HortiNexus Africa: Living Labs for Optimising the Water-Nutrient-Energy Nexus in Horticultural Value Chains

Potential contributions to the project

• Validate low-cost sensors, remote sensing and decision support tools for irrigation and fertigation in field trials at INRAT stations and partner farms, across contrasting North and sub-Saharan African conditions.

• Identify physiological and field indicators of water and salt stress to optimise irrigation scheduling and reduce water and energy use.

• Evaluate varieties and rootstocks under water deficit and salinity, including marginal water, to guide varietal choice and water and nutrient management.

• Test agroecological and soil practices (organic amendments, mulching, mycorrhizae) that improve water retention, fertility and nutrient use efficiency.

• Establish living labs, with growers, agencies, nurseries and processors co-designing trials, demonstrations and scaling pathways.

• Assess innovations against nexus indicators: water, nutrient and energy efficiency, yield stability, quality, costs, profitability and climate resilience.

Research experience and collaboration capacity

I have led and participated in national and international projects funded by the EU (INCO-MPC CIBEWU), USAID’s PEER programme and the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education, in collaboration with research centres in France, Spain, Italy and the United States. The PEER project involved nursery operators, development and extension agents, agrifood processors and farmers from both family and industrial farms, demonstrating my capacity to work with diverse stakeholders.

I currently coordinate a project to restore cactus cultivation across Tunisia after the cochineal infestation, supporting the recovery of the cactus forage and seed oil value chains. It relies on cochineal-resistant varieties evaluation and valorisation, in support to replanting programmes, and the use of beneficial mycorrhizae as a low-input, climate-smart option under water and nutrient limitations.

Expected collaboration

I am interested in joining a Horizon Europe consortium as a research partner, within a Europe-Africa partnership. I would bring Mediterranean and African-relevant field sites, both in experimental stations and commercial fields, as well as value chain networks. These partnerships would help identify which digital and agronomic practices optimise the water-nutrient-energy nexus under local conditions, and how they can be adopted and scaled across the horticutural value chains in Africa.

I am fully open to INRAT leading a work package, for example on agronomic field validation, or on living labs and value chains in demonstration sites across the participating African and European countries.

I welcome collaboration with

• Research teams in digital agriculture, precision irrigation and fertigation, renewable energy for agriculture, remote sensing and decision support

• Agronomists, crop physiologists, and soil and water scientists

• Technology developers and agricultural technology SMEs, including providers of solar-powered irrigation solutions

• Nurseries, processors, agrifood businesses and researchers studying value chains

• Farmer organisations, cooperatives, agricultural administrations, extension services and NGOs

• European and African research institutions (including FNSSA-related initiatives).