Início - Sobre nós - EquipaBetween 22nd and 24th of October, CONSULAI attended to Climate Farm Demo (CFD) project annual meeting at the Chamber of Agriculture and Forestry of Slovenia (CAFS) in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
This meeting brought together more than 80 organisations coordinated by the French institute IDELE. This project began in 2022 and will end in September 2029.
The structure of this meeting rather interactive sessions that enabled the partners to be trained, helping them to understand the project and supporting the execution of the tasks taking place in each of the countries.
The project proposes the creation of a European network of demonstrator farmers in 27 countries, accelerating the adoption of climate-smart practices and solutions with the aim of adapting agricultural production systems to climate change, contributing to the sector’s carbon neutrality by 2050. CONSULAI is responsible for the Portuguese network of more than 30 demonstrator farmers with different production systems.
During the meeting, four farms from the network of Slovenian demonstration farmers were visited: two cowsheds, an orchard and a farm focussed on arable crops. During these visits, the Slovenian farmers explained the challenges and impact of climate change on their production. Group dynamics were promoted, with the support of CONSULAI. In these moments, it was possible to see the cooperation and exchange of good practices between farmers and counsellors from different countries.
In addition to managing the network of demonstrator farmers in Portugal, CONSULAI also coordinates thematic leaders at European level. These thematic leaders explore several topics, such as Soil Health, Water Management and Rewarding Mechanisms. During the meeting an interactive session was organised to bring these leaders together and develop a strategy to increase knowledge sharing between countries by organising cross-visits and scheduling thematic webinars.
All of this strained the good relationship between the partners who, at the end of the second day, got together for a social dinner with Slovenian food and music.
The third and final day of the meeting explored the work carried out by the Living Labs (LL) established in the project. CONSULAI had the opportunity to share the main actions carried out in Portugal by the Montado Living Lab coordinated by the University of Évora. The Portuguese LL aims to accelerate the adoption of innovative solutions and mitigate the desertification of the agroforestry system.
The meeting ended with an interactive closing session by coordinator Christine Berger, which allowed each participant to identify and list the next steps in each country.
To leverage knowledge, methodologies and results, the CFD project continually and actively seeks to collaborate with other projects, initiatives and policymakers, and this work is coordinated by the CONSULAI team.
The Portuguese team is currently focused on calculating the carbon footprint of each farm, which will support the development of the climate adaptation and mitigation plan and will allow the prioritisation of the measures to be implemented by each farmer.
Throughout the project, the national network will have several demonstration events organised by the demonstrating farmers and CONSULAI.
Find out more about the project here!
Image: Thomas Alfoeldi
