CERES Initiative: Final meeting
Almost three years after launching the CERES initiative, Fondazione Cariplo and Agropolis Fondation are pleased to have the final meeting of the 4 granted projects as a satellite event of the Sustainable Intensification Conference to be held from April 24th to 26th in Dakar, Senegal.
Given its focus on research activities that might improve agricultural productivity and livelihoods in rural communities, the Conference represents an ideal context to present the achievements of the CERES projects, addressing the following sustainable development issues related to cereal: i. increasing demand for plants and plant by-products for food and non-food uses; ii. interaction between climate change and crops; iii. prevention and management of risks related to crop and food systems.
Objectives of the meeting are:
- to give visibility to the CERES Initiative as a whole, within a public event linked to its global challenge;
- to facilitate exchanges between the 4 projects on their respective scientific results and possible research uptake in the field;
- to facilitate results transfer to a wider scientific community and to other stakeholders attending the Sustainable Intensification Conference;
- to facilitate the projects follow up by the Foundations.
CERES is a joint initiative of Fondazione Cariplo and Agropolis Fondation aimed at supporting collaborative research in the agri-food sector, particularly on cereals. Funded projects are jointly carried out by researchers from France, Italy, as well as from emerging and developing countries and designed to contribute towards sustainable cereal production and consumption systems. CERES contributes to knowledge sharing and scientific capacity building and is expected to facilitate research uptake in this field.
Find details on each CERES projects below:
BIOSORG project
Diversifying and optimizing biomass sorghum value chains for Mediterranean and Semi-arid environments: an integrative approach merging biological sciences, biomaterial development and socio economic assessment
FLORIMAIZE project
Role of florigen proteins in maize developmental reprogramming under drought stress
MIC CERES project
Microbial eco-compatible strategies for improving wheat quality traits and rhizospheric soil sustainability
NEWPEARL project
Combining new phenotyping approaches and next generation sequencing to accelerate breeding in pearl millet, an orphan cereal from arid region