AGROSELVIT – DISAFA

The Department of Agricultural Forest and Food Sciences (AGROSELVIT - DISAFA) was formed in 2013 by fusing five departments and among these the former Dept. AgroSelviTer.

The department carries out research, with a multidisciplinary approach and in collaboration with other Italian or foreign departments and research institutes, and performs consulting work for public or private bodies. Main research fields are primary production, processing plant and animal products, interactions of agricultural and livestock production with local communities and the environment. It focuses on agricultural and forest ecosystems and food chains in their biological, productive, ecological, technological, engineering and management, while taking into account economic and environmental issues and using biotechnological approach.

The AGROSELVIT research group specifically involved in this proposal deals with the development and management of sustainable cropping systems, and studies interactions between agriculture and environment. Researches are developed at different scales: controlled microcosms, experimental plots, private farms and territorial scale.

The main research topics explored are:

design and management of sustainable cropping systems
assessment of soil organic matter mineralization
fertilization management, mainly focusing on manures and compost
modelling of crop growth, water, carbon and nitrogen cycles
measurement of greenhouse gases emissions to the atmosphere
evaluation of nitrogen leaching at a plot and territorial scale
soil tillage management.

Research group has undertaken projects dealing with reutilisation of wastes for agriculture activities. It is responsible for a long-term experimental platform dealing with the re-use of livestock excreta for crop production, included in several European projects (EXPEER - FP7-INFRA 2010-1; CATCH-C - FP7-KBBE 2011-5; ReUseWaste - FP7-PEOPLE 2011-ITN; VALERIE – FP7–KBBE 2013-1), and of a long-term regional demonstrative platform dealing with agricultural practices for non-livestock farms within Rural Development Programme. It is consultant within a Life+ project (LIFE09 ENV/IT/000208 – AQUA) for two demonstration farms in the Piemonte region for the implementation of modern and efficient manure management and demonstration of feasible techniques to prevent N losses to the environment. It is also a consultant in another Life+ project (LIFE10 ENV/IT/347 - UNIZEO) for experimental demonstration of a new zeolite-coated nitrogen fertilizer.