Livestock and dairy production management in emerging countries Erasmus Project

Project Title

Livestock and dairy production management in emerging countries

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Agriculture, forestry and fisheries

Project Summary

Project Context :
This project is the result of a request made in 2014 by a dairy company operating in emerging countries that has a problem training its European dairy technicians to work in these countries. Dairy processing is always undertaken locally in factories located near the raw material supply areas . In order to assure optimal production dairy companies are obliged to organize their mild collection in a manner that guarantees regular supply in both quantity and quality. Their technicians are European-trained, thus their technical reference points ( in terms of herd management, nutrition..) cultural references ( work organization, animal welfare..) are often not in sync with those in emerging countries where the conditions for animal husbandry and the technical-economic results are very different from European standards.
ESA was contacted about this company issue and saw that a “Strategic Partnership” could be an appropriate tool to develop a training program to respond to this need.

Objectives:
The objectives are two-fold: Firstly, to create a one-month training module, preceded by a refresher course offered through distance learning, to a public destined to work as dairy technicians in emerging countries ; Secondly, to generate a pool of young European graduates available to work in international companies in the dairy sector.

Number and profiles of the participating organizations:
The project integrated the 4 following partners:
– L’ESA: a Higher Education Institution ( HEI) in Agriculture based in Angers, France. Project coordinator.
– CAH Dronton; HEI in Agricultural based in Dronton, based in The Netherlands
– USAMV, HEI in Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine based in Bucharest , Romania.
– Groupe Lactalis; a major European dairy company, implanted in 85 countries , including emerging countries where milk collection has to be organized.

Description of principal activities put in place :
A survey to establish the competences required by companies working in emerging counties
A mission to Kazakhstan in analyze its dairy sector in order to build a real-life case study. ( Mission not financed by the project but by Lactalis)
The creation of an on-line animal science and economic management refresher course
The creation of a four-week module taught in-house
The teaching of this module
The creation of a 6 – language lexicon ( written and oral) in technical vocabulary
3 dissemination events + participation in a scientific conference (Rabat, Morrocco)
The administrative and pedagogical coordination of the project

Results and impacts achieved:
The refresher module in animal science and economic management was created and put on line
The two in-house training modules were run in January 2017 and January 2017 and attended by 43 students of 6 nationalities – XXX of whom validated the 10ECTS.
To permit the module creation a survey was undertaken of 16 European companies in three countries in order to define the competencies they required for technicians working in emerging countries.
4 project team members effected a one-week study visit in Kazakhstan in order to create a case study
The 6 language written and audio language lexicon of technical vocabulary was created and put on line. (French, English, Rumanian, Dutch, Russian and Brazilian)
The partner company offered 2 internships during the program
The distance – learning module will be used by the project partners in the future. The one-month in house module will be integrated into a final year semester in ESA and iin a minor in CAH
The 3 HEI network was reinforced thanks to this project and has led to new cooperation: the opening of a joint bachelor between CAH and ESA in local food products in January 2017 . Thanks to the contact established during the Kazakh mission ESA Kazakh partner universities are now sending students to this bachelor program under an ICM program. This ICM is also a direct consequence of LADMEC.
European dairy companies now have a pool of 43 young graduates from which to recruit technicians trained to give technical advice in merging countries.
The training module was conceived in a way that allows its methodology to be transferred to other agricultural sectors – assuring the raw material supply for vegetable factories, for example.

Eventual long-term benefits:
The cooperation between the 3 partners HEIs has been endurably reinforced.
Companies in three countries have been educated in mission and functioning of Erasmus+
The pool of 43 program graduates will serve the long-term development of European companies in emerging countries.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 220820 Eur

Project Coordinator

ASS GROUPE ECOLE SUPERIEURE AGRICULTURE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• UNIVERSITATEA DE STIINTE AGRONOMICE SI MEDICINA VETERINARA DIN BUCURESTI
• LACTALIS GESTION PLANIFICATION ORGANISATION
• STICHTING AERES GROEP