LAND RECLAMATION INSTITUTE

LAND RECLAMATION INSTITUTE
NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION

Organisation type: 
Research organisations
Country: 
Greece
Description: 

Expertise: Land Reclamation Institute (LRI) is one of the Institutes of the National Agricultural Research Foundation (NAGREF), which is a non-profit research organisation, a legal entity of the public sector, supervised by the Ministry of Rural Development and Food (MRDF), and governed by its own Management Board and Scientific Committee. The work that has been done and is being currently conducted by the Institute may be divided in the following categories: (a) research work,(b) technical assistance, (c) training and dissemination of knowledge. A multitude of scientific issues is addressed through the projects the Institute is involved with. These include crop water requirements, development of irrigation methods, relation between water and crop production, root pattern investigation, field drainage, reclamation of degraded soils, irrigation efficiency, utilisation of geothermal energy in agriculture, groundwater artificial recharge, groundwater and soil monitoring, water resources management. Especially in the field of water resources monitoring and management, the research team of LRI has been actively involved in numerous national projects concerning groundwater resources characterisation and management through the compilation and operation of monitoring networks and also the compilation of regional scale groundwater flow and pollution transport numerical models. LRI members have participated in the research team of NAGREF for the compilation of Action Plans (AP) and a Code for Good Agricultural Practice (COGAP) for the declared vulnerable basins of Greece to groundwater nitrate pollution of agricultural origin, in accordance to Directive 676/1991/EEC. LRI has been actively involved in the elaboration of several national and european research projects amongst which in the following initiatives: FP6, INTERREG, LIFE, COST, LEONARDO.

Facility: A well equipped laboratory for physical and chemical soil and water analysis has been established at the Institute and recently accredited under ISO 17025 standards.

Priority: The main scientific issues are groundwater artificial recharge, groundwater and soil monitoring and assessment, water resources management, crop water requirements, field drainage, reclamation of degraded soils, irrigation efficiency, utilisation of geothermal energy in agriculture.