Enhancing demonstration for the uptake of innovation in agriculture
From 26 to 28 February, CEMA, together with more than other 30 partners coming from 16 EU countries, participated in the Annual Meeting of the NEFERTITI project taking place in the Alberese Farm (www.alberese.com), in Tuscany (Italy).
The meeting focused on the upcoming demonstration activities that the project’s partners will realize all around Europe during the next months.
This is one of the most important phases of the project and the NEFERTITI Annual Meeting, greatly hosted by Terre Regionali Toscane, was the perfect occasion for preparing the work to do.
The discussions helped to assess what activities work better and what needs to be improved when planning and organizing demo events, as well as monitoring the demonstration events to later deliver policy recommendations. Different interactive sessions presented concrete examples of application for the tools generated by the project.
Moreover, three parallel field visits allowed all the participants to have a taste of demonstration of farming activities in the Region. Each visit looked at one of the three main sectors covered by the project:
- Breeding techniques of the traditional Maremmana cattle in the Alberese Farm by the so called “butteri” (Italian cowboys).
- The second was located in the Agricola Forte, a farm which is investing in new high-tech solutions, such as drones, for further improving standards of wine they are producing.
- The third field visit presented good practices in the arable sector focusing on the protection of regional autochthonous resources and seeds in the Rispescia Germplasm Bank, and the visit to Giuliano Donato farm in Alberese, a great example of successful cooperation of public and private sectors. This organic farm, of around 60 hectares, rely on precision agriculture in the production of tomato, cornflower, broad bean and cabbage.
The field visits gave the opportunity to NEFERTITI project partners to see in action the performance of modern farm machines and high-tech solutions such as drones, mechanical weeding systems, or threshers. During the demos, good practices examples of cooperation among different actors in the rural economies were shared putting at the center the importance of demonstrations to enhance innovation uptake in the agricultural sector.
In the next months, NEFERTITI will enter in the core phase of its activities. The guidelines developed by the project for supporting and improving the demonstration processes will be tested in real during demo activities organized across Europe.
CALL FOR PARTICIPATION – Want to know more about NEFERTITI?
If you are interested or involved in farming demonstration activities, you want to know more about this subject, and/or you would like to reach a wider audience to the demonstration activities you realize or plan to, NEFERTITI is the project for you! CHECK OUT THE CALL FOR PARTICIPATION HERE or get in touch with Sara Djelveh, CEMA Research Officer This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
