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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - AgriDemo-F2F (Building an interactive AgriDemo-Hub community: enhancing farmer to farmer learning)

Teaser

Summary

Agriculture has to meet a wide range of expectations emerging from society, and should contribute to tackle the challenges of food security, food safety, quality, sustainability and climate change in Europe. This changing context with respect to extension, markets and challenges has initiated a more complex system of knowledge exchange. Although demonstration farms are only one element of this knowledge landscape in which farmers operate, they offer the unique opportunity for learning, for farmers to observe, interact and discuss with other farmers (and other actors). These peer-to-peer interactions have been shown to play an important role in farmers\' decision making. As a result, on-farm demonstration activities can be considered as potentially effective interventions towards a more sustainable farming system.

AgriDemo-F2F aims to enhance this peer-to-peer learning within the commercial farming community, by following a structured multi-actor approach, utilizing the experience of different actors and through the involvement of practitioner partners. We will deepen our understanding of effective on-farm demonstration activities, in three main steps.
First, AgriDemo-F2F, together with the sister project PLAID, will build a geo-referenced inventory of open commercial farms that engage in demonstration activities in Europe, detailing the sectors, themes and topics on which they provide expertise.
Second, case studies will be selected to perform an in-depth comparative analysis, detailing their network structure, the mechanisms and tools used for recruitment, interaction and learning, and the outcomes and outputs that have been realized. Through a cross comparative case study analysis we will identify as set of best practical approaches and tools for on-farm demonstration activities, directed at farmers, advisors, companies, researchers, educators, etc.

Work performed

The first year of AgriDemo-F2F has focused mainly on constructing a geo-referenced inventory of demonstration farms, and taking the first steps towards a successful case study analysis, to be performed in the second year.
So far we have:
1) Developed an inventory of commercial demonstration farms, accessible online (www.farmdemo.eu). At present, the inventory has over 1000 entries, the majority demonstration farms, and covers the EU-28 + Norway, Serbia and Switzerland. It has been a joint effort from all project partners, both from PLAID and AgriDemo-F2F. The process started from the creation of an analytical framework, through to the development of a survey and procedural guide (D2.2), to ensure standardized data collection across all European countries, and finally, creating a draft version of the FarmDemo-Hub, to make the inventory public for PLAID and AgriDemo-F2F stakeholders.

2) The development of an analytical framework. This framework provides the theoretical background and analytical basis for the AgriDemo-F2F project, and as such, is intended to guide project progress. The analytical framework provides an in-depth analysis on the structural and functional characteristics of farmer-to-farmer learning approaches, and provides anchoring points to determine effectiveness of on-farm demonstration activities. The analytical framework and procedural guide (D2.2) was validated during the 2nd General Meeting in Aberdeen by all partners (MS3), and has been published on the AgriDemo-F2F project website.

3) Put in place a good collaboration between PLAID and AgriDemo-F2F. Both projects have worked closely together to develop the inventory, and will continue to combine their efforts for the rest of the project duration.

4) Developed a Multi-Actor (MA) protocol. A strategy for monitoring and evaluation of the protocol is also being implemented by Teagasc and will be continuously updated by project partners throughout the project.

5) Ensured sound and ethical data management, by providing necessary background and guiding documents to all partners. We have developed a Data Management Plan and a background document on Ethics Requirements, to address data sharing, taking ethical and data protection concerns into account, and organize the access to data.

6) Constructed a Communication and Networking Plan and a Plan for Exploitation and Dissemination of Results, both are guiding and living documents to support the coordination and synergies of all networking, exploitation, dissemination and communication activities of the different work packages and actions of the AgriDemo-F2F project. It identifies, according to the different objectives, the target groups, the type of interaction to be promoted and its outcomes, and the channels and tools to be used. Partners have also started their communication activities, in local newsletters, websites, and journals.

7) Put all pieces in position for a successful second year of AgriDemo-F2F. Data from the inventory is analyzed to guide our case study selection process, we constructed a typology and we have been active in preparing the methodological guide for case study analysis.

Final results

AgriDemo-F2F aims to achieve a high impact, and aims to empower various stakeholders, incuding the commercial farming and policy community, but also advisory and extension services. One of the main ways to achieve this is by creating a FarmDemo-Hub community. To do so, we have created the FarmDemo-Hub, hosted together with PLAID, which holds an EU-wide inventory of demonstration farms, in the form of an interactive, user oriented, web-map application. The FarmDemo-Hub will also highlight farm demo showcases, and will keep stakeholders informed about the latest project results. As such, the FarmDemo-Hub provides a solid foundation for RUR-12-2017: â€œNetworking European farms to boost thematic knowledge exchanges and close the innovation gapâ€ and will provide substantive input to the EIP Agri database.