The objetive of Agrosilver

Project objective is to improve the training attractiveness of the agroecology VET, providing teachers with tools with capacity to attract farmers to higher levels of education, and also recover silver knowledge which can be otherwise lost.

One of the main tools of the project is the video processing software allowing the users to process training videos, creating new learning contents, reviewing existing contents, and using the resulting videos for teaching.

Another tool, the data platform is integrated by hundreds of videos recording practices of silver farmers and teachers about agroecology. Hours of videos, with explanations of work-based practices, provided by experienced actors, which have both high quality information and very attractive format. The videos will include talking of the farmer/teacher, mixed with on-field explanations of specific practices or methods.

The big difference of this data base, and other huge unmanageable databases, is the processing software. The software transfer all the talking information of the videos into text, which will be stored and indexed to every video. The information, both video and text, will be stored in a video mine which will be exploited through the SilverKnows software.

Teachers will ask SilverKnows about specific training contents, and SilverKnows will provide reports with text content and related video contents, which can be integrated in the training. Moreover, specific searches can be done to verify data in existing training content, or to create feedback on existing teaching practices (to be explained later).

Video learning has been placed as the primary form of learning in most organizations. The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the process, making it essential that learning be accessed anywhere at any time on any device.

African Arguments: “Time to change course: The future is in agroecology”

“Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa acknowledges the need for a mix of approaches from agroecology to the latest crop and soil science”, but agroecology is the latest science”. Here you can read the article.

https://africanarguments.org/2021/10/time-to-change-course-the-future-is-in-agroecology/

European Commission: Farming practices good for the environment and the farmer’s pocket

“EU-backed researchers studied different ecological management practices on Scottish livestock farms. They found that adopting ecological practices could help increase farm profits by up to 7 %”. You can read the article here:

https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/435653-farming-practices-good-for-the-environment-and-the-farmer-s-pocket

European Commission: Many agroecological futures are possible in Europe

Interesting article by European Commission (CORDIS) about a new research that demonstrates “how sustainable farming not only benefits the environment but also empowers farmers and rural communities”. You can read it here:

https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/434324-many-agroecological-futures-are-possible-in-europe

The Ecologist: Agroecology can be our new food system

Here you can read an interesting press article about Agroecology published by The Ecologist.org. The article reflects on the need to change the intensive and industrialised production model towards a more environmentally sustainable agriculture. Its author, Astrud Lea Beringer, calls for the involvement of society to achieve it.

https://theecologist.org/2022/jan/13/agroecology-can-be-our-new-food-system

Lot et Garonne Chamber of Agriculture: “Why is this project important for an agricultural institution?

Taking climate change into account and preserving the environment have led farmers to develop inventive methods to meet the challenges that concern the whole world: soil preservation, biodiversity, landscapes, energy management, water quality and its good management, air quality… The changes are permanent and positive. Meeting these challenges also means ensuring that changes in practices are economically viable for farms and correspond to consumer demand.

European Governments have given impetus to these dynamics through financial mechanisms that make it possible to test and support farmers in changing their practices. The evolution of the CAP and in particular the measures concerning greening, also impose these changes.

The coordinator of the project, Lot et Garonne Chamber of Agriculture, and the rest of institutions provide technical and economic support to farmers in all productions because this department is rich in diversity. Our establishments cover the various fields of field crops, small fruits and fruit productions, animal productions but also agroforestry, organic farming, intermediate crops, renewable energies, biodiversity, water management …

The AgroSilver Value project is an innovative project that will allow us to share the experiences of farmers at all levels, regional, national and European. This project also makes it possible to measure the commitments of our neighboring countries, project partners and to share them.

For the Chamber of Agriculture, which is a training center for farmers and farm employees, these will be educational tools that will facilitate the training. This project will be made available to various training courses for young people, farmers themselves, other Chambers of Agriculture, as well as administrations and political decision-makers.

EcologyKM – interview Vasilka Sabeva (organic entrepreneurship)

EcologyKM: “Our team comments on the many educational AgroSilver Value case videos that are being created in Bulgaria. Soon these will be publically available via a dedicated educational eco agri video platform. We focussed on the complete production cycle: the farms where the products are grown, harvested and packaged, the entrepreunership of the eco / organic farms owners, and the consumption in restaurants/hotels as a result of their diversification strategies”.

Agrosilver Value project (Erasmus+) delivering video training materials for agroecology

Agrosilver project “Integrating silver knowledge from agroecology into the VET systems” has already launched the recording of video material that will support teachers in the improvement of the digital contents of their lessons.

Agrosilver expects the recording of more than 1.000 minutes of video education materials which will cover different aspects of the agroecology. These videos will be freely available to be used by teachers, students and training centres in their lessons. Videos will come from different EU countries, all of them counting on subtitles in several languages to increase the transferability and usability of the training materials.

Agrosilver project has been funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, and involve the cooperation of partners from Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, France and Malta during the years 2020 to 2023.

For more information in www.agrosilver.eu

EcologyKM – interview Karel Van Isacker (organic entrepreneurship)

Our team comments on the many educational AgroSilver Value case videos that are being created in Bulgaria. Soon these will be publically available via a dedicated educational eco agri video platform. We focussed on the complete production cycle: the farms where the products are grown, harvested and packaged, the entrepreunership of the eco / organic farms owners, and the consumption in restaurants/hotels as a result of their diversification strategies.

Rural Gozo shall contribute towards Agrosilver by coordinating 5 pilot projects in 5 countries

The Rural Gozo Directorate within the Ministry for Gozo is participating in a Erasmus+ project entitled AgroSilver together with partners hailing from Estonia, France, Spain, Bulgaria and Greece. The project’s main objective is to improve the training being offered in the area of agroecology through the production of learning materials and videos. These are aimed at providing VET teachers and service providers with the necessary tools to encourage farmers to ameliorate their skill base and attain higher levels of education. Another objective of AgroSilver is  to preserve traditional methods of farming that are prevalent in the participating countries thereby preserve these  traditional practises for future generations.

Rural Gozo shall contribute towards the above objectives by coordinating 5 pilot projects that shall be held in  5 different countries through which the course content shall be validated through a series of workshops . One of these workshops shall be held in Gozo whereby 20 VET practitioners and farmers will be invited to validate the course contents and other materials produced by the project consortium. The Directorate is currently producing several educational videos, promoting the sustainable farming practises in Gozo. These are being produced in collaboration with the Lead Partner and once edited can be accessible through the project’s portal accessible on https://agrosilver.eu/