The EU funded DIVERFARMING project (Crop Diversification for products and ecosystem services, H2020 program of the EC) is collaborating with the educational project of the Region of Murcia IDIES (I+D in Secondary Education)
CEBAS-CSIC is a partner of DIVERFARMING and hosts three students of the high school “Salvador Sandoval” from Torres de Cotillas (Murcia). During the entire academic year these students take a special research introduction course during which they will be researching soil properties and soil erosion in irrigated citrus and rainfed almond plantations at DIVERFARMING field site in the Region of Murcia.
Dr. María Martínez-Mena and Dr. Elvira Díaz Pereira coordinate this work while the students also collaborate with Bram Koning, a Master student of the University of Wageningen (the Netherlands) who is developing his Master thesis in the same field site. A stimulating experience for all in the framework of an ongoing research project!
The pictures give an impression of the students and researchers starting field work in heavily eroded traditional terraced terrains of rainfed almond plantations (photo 1), recently levelled new almond plantations (photo 2 and 3) and irrigated citrus trees (photo 4 and 5).