Events will be held across a network of 1,500 farms spread across Europe in 27 project partner countries. The farm demonstration events are funded under the Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme, and will be delivered by one of the 80 project partners.
Demonstration farms and on-farm demonstration events have a long history and have become an important part of efforts to improve agricultural practices. It is widely recognised that farmers learn from other farmers. The demonstration farmers in the ClimateFarmDemo project perform two key roles: (1) they incorporate new or existing climate smart farming practices into their farming systems (with the support of trained advisors); and (2) they demonstrate the outcomes to other farmers.
Through on-farm demonstrations, other farmers can obtain practical, tangible experiences of farming methods and technologies that they can subsequently use to improve their own farming practices. The demonstration farmers play a key role through the provision of their practical insights concerning the new practice or technology. The demonstration farmers were identified through the project partners and as part of their participation in the project have agreed to host other farmers, rural professionals, students and consumers on their farms for a farm demonstration event. The current project builds on previous projects, such as PLAID, AgriDemo and NEFERTITI.
Speaking at the launch of the first annual campaign, Christine Berger, IDELE and Operational Coordinator ClimateFarmDemo, said that “After an intensive year of setting up the network of 1,500 demonstration farmers and their farm advisors, the winter of 2023-2024 will mark the start of the very first ‘wave’ of demonstration events for the project! We expect the network to organise between 700 and 800 demonstrations in this first campaign, and a total of 4,500 such events in total. We are counting on these peer-to-peer demonstrations to accelerate the spread of climate smart farming practices, to show that it is possible to implement such practices while being economically profitable and to encourage as many people as possible to take up the challenge and become personally involved in the fight against climate change. Every effort counts!”
Adrien Guichaoua, Strategic Project Manager, ClimateFarmDemo, said that “We are very excited to have reached this point in the project, and look forward to our first farm demonstration campaign.”
The farm demonstrations will feature a range of topics including: introducing the demonstration farmer, climate mitigation and adaptation measures, results of GHG audit, climate solutions already adopted by the demonstration farmer, climate action plan for the demonstration farmer and inspection of the farming system. In addition, there will be plenty of time for discussion with the host farmer and advisors will facilitate the exchange of ideas between participating farmers.
“Demonstrating climate solutions on commercial farms across Europe will accelerate the adoption of these solutions by European farmers” according to Tom O’Dwyer, Teagasc and the person responsible for coordinating the annual campaign of farm demonstration events. “Farm demonstrations are a recognised means of enabling farmers to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to adopt new practices and to modify their farming practices in the face of both challenges and opportunities.” The events will be of interest to farmers and other rural professionals with an interest in finding out more about the practical steps being taken by EU farmers to reduce their GHG emissions. Further details of planned events for each country are available on the project website, www.climatefarmdemo.eu; details will be updated regularly over the next eleven months, as details of events are confirmed. Finally, should you want to find out more about the project, you should visit the project website, and if you are interested in becoming a demonstration farmer in the project, you should contact your local project partner.
Source: Thomas Alföldi
