Sustainable primary production in a changing climate
The NORDIC PRIMARY INDUSTRIES will face production demands in a changing climate with requirements for low-input and minimal environmental impact. To prepare for tomorrow, actions are needed given a long development time of new management strategies and new plant varieties.
This network will develop common and regionally tailored measures and strategies, plant material and decision
making tools for the future Nordic:
A.1 Plant health
A.2 Conservation, adaptation and utilization of genetic resources
B.1 Adaptation and mitigation in the cereal production system
B.3 Sustainable biomass production
This is done by networking between the participants and their already running major national and international projects on climate change. The network activities will include joint activities on research-training, research and building of agricultural strategy. At any time the network is open to new participants, e.g. we will organize Nordic and international courses and meetings to disseminate network tools, results and activities and open up for
collaboration.
The network participants have strong scientific competences within all areas of the proposal and our ongoing climate change projects are closely linked to the Nordic primary industry. We have access to an unique phytotron for climate research, RERAF, where plant material is screened in realistic future climate scenarios. This facility will give Nordic research the opportunity to become world leading. Through an EU infrastructure project, we can
further support research stays in the facility. The experimental fields in different Nordic regions will serve as an additional resource for testing of selected plant material.
Rather than being a pro forma network with no true collaboration, researchers and plant breeders in this network will focus and interact closely to help prepare the Nordic society for future climate changes. Plant genetic resources, mainly from NordGen, are selected in realistic future scenarios with combinations of abiotic and biotic stressors; production is measured, and environmental impacts accessed. Using the results in Quantitative
Sustainability Assessment, QSA, we provide decision support tools for a future sustainable, stable and safe (healthy) primary production for food, feed and bioenergy.
 |
 |