Be part of CSA! – European Participatory Training Programme for Community Supported Agriculture Erasmus Project

Project Title

Be part of CSA! – European Participatory Training Programme for Community Supported Agriculture

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 adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Agriculture, forestry and fisheries; Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

The project “Be part of CSA! – European Participatory Training Programme for Community Supported Agriculture” was a strategic partnership between 2014-16 of four partners to design a European core training programme and disseminate it on local, national and European level. The partners were the Association of Conscious Consumers, (co-ordinator, Hungary), PRO-BIO Liga (Czech Republic), CRIES (Romania) and the international network, URGENCI (based in France).
The subject of our educational programme is Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). A form of short food supply chain, where both consumers and farmers make long term commitments and share risks. Often producing organically, the ecological footprint of CSA is smaller than that of intensive agriculture. CSA is one of the best examples of sustainable food production and consumption practices. Based its innovative sustainability, business and organizational solutions, the CSA contributes to the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy: the EU becomes a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. For example these partnerships ensure farmers a secure income and support the rural economy. CSA means market opportunities for small-scale farmers who are otherwise too small for local markets. Fostering local food demand also contributes to local employment.
Thanks to the successful cooperation, the Be part of CSA! project facilitated the spread of CSA initiatives in Europe by providing knowledge, skills and competences to local communities. The three major pillars of the project were the following: I) To design a European core training program on CSA by 1) elaborating a modular training, by 2) elaborating supporting educational materials and by 3) running, evaluating and improving the core program. II) To assure the dissemination and the accessibility of the training program to various communities by 1) building expert capacity for staff and multipliers (volunteers of the partner organisations who disseminates the project results in their local networks) and 2) make the training program accessible on the European level. III) For the long term sustainability of the training program, partners will build new alliances on local and international level.
Our project followed the Erasmus+ priorities. It supported the development of new innovative approaches. The Be part of CSA! project provided an innovative European informal and non-formal training program of 4 modules (1. Theoretical background of and practice on CSA, 2. Starting a CSA initiative, 3. Maintaining a CSA initiative and 4. Field training). The modularity was essential: allowed flexible participation for individual learners, free pass between modules and the combination of contents. It also allowed tailoring the training to the exact needs of the target groups and the participation both for the knowledgeable and for the beginners. Informal and non-formal peer learning methods of the educational programme ensured the learner-focused methodology that empowers and teaches adult learners to make commitments and form/maintain CSA communities for the sake of sustainability.
The modules were built upon the advantages of the most progressive education methods, such as edutainment, films, drama pedagogy, peer learning, advanced visual methods (e.g. infographics) and on cross sectorial knowledge sharing.
The target groups of the project was 1) adult learners including present or future members of CSA communities: farmers, consumers, volunteers, facilitators etc.; 2) multiplicators; 3) staff and trainers of the project partners; 4) media; 5) general public; 6) decision-makers and experts and 7) allies.
During the project period, 1) four training events was organised in 3 countries, with the participation of 233 adult learners; 2) education content and supporting training materials were improved and tested with the target audience (such as training plans, booklets for adult learners, guide for trainers, short film, crop planner ICT application, visual materials) and 3) an European multiplier event was organised. Through dissemination, partners addressed allies, organised meetings with decision-makers and experts, as well as disseminated the results to the wider audience reaching 32 European countries and 2 932 175 people.
The learner based methodology contributed in short term to the deeper understanding of the concept of CSA, provided target groups with transversal skills and facilitated the promotion of the training programme. The dissemination and post-project use of the project results were contributed to the emergence of strong, community based local enterprises in rural regions of Europe. As a result of the international cooperation and the training programme 13 new CSA communities started in Hungary, Czech Republic and Romania and at least 5 new cooperation and 4 new projects formed.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 189663 Eur

Project Coordinator

TUDATOS VASARLOK KOZHASZNU EGYESULETE & Country: HU

Project Partners

• Réseau international URGENCI
• CRIES
• PRO-BIO LIGA