Merike Vaher

Ukraine has a quarter of the world’s chernozems and 41.5 million hectares of agricultural land, covering 70 percent of the country. Agriculture pollutes about 60 percent of land resources and approximately 45-48 percent of reservoirs, representing 18-24 % of global GHG emissions. SmartAGRO's goal is to develop a precision fertilization solution that will help Ukraine achieve its climate policy goals. SmartAGRO is based on capillary electrophoresis technology, which enables the determination of various macro- and microelements in the soil. The goal is to develop a precise agriculture platform with recommendations for soil fertilization for agricultural crops growing in Ukraine, taking into account the chemical profile of the soil, the type and the crops grown, helping to reduce the use of fertilizers, increase/maintain yields and reduce GHG emissions.

Georgia produces about 70 thousand tonnes of mandarins annually, 50% of which gets exported. Local fruit juice industry utilizes most of the mandarins left in the country to produce mandarin juice. However, the leftover mandarin pomace causes serious environmental issues as the piled up pomace waste leaches acidic decomposting products as well as essential oils into the environment. Mandarin pomace is a rich source of fine chemicals and the project will develop environmentally friendly technologies to extrat those chemicals from the waste.

The aim of this project is to apply an innovative approach to the study of the antioxidant / antibacterial properties of plant extracts used in folk medicine using structure-based fractionation, characterization by multi-instrumental methods and evaluation of activity against Gram-negative bacteria (E. coli and B. burgdorferi).