FruitFlyNet-ii partners meeting in Tunisia highlights the first results obtained to fight against Mediterranean flies

On behalf of the FruitFlynet ii project, the third Consortium Meeting was organized in Tunisia by the Olive Tree Institute (IO) and the Regional Research Centre on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture at Chott-Mariem (CRRHAB) from May 16 to May 18, 2023. The meeting, held at the premises of IO in the city of Sfax, Tunisia, on the 16th and 17^th of May 2023. In the last day, a field-training was carried out in the 18-ha peach-site (Mabrouka nursery, Khledia, Tunisia). Around thirty participants from Greece, Italy, Spain, Lebanon, and Tunisia attended both events and have been informed of the progress regarding the FruitFlyNet-ii project activities and results.

• AUA: Agricultural University of Athens, Greece, Lead Beneficiary
• UCO: University of Cordoba, Spain
• UNIMOL: University of Molise, Italy
• LARI: Lebanese Agricultural Reseach Institute, Lebanon
• IO: Olive Tree Institute, Tunisia
• CRRHAB: Regional Research Center of Horticulture and Organic Farming, Tunisia

The Consortium Meeting marked a productive start to collaboration and progress. Dr. Ines Ksentini moderated the introductory session, which began with an opening address by Prof. Bechir Ben Rouina, General Director of the Olive Tree Institute, welcoming all participants. On behalf of the project Professor Theodore Tsiligiridis, the Project Coordinator of the project also welcomed the participants and thanked the General Director for the hospitality provided.

The three days Consortium Meeting was a successful event, highlighting the dedication, expertise, and collaborative spirit of all partners. The event witnessed fruitful discussions, progress on e-traps and e-services. The participants showed their interest to the innovative concept of the project e-traps and the sustainable agricultural practices, particularly in the training session. Up to now the project's implementation progress highlights significant advancements made, as for example, the development and testing the two e-trap prototypes, one per key-pest considered, including the comparison-efficacy tests of both e-traps, as well as the evaluation of their side-effects. Note that to facilitate the transition process a hybrid scheme of electronic and conventional traps has been applied in all wide-area sites. Results are obtained by monitoring the olive and Mediterranean fruit flies in the five and three wide-area sites as well as on the experimental sites. Thanks to the update of the geodatabases taken place in all sites the finalization of the first cultivation period has been successfully completed in all eight wide-area sites. In addition, several e-services, aiming to collect, study and deliver the field data required for the establishment and operation of the two Location Aware System (LAS) prototypes, namely the OliveFlyNet for olive fruit fly and the MedFlyNet for Mediterranean fruit fly, were demonstrated in the training session with the use of QField mobile GIS software. Crop and past data include the details of each site, namely, the position of trees, the cultivars and the cultivation practices, the means for the target pest monitoring, the sensors for meteorological data monitoring, the visual insect identification and counting, the spraying decision protocols against each target pest, details of the bait or other spraying applications, and data of beneficial insect monitoring. Further crop and past data are used in the Decision Support (DS) algorithms created for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) spraying.

Progress updates from all project partners, with each partner presenting their work achievements. Valuable insights were shared by UCO (Dr. Meelad Yousef, Emilio Manuel Calvo Cerezo, and Flora Moreno), UNIMOL (Prof. Andrea Sciarretta), LARI (Dr. Ahmed Bitar, and Dr. Linda Kfoury), IO (Manel Ben Ameur), CRRHAB (Prof. Mohamed Braham), and AUA (Prof. Dionosios Perdikis). Their presentations provided valuable insights into the project's achievements, and the discussions concluded with a dedicated discussion period, encouraging productive conversations and feedback exchange among participants. Coordinators spoke also about the project next steps: deployment and operation of LAS prototypes during the 2^nd cultivation period, the implementation of the two living labs as scheduled, the preparation of spinoffs, the dissemination events to be programmed, the ongoing publications, as well as final consortium meeting to be organized in September 2023. Finally, Important observations and lessons from the second Interim Report, leading to a stimulating discussion among participants.