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Promoting climate resilience in the agricultural sector with native seeds and better-adapted crops in Navarre, Spain

Navarre is proactively preserving vegetable varieties and showcasing the best-adapted cereals and other crops to each agricultural climate in the region.

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Details

Publication date
8 April 2026 (Last updated on: 8 April 2026)
Author
Directorate-General for Climate Action
Country
Spain

Description

Key Learnings

  • Recovering Local Varieties: Recovering nearly a hundred local vegetable seed varieties, many adapted to the specific regional agroclimatic conditions, has enabled preserving species cultivated over generations. These adapted varieties represent an opportunity for future crops under new climatic conditions.
  • Best adapted plant material selection: Developing a platform, which includes a public “ADAPTATION” module, allows transferring the most relevant plant-related information to advisers and professionals. The platform – GEXPER – developed by the public company Institute of Agri-food Technologies and Infrastructures of Navarre (INTIA) enabled selecting the best-adapted plant material for the given location.
  • Knowledge transfer has supported other initiatives, such as the "Libraries and Seeds" project, which has facilitated public access to these varieties, to promote local species variety cultivation and preservation in both urban and rural gardens.

Summary

Climate change is driving biodiversity loss, degrading ecosystems, and threatening the long-term viability of agriculture. Preserving and recovering local varieties, better adapted to their environments than many commercial ones, helps address these challenges and strengthens the territory’s resilience. Through the LIFE-IP NAdapta-CC project, multiple seed species have been collected and identified across several areas of the Navarre region thanks to close collaboration between the project team and local citizens. INTIA has classified, multiplied, and sent these seeds for conservation in the regional plant material bank. It has also developed GEXPER, a digital platform that includes a public ADAPTATION module designed to share key information with farmers and support the selection of the best-adapted plant material. This knowledge transfer has also contributed to a free public guide on vegetable varieties and inspired related initiatives such as Libraries and Seeds, both of which benefit from the project’s ongoing work.

A native melon, next to its technical sheet in the guide

Files

  • 8 APRIL 2026
Agricultural sector with native seeds and better-adapted crops in Navarre, Spain - Adaptation Story