More than 100 social enterprises, cooperatives and non-governmental organizations from Bulgaria and abroad presented their products and services during the 10-th anniversary edition of the European Forum of the representatives of social and solidarity economy at the Plovdiv Fair.

The forum was opened by Vice President of Bulgaria Iliana Yotova, by Minister of Social Affairs Georgi Gokov, by Ministers of Agriculture and Tourism Ivan Ivanov and Hristo Prodanov. Our organization participated with a booth, which was visited by the European Commissioner Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit. The representatives of our organization presented to the European Commissioner our ongoing projects funded by the Erasmus + program.

here you are another interesting article about the importance of agroecology. We recommend you to read it from Euractiv by this link:

We are soon releasing 50+ videos with advice and tips regarding eco-farming and entrepreneurship in Bulgaria. These have been prepared by our Bulgarian partner EcologyKM.

This project, AgroSilver Value, provides a new approach for the development of professionals in the agriculture sector. The develops innovative content and tools to support the sector in the learning of students, allowing specially teachers to increase their teaching methods and contents. The project tools can support teachers and students with new attractive content, 100% video content and work-based, and allow them to improve their current learning methodologies. With the provided tools, the attractiveness of agricultural teaching can be increased, both for the teacher and the student, and the teachers will be able to develop better own curricula.

Students from the Higher School of Agribusiness and Regional Development from the Veliko Tarnovo Branch became members of the project No 2020-1-FR01-KA202-080028, “Integrating silver knowledge from Аgroecology into the VET system”, under the Erasmus + program. The project offers a new approach to the development of professionals in the agricultural sector. The selected students had combines their studies and had developed their own business in the ecological agricultural sector. The project aim is to develop innovative content and training tools. The Bulgarian experts of the project interviewed Valentina Petrova, who is engaged in beekeeping, fruit grower Ivan Atanaschev, owner of a meat processing plant Pavlin Petrov and tenant Martin Ivanov. The entrepreneurs shared the difficulties they had faced in their work and had explained about the problems in the field of ecological agriculture.The project platform will allow stakeholders to enrich their knowledge and improve pedagogical tools and instruments for education in ecological agriculture sector.

Here you can read an interesting article about the inportance of agroecology in order to improve our nutrition.

https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/national/why-agroecology-crucial-for-nutrition-food-production-3777712

Here you can read an interesting article from MONGABAY by Anna Lappé about agroecology and the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Here we can see an interesting article by Fermin Koop published on ZME Science about the impact of our globalized diets on our health and how can it affect to the biodivertity.

You can read it here:

The effects of climate change on horticultural production in many cases require urgent interventions, modification of cultivation techniques and the implementation of novel practices at a time when the ongoing SARS-CoV 2 epidemic has seriously disrupted in-person trainings of farmers and agricultural technical advisors. The Erasmus + project INPACT aims to address this problem by providing readily accessible digitalized training material (including videos, factsheets, infographics) on new techniques and undocumented current best practices in environmentally-friendly integrated plant protection on an international data platform. The allied blog and forum will allow rapid exchange and dissemination, and will encourage knowledge-sharing between experts, farmers and VET providers.

The project is coordinated by the Czech University of Life Sciences (CULS) and is a joint Czech-Bulgarian-Greek-Hungarian and Polish initiative. AgroSilver Value partner the Department of Sustainable Agriculture, CIHEAM_MAICh is leading the collection of best practices for the project and the dissemination activities. The project kick-off meeting will be held next week (28 th Feb/1 st March, 2022), hosted by CULS in Prague.

ECOVINEGOALS promotes sustainability and resilience in the winemaking industry by encouraging the transition of intensive viticulture towards agroecological management systems that protect natural habitats and landscapes, reduce chemical and fossil fuel inputs and minimize harmful emissions. The project also aims to enhance stakeholder skills in participatory local governance, to strengthen transnational cooperation and provide specific transnational instruments to promote, support and manage the agroecological transition. Together, the project actions will address environmental vulnerability, promote the provision of ecosystem services, act to prevent social conflicts in land use and mitigate climate change.

Currently the project consortium is working with local viticulture stakeholders in each of the eight project pilot areas (1 in Croatia, 2 in Greece, 2 in Italy, 1 in Montenegro, 1 in Serbia, and 1 in Slovenia) to implement a participatory process that will result in the formulatio  of multi-actor action plans specific to each area to encourage the widest possible participation and support in agroecological initiatives in viticulture and the sustainable development of each rural area. A series of three workshops is being held in each pilot area in which viticulturalists, agricultural advisors, representatives of local agricultural research institutes and organic agriculture certification bodies, local development agencies, local authorities, the ministry of agriculture and associated commercial and tourism bodies, work together to identify key problems, envision an idealised scenario for the future development of agroecology-based viticulture in the area and how this cultivation could benefit related sectors with initiatives in Wine- and Gastrotourism, the creation of additional employment opportunities and greater access to safe natural areas for local inhabitants. The final stage of the procedure entails the production of local action plans that defines, plans and costs the key actions to be implemented in each area to activate the transition process.

In the context of AgroSilver Value project the Department of Sustainable Agriculture, CIHEAM_MAICh has produced a video describing the agroecolgical viticulture practices employed by the ECOVINEGOALS stakeholder NOSTOS (Manousakis family) winery at Vatolakkos, Chania, Greece.

ECOVINEGOALS promotes sustainability and resilience in the winemaking industry by encouraging the transition of intensive viticulture towards agroecological management systems that protect natural habitats and landscapes, reduce chemical and fossil fuel inputs and minimize harmful emissions. The project also aims to enhance stakeholder skills in participatory local governance, to strengthen transnational cooperation and provide specific transnational instruments to promote, support and manage the agroecological transition. Together, the project actions will address environmental vulnerability, promote the provision of ecosystem services, act to prevent social conflicts in land use and mitigate climate change.

Currently the project consortium is working with local viticulture stakeholders in each of the eight project pilot areas (1 in Croatia, 2 in Greece, 2 in Italy, 1 in Montenegro, 1 in Serbia, and 1 in Slovenia) to implement a participatory process that will result in the formulatio  of multi-actor action plans specific to each area to encourage the widest possible participation and support in agroecological initiatives in viticulture and the sustainable development of each rural area. A series of three workshops is being held in each pilot area in which viticulturalists, agricultural advisors, representatives of local agricultural research institutes and organic agriculture certification bodies, local development agencies, local authorities, the ministry of agriculture and associated commercial and tourism bodies, work together to identify key problems, envision an idealised scenario for the future devlopment of agroecology-based viticulture in the area and how this cultivation could benefit related sectors with initiatives in Wine- and Gastrotourism, the creation of additional employment opportunities and greater access to safe natural areas for local inhabitants. The final stage of the procedure entails the production of local action plans that defines, plans and costs the key actions to be implemented in each area to activate the transition process.

In the context of AgroSilver Value project the Department of Sustainable Agriculture, CIHEAM_MAICh has produced a video describing the agroecolgical viticulture practices employed by the ECOVINEGOALS stakeholder NOSTOS (Manousakis family) winery at Vatolakkos, Chania, Greece.