Climate needs farmers

France, Sustainable Farming

The main thematic in France was the sustainable and local agriculture and the group discovered the Chart of the Collective created in the area of Basin Lake Geneva.  It promotes and develops an agriculture wich enables farmers to live decently from their job and provides consumers, acces to healthy, tasty and quality food, produced locally without synthetic chemicals.

We visited different kinds of farms in « Haute-Savoie » with different ways of selling directly their products to the consumers (e.g : through a community supported agriculture) and respecting environment with an exemple of  « Natura 2000 measures » on the moutain « Salève », then a cheese factory, the Mountain Nature Centre, and the group tasted several typical meals of the region.

The meeting in Tokai / Hungary with full of experiences

The main issue of the hungarian meeting was: living together with the nature and agriculture saving the climate and the landscape.
The meeting place was in Tokaj, centre of Historical Tokaj Wine Region, in the Tokaj-Bodrogzug protected landscape area.
We have heard presentations about the landscape-managing of the protected area,  about the natural values of this territory, about a lokal initiative for marketing of local products, and about the agricultural managing of flooded areas.
We have visited the "HÉTSZŐLŐ" Wine Estate, where informed us about the used organic methods of the vineyard and we could taste the vines of this Estate, too.
In Erdőbénye we have visited a sheep farm located in a protected wooded pasture, tasted the local cheese, and a cooper showed us the traditional barrel producing method.
We walked to the TISZA river to see the farming on flooded areas and we had a boat trip on the river of BODROG and TISZA, too, to see the natural values of this part of Hungary.

Farming is a profession which feeds most of the world’s population. The knowledge and understanding of farmers on the interrelationship between agriculture and climate change is essential for the very sustainability of food production. While scientists are conducting many researches on those interactions, there is much less knowledge available at the practical level. Today the majority of the curricula (especially in New EU countries) continue to promote intensive, CO2 and NO2 emitting methods of farming, looking for economic efficiency regardless of the negative impact on the environment, biodiversity and climate.

To respond to the need for a new approach in farming, a Learning Partnership was created – involving a wide range of specialists – farmers, scientists, entrepreneurs, trade unions and NGOs. This diverse group of institutions and organizations from the world of science, education and work, will have the possibility to exchange their knowledge and experience on the different situations and agricultural methods in their respective countries and to develop and propose a training content with educational tools that respond to the new challenges of agriculture in the 21st century.

The title of the proposed project comprises all important aspects we refer to: CLIMATE need farmers - Cooperation, Limitation, Innovation, Mobilization, Action, Tradition, Education.

The knowledge transfer will include: agrobiodiversity, food security, soil management, agriculture of proximity.

The final results besides webpage/social platform and networking, will be: manual about climate change and agriculture, free postcard promoting the project ideas, database of organic farming schools in Europe, dictionary of technical and specific English words related to the project topics.

Project context:

Farming feeds most of the world’s population. The knowledge and understanding of farmers on the interrelationship between agriculture and climate change is essential for the very sustainability of food production. While scientists are conducting many researches on those interactions, there is much less knowledge available at the practical level. Today the majority of the curricula (especially in New EU countries) continue to promote intensive, CO2 and NO2 emitting methods of farming, looking for economic efficiency regardless of the negative impact on the environment, biodiversity and climate.

Project objectives:

To respond to the need for a new approach in farming, a Learning Partnership was created – involving a wide range of specialists – farmers, scientists, entrepreneurs, trade unions and NGOs. This diverse group of institutions and organizations from the world of science, education and work, will:

1/ transfer and exchange their knowledge and experience on the different situations and agricultural methods in their respective countries

2/ raise farmers and decision maker’s awareness on the projects topics related to agriculture and climate change, though networking and educational tools

3/ propose recommendations on training contents to respond to the new challenges of agriculture in the 21st century: a manual on existing good practices will be published.

Project activities:

Every partner is responsible for one thematic goal, he will contact the experts in their country, collect the best practice examples, prepare the presentation (if necessary the translation) and recruitment of participants; the chosen topics are:

- Agro biodiversity a tool for climate changes mitigation – Poland

- Climate change and food security - Turkey

- Agriculture of proximity - France

- Farm management approach & monitoring to reduce the impact of climate changes - Austria

- Nature in agriculture – Hungary

- Gene resources in agriculture - Germany

Every partner will add his knowledge to the final products: the first climate manual for farmers, web/facebook profile, dictionary in partners language of specific words with English as transnational language.

Project deliverables:

For the good practices manual is responsible: Austria

For the web/facebook platform is responsible: Turkey

For the PR free bookmark is responsible: France

For the database on organic farming schools in Europe is responsible: Germany

For the inventory of technical and specific terms on agriculture and climate change is responsible: Hungary

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.

This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.