In the last 100 year, European agriculture suffered significant changes. Beginning of 21st century is marked by a global scarcity of water resources, environmental pollution and increased soil and water salinity. In these circumstances the best solution is to identify, collecting and exploiting local ecotypes of fruit trees and vines grown in the border areas, which are not currently known (except by those in whose households there are).
Presenting a high capacity of tolerance to some abiotic stress factors, fruit trees and grapevine genotypes may represent an important source of genes, with which in the future breeding programs can create varieties with high adaptability to adverse impacts of climate change. On the other hand, local collection of these genotypes will contribute to the identification, protection, conservation, and enhancement of existing natural resources in the border area, thus preserving the identity of the Euroregion in the context of agriculture globalization.
The project expected results are conservation, protection and sustainable use of fruit tree and grapevine germplasm resources in the cross border area, and the establishment of cross-border networks for education and studies concerning the environmental resources, by carrying out the study of germplasm resource evaluation, by organizing the summer school and the setting up a fruit tree and grapevine germplasm repository in the cross-border area.
