HortiDiverse: Crop Diversification and Value Chain Innovation for Resilient and Profitable Farming in Africa and the Mediterranean

Research expertise and potential contribution

This contribution aims to establish living labs around diversified horticultural value chains in Tunisia and other Mediterranean and African countries, as a framework to enhance farmers’ profitability and resilience. These networks will bring together smallholder and family farms, larger commercial growers, nurseries, agricultural administrations, extension and development services, cooperatives and processors. Participants will jointly set priorities, co-design and test crop diversification options and climate-resilient practices on farms, and develop new ways of connecting planting material, production, processing and markets.

Potential contributions to the project

• Test and validate crop diversification options (adapted species and varieties, multi-purpose crops such as cactus for forage and seed oil, intercropping) in field trials at INRAT research stations and on partner farms, across contrasting edaphoclimatic areas.

• Validate low-cost sensors, remote sensing and decision support tools for irrigation and fertigation to improve resource efficiency and reduce production costs.

• Evaluate varieties and rootstocks under water deficit and saline conditions, including marginal water, to guide varietal choice and secure yield stability and product quality.

• Test agroecological and soil management practices (organic amendments, mulching, beneficial mycorrhizae) that improve soil water retention, fertility and input efficiency, and reduce farmers’ dependence on costly inputs.

• Establish living labs for interest crops with growers, public agencies, nurseries and processors jointly designing field trials, demonstrations and business models.

• Support the development and valorisation of diversified value chains (planting material, processing, new products, short chains and market access), and assess innovations against indicators relevant to farmers and value chain partners: yield stability, product quality, costs, income, profitability and resilience to climate and market risks.

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, agrifood processors, development and extension agents and farmers from both family and industrial farms.

I currently coordinate a project to restore cactus cultivation across Tunisia after the disastrous infestation of plantations by cochineal infestation, in order to support the recovery of two value chains: cactus forage and cactus seed oil. The project valorizes identified cochineal-resistant varieties in support of replanting programmes. It also explores the potential of beneficial mycorrhizae as biofertilizer to promote cactus development and productivity, a low-input option that supports farmers’ income and resilience in resource-limited environments. This experience illustrates how crop diversification and value chain restoration can strengthen farmers’ profitability.

Expected collaboration

I am interested in joining a Horizon Europe consortium as a research partner. I would bring Mediterranean field sites, both in experimental stations and commercial fields, as well as value chain networks. These partnerships would help identify which diversification options and agronomic practices improve profitability and resilience under local conditions, and how they can be adopted and scaled across horticultural value chains.

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

I welcome collaboration with

• Agronomists, crop physiologists, and soil and water scientists

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

• Economists and social scientists working on farm profitability, business models and value chain analysis

• Technology developers and agricultural technology SMEs

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

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

• European and African research institutions.