{"id":11413,"date":"2026-10-27T09:55:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/watermellon-project-showcases-agricultural-innovation-at-world-food-day-2026-in-lebanon\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T09:55:37","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T09:55:37","slug":"watermellon-project-showcases-agricultural-innovation-at-world-food-day-2026-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/watermellon-project-showcases-agricultural-innovation-at-world-food-day-2026-in-lebanon\/","title":{"rendered":"WaterMellon Project Showcases Agricultural Innovation at World Food Day 2026 in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project presented <\/span><b>preliminary field trial results on quinoa and teff, highlighting their potential for more resilient and sustainable farming systems.<\/b><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>WaterMellon Project<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> took part in <\/span><b>Lebanon\u2019s celebration of World Food Day 2026<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, held at <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beit al-Diyaa<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Baadaran, Mount Lebanon, under the patronage and in the presence of the <\/span><b>Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Nizar Hani<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Organised by the <\/span><b>Ministry of Agriculture<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in collaboration with the <\/span><b>Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>World Food Programme (WFP)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the event was held under the theme <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cInnovation Today\u2026 Tomorrow\u2019s Food\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It brought together representatives of public institutions, diplomatic missions, international organisations, municipalities, agricultural cooperatives, farmers, producers and other stakeholders in Lebanon\u2019s <\/span><b>agri-food sector<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The celebration highlighted the role of <\/span><b>agricultural innovation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>modern technologies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, alongside local food heritage, in <\/span><b>strengthening food security<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, supporting farmers\u2019 livelihoods, protecting natural resources and creating opportunities for <\/span><b>women and young people<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the <\/span><b>WaterMellon Project booth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>ICU team<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> presented the project\u2019s activities in Lebanon and shared <\/span><b>preliminary results from field trials involving quinoa and teff<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. These crops are being explored for their potential to support more <\/span><b>climate-resilient and sustainable agricultural practices<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The booth attracted <\/span><b>hundreds of visitors<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including farmers and agricultural professionals, offering an opportunity to share information about the project, exchange knowledge and encourage dialogue on <\/span><b>innovative approaches to the challenges facing agriculture in Lebanon<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Participation in <\/span><b>World Food Day 2026<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> provided an opportunity for WaterMellon to strengthen the visibility of its activities and engage with stakeholders working towards a <\/span><b>more sustainable and resilient agri-food sector<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" data-id=\"11409\" src=\"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3-1-1024x682.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11409\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3-1-1024x682.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3-1-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3-1-768x511.png 768w, https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3-1-1536x1022.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/3-1.png 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" data-id=\"11406\" src=\"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-1024x682.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-11406\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-1024x682.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-768x511.png 768w, https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1-1536x1022.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.icu.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/2-1.png 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The project presented preliminary field trial results on quinoa and teff, highlighting their potential for more resilient and sustainable farming systems. The WaterMellon Project took part in Lebanon\u2019s celebration of World Food Day 2026, held at Beit al-Diyaa in Baadaran, Mount Lebanon, under the patronage and in the presence of the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11414,"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11413\/revisions\/11414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.icu.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}