Periodic Reporting for period 1 - D4AgEcol (DIGITALISATION FOR AGROECOLOGY)
Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-02-29
Switching to sustainable farming based on agroecology is one of the biggest challenges for European agriculture. Agroecology is a comprehensive approach that combines ecological and social principles to create sustainable farming and food systems. It aims to overcome the problems of current conventional farming methods. Digital tools and technologies have the potential to significantly aid this transition, but our understanding of their role is still limited.
The goal of the D4AgEcol project (https://d4agecol.eu/(opens in new window)) is to provide valuable knowledge to farmers and other stakeholders in the bioeconomy to help European agriculture transition to agroecology. This project identifies and evaluates suitable digital tools and technologies and suggests ways to adapt and use their potential. D4AgEcol assesses various digital tools for different farming systems, including both organic and conventional, and examines their impacts on agroecology based on the '10 Elements of Agroecology' outlined by the FAO (2018).
The project also identifies barriers, potential trade-offs, and concerns from stakeholders and citizens that might hinder the transition to agroecology. By working closely with these stakeholders, the project aims to harness their collective knowledge and creativity. Insights gathered from seven European countries involved in this project will help to identify necessary actions and strategies. These insights will be used to develop policy recommendations, regulatory adjustments, and other necessary steps to enable the implementation of agroecology with the support of digital tools and technologies.
The goal of the D4AgEcol project (https://d4agecol.eu/(opens in new window)) is to provide valuable knowledge to farmers and other stakeholders in the bioeconomy to help European agriculture transition to agroecology. This project identifies and evaluates suitable digital tools and technologies and suggests ways to adapt and use their potential. D4AgEcol assesses various digital tools for different farming systems, including both organic and conventional, and examines their impacts on agroecology based on the '10 Elements of Agroecology' outlined by the FAO (2018).
The project also identifies barriers, potential trade-offs, and concerns from stakeholders and citizens that might hinder the transition to agroecology. By working closely with these stakeholders, the project aims to harness their collective knowledge and creativity. Insights gathered from seven European countries involved in this project will help to identify necessary actions and strategies. These insights will be used to develop policy recommendations, regulatory adjustments, and other necessary steps to enable the implementation of agroecology with the support of digital tools and technologies.
D4AgEcol analysed promising digital tools and technologies, which can contribute to a transition of European agriculture to agroecology. The tools are mapped in in a repository, which you can find under the following link: https://platform.d4agecol.eu/(opens in new window) . This repository builds on previous works, such as research articles, research projects and commercial products, and interconnects with activities in other projects (e.g. PATH2DEA). Twelve technologies were selected, which are being further investigated for their potential to enable the transition to agroecology within stakeholder workshops. A set of 30 indicators for agroecology were elaborated, which can be used to indicate the compliance of digital tools and technologies with the ten elements of agroecology. In a joint effort, workshop protocols were elaborated for 12 digital tool scoping workshops, which enable to identify the potential to enable agroecology with digital tools and technologies in seven European countries. The workshops are still ongoing, about half of them have been accomplished. By summer 2024, in total 12 technologies will be evaluated, together with farmers, stakeholders and researchers in 10 living labs. The methodology has been elaborated in a team effort and has been discussed with scientists at various fairs and scientific conferences, such as GIL annual meetings, GIATE symposium, AGRITECHNICA, among others. In September, partners will present the methodology during the Landscape 2024 conference in Berlin and the AgEng 2024 international conference in Athens.
To translate the outcomes of the workshop to policy the consortium has prepared an outline for national workshops on roadmaps for agroecology, to be performed in the 7 participating countries. These shall help to identify the specific needs for adjusted policies to enable agroecology with digitalisation.
To translate the outcomes of the workshop to policy the consortium has prepared an outline for national workshops on roadmaps for agroecology, to be performed in the 7 participating countries. These shall help to identify the specific needs for adjusted policies to enable agroecology with digitalisation.
D4AgEcol has developed a list of indicators for agroecology together with experts in their field as a basis to assess the potential contribution of digital tools and technologies to agroecology. The methodology has been presented on the GIL conference 2024 in Stuttgart and will be published in a scientific journal. D4AgEcol has further elaborated a protocol to identify potentials and constraints of digital tools and technologies in stakeholder workshops. This involves different methodological approaches to simultaneously capture the potential of the technologies to enhance agroecology and the potential adoption of the technologies by farmers. The methodology has been introduced as the “Digital Tool Scoping Workshop” methodology, which will be published as a joint effort of the consortium.