomic practices with limited input requirements and the development of suitable harvesting strategies and logistics to optimise the biomass supply-chains.
Further information on MAGIC website.