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<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe president of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Oriol Junqueras, has visited today for the first time the Foundation Centre de Recerca en Agrotecnologia <\/i>(Agrotecnio), a CERCA center of reference dedicated to agri-food research.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his stay, Junqueras has met with the director of the center, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Bonet, and has spoken with the heads of some of the research groups that make up Agrotecnio. The visit has served to know first-hand the scientific projects and the contributions of the center to sustainability, food security and competitiveness of the Catalan agri-food sector. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat Agrotecnio does is of first international level. It is an example of how research excellence can transform our production model and make it more sustainable, more innovative and rooted in the territory\u201d, said Junqueras. \u201cCatalonia needs centers like this one, which generate applied knowledge and connect science with the real needs of society, the primary sector and the food industry\u201d. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The director of Agrotecnio, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Bonet, stressed that \u201cthe results of the research carried out at the center are at the international forefront and of great interest to the Catalan agri-food sector, which represents 19% of Catalonia\u2019s GDP\u201d. Bonet also stressed Agrotecnio\u2019s vocation to establish synergies with companies, institutions and other research centers to transfer knowledge and promote innovation. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agrotecnio brings together 16 research groups from the Universitat de Lleida (UdL) i la Universitat de Barcelona (UB), organized into three main areas: plant and environment, animal and food. With a comprehensive look at the entire food production chain, the center addresses disciplines ranging from agricultural sciences to food technology, nutrition, environment or animal welfare. Founded in 2012, Agrotecnio is based at the agri-food, forestry and veterinary campus of the UdL. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Visiting senior researchers<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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During his visit, Junqueras was able to get to know the work carried out by different research groups. Professor Teresa Capell, from the Applied Plant Biotechnology group, explained to him how they are working on genetically edited corn, rice and wheat crops to make them resistant to pests, drought and to enrich them with vitamins or even to block the development of diseases. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0The president of Esquerra Republicana also visited some experimental fields with Roxana Savin and Gustavo Slafer, from the Crop Physiology research group. Savin and Slafer \u2013recently awarded with the Narc\u00eds de Monturiol Medal- research on the processes of growth and development of cereals, identifying alternatives to traditional practices in cultivation and genetic improvement to increase the efficiency of resource use and sustainability in the production of extensive crops.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the building where the AgroICT and Precision Agriculture group works, researcher \u00c0lex Escol\u00e0 spoke to him about the use of sensors and automation in agriculture. Junqueras was able to see firsthand how technology is applied in the field, with a practical demonstration of the use of drones in agricultural research. This technology facilitates more efficient and sustainable precision agriculture and exemplifies the center\u2019s commitment to knowledge transfer to the productive sector. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Junqueras also met with researchers Romi Pena and Gabriel de la Fuente, from the Animal Breeding and Nutrition and Environment groups. Animal Breeding focuses on the development and application of molecular markers for the improvement of animal production, health and welfare, especially in pigs. Genomic approaches are applied to both the DNA and RNA levels to identify mutations that can help improve the accuracy of breeding programs. From the Animal Nutrition and Environment group, they briefly explained the studies they carry out on intestinal microbiota and the use of in vitro techniques in mammals, ruminants and non-ruminants. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The president of Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Oriol Junqueras, has visited today for the first time the Foundation Centre de Recerca en Agrotecnologia (Agrotecnio), a CERCA center of reference dedicated to agri-food research.\u00a0 During his stay, Junqueras has met with the director of the center, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Bonet, and has spoken with the heads […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5299,"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/5299"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrotecnio.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}