Operationalized multi-stakeholders research, technology and innovation platform to enhance date palm integrated production system in the NENA region

Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) is one of high economical value crops in the NENA region in general and the Arab Peninsula and North Africa Sub Regions in particular where date palm represents a large cultivated area with an estimation of 1.30 million ha. However, constraints to production, improved genetic resources, integrated pest management, postharvest handling and processing, marketing and trade, limit the competitiveness of the date palm sector in local, regional and international markets. On the other hand, the region is experiencing a huge knowledge gap, as the knowledge produced locally is not easily and widely accessible. This platform aims at establishing an interactive and collaborative multi-stakeholder regional platform to promote the date palm. The main objectives of this platform are to interconnect relevant stakeholders effectively, to share, exchange and consolidate available knowledge, technologies and innovations related to date palm value chain, and to actively contribute to addressing major problems in the date palm production. The platform was designed to facilitate a full cycle model from idea to innovation and vice versa including back end server for storing data, processing information, providing artificial intelligence support and providing web services to communicate with other parts of the platform. Front end application provides interface to various stakeholders and displays reports and statistics via dashboard. The platform is characterized by active dashboard for discussion, forum, projects, news, activities, reports and statistics and performed as a knowledge hub that effectively utilize any new opportunities in an economic or social process. The operationalized platform demonstrates a model of collaboration among relevant stakeholders on research, development, innovations, regulations and funding. The platform also identifies a set of research priorities, gaps and practices, promising technologies and technical innovations. Therefore, this generated knowledge with better integration among stakeholders, enhanced learning processes with multiple benefits, and created business opportunities for stakeholders.