The Tavira Agricultural Experimentation Center, «a Noah's Ark of agricultural biodiversity», is preparing to become a space «dedicated to the study, research, innovation and promotion of what is also the Algarve's identity», in a «project ambitious" which brings together 20 partner entities to make this "a center of reference for the Mediterranean Diet".
The words are from Pedro Valadas Monteiro, regional director of Agriculture in the Algarve, this Wednesday morning, 24, in Tavira, at the ceremony for signing the protocols for the creation of an Innovation Pole at the Agrarian Experimentation Center in that city.
In a group of 24 centers spread across the country, «we took this one, in Tavira, so that we could work on the Mediterranean Diet and its various dimensions», said the Minister of Agriculture, who presided over the event.
The Tavira Innovation Pole project is part of the “Terra Futura” Innovation Agenda, and is expected to start at the beginning of next year and end in 2025. The funds will be made available from the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), “a part of the 93 million euros” is used to improve this space.
As the Mediterranean Diet is «much more than a diet, having several dimensions», this future space will work in the areas of «sustainable food, health and well-being, preservation of genetic resources of Mediterranean agro-ecosystems, culture, material and immaterial heritage or tourism», explained Pedro Valadas Monteiro.
"We want this Hub to become a privileged location, not only for Tavira, not only for the Regional Directorate of Agriculture and Fisheries of the Algarve, not only for the Ministry of Agriculture, but also for the country", he stressed.
The revitalization of the Agrarian Experimentation Center had long been desired by the citizens of Tavir, but also by the City Council, which received this news with "great pleasure", when last year the 2020-2030 Innovation Agenda was announced. "We were very happy and we thought that the connection to the Mediterranean Diet makes perfect sense", said Ana Paula Martins, president of the municipality of Tavir.
“It makes sense that it should be a privileged study centre, that can have all aspects of the Mediterranean Diet, and that there are good projects and many partnerships with regional entities. May this space be a reference, not only for the Algarve region, but for the country”, stressed the mayor.
The «identity of the Mediterranean Algarve and its landscape dimension» will continue to be one of the focuses of this new Innovation Hub in Tavira, as «we have here collections that are unique in the country and that, in practice, are our identity», he pointed out Pedro Valadas Monteiro.
«We will continue with the valuable collection of wine and table grape varieties», as well as «with the fruit tree collections and trials», namely almond, carob, fig, loquat, olive, pomegranate and apple trees (Monchique pear).
«We collect, we study, we are almost detectives around these lands in the Algarve, looking for those lost varieties, and we have always been lucky and happy to count on the support of farmers who alert us, as they too are concerned about preserving ours. identity», explained the regional director of Agriculture.
The Hub will include other dimensions of the Mediterranean Diet but, initially, only interventions are planned in the main building, the network of paths, the fences and the recovery of a daughter-in-law, «essential works to create conditions for other partners to come and present their initiatives», highlighted Valadas Monteiro.
Although the project is still in its infancy, there are already well-defined partnerships, with the 20 entities involved, and ideas for the Tavira Agricultural Experimentation Center.
Under these partnerships, an urban vegetable garden will be built on a parcel of land in the space, a project that involves the Municipality and Associação In Loco, so that the community of the five neighborhoods of Tavira – Atalaia, José Joaquim Jara, Horta do Carmo, Porta Nova e Bela Fria – practice a more sustainable and biological agriculture, with also space for socializing.
On the other hand, the Centro Ciência Viva de Tavira will be transferred to the facilities of the Polo de Inovação, but Pedro Valadas Monteiro also wants a Mediterranean Diet Farm, «a new philosophy of the Ciência Viva Centers that are thematic farms».
«It is also our intention to fulfill an old dream with the installation, in the former building of the Posto Agrário, of a Museum of the Rural World in the Algarve», but, at the same time, «a place of interpretation of the Mediterranean Diet».
With the Algarve Biomedical Center (ABC), another of the Innovation Hub's partners, «we have the desire to have a unit of excellence here, something innovative», the Campus Med Life, which will be installed in the current CEAT, and which will be dedicated to health and active aging, added the official.
«It will be a set of spaces where we will encourage and provide training in what is a healthy lifestyle. It will have thematic circuits and will appeal to the use of virtual reality technologies to transmit the teachings of the Mediterranean Diet, transposed to everyday life».
There will also be space for a Physical Rehabilitation Center, as part of the partnership that ABC has with the Johns Hopkins University, in the United States of America.
Another project to "try to achieve", according to Valadas Monteiro, this time in partnership with the University of Algarve, is a "Multidisciplinary Studies Center, associated with the Mediterranean Diet".
In the words of the regional director for Agriculture, this is "a very ambitious project", but one that "will bear good results".
The Tavira Innovation Hub has, in the 20 partner entities, «a diversified group, as the Mediterranean Diet also has a wide range of associated areas», he explained.
The University of Algarve, the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission, AMAL – Algarve Intermunicipal Community, the Lagoa and Loulé Councils, the Agricultural and Veterinary Research Institute, the Ciência Viva Centers, the Região de Turismo do Algarve, the Regional Directorates for Culture and Education, the APA – Portuguese Environment Agency, the Algarve Wine Commission, Associação de Regantes, Fundação Portuguesa de Cardiologia, Museu ZERO, Associação In Loco and Tertúlia Algarvia .
The Citizens' Movement for the Tavira Agrarian Experimentation Center (CEAT) and Tavira Urban Gardens are not yet part of these partners. According to farmer Ângela Rosa, one of the Movement's leaders, the issue is that they were not able to legalize in time, as the constitution of an association is still in progress.
As for the graphic image of the Tavira Innovation Pole, as well as that of Faro, Pedro Valadas Monteiro announced that it will be created «by students of the Communication Design course, at the University of Algarve». The challenge was proposed based on the partnership with UAlg and the projects will then be evaluated by a jury.
In conclusion, the Minister of Agriculture said that the «Tavira Innovation Hub, by working on various aspects of the Mediterranean Diet, will encourage this theme and will end up enhancing its value. the National Plan for Balanced and Sustainable Food», which was presented, also this Wednesday, by the government official.
Photos: Rúben Bento | Sul Informação
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