The transition towards more sustainable agriculture begins with a better understanding of soil health. Without reliable data, accessible technologies, and tools that help farmers make informed decisions, it is difficult to scale agroecological practices capable of restoring agricultural ecosystems.
To address this challenge, OSTARA (Operationalizing Agroecology for Resilient Mediterranean Agriculture) was launched. Funded by the PRIMA Programme, the project will develop digital solutions over the next three years to support the adoption of agroecological practices across Mediterranean countries.
AIR Institute is participating in this initiative alongside eight partners from six countries, contributing its expertise in artificial intelligence, data technologies, and digitalization to transform soil information into valuable knowledge for farmers, researchers, and public authorities.
An international partnership to transform Mediterranean agriculture
The OSTARA consortium is coordinated by the University of Salamanca (USAL) and brings together universities, research centres, and technology companies from Spain, France, Greece, Cyprus, Morocco, and Egypt.
Throughout the project's 36-month duration, the developed solutions will be validated in four Living Labs located in Spain, France, Morocco, and Cyprus, representing different Mediterranean farming systems. These pilot environments will make it possible to test the technologies under real-world conditions and adapt them to the specific needs of each territory.
Technology supporting agroecology
OSTARA combines a range of digital technologies to improve knowledge of soil health and enable more efficient and sustainable agricultural management.
The project's main technological developments include:
- Low-cost Edge-IoT sensor kits capable of monitoring physical, chemical, and biological soil indicators, even in areas with limited connectivity.
- A common ontology to integrate information from multiple data sources.
- Trustworthy and Explainable Artificial Intelligence (TAI/XAI) models trained through federated learning to preserve data privacy.
- Energy-efficient Distributed Ledger Technologies (Green DLT) to ensure data traceability and integrity.
The overall goal is to build an open digital ecosystem that enables standardized, accessible measurement, comparison, and sharing of soil health information.
AIR Institute's contribution
Within the project, AIR Institute plays an active role in several work packages that form the technological foundation of OSTARA.
- Roadmap, Diagnosis and Mapping of Mediterranean Agroecological Practices
AIR Institute contributes to the Roadmap, Diagnosis and Mapping of Mediterranean Agroecological Practices work package, led by the University of Salamanca.
This work will analyse the current state of agroecological practices across the Mediterranean region, identify common challenges, and define a roadmap for implementing digital solutions that support more resilient agricultural systems.
- Digital Twins, Green Digitalization and Traceability Systems for Organic Agriculture
The technology centre also participates in the Digital Twin, Green Digitalization and Traceability Systems for Organic Agriculture work package, coordinated by the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA).
This work package will develop tools for creating Digital Twins of agricultural holdings, enabling crop monitoring, scenario simulation, and data-driven decision-making.
It will also promote sustainable digitalization strategies and traceability mechanisms to ensure transparency throughout the organic agriculture value chain.
- Trustworthy AI for agroecological management
AIR Institute also contributes to the Trustworthy AI and Reliable AI for Agroecological Management work package, led by JASSP.
The objective is to design artificial intelligence models that not only provide accurate predictions on soil health, carbon sequestration, and crop yields, but are also transparent, explainable, and reliable for end users.
By leveraging federated learning techniques, these models will make it possible to use data from multiple farms while preserving data privacy, encouraging collaboration between farmers and research organisations.
Data for more sustainable agriculture
One of OSTARA's main objectives is to demonstrate that digitalization can become a key enabler for accelerating the transition towards more sustainable farming models.
At the end of the project, its results will be made available through an open data portal, allowing researchers, public authorities, companies, and farmers to reuse the generated knowledge.
Through its participation in OSTARA, AIR Institute reinforces its commitment to developing artificial intelligence, data-driven technologies, and sustainable digital solutions to address some of the major challenges facing Mediterranean agriculture while helping to protect one of its most valuable resources: the soil.