Climate change resilience for perennial crops

Didactical sheets for action: clear answers to your key questions!

Designed in a Q&A format, these 10 concise factsheets provide practical insights and technical recommendations to help you adapt proven field practices to your perennial crops. Each factsheet addresses a specific issue with clear, effective advice validated by experts.

What are the relevant bioindicators to assess the biological quality of the soil? How does climate change influence the emergence of new pests? What are the prerequisites for setting up an agroforestry plot?
These are just a few of the questions answered in our didactical sheets — your go-to resource for practical, field-tested adaptation strategies!

Best Mediterranean Adaptation Stories: Open Contest Winners

Explore the winning adaptation strategies from the CLIMED-FRUIT community! This playlist of videos showcases the eleven outstanding practices selected through our competitive contest during the CLIMED-FRUIT International Web Conference in March 2024. These winning practices were chosen through a rigorous selection process combining:

• Live audience scoring during the conference
• YouTube engagement metrics (likes, shares, views)
• Community voting results

Interested in going deeper into the practices shown in these videos? Our Extended Practice Abstracts provide detailed information, including a simplified economic and environmental cost–benefit analysis — designed to support decision-making and help you contextualize each practice before implementation.

And if you prefer learning on the go, our podcasts offer the audio version of the videos — an easy way to explore these practices while commuting, working in the field, or multitasking.

SUBTOPICS REVIEW – Strategies for Climate-Resilient Mediterranean Farming

In the face of increasing climate-related challenges, Mediterranean farmers are exploring innovative ways to sustain productivity and protect their ecosystems. This review compiles a wide range of field-tested solutions and results that can support perennial crop systems through improved soil management, water use efficiency, biodiversity enhancement, and food chain adaptation.

From cover crops and composting techniques to smart irrigation and post-harvest innovations, the document shares concrete practices trialled in operational groups (OGs) and EU projects.

SUBTOPIC 5
Preserving biodiversity in Mediterranean crops

TECHNICAL ARTICLES – Deep Dives into Climate-Resilient Practices

Closely linked to the Subtopics Review, these articles aim to deepen the understanding of each subtopic by providing technical information on key practices:

Subtopic 1 – Soil conservation and carbon storage 

• Improving vineyard resilience: good practices for soil conservation and carbon storage – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT
• Improving the resilience of perennial fruit: good practices for soil conservation and carbon storage – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT

Subtopic 2 – Improving resilience of crops facing climatic hazards

• Adapting vineyards to extreme heat and drought conditions in dry farming – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT
• Agricultural frost damage mitigation techniques in vineyards – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT
• Improving resilience of perennial fruit trees facing climatic hazards – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT

Subtopic 3 – Water stress management and dry farming

• Innovative practices for water stress management in viticulture – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT
• Innovative approaches to dry farming in viticulture – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT
• Innovative practices for water stress management and dry farming in perennial crops – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT

Subtopic 4 – Adaptation of food chain processes and diversification

• Dealcoholisation of wine: adaptation of wine processes to lower alcohol levels associated with rising temperatures – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT
• Strategies for adapting food processes to climate change: transforming olive waste into valuable resources – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT

Subtopic 5 – Preserving biodiversity in Mediterranean perennial crops

• Winged allies for your crops: strategies for boosting the presence of pollinators – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT
• Varietal diversity: building on yesterday’s varieties to meet tomorrow’s challenges – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT
• Green Infrastructure establishment for sustainable olive orchards: the case of LIFE IGIC project – EN, EL, ES, HR, FR, IT, PT

DIGITAL STORIES – Discover project selected practices in 3 min!

EXTENDED PRACTICE ABSTRACTS – Project selected practices: everything you need to know in just a few pages

Our extended practice abstracts give you direct access to the best practices selected as part of the CLIMED-FRUIT project. Each fact sheet presents a concrete solution for mitigating or adapting to the effects of climate change, with a simplified cost-benefit analysis and an overview of the operational group or project behind the initiative. Improve your practices with solutions that have been tried and tested in the field!

Blowdevice

Cover management

DIGITAL CROSS VISITS – Find out more about project 9 Operational Groups, their implementation and results

INNOVATION AND AGRICULTURAL SUPPLIERS – Discover the winners of the Crowd-Writing Contest

Whether innovation is new knowledge applied by mainstream farmers, the role of private companies is essential. The translation of new knowledge into a product, equipment, machinery or a service – that can be used in practice by farmers – is almost always performed by private companies that invest in development in view of an economic and commercial advantage. Therefore, the auxiliary industry must be considered an important actor of innovation in agriculture. The goal of CLIMED-FRUIT is to make mainstream farmers aware of the most recent innovations that promote resilience to climate change. This cannot be achieved without considering the business proposals of private providers. Here are the winning technologies/products from the crowd-writing contest organised by Climed-Fruit:

ZILUS – SABI AGRI (France)

100% electric all-terrain robot.

FLASHDIAG – ANOVA PLUS (France)

Strips for rapid identification of 4 diseases (including FD and BN).

Project Deliverables

Explore all Climed-Fruit public deliverables here, including methodologies, practice selection processes, and other key resources.