Project Development
The WP1 will aim to define realistic strategies for the rational application of inputs (water and fertilizers) in unheated tunnel conditions, using soil-based and soilless cultivation systems (both open and closed cycles, ie with nutrient solutions recycling), and taking advantage of sensor-based techniques. For rocket, soil-based production will be tested for standard and rational low input practices, and compared with soilless cultivation, while for tomato the focus will be on the optimization of soilless cultivation.
WP2 will be dedicated to quality assessment. Conventional attributes assessing maturity index, sensorial and nutritional quality attributes will be evaluated. Non-destructive methods (including NIR, Hyperspectral imaging and digital imaging) will be tested to predict internal quality also through the packaging. For this last activity, in order to extend the consistency of the results, a commercially important fresh-cut fruit (i.e. apple) will be also studied. In addition, the potentiality of non-destructive methods to discriminate among produce of different origins will be also tested, providing a potential new tool to inform the consumers about product quality and history. Finally, the WP3 will test the hypothesis of the influence of quality certification of LIP practices resulting from ND methods on consumer choices and their willingness to pay, in order to produce adequate and realistic marketing strategies.
WP1 activities are crucial for the project and will cover most part of it. The findings of WP1 will be the base for the advancements to be obtained in the other project’s WPs in innovative instrumental quantification of quality attributes and the identification of proper marketing strategies based on the consumers perception of quality and sustainability.
Since the Project will deal with 2 crops, the SC will be convened at the beginning of the project and before rocket and tomatoes will be available for the other research units working on WP2. This is a very crucial phase of the Project in relation to the needs of raw material and of the need for interaction among Units within each WP. PI and the SC will help to manage this interaction.
Results of WP1 and WP2 will be used for WP3, which will start presumably at the end of 2nd year and will finish at the end of the project, and particularly for the second task will start presumably around the end of the second year.
Results produced from all WPs will feed Tasks in WP4 ensuring dissemination in different formats and to various targets. WP4 will start as soon as first results will be made available, presumably at the end of the first year and will continue until the end of the Project and probably beyond that.
Finally, coordination activities, described in WPE, will concern all phases of the project from its very beginning, ensuring optimal execution.
The temporal diagram would be as follow:
