The OLIVER operational group brought together farmers, researchers and industry partners to drive forward the National Agricultural Network and Rural Development Program’s goals by sharing expertise, facilitating technical support for local and transnational cooperation, and fostering innovative partnerships.
Through a strategy of vertical integration in the agri-food value chain, OLIVER seeks to move beyond commodity trading, enabling producers to capture more value while optimising their production systems against global competition. Its activities focus on smarter irrigation, precision fertilisation and pesticide use, enhanced soil management and erosion control, and broader resource efficiency—cutting water use and energy consumption, harnessing renewables, reducing waste and greenhouse-gas emissions, and promoting carbon sequestration.
As a result, participants can expect a 20% reduction in irrigation needs, greater plant stress resistance, more uniform crop quality aligned with market specification, improved taste and texture, extended shelf life, and streamlined post-harvest processing capabilities.
