The MED-GOLD project: Advanced user-centric climate services for higher resilience and profitability in the grape and wine sector

¹ SOGRAPE VINHOS SA, Rua 5 de Outubro 4527, 4430–852 Avintes, Portugal

Abstract

Agriculture is primarily driven by weather. Forecast climatic conditions will further increase its vulnerability to crop failure and pest damage. Nowhere will this have consequences as dramatic as in the Mediterranean Basin. The challenge here is how to increase resilience of this complex ecological, economic, and cultural heritage in an era of decreasing resources and climate change. Climate services have the potential to support the transition towards a climate-resilient and low-carbon society. The MED-GOLD project will demonstrate the proof-of-concept for climate services in agriculture by developing case studies for three staples of the Mediterranean food system: grape, olive and durum wheat. The new climate services for agriculture developed by MED-GOLD will provide targeted information to companies that will allow them to act over longer time periods (months, seasons or even decades into the future) that go beyond the traditional 2–5 days provided by current weather forecasts. The cumulative benefit of MED-GOLD will range from enhancing agricultural management to supporting and informing policy-making at the Mediterranean, European and global levels. This is because olives, grapes, and durum wheat are grown across the globe and produce the raw materials for global food commodities such as olive oil, wine and pasta.