The farmer’s toolbox for climate change mitigation Erasmus Project

Project Title

The farmer’s toolbox for climate change mitigation

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 : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Agriculture, forestry and fisheries; ICT – new technologies – digital competences; Environment and climate change

Project Summary

Around 22.2 million people work regularly in agriculture (8.7 million full-time equivalent workers), but the farming sector needs to attract a new generation of farmers with the necessary skills to live and work in a challenging context. They will have to produce more efficiently while protecting the environment; contribute to the fight against climate change; meet society’s demands regarding healthy and balanced diets; and keep up with increasingly rapid scientific and technological progress.
It is therefore essential that future farmers benefit from adequate agricultural education and training and acquire the various skills needed to adapt to a changing environment.
The current common agricultural policy (CAP) places strong emphasis on knowledge sharing and innovation.

In order to promote a more participative and equal approach to knowledge creation in the agriculture sector, the project comprehends a complementary set of organisations which represent different interests and stakeholders and bring useful background and experience in order to enable trainers to reinforce their digital competences and farmers, agricultural and rural workers to upskill or learn new skills and diversify their activities and initiatives.

In compliance with the European Parliament that considers to be necessary to promote continuing vocational training for farmers and agricultural workers in future, and to promote the dissemination of scientific knowledge and innovation, to ensure adaptability to a changing economic environment, and in compliance with the challenges presented by the Covid-19 for the education sector, the project is aimed at equipping trainers with a digital environment where students and farmers can develop climate smart agriculture skills, generate awareness about challenges of climate change, enable free access to practical knowledge in order to invest and modify agricultural practices.
The project foresees, in fact, the development of two main results:
-a MOOC about climate smart agriculture to provide key information about CSA and to present learners some useful practices in order to improve land management in view of biodiversity principles and climate change adaptation needs
-an online Simulator that will allow learners, small farmers and farmholders to simulate in a virtual environment the benefits on a given area of the implementation of CSA measures presented in the MOOC.
The MOOC and the Simulator are addressing mainly future farmers, students, expert farmers, farmers’ associations and organisations that are interested to acquire CSA-related skills or to upskill their farming competences and to test them into a virtual environment.
Accessing to the MOOC and the Simulator, in fact, we expect to enhance trainers’ capacity to transmit and create innovative farming knowledge, approaches and practices, through the use of critical climate scenarios (scenario-based approach) and increase in this way students and farmers’ competences on climate change adaption practices (soil and water management, climate resilient crops etc.). Therefore, the use of open digital practices will improve trainers and users’ confidence and usability of digital tools, especially in agriculture and in agricultural education, and will facilitate the spread of open information on the topic, by creating a transnational knowledge community.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 209950 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA & Country: IT

Project Partners

• POLITEKNIKA IKASTEGIA TXORIERRI S.COOP
• Istituto Oikos
• UptoEarth GmbH
• Lietuvos respublikos zemes ukio rumai