Behavioural and cognitive biases reduce the ability of decision makers to adopt the best solutions among the alternatives available. Borrowed from pre-existing knowledge in psychology on priming, “nudges” are defined as gentle interventions in a decision maker’s choice architecture (default choice, information, presentation, framing etc.), which enhance the likelihood of optimal choices. ForestAgriGreenNudges will first review initiatives and projects which explicitly or implicitly use Green Nudges to promote the use of sustainable practices in farming and forestry. It will then assess each type of nudge according to two types of criteria: 1) Criteria associated with efficacy in promoting the use of the desired practices over a sufficiently long period and 2) Criteria dictated by ethics and good practice principles (transparency, nudgee awareness, participation/self-regulation, actor-specificity, etc.) that guarantee the quality of the implementation process. Nudges will then be tested in the field and assessed on a grid, reflecting the desiderata of efficacy and implementation quality. The set of successful nudges will be enriched by innovative nudges based on information regarding attitudes and strategies of actors along the entire value chain. The resulting set of nudges together with their corresponding implementation guidelines, and the business models and market conditions which favor their application in agroforestry will be collected on an online tool (iNUDGE Academy) whose target audience will include policy makers, wholesalers, retailers, farmers and foresters. The tool will associate each nudge with implementation rules, possible domains of application and possible risks in terms of efficacy/good practice tradeoffs. Diffusion of the results among farming and forestry experts, policy makers, and actors along the value chain will maximise the impact of the project, enhancing the adoption of sustainable practices in the farm and in the forest.

The main objective of FARMWELL is to ensure that individual farmers and farming families benefit fully from social innovation research and practices, which in turn will result in strengthening farmers’ wellbeing and linkages between the farming sector and the wider society. In an increasingly globalised and modernised world, the agricultural sector is facing a series of economic, environmental and social pressures and challenges. The characteristics of globalisation include the worldwide spread of new technologies, particularly in communications, but also in production systems (e.g. precision farming) and in the functioning of entire food chains. While economic and environmental implications of a globalising and modernising agriculture have been discussed more widely, there is also increasing attention, and consequently an increasing body of research and policy interventions on the social implications. Pressures and related social consequences - such as mental health issues, isolation, weakening family ties - are present at all levels from the individual farmers, through farming families to farming communities. An alarming sign of the serious social issues is the increasing suicide rate of farmers. The social challenges that farmers, farming families and communities have been facing call for new and innovative solutions. Social innovations have been identified as possible ways to address challenges. In the context of agriculture and farming, social innovation is mostly associated with improving agricultural practices to improve the wellbeing of the wider society (e.g. through food safety or environmentally friendly food production). Social innovation is rarely offered as a solution to improve the social wellbeing of farmers and farming families. The main novelty of FARMWELL is that it aims to identify and make more accessible those social innovation practices that can help improving the social wellbeing of farmers and farming families.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is based on a diversity of pest management measures (prevention, non-chemical control, best practices for optimizing pesticide efficiency, etc.). These are combined at the farm level to enable reduced reliance on pesticides, and therefore a decrease in the exposure of the environment and people to pesticides. Rare pioneer farmers throughout Europe are testing such IPM strategies and are succeeding in achieving good outcomes with low pesticide inputs. However the majority of European farmers still rely heavily on pesticides, with major environmental and societal impacts, because most of them have not adopted a comprehensive, farm-level and holistic IPM strategy so far. The objective of IPMWORKS is to promote the adoption of IPM strategies, based on a EU-wide network of farmers, who will both progress further in the adoption of IPM – through peer-to-peer learning and joint efforts – and demonstrate to other farmers that holistic IPM “works”; i.e. allows a low reliance on pesticides with better pest control, reduced costs and enhanced profitability. IPMWORKS will coordinate existing networks promoting IPM and launch new hubs of farms in regions or sectors where IPM pioneers are not yet engaged in a relevant network. Advisors coordinating hubs will have a major role in facilitating knowledge sharing, coaching farmers to find their own IPM solutions, and organising local demonstration activities. IPMWORKS will stimulate access to the ‘IPM Decisions’ platform and provide information on the IPM methods. It will collect data for comparing IPM strategies, and share results and dissemination material through channels widely used by farmers, broadcasting IPM success stories. It will organise training, and produce training material, targeting both farmers outside the network and advisory services, in order to prepare for the future dissemination of the peer-to-peer learning approach and the general adoption of IPM throughout the EU.