ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS

PROJECT MEETINGS

11/05/2016

ERMES meeting with the Spanish users

Some ERMES representatives of UVEG, UJI, IREA and UMIL held a meeting with current and potential Spanish end-users of the project: farmers, consultants and organisations/consortia related to rice agricolture. Over 25 different persons representing the rice sector in the ERMES Spanish area, were present. The meeting was held on the premises of CRDO (Consejo Regulador Denominación de Origen Arroz de Valencia) on 29th of April 2016.

The meeting was planned in order to show to the Spanish end-users the capabilities of ERMES tools and products, and their practical use. In particular, the ERMES Rice Local Service have been presented as an hands-on tutorial, in which farmers have become ERMES-savy as regards tools and products. Through examples and discussions they had a better understanding on “how to” and “what for” use the service to support their rice practices.

Users demonstrated their interest, particularly as regards the possibility to access to dynamic information and modelling results (meteorological conditions, seasonal patterns – i.e. intrafield variability-, phenological stage and risk of pyricularia), as well as in the use of tools (Smart App and Geoportal) for keeping track of field management information and receiving alerts.

The participation to the meeting has been interactive: Spanish farmers made several targeted and technical questions to the ERMES team. The users also provided constructive feedbacks, showing their interest in the project’s products. Ten farmers downloaded the ERMES Smart App and started using and testing the tools during or immediately after the meeting.