To achieve the goals of the European Green Deal and other EU strategies, we need to test and apply innovative solutions to combat climate change and adapt to its impacts. It's essential that these solutions can be used in different regions and EU countries. In the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), farm advisors are recognized as key players in the agricultural knowledge and innovation system (AKIS). Their role is to share new ideas, help develop innovation projects, and spread their results. Advisors are crucial in helping farmers adopt climate-smart practices, which are necessary for more sustainable farming systems. However, advisors themselves don’t always feel confident on the complex topic of climate change, and lack the capacity for providing context-specific climate smart advice to farmers.
The ClimateSmartAdvisors project aims to mobilize the EU's agricultural advisory community to speed up the adoption of climate-smart farming (CSF) practices by farmers across the EU. We want to enhance the role of advisors by strengthening their ability to provide targeted advice and share solutions developed in the Climate Farm Demo project. This will be done through the creation of 260 advisory Communities of Practice (CoPs), which are groups for peer-to-peer knowledge exchange on climate-smart farming. By the end of the project, we aim to have a strong network of 140 Climate Smart Coaches (CSCs) and 1,360 Climate Smart Advisors (CSAs), who will work alongside the network of demonstration farmers in Climate Farm Demo. These advisors will improve their skills through expert training, peer learning in CoPs, and involvement in local innovation projects on climate-smart farming. The project will also develop a knowledge repository to help advisors share effective climate smart methods and practices for farmers and advisors.
Additionally, the CoPs will connect with local, regional, and national actors to address shared challenges and needs in the agricultural sector. At the EU level, 12 thematic networks will focus on different areas of climate change mitigation and adaptation. These networks will promote knowledge exchange between farmers and advisors. The project will also link with other European projects and policymakers to ensure broader impact.
Our consortium includes 75 partner organizations from 25 EU member states and 2 associated countries (UK and Serbia). Through this network, we plan to directly engage at least 1,500 advisors in the CoPs, and to reach at least 20,000 advisors across the EU with our activities, ensuring a widespread impact advisors’ capacity development, and ultimately on sustainable farming practices.
