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FAIRshare. Farm Advisory digital Innovation tools Realised and Shared

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - FAIRshare (FAIRshare. Farm Advisory digital Innovation tools Realised and Shared)

Reporting period: 2021-11-01 to 2022-10-31

The overarching aim of FAIRshare is to ensure that farm advisors and their organisations effectively use Digital Advisory Tools and Services (DATS) to support a more productive and sustainable agriculture. As in other sectors, digitalisation within agriculture is a growing trend and farmers are becoming increasingly reliant on data to support their on-farm decision making. However, a digital divide is evident between farmers who use and do not use DATS, and the same can be said for farm advisors. Therefore, this project aims to help bridge this digital divide, primarily, by targeting and supporting farm advisors to engage and implement DATS within their individual contexts. Given their unique role within the Agricultural Knowledge Innovation System (AKIS) and their direct link to farmers on the ground, they are targeted within FAIRshare as being best placed to advocate and support the use of DATS at farm level going forward.
WP1 has resulted in the development of the Permanent Networking Facility (PNF). The PNF hosts the DATS, best practices and training inventories, which now has 288 DATS and 223 registered users.

WP2 focuses on the collection of good practices and to date it has collected 50. Following engagement with end-users, 17 additional good practices vignettes are in progress. WP2 have begun the process of identifying future trends in use and development of DATS.

WP3 focuses on understanding the factors that influence advisors and farmer’s use of DATS and activities in this WP include: the co-creation and administration of 2 European wide surveys (1 for farmers and 1 for advisors) and the creation of 4 regional multi-actor groups (farmers, advisors and digital industry actors) to enhance our understanding of the advisory and farmer interface with DATS. These multi actor groups were leveraged to identify common "working day” operational challenges to co-design a strategy to increase the uptake of DATS in other regions.

WP4 focuses on the adoption of novel DATS in at least 29 different farm advisory contexts (UCs). An overview of the theories around Change Management and Living Labs was generated. 29 UCs have been identified/selected from partners and external entities. T4.3 provides a detailed exploration of early experiences of the UCs with pilot DATS and a new Assessment Tool (T4.4) has been developed to help farm advisors assess the potential of individual DATS in their own contexts.

WP5 develops roadmaps to support the improved use of DATS by the farm advisory community, both at EU and UC level. This is done via a co-creation process, bringing together a diverse group of stakeholders. For the vision and roadmap at EU-level, online workshops were held and roadmaps have been developed and revised. At the individual UC level, UC stakeholder platforms were formed to create a common understanding of the best path forward for their UC. In each UC, the Multi Actor Approach (MAA) was used to achieve a vision, action plan and roadmap for that specific case and its context. By the end of 2022, all 29 UCs updated their action plan and roadmap.

WP6 focuses on the implementation of UCs and has summarised their business Cases (T6.1) in parallel with the planning workshops in WP5 and the Cross Visits (CV) guidelines were developed and most CV’s took place. Preparation of a training framework occurred and modules were identified. Train the trainers training has commenced.

WP7 aims to communicate and disseminate, FAIRshare decisions, methodologies, findings, results, and work progress both internally and externally. Communication now it focuses more on creating interest in FAIRshare among target groups.

WP8 is focused on the overall co-ordination of the project and it continues to implement structures and frameworks to ensure progress. In particular, 29 large UC (90.000€) and 13 external UC (30.000€) were contracted.
WP1: The DATS Inventory and the PNF aims to gather all available DATS for agricultural advisory services and farmers across Europe. We now have collected 288 (200 as set out in the GA). However, we aspire to continue to collect more useful DATS and provide the relevant information and supports through the FAIRshare PNF.

WP2: ‘Good practice’ DATS development and use WP2 enhances the utility of the DATS inventory by providing a range of good practice vignettes, capitalising on digitalisation practices in different socio-cultural and farming contexts. These engage and empower the wider advisory community and their client farmers to use and improve DATS. The final deliverables of WP2 will outline the trends, bottlenecks, barriers and opportunities for application of good practices.

WP3: Two surveys were co-created and analysed, 1 for farmers and 1 for advisors. This WP also identified the main barriers for adoption of DATS via multi actor focus groups and workshops and from these, has provided some solutions to overcome the identified barriers. The findings from this entire WP are compiled and analysed in D3.6.

WP4: Setting up pilot observations of DATS adoption within the UCs have provided valuable learnings on the influential factors related to the use of DATS, while looking at the resultant changes in advisory services. Deeper understanding of how advisors can be enabled to better support and assist farmers by adopting and using DATS, will demonstrate the benefits associated with these technologies. Spill-over effects of DATS between advisors across EU and beyond are an on-going process, as more cross-fertilisation through CVs, between farmers, advisors, and stakeholders in the UCs, takes place.

WP5: UC-leaders followed training sessions and developed a roadmap for their UC. Meanwhile roadmaps have recently been revised. What they learned was relevant for this task, but was also very interesting in general for the development of new business models and action plans for other DATS and service development. During the sessions, they also learned to work with digital brain storming tools, break-out rooms, online polling etc., leading to progress beyond the state of the art.

WP6: The wide range of challenges, addressed in the 29 UCs, in all EU regions, are an inspiring set of learning histories for other advisors. New 13 external UCs, have started the adoption and adaption of other DATS, to solve additional challenges. Most of the CVs took place in this RP, which facilitated the implementation of the UC action plans (T6.3). These findings will be used in the trainings (T6.5) and project communication (WP7). The learnings will be communicated by reflections on implementation in T6.2 and on trainings in T6.6.

WP7: Two main developments on the website: 1 concerning the UC’s and another regarding the new features of the DATS inventory. In the page for the UC’s there’s also a page for the CV, where all the information has been stored for general assess. There’s a new page regarding Training Modules for some of the DATS registered in the platform as well as a series of Good Practices for the development of new DATS, made available in a dedicated video gallery.
Another frequent topic on FAIRshares’ social media has been the DATS Inventory and its 288 DATS. A series of social media posts entitled “Did you know?” have been produced, presenting the different target groups of DATS and the different challenges they address.
DATS Assessment Tool
FAIRshare Talks Video Gallery
New DATS Flyer
Roadmap for large UCs
FAIRshare Good Practice Gallery
Map of DATS in the inventory