"Smallholder and family farms dominate EU' s agriculture, as two-thirds of the 10 million farms are less than 5 ha. This proportion is going to be even higher if we take into account the accessing countries of South-East Europe. Nearly one-third of all active farmers in the EU are over 65, while only 5.6% are under 35 years of age. This phenomenon is described as the “greying of Europe’s farmers”. Smallholders' local knowledge, experience, tradition, attitude, mindset can be tremendous resource and obstacle at the same time. The ""wise farming"" concept is introduced and used by the project, and can be conceived in two dimensions: 1) the value of local experience in farming in general: a personal behavior where “The wise farmer learns from the experience of others” and as opposed to “The smart person who uses his mind and intelligence, the wise uses his experience and experiences of others to solve problems”, and 2) thinking one step further the well-known term of ""Smart Farming"" (re. digital agriculture) to ""Wise Farming"", where the introduction of agriculture 4.0 tools are to be put into local context, to match experience, attitude, cultural habits, to validate usefulness not only at the level of business return but also taking care of social, environmental, sustainability and data ownership aspects.The direct objective of the proposal is to bring together the younger and elder farm generations in a common programme for the exchange of knowledge, access to high quality learning opportunity, facilitation support and sustained collaboration for increased competence, from one side in the use of digital tools, from the other side the crucial farming practices based on local knowledge.The target group consists of smallholders and family farmers, where personal participation in farming is inevitable, the current level of skills and qualifications are generally low, both on the elder side - lacking digital skills, and the younger farmers - missing key competencies in the practice of farming. Elderly farmers have local knowledge that is indispensable in the successful entrepreneurship at the farm level, while younger farmers are more advanced in the use of digital devices, but also lack their specific use in farming, as gaining local (“slow”) knowledge takes a considerable amount of time. Peer-to-peer learning - as farmers main and most trusted source of information are other farmers - and knowledge co-creation can give the generations an opportunity to learn in pairs, and circumvent existing obstacles by mentoring each other, therefore the skills of using digital tools can be successfully transferred in the local context as they are connected and matched with local farmer knowledge. Besides piloting the learning process itself, the project will develop and execute all supporting materials: - Conducting a comprehensive, regional needs analysis and knowledge assessment in every participating country, and developing a matchmaking methodology for the selection process of mentor pairs.- Creating an online collaboration platform with learning content elements, proven good practices and new digital tools (relevant for the region) and with communication features that enable constant share of ideas and knowledge.The skills of using digital tools can only be successfully transferred in the local context, at the specific farm level, and it should be matched with local farmer knowledge. Given the importance of the local characteristics, starting from the exploration of needs, developing and conducting the training and continuing with sustained support, the collaborative - mentoring and facilitating - component of the overall process is crucial to glue all the necessary actions together. Therefore, the project will involve facilitators who are already in the field, working for many years supporting farmers, being trusted, experienced, competent and neutral from business interests. They are primarily professionals accredited and working under the national farm extension services, in accordance with the EU Farm Advisory Service network. In this way, the project will have a positive impact on agricultural knowledge systems as making better use of networks for informal knowledge exchange.Project results will demonstrate the viability of the approach and methodology, as one of the possible techniques to overcome crucial challenges in the agricultural and rural sectors. The experience can be utilised in a wider strategic context for policymaking, to cope with the abandonment of farming activity especially by young people, the succession of farming, attracting new entrants into agricultural activities, the introduction of digital innovations in a responsible and effective way, suitable for smallholders' and family farmers' needs."

CLIMED-FRUIT aims to broaden EIP Operational Group outcomes across borders, in the field of adaptation to climate change and mitigation for perennial crops in Mediterranean Area, by compiling and sharing knowledge ready for practice.

Rangeland livestock farming systems (RLFS), despite facing challenges, play a significant role in achieving the sustainable development goals in Europe. Although RLFS have an important role in the transition towards the European Green Deal, with the provision of crucial ecosystem services, they still require support, including extension services, farmer to farmer network and participatory monitoring and evaluation. The use of innovative technologies has an important role to play and take part of a wider bundle of measures required to improve the future viability of such farming systems. DIGI-Rangeland network aims to create and expand an innovative network about digital innovations and data technologies with actors (farmers and other land-users) facing challenges in rangeland territories at regional, national, and European levels. Based on a multi-actor approach, the project aims to increase knowledge sharing and mutual understanding between EU stakeholders, and foster cross-fertilization between rangeland areas actors around the use of digital technologies and innovations (DTI). To achieve this, partners in 10 countries will be involved in: a) setting up an EU network with farmers groups, land-users, 10 innovation and demonstration HUBs, and important stakeholders in the 10 rural-AKIS; b) identifying, prioritising, and analysing needs, obstacles and expectations from farmers and land-users; c) identifying and analysing DTI solutions matching the needs of the RLFS farmers and other land-users; d) evaluating and assessing solutions and barriers, to foster DTI adoption within RFLS; e) improving knowledge level with a range of scaling activities, demonstrations, and training, for farmers, advisors, students, land-users. Partners will prepare and implement communication and dissemination activities through trusted channels to maximise the impact of the project’s outputs.

STRATUS, extending over 60 months, aims to connect advisors across Europe for accelerating knowledge creation and sharing on Integrated Fertilization Management, supporting farmers to bring this knowledge into practice to achieve the ambition of the Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies, thus reducing nutrient losses to the environment while maintaining soil fertility. For this, STRATUS will create an EU-wide advisory network through the creation of three transnational sub-networks (Fertilization Innovation Networks - FIN) on Precision farming, Bio-based fertilisers and Soil quality (SQ) in which trained advisors will collect a total of 104 Good Practices (GPs) and Research Innovations (RIs) on optimal fertiliser use and will identify at least 48 Best Practices (BPs) as the result of the systemic feasibility assessment of the GPs and RIs . In addition, STRATUS will also ensure the integration of the advisors in the MS AKIS as well as the adaptation of the project work to the local conditions through the creation of 10 Communities of Practices (CoPs), in 10 partners countries, established with local AKIS actors, following the MA approach. Based on these BPs, STRATUS will develop 60 demonstrations and training material that will facilitate advisors to exchange knowledge, experiences and key challenges for advisory practice through Cross Visits in all MS and CoPs. All the knowledge generated in the project will become available through an inventory hosted in the digital platform of the STRATUS project. STRATUS will determine the model for the exploitation model of the platform besides the self-sustainability of the EU-wide advisory network . STRATUS will cover all EU27 MS, eleven (11) MS are covered directly by project partners, while the other are covered through being members of EUFRAS and SEASN and project’s advisory organisations in charge of “mirroring” knowledge exchange.

The EU Farm to Fork strategy, which is at the heart of the European Green Deal, aims to make food systems fair, healthy, and environmentally friendly. To achieve the objectives of the Farm to Fork strategy, the Commission proposed, among other, new targets to reduce the use and risks of pesticides (RURP). The main objective of AdvisoryNetPEST is to establish and upgrade a network of advisory services across the EU, increasing the knowledge sharing between advisors, and among the whole AKIS, and the adoption of innovative solutions to RURP by farmers. The project will achieve this by: 1) Developing a EU network of advisors to RURP, based on existing networks and national AKIS, covering the 27 EU Members States (MSs) and the UK. To cover all MSs, the project will adopt a twinning approach: 14 National Networks will be created by the project partners, and these will engage with 14 Associated Networks through a twining program. The network will cover all European pedo-climatic areas, integrating four EU regional clusters and the most relevant crop sectors. 2) Identifying, selecting, and shaping Novel Approaches (NAs), which are technically, economically, socially, and environmentally viable, that will be adapted and replicated across the EU. 3) Exchanging knowledge and training advisors and students to promote the adoption of the NAs. 4) Connecting the project with other national and EU projects, initiatives and policy makers. 5) Scaling up the NAs, fostering the adoption of innovative solutions by farmers and the whole value chain. The project will embrace a multi-actor approach, gathering 19 partner organisations with a vast experience in advisory and crop protection. The consortium will also represent a diversity of AKIS stakeholders, including advisors, researchers, and other value chain actors, as the cornerstone of a regional, national, and EU level network that will allow a wide sharing of technical and practical expertise to RURP in the long-term.