2ND TRAINING DAY OF THE PEANUTPUGLIA PROJECT
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On February 10, 2022, at 4:15 PM, the 2nd Training Day of the PEANUTPUGLIA project will take place, funded under the RDP Puglia 2014-2020 - SM 16.2 "Support for pilot projects and the development of new products, practices, processes, and technologies," with a total amount of €452,714.00. The activity is coordinated by the DAFNE Department (University of Foggia, a project partner), which annually activates Paths for Transversal Skills and Guidance (PCTO) for high school students. The paths have a total duration of 25 hours, including activities with university professors, the realization of a project work, and a final feedback meeting, guaranteeing the acquisition of 1 university CFU "in advance" to students attending all lessons. The event, which will take place on the Zoom platform, will be open to a group of up to 60 students from two high schools in the province of Foggia: the "A. Einstein" Scientific High School in Cerignola and the "Aldo Moro" I.I.S.S. in Margherita di Savoia.
The webinar, titled "Interactions between microorganisms and peanuts in the rhizosphere," will be conducted by Dr. Angela Racioppo, a researcher in Agricultural Microbiology at the University of Foggia.
"The purpose of these meetings is to make our young people understand how much work is behind a product that reaches our tables and how much research and innovation are applied in agriculture if you want to be competitive and keep up with the times," said Prof. Antonio Bevilacqua, Rts of the project and Associate Professor of Agricultural Microbiology at the University of Foggia (DAFNE).
The project aims to: study and develop the most suitable varietal selection of peanuts for the territory; develop and test innovative cultivation techniques to make the crop profitable and competitive in the Puglia region; test the adaptability of current harvesting machines or the need to introduce specific ones to maximize yields in this phase; test and refine the best storage and conditioning techniques for fruits in the post-harvest phase to offer high-quality products with the required specifications to the market. The contextual analysis also shows how peanuts, like all legumes, can offer significant agricultural advantages in the Puglia region, such as an alternative crop in rotation with wheat and tomatoes, with positive effects on soil enrichment in nitrogen and organic matter and on the productive yields of crop rotations. The project partners form an Operational Group of the PEI AGRI, a cooperation model based on the "interactive innovation model" that involves collaboration among various actors to make the best use of different complementary types of knowledge. The main objective is co-creating and disseminating solutions/opportunities ready to be implemented in practice. The PEANUT GO is composed of significant stakeholders such as: AZIENDE AGRICOLE RIUNITE PEDONE, DARE PUGLIA, UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI FOGGIA, CIA PUGLIA, CONAPO, I.F.OR. SRL, and consulting companies that have been promoting and evaluating innovations in the agri-food sector for years, such as ARETE’ and CASSANDRO.
