project meetings

KICK OF MEETING (ONLINE)

11/12/2020

The first online meeting has been held online due to COVID-19 pandemics. the concert's you met for the first time in December 2020. main aim of the meeting was to identify repeat and specify main aims of the project, Tasks to be delivered and financing, Proposed timetable (incl. important events), Financial matters, Organizational aspects, and Discussion.

Due to the COVID19 pandemic, we were not able to meet in person, to travel. Therefore, an online meeting in Microsoft Teams environment has been organised. Almost all members of the consortium were present, only the representative of Czech young farmer association could not participate. Information was delivered to organisation president during face-to-face meeting which was organised later the year in Prague.

After the kick-off meeting, we started administrative procedure, prepared contracts between Czech University of Life Sciences Prague and all the partners. Due to the COVID-19 pandemics, administration procedures have taken little longer than expected. main reasons were Home Office - not possible to reach officials for signature as promptly as needed; transportation/postal service took longer than usual (Slovakia 3 weeks, Lithuania 5 weeks).  After all complications we were able to organise, all documentation required.  

COORDINATION MEETING for Output no. 1 (ONLINE)

21/4/2021

The second online meeting was focused on output #1 coordination. Originally planned to be organised in February 2021 Szeged, Hungary. Again, similarly, to kick off meeting, we had to organise the meeting online. COVID was still present, in March and April 2021 the pandemic was on rise.  Also due to the problems with administrative and organisational issues, we postponed the meeting for April. During March and beginning of April we proceeded wait contract signing, money distribution and thus we could focus on the first output. main aim of the meeting was specified discuss and talk about the form of output #1, we defined a methodology of collection, we specified target farms to be addressed, we talked about expected time frame and we set up a preliminary deadline.

Also, administrative issues related to output one has been mentioned. Specifically, timesheet Microsoft Excel form has been presented, partners were required to work with that tool.

The international team agreed to prepare 100 case studies of young successful farmers, who could serve as an excellent example for other young farmers, young entrepreneurs in the rural areas. We agreed to highlight good practises and to investigate cooperation among farmers themselves, corporation among farmers and suppliers or clients, formal and informal cooperation, their market integration, investments, common agriculture policy support, and their plans for the future. each country is about to collect 20 case studies targeting different sectors of agriculture production. As agreed, the case study delivery was supposed to be finalised in September 2021, before plant training in Kaunas, Lithuania, where best examples best case studies was supposed to be presented within project training (C1).

COORDINATION MEETING for Output no. 2 (KAUNAS, Lithuania) and Project Training

20 - 23/9/2021 (programme)

The first learning teaching and training activity has been conducted in Lithuania, Kaunas (20 – 23/9/2021). Due to some organisational affairs and time collision with Rural Development Conference 2021 organised by Agriculture Academy of VMU university, final decision has been taken to organise the training session directly in Kaunas and not outside of Kaunas. The training has been conducted in September 2021 and generally it was the first team meeting which was organised in face-to-face regime. Also, as the programme has been developed by our Lithuanian partners, we realised that's three-day training would not be sufficient and decided to extend the training to four-day event. Seven out of eight partners participated in the training. Team from the Slovak agriculture university in Nitra could not participate as there has been some additional COVID restrictions in Slovakia and additionally at the level of the University. Each partner had the possibility to select 3 participants. In total, only Slovakian participants were absent. ASYF and PULS was able to send only 2 participants.  In total 17 participants took part in the event.   

Participants were selected among participating organisations. Among university participants, there have been selected teachers/researchers who are involved in agricultural development and/or agricultural economics. The young-farmer organisations selected members of management, which can transfer knowledge to ordinary members. 

Workshop 1 focused on real-life experience with successful examples of cooperation in agriculture in each country (CZ, SK, PL, HU and LT). As mentioned, workshop was located at the Agriculture Academy, where all training activities were conducted. The training activity included a visit to several farmer organisations. These organisations and farmers were identified by the Lithuanian team as examples of good practise. 

This training increased the competence of the participants to report on the benefits and obstacles of mutual cooperation. The impact on the target group of young farmers is expected to be indirect through the experience and knowledge gained by the participants. Gained knowledge is expected to be transferred to relevant audience during class teaching, conferences, press releases or variety of consultations.

Participants learned in detail about the economics, legislative obstacles, governmental and non-governmental support, formalities, and other practical aspects of cooperation in selected EU countries. At the same time, topics of agricultural cooperation in other countries outside the consortium, outside the EU, were also mentioned.

The programme took 4 full days. 

Day one: full list of participants gathered in Kaunas, we had official opening of the training event. in the afternoon we started with introduction of Slovakian cases of good practises, including information about corporation of Slovakian farmers, situation of young farmers in Slovakia and the general discussion. After the coffee break we left for field trip. on the first farm we observed and interviewed experienced family in blueberry farming, production and processing. the second farm was rather a tourism place where services were connected to rural farming activities. 

Day two: in the morning we started with two sessions. The first one was focused on the situation in Lithuania. our colleagues explained what the challenges of Lithuanian farm cooperation are, they presented another inspiring case studies. The second session presented situation in Poland. ZMW and PULS together presented then inspiring case studies, challenges, policy support and other issues connected to Poland. After the lunch break we followed official programme of the Rural Development 2021 conference - Two topics related to Farm-to-Fork strategy and the Green Deal has been presented and commented by local and international experts. external insight into the Farm-to-Fork strategy was very valuable and extended participant horizons. Evening Gala dinner has been used for networking among other international conference guests. 

Day three: Again, in the morning we started with two sessions. in the first one Czech inside has been presented, the second one presented situation in Hungary. After lunch break, additional experiences from farm corporation has been presented on the best practises from the EU and as well as outside of the EU. Variety of different forms of cooperation was presented, followed by overview of conduct research on that topic. In the afternoon official Kaunas City Tour was organised.

Day four: In the morning, the team had an opportunity to visit local Botanical Garden, specifically the scientific collection of medicinal plants and pomology. We discussed the trends of implementation of old varieties, forgotten species in current agricultural production. Later the day, we visited TADAS fruit tree and ornamental tree nursery. We learned how important it is do you have good relations with customers, how important it is to cooperate with landscape architects, and we realised that tree nursery can also be successful export oriented business. After the lunch break, we discussed issues related to project implementation and management. Mostly we talked about output #2.

The output number two is coordinated by Poznan University of Life Sciences. Their team prepared an outline of the book structure, they came up with the aims and methodology (time period, data sources – Eurostat, Paying Agencies, FADN). All partners agreed on the new schedule for the book preparation. Unfortunately the O1 has not been finalised by September 2021, thus O2 coordinator proposed data to be get it by the end of year 2021 (on macro level by the Polish team only). Also, it was agreed that some local data to be collected by national partners between January and March 2022. Moreover relevant data from the 100 case studies collected (O1) will be used for qualitative analysis and later presented in the book. More realistic deadline for the book finalisation has been accepted - instead of May 2022, by mid-July partners are expected to prepare final submission of all chapters. Between July and August (September) format end review is expected to be conducted.

COORDINATION MEETING for Output no. 4 (NITRA, Slovakia)

11 – 12/5/2022

Meeting in Nitra was combined with multiplier event organised by Slovak Agriculture University in Nitra. project partners have been asked to participate in multiplier event by delivering specific presentation related to their countries. as the multiplier event was mainly focused on forms of cooperation in agriculture, partners delivered their contributions about the form of young farmer cooperation in their countries, additionally partners presented forms of support to young farmers in Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland.

After finishing multiplier event, partners from 7 organisations gathered in the Riverside Hotel restaurant, where officially the coordination meeting (transnational project meeting) was started. unfortunately, Lithuanian colleagues could not participate in presence due to time and transportation constraints. The dinner was aimed to put partners together. During the dinner fewer official topics were discussed, we talked about our academic activities (research, teaching) and searched for further overlaps. Also, economic situation, problems connected to the war in Ukraine where discussed.

During the second day, we visited university dairy farm nearby Nitra. we had the chance to observe all activities connected to diary production at the university farm. after the excursion we gathered and discussed in detail the following topics. First, we started with necessary administrative issues, as the mid-report was approaching. Project coordinator specified each partner must deliver before 22 May. Second, issues related to output #2 where questioned. some of the partners were not clear in some specific details related to chapter preparation. As deadline for final delivery of all parts is getting closer and closer (mid-July) it was necessary to specified unclear issues. Third, partners talked about output #4. this was the first opportunity to discuss about the price comparing tool, as proposed in project proposal. After a long discussion, brainstorming, final time plan of output 4 delivery has been drawn. We were able to specify details of the output, define our goals and create methodology of data collection.

COORDINATION MEETING + MULTIPLICATION EVENT (Prague, Czech Republic)

14 – 15/9/2022

Multiplication event organized in accordance with the 31st annual Agrarian Perspectives international conference. The main theme of the conference was the Green Deal - future perspectives. The theme of the conference, Agrarian Perspective, was chosen specifically to be in line with the goals and direction of the project. The Farm to Fork strategy is a key part of the European Green Deal initiative and without significant innovation in the agricultural sector, the Green Deal would not be easily achieved.

Expert speakers were invited to the plenary session. For example, Martin Hlaváček, Member of the EP; Jan Dusík, Deputy Minister for Climate Protection; Dušan Drábik, senior researcher at Wageningen University, Karolina Pawlak, member of the VISYFARM project and researcher. Also Pavel Kotyza, as the project leader, gave an insightful introduction to the project and presented the entire range of outputs to the general public.

In the afternoon, the main part of the multiplication event took place. The topic of dissemination was the situation of small farms managed by young farmers in European and partner countries. We have already prepared materials for O2 (publications) and the main results were presented during the event. Also on the agenda was information on the impact of the Farm-to-fork strategy on young farmers and small farms, best practices from project countries (O1) were presented, and data on the support of small farms managed by young farmers were presented. The results of the collected information from the national paying agencies, which included more than 1.5 million individual farmer support records.

Other team members and the participating audience (mainly from other universities) were also involved in the discussion. The afternoon program brought together many experts with an interest in the topic and resulted in a very interesting discussion on the topic of succession and viability of small farms. In the evening, the program was led by an evening dinner, which was organized in the lobby of the faculty. The pleasant atmosphere led to further discussion and initiated many ideas and topics for further investigation.

In total, both parts were visited by 21 local participants, 48 ​​foreign participants and 39 participants from the institutions of the project team. In the event took part of 108 participants.

As part of the project, project partners were asked to participate in a multiplier event and make a specific presentation related to their country. Since the multiplication action was mainly focused on the situation of small farms and young farmers in the project countries, the participation of sophisticated experts was required. The partners also presented forms of support for young farmers in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland. Unfortunately, due to a time conflict, we could not meet as a whole team, partners from Lithuania and SMA CR could not come.

The next day, the core project team met to discuss further developments and update deadlines. It has been decided that due to some organizational issues, the latest delivery date for chapters and updates (according to the PULS partners' requirements) must be delivered by the end of 2022, so that the book can be published/printed in spring 2023 (the editing process usually takes several months). More time was intentionally provided, as the project team assumed that all participants would be very busy during the semester. Outputs 3 and 4 were also discussed in detail.