The project is essentially aimed at:
- Developing innovative bio-technological wastewater treatments for enhancing wastewater agricultural reuse.
- Co-creating innovative combinations of bio-treatment, recycling of water and high-value products, and bio-productions for the development of biotechnologies and agri-business in Europe and India towards a “green growth”.
- Improving water use efficiency through improved agronomics, plant breeding and new irrigation technologies.
- Enhancing stakeholder participation in the co-creation process and Europe-India cooperation through Mirror Cases approach and INNOVA platforms.
Specific objectives of the project include
water4Crops aimed at: Developing innovative bio-technological wastewater treatments for enhancing wastewater agricultural reuse
- Develop and demonstrate integrated treatment processes for agro-food industry effluents targeted at recovery of economically useful components and recycling of water suitable for irrigation
- Selection and optimization of fungal consortium to remove contaminants from municipal wastewater for re-use in agriculture
- Enhancing water use efficiency through improved irrigation systems, agronomic practices and using validated simulation models
- Assess impacts of treated wastewater on soil, crop produce and groundwater quality
- Increasing saline wastewater use efficiency through Integrated Mangrove-Fishery Farming System
- Mapping and characterization of quantitative trait loci (QTL) for drought tolerance related traits in maize, sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea and tomato
- Improving drought adaptation using marker-assisted breeding and trait-based selection approaches in maize, sorghum, pearl millet, chickpea and tomato
- Evaluate and optimize the proposed combinations of bio-treatment and wastewater reuse from a perspective of supporting green growth and to boost interaction between knowledge organisations and industries of the European and Indian parties