FruitFlyNet-ii is a Strategic Project for Open Innovation funded by ENICBCMED/EU program.  It involves 5 countries: Greece (The Applicant), Spain, Italy, Lebanon and Tunisia. The project aims to develop for the first time a fully automated e-monitoring, IPM spraying, e-solutions and environmental friendly control of the olive fruit fly (Bactrocera oleae) and the Medfly (Ceratitis capitata).  The final solution will be based on a Location Aware System (LAS) providing two prototypes, the OliveFlyNet and the MedFlyNet, each one consists of e‐traps and a set of e‐services including an automatic identification, an e‐counting pest mechanism, spraying track path recording, spraying risk maps based on Decision Support Systems and e-guides for precise IPM spraying. The two LAS prototypes will be optimized by the inputs of living labs that consists a new approach in cross‐border EU research policies. The optimized prototypes will be established and demonstrated in eight large‐scale sites of olive, peach, and citrus crops, in three EU Member Countries (EUMC) and two Med Partner Countries (MPC). Communication activities will attract stakeholders to test the LAS functionalities. The marketing sector will be progressively involved at the last stage of the project in order to elaborate a market potential of LAS to proceed with the commercialization of the final product. The project is based on FruitFlyNet/ENPICBCNET/II‐B/2.1/0856, a previously funded project coordinated by the AUA team (Greece) and offered a complete solution using e-traps and e-services where LAS has been tested, evaluated, and demonstrated in small‐scale crop areas with very promising results. 

The first –round online meeting was held from 3rd to 5th of November 2020.The first day was open to the public especially the stakeholders (farmers, researchers, authorities, regional services, agricultural cooperatives, and agricultural enterprises), followed by two days of kick-off meeting reserved for the representatives of the partners. General project overview activities, technical WPs, schedule time, expected outputs and results were discussed during the meeting. 

Contact person: Theodore Tsiligiridis, Professor on Networking and ICT in Agriculture, Informatics Laboratory, Agricultural University of Athens, e‐mail: tsili@aua.gr, tel: +30 (210) 529.4176, skype: tsiligiridis.theodore

Posted by Zinette Moussa, LARI, Lebanon