About

SECUREFOOD2050 aims at mitigating the impact of climate change by using innovative technologies for:

• Increasing the availability of water for irrigation;
• Reducing water use and demand;
• Reducing the dependence on fertile land in countries predominantly characterised by sandy soils; and
• Increasing the willingness of farmers to use treated wastewater for irrigation and of consumers to buy products obtained by irrigation with TWW (treated wastewater).

The solutions proposed aim at the replacement of fresh water with TWWs obtained by using (i) constructed wetlands in which an artificially aerated bed is integrated with a biochar-based filtration and (ii) bioaugmented septic tank.

Furthermore, aiming at reducing water and soil exploitation, our project will investigate aeroponics and biochar assisted cultivation systems, as soilless agricultural techniques for crop production, in which TWWs will be adopted for irrigation. Experiments will be done under the 2050 worst climatic scenario. The project will monitor the safety and quality of food products, covering a broad spectrum of contaminants.

SECUREFOOD2050 will also take care of the social aspects concerning consumer preferences and acceptability. The results will be integrated with data referred to materials and resources used with the various cultivation techniques applied in the different climatic scenarios, to perform a life-cycle assessment of the food products.