The MaízSostenible project ends with our support as technical office and communication agent.
The MaízSostenible operational group has concluded after two years of work with our support as technical office in charge of monitoring and justification, both technical and economic. In addition, our Innovation Communication team has provided support to the consortium throughout the life of the project to design and implement a communication strategy, with the aim of highlighting and publicising the progress of MaízSostenible.
This task force is coming to an end with results that demonstrate the importance of precision agriculture in present and future maize production.
The MaízSostenible operational group has contributed to improving the environmental sustainability and profitability of maize cultivation through the application of a range of digital technologies and tools.
In the first documentary phase of the project, the team identified that it was dealing with a cereal of great importance both in Spain and worldwide. At the beginning of 2020, 3% of the cultivated land in our country was planted with maize, around 430,000 hectares. Work began on a first objective: to detect the risks and opportunities for the maize sector in the face of climate change (behavioural patterns, extreme temperatures, new energies, food security, etc.). This led to the development of a certified Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology specifically designed for maize cultivation and the implementation of a Precision Farming Techniques Protocol (PTAP).
During the implementation of the project, the task force has been proposing the adoption of innovative measures to sustainably increase the competitiveness of the sector, facilitate adaptation and improve its resilience to the expected impact of climate change, as well as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
MaízSostenible has received a grant of €532,579.64, 80% co-financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) of the European Union and 20% by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food through the Directorate General for Rural Development, Innovation and Agri-Food Training (DGDRIFA), within the framework of the National Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.
Our participation
The MaízSostenible operational group consortium has relied on our team of Innovative Investment Grants during the two years of its implementation to support the monitoring and technical-economic justification of the project.
In addition, as a complement to these technical office tasks of the project, our Innovation Communication area has designed and developed an ad hoc communication strategy with the aim of publicising the project, the work of the consortium and the results achieved by MaízSostenible.
The coordination of the communication of this type of project also facilitates and ensures compliance with the minimum dissemination obligations of the call for aid for innovative projects of operational groups of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
The trials
The trials were carried out in two agricultural seasons, 2021 and 2022, and involved a series of commercial maize farms with a geographical distribution that was representative of the entire territory. In each of these farms, two experimental areas were established, a control area, where conventional agricultural practices were used, and an optimisation area, where precision agriculture techniques were applied.
“During these two years, new tools have been brought to the table that allow farmers to make better use of inputs, reduce CO2 emissions and, in some cases, contribute to improving the farmer’s profit and loss account thanks to the use of these technologies,” said Manuel Pérez-Ruiz, professor at the School of Agricultural Engineering of the University of Seville and technical coordinator of the task force.
The main results
The team presented some of the results obtained at a conference held last Wednesday, 8 March 2023, at the Vertex Bioenergy facilities in Babilafuente (Salamanca). Among the key elements, the following stand out:
- From now on, the maize sector has a public and free protocol for the implementation of precision agriculture.
- It is possible to cultivate the crop in a more efficient way from the point of view of sustainability without reducing yields.
- On the farms in this project, precision farming has helped to quantify in detail and reduce CO2 emissions compared to conventional farming methods.
With them, a product (grain maize) differentiated from the rest of the generic maize production in Spain and more competitive with respect to grain imported from third countries is achieved, due to lower certified greenhouse gas emissions.
Under the title ‘Sustainable maize with precision agriculture. Reducing emissions for a greener future‘, the representatives of the operative group presented the results of the PTAP and the characteristics of the Sustainable Maize certification, another of the objectives initially set, which the group was also able to respond to.
