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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TomRes (A NOVEL AND INTEGRATED APPROACH TO INCREASE MULTIPLE AND COMBINED STRESS TOLERANCE IN PLANTS USING TOMATO AS A MODEL)

Teaser

Summary

The cultivation of fruits and vegetables requires large volumes of water and fertilizers, but water is scarce, also due to climate change, while fertilizers production consumes high amounts of non-renewable resources.
TOMRES research focuses on tomato, one of the most cultivated crops in the world, representing a biological and agronomical model crop. Combined water and nutrient stress is a major problem for tomato farmers and solutions are needed to safeguard yields, while also preserving the environment.
The project aims at enhancing resilience to combined water and nutrient stress in tomato and to develop cropping systems that reduce the consumption of limited and expensive resources, thus contributing to the adaptation of EU agriculture to global warming and shortage of mineral fertilizers. To achieve this goal, TOMRES will
- identify tomato lines resilient to combined stress and novel alleles/traits that confer superior water and nutrient use efficiency;
- increase basic knowledge of the physiological and molecular processes activated in tomato by combined stress, and contributing to resilience.
- design and optimize sustainable crop management strategies inducing improvement in resilience to combined stress, by developing and testing agronomic techniques adapted to both conventional and organic tomato cultivation;
- integrate and evaluate the effect on resource consumption and on the environment of the adoption of the genotype x crop management combinations selected for increased resilience; and to offer decision support tools for farmers and stakeholders;
- enable environment for implementation and uptake of project results through open-ended multi-actor activities including on-farm testing and demonstration, innovation management for market uptake; and outreach activities.
In order to deliver tools and solutions valuable for all concerned stakeholders, TOMRES involves and engages farmers, breeders, industries, associations and researchers, throughout the different activities and for the all duration of the project.

Work performed

During the first 18 months from the project start, on June 1st 2017, TOMRES consortium achieved important results.
For the identification of lines with improved water and nutrient use efficiency, under combined abiotic stresses, and of resilience traits, more than 50,000 tomato lines were investigated to establish the TOMRES collection, including the 43 more resilient accessions. A positional cloning approach has been followed to identify the genes controlling the observed resilience in candidate accessions endowed with superior water and nutrient use efficiency.
Regarding the characterization of molecular and physiological responses to combined water and nutrient stress in tomato, TOMRES partners started assessing the contribution of selected phytohormones (brassinosteroids and strigolactones) to combined stress resilience. To define the role of selected below-ground traits, the impact of drought and/or low nutrients on root-system architecture has been defined and the effect of arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungal colonisation has been investigated.
TOMRES also started its activities to design and optimize sustainable crop management strategies and tools to increase water and nutrient use efficiency. To this end, greenhouse trials have been conducted on organic tomato crop to evaluate whether green manure with a legume crop, applied in addition to farmyard manure and beneficial bacteria, can benefit tomato crop and to assess the efficiency. Finally, different activities for optimization of irrigation equipment and spreaders for Variable Rate Technology application have also started.
A central secure database has been established by the consortium to facilitate standardized and harmonized data acquisition and recording. A systematic map protocol has been developed and a questionnaire for data collection was designed to assess the socio-economic sustainability and the environmental impact of the innovations developed by the project. Preliminary work has also been conducted to develop a Decision Support System (DSS) of resource use efficiency.
In order to assess and demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of the TOMRES innovative solutions, on-farm co-innovation and exploitation activities have been as well launched. The TOMRES farmers network has been established, including 17 farms from Italy, Germany, Romania, Greece, Crete and Spain and covering from mostly conventional open field cultivation to also greenhouse and organic farming. On-farm demonstration and validation experiments started is several TOMRES countries.
To ensure that TOMRES results reaches a wide public, several dissemination actions have started along with scientific and research activities. The release of project website and social media profiles, regularly updated, had been carried out, while dissemination material was developed in 10 national languages. TOMRES was presented to different scientific events and workshops, conference, open science events and trade fairs. 7 papers have been published in International peer reviewed journals and 7 publications in Conference proceedings.
The coordination and collaboration among partners and along the different project actions, have been assured by the project management and monitoring activities.

Final results

A number of important achievements have been obtained, despite TOMRES early stage of implementation. They are mainly related to the establishment of the TOMRES collection and the ranking of accessions according to their water and nutrient use efficiency, as well as in the assessment of the contribution of selected phytohormones to combined stress resilience.
Since multiple abiotic stresses in cropping systems are due to complex combinations of environmental and agronomical factors; they can be dealt with only by complex blends of innovations at the genetic, biological, crop management and crop technology levels. For this reason, TOMRES impacts are expected in several areas:
- revealing how different combinations of water and nutrient stresses interact and impact on tomato, in particular on agriculturally important traits;
- increasing the range of farm-level management strategies and tools for the tomato crop to respond better to variable levels of water and nutrient supply;
- supporting breeding strategies and tools to develop tomato varieties that can adapt better to combined water and nutrient stress, and ensure high product quality;
- identifying combinations of genotypes and management practices suited to increase water and nutrient use efficiency of tomato.
To increase the impact of the results achieved, TOMRES will explore the proposed solutions by in-depth socio-economic analysis in sample farms and with consumer groups; and will ensure that appropriate communication is achieved. Participating companies will scale up selected TOMRES solutions, thus increasing their own commercial competitiveness.
More generally and in the long term, TOMRES outcomes will help to increase the resilience of crop production in more variable environments and ultimately secure productivity. They will also contribute to optimising water use and reducing nutrient losses in agricultural systems, thereby also reducing the environmental impact of agricultural activities.