This scientific initiative, led by Lidia Esther Robaina, a researcher with the Aquaculture Research Group, has as its main objective the adaptation of seedlings and saplings of different cotton species to extreme temperature and salinity conditions and to aquaponics systems through co-cultivation with fish.
The Aquaculture Research Group (GIA) of the ECOAQUA University Institute, belonging to the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), participated this week in the II Regional Circular Economy Fair, held at the Regional Science and Technology Park of Northern Gran Canaria, located in La Punta de Gáldar, in the north-west of the island, with a pilot project for sustainable cotton cultivation in the Canary Islands led by researcher Lidia Esther Robaina Robaina.
This scientific initiative, funded by EIT Food, has the collaboration of the company Magtech and the Gran Canaria Economic Promotion Society (SPEGC). Its main objective is to adapt seedbeds and seedlings of different cotton species to extreme temperature and salinity conditions, as well as to integrate them into aquaponics systems through co-cultivation with fish. This innovative approach seeks to promote agricultural and aquaculture sustainability in challenging environments.
Image of the stand where the pilot project led by Lidia E. Robaina was displayed.
During this event, organised by the Association of Municipalities of Northern Gran Canaria, in collaboration with the Gran Canaria Island Energy Council, the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Canary Islands Institute of Technology, the material collected during this first pilot project in the Canary Islands was presented to great acclaim. According to Lidia E. Robaina, ‘very encouraging and will continue to be re-evaluated from now on in a European pilot project’.
Detail of the pilot project shown at the 2nd Regional Circular Economy Fair of the Canary Islands.
Robaina, who holds a PhD in Marine Sciences, has focused her research on aquaculture and sustainable development. With more than 80 R&D&I projects and over 100 scientific publications, the GIA researcher has been recognised since 2018 as one of the four most prestigious and internationally renowned researchers at the ULPGC.7
Researcher Lidia E. Robaina.
The main objective of the second edition of the Canary Islands Circular Economy Fair is ‘to promote social and business awareness of the need to change from a linear economic model to a circular model, which requires specific tools to inform, educate and raise awareness among Canarian society’.
Alongside the exhibition of 20 circular economy projects in different tents set up by public institutions and private companies from the Canary Islands, located in the park's car park, the fair was rounded off with a technical conference on the use of textile waste, in which various experts participated, as part of the TEXTIL project (“Weaving a sustainable future: boosting the circular economy in the textile sector”, 1/MAC/2/2.6/0096), funded by the Interreg VI-D Madeira-Azores-Canary Islands Cooperation Programme MAC 2021-2027.
One of the moments during the opening of the fair.
The opening ceremony was presided over by the President of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, Antonio Morales, the Rector of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lluís Serra, the President of the Mancomunidad and Mayor of Gáldar, Teodoro Sosa, as well as the Director General of Ecological Transition and the Fight against Climate Change of the Canary Islands Government, Ángel Montañés.