rationale of the project

The farm-to-fork strategy, as proposed by the European Commission under the Green Deal for Europe, plans to initiate significant changes in agriculture, introducing production changes leading to an overall sustainable and low-carbon farming style. The proposed strategy for the implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in the period 2021-2027 proposes nine objectives, focusing, among others, on farm viability and resilience, competitiveness, the balance of market forces in the food vertical, generational change or vibrant rural areas. 

Although there is no single definition of a small farm, it is undisputed that ¾ of farms in the EU have been characterised as very small and have a mainly subsistence function and small production. 77.6% of farms farm less than 10 ha. Small farms are therefore the cornerstone of European agriculture and their role and importance (including social and environmental) must be emphasised. At the same time, the EU faces the challenges of an ageing population, urban migration and the problem of intergenerational change in agriculture. Only 11% of farm managers are under 40 years of age. At the same time, number of farms is on decline. Agriculture is a capital-intensive sector with relatively high barriers to entry. The sustainability of the whole new concept of agriculture is therefore dependent on the viability of small family farms, which will be handed over to young farmers. 

 Small farms cannot benefit from the development strategy of large farms due to time, administrative, capital and knowledge requirements. The opportunity for successful viability and sustainability is intensive production that generates high added value. This usually means the production of labour-intensive and pre-processed products. A barrier to development is often lack of investment capital and difficulties in market entry (specifically into retail chains). The solution in this case is cooperation between the farmers themselves, as well as with other businesses in the vertical, with science and advice. 

Unfortunately, in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia, any type of cooperation is still discredited by socialist experience and tranformational failures. However, today's young farmers and students of agriculture no longer have their own negative experiences. They use the services of the sharing economy. In a context where state support for the establishment of any kind of cooperation is limited or inappropriately used and the level of cooperativism is low, it is necessary to create an innovative knowledge base that initiates joint activities of young farmers. The policy innovations in the framework of the Strategy will significantly affect the situation of young farmers on small farms. 

The education of agricultural students and training of active young farmers is a necessary aspect of the long-term perspective of agriculture in the context of the forthcoming changes. It is important to highlight the problems of sustainability of small farms in the current economic and social conditions, to define the weaknesses and critical points that can significantly affect the whole process in the long term and to  promote activities that enable successful and viable agriculture in the long term. In this respect, the proposed project aims to create an internationally and content-diverse set of outputs, prepared in the framework of international cooperation, which, in the context of the newly proposed strategy, will help young farmers on small farms to adapt to the new conditions, assuming long-term viability, sustainability of agricultural activities and increased added value.