Social farming (also known as care farming) is one of the most common forms of green care or nature-based interventions. It is based on concepts of multifunctional agriculture and community-based social and health care (Di Iacovo and O’Connor, 2009). Social farming refers to the therapeutic use of farming landscapes and practices on part or all of a working farm in order to provide health, social, educational and/or vocational supports to a small number of people at risk of social exclusion. Social farming activities can be targeted towards multiple groups within society - disabled, elderly, NEETS; ex-offenders; addicts / substance abusers. All social farming activities are organised within a supervised, facilitated and structured programme of farming-related tasks involving livestock, horticulture, crops, machinery or woodland (Sempik et. al 2010). Social farming is considered an innovative approach to enhancing social inclusion amongst marginalized groups within rural areas, but their exists multiple innovative models of operating the social farming sector both within individual countries and throughout Europe. This transnational project operating across Ireland, Slovenia, Germany, Portugal and Belgium wishes to identify innovative models of social farming and associated case studies, thereby allowing the information to be shared to farmers through a training course offered as an OER, by the use of an training website. The developed courses are planned to be aligned with EQF standards. There is a tendency for social farming to operate around a small number of participants per family farm, in many instances just one or two. This implies that the farmer requires sufficient expertise in working with participants' needs and abilities; and to communicate effectively, especially with participants who are non-verbal. These training requirements can be resolved through this transnational project by creating suitable blended training and learning resources for farmers, thereby bridging critical gaps in their knowledge, skillsets and competencies.The key objectives of the project are:• To ascertain the training needs and requirements for key stakeholders (host farmers / participants / service providers) involved in the various models of social farming.• To develop a training course syllabus and associated course materials. The main training for farmers could potentially focus on: participants needs and abilities; how to communicate effectively with participants; and health and safety (risk assessments).• To engage with policymakers, rural development organizations and health care / social care providers with regard to replicating this innovative training programme on completion of the project.The target groups for this project include all the key stakeholders (social care providers; social workers; rural development organizations; farmer representative bodies; social farming representative organizations; educators) involved in social farming but particular attention will be focused on farmers hosting participants on their farms or farmers who have a desire to adopt this innovative approach to fostering social inclusion and development within a farming environment.The main intellectual outputs to be developed as part of this project include:O1 national and summary reports on the state of the art on innovative models of social farmingO2 training course syllabus and associated course materialsO3 Project and Training websiteO4 Testing and OptimizationAll intellectual outputs will be available free of charge. Awareness of their availability will be made via social and conventional media and tagged as being free on-line resources.At the completion of this project it is anticipated that there would be an increase in the number of social farms with a mission to address social exclusion amongst marginalized groups living in rural areas; and an increased awareness by all stakeholders of the benefits of social farming; and an appreciation of the necessary requirements for its implementation amongst policy-makers. Taking into account the total benefits of social farming for farmers but for the participants as well, the specific project is of an evident European added value since it promotes social inclusion and consists a measure of battling unemployment for people at the risk of social exclusion. Furthermore, through the described learning procedure, farmers will be provided with a new approach of running their businesses and enhancing their competitiveness.Overall, the FARCURA project wishes to equip stakeholders (farmers; social farming representative bodies; social and heath care providers; farming representative bodies) with the necessary knowledge, skill-sets and competencies to develop and enhance social farming, an innovative approach to fostering social inclusion amongst marginalized groups within rural society throughout Europe.

"Agricultural markets and farming business changed considerably over recent decades. EU Farmers are facing a need to improve their economic and socio-economic situation. From entrepreneurial view financing is an important task for the farmer besides production and marketing. Decisions in financing - may it be ""traditional"" or innovative - have long term influence on the farm, its liquidity and its income.Especially for young farmers taking over the business of their parents or simply aiming at business development it is very important to have a solid financial basis for their agricultural businesses.Financing affects the sustainability of the single farm (together with effects on and importance for income security) as well as it addresses sustainable development of rural areas as a whole.Innovative financing exists on niche level, but a lot of possibilities are not widely known. To make good decisions in the field of innovative financing farmers need to be equipped with more skills, knowledge and competence, and with experience from successful practice. It is a huge challenge for the farmers to:(1) Keep the business running in a profitable & sustainable way.(2) Respect societal demands towards agricultural production which are increasing constantly.(3) Get financed in adequate and sufficient dimension.There are possibilities to fulfill all 3 aspects at the same time.With FARMINFIN project, we aim at developing a training programme that is going to equip farmers with the needed competences for the implementation of innovative financing means tailored adequately for his own farm, entrepreneurial approach and personal circumstances.In addition to this, we also aim at reaching the following objectives:- Foster professional handling of innovative financing means by farmers.- Strengthen economic and socio-economic viability of family farms.- Deliver added value to rural development.These objectives will be achieved by providing to young farmers a training programme based on the OER approach and on case studies about sustainable and innovative financing ways for farming sector enterprises.The training system will be made of:- A guide about alternative ways of financing in the farming sector.- A set of 12 case studies gathering best practices related to alternative ways of financing in the farming sector in the involved countries;- Training curriculum and training modules providing the knowledge needed to successfully implement a sustainable business initiative in the farming sector.The training materials (in English, Swedish, Czech, German, Spanish, Italian and French) will be fully available free of charges on the project training platform and will be also uploaded on OER repositories (such as www.oercommons.org) making them available to an even wider audience.The FARMINFIN consortium is made of the following partners:CEJA (BE): CEJA is the voice of Europe's next generation of farmers, representing some 2 million young people through a membership comprised of 32 recognized national member organizations in 23 EU member states and an associate member organisation from Serbia.HuL (DE): HuL is an independent private body focused on agricultural family enterprises. HuL is consulting in Germany in all types of agricultural business: crop cultivation as well as animal husbandry, production and processing of biomass for food and feed as well as for energetic or industrial purposes. OnP (ES): OnP is a consulting enterprise specialized in project managing, monitoring and evaluation. Its staff has a wide experience in ERASMUS+ projects and in the development of VET materials in the farming and rural development sector.FU (SE): FU is an adult educational association that offers a wide range of adult education all over Sweden. FU has a broad open educational program in a variety of subjects; it also runs schools in higher vocational education, labour market education and further education and training for working life. AèV (IT): AèV is a Vocational Training Centre. Its main objectives are: to promote and stimulate the social-cultural and civic development and training, at any level, of all the citizens, and more specifically farmers, in many economic and social sectors (agriculture, food industry, administrative and advanced services).APF_CR (CZ): APF_CR is a voluntary professional organization of private farmers in the Czech Republic. Defending the economic, social and professional intents of the Czech private farmers in the Czech Republic and abroad is the fundamental activity of APF_CR.COAG (ES): COAG is a professional farming organisation which operates in the Jaén province, in Andalusia. It provides a wide range of services from the defense of farmers interests to training, information and technical advising, R+D, dissemination of technical improvements, rural development, etc."

Small farms make a considerable contribution to territorial development, they provide specialised local and regional products as well as support social, cultural, and environmental services. Farming activities which respect the landscape value and heritage bring added value to the landscape and create potential for agri-tourism development. However, agricultural production depends on unpredictable natural conditions and the direct sale of agricultural products from farms is not easy. These reasons motivate farmers to start doing complementary business in non-agricultural activities. The targeted group of the FEAL project are young farmers, young rural entrepreneurs and family farmers. The share of population participating in lifelong learning courses in rural areas of the EU-27, reaches only 6.6% (European Commission, 2013). People living in rural areas may represent a group at risk of exclusion. Therefore, free access to vocational education and training material for people living in rural areas is crucial. Digital training material of the project is available under a Creative Commons License allowing the use and the distribution free of charges thus granting the access to education for everyone. The project’s training concept is adopted to be accessible through the Open Educational Resources (OER).The FEAL project aimed at developing a flexible training system based on case studies that will provide young farmers, young rural entrepreneurs and family farmers the skills and knowledge to implement sustainable farming activities within different European Agricultural Landscapes (EALs). Outputs are available in 7 languages: English, Slovak, German, Spanish, Italian, Slovenian and French, thus making the results accessible to around the 70% of European citizens speaking these languages as mother tongue (European Commission, June 2012).The FEAL consortium consists of eight partners' organisations from Belgium, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain. The variety of organisations guarantees a multidisciplinary approach reflecting in educational material; two institutions are public and provide education and research, three agencies focus on project management and provide advisory services for farmers, one is a local action group and one residing in Brussels is a unique federation of national associations from the EU28 representing the interests of the landowners, land and forest managers and rural entrepreneurs at the European political level.The project's conceptual research framework consists of a methodology to compare farming practices in different EALs considering landscape value. The project resulted into the development of a comprehensive and flexible e-learning training system. It is adapted to the learners' heterogeneous conditions showing sustainable and multifunctional farming practices improving the quality of EALs in a pan-European context. The project implemented several innovative elements mirroring in its intellectual outputs: O1: Summary report about the state of the art of the relation between sustainable / multifunctional farming practices and EALs; O2: Case studies. Online database represents best practices of farms situated in different EALs with specific regional and local features reflecting the variety of social and economic systems. Case studies implementing win-win-situations provide the opportunity for trainees to learn through real, successful experiences and, for the first time, an entrepreneurial exchange about the topic on regional, national and European levels; O3: FEAL complementary to OER includes training modules and interactive E-Atlas and both materials are linked with other outputs; O4: Pilot testing and development of the definitive training system – FEAL-EDUWEB and its adaptation to VALOR platform and Moodle. FEAL-EDUWEB contains educational material and online self-evaluation forms for knowledge testing.Farmers, rural development organisations, farmers associations, local action groups and representatives of policy makers were invited to multiplier events organized at the end of the project by the consortium partners. The aim was to raise awareness to stakeholders about the possibilities offered by sustainable farming activities, the win-win-situations within different EALs and to integrate the results of the FEAL project into wider national and European practices and programmes.

<< Background >>We live in the Anthropocene. Four of the nine planetary boundaries scientists introduced, referring to processes that regulate the stability and resilience of the Earth System, have now been crossed as a result of human activity: climate change, loss of biosphere integrity, land-system change, altered biogeochemical cycles (Stockholm Resilience Centre, 2015.) While agriculture plays a vital role in every aspect of our lives, and it holds answers to challenges facing people and planet, it is directly linked to the four aforementioned problematic threat sectors. Agricultural sector is acknowledged as one of the most important sectors in the transformation of the EU economy and society towards a long-term sustainable future. For Europe to avert the worst effects of environmental change, assure ecosystem benefits and to accomplish the ambitious goals of the pillars of sustainability a collaborative, transformative action should be taken, with farmers playing a key role, as they are strategically positioned to be part of the solution. Sustainable agriculture is at the heart of the 2030 Agenda and the EU Green Deal. The Farm to Fork Strategy states clearly that EU needs to redesign the food systems which today put huge pressure on the environment and do not allow fair economic returns and livelihoods for primary producers. The new CAP indicates that farmers need to act as managers of the countryside, meet the consumers’ demands and comply with the new EU regulations and strategies. So, EU farmers are faced with several challenges, as they continue to supply food and non-food products and at the same time, are asked to contribute to the transition towards a sustainable future. The Skills Panorama mentions that as agricultural practices are central to promoting environmental sustainability, there is a growing need for skilled agricultural workers to understand how environmental sustainability is integral and applicable to their everyday practice and to be aware of pertinent market regulations and EU and national level regulations. The “Farmers of the Future” report (EC, 2020) suggests that farmers need to be upskilled and reskilled so as to be creative, curious, resourceful, agile, networked, service- and society oriented, emotionally intelligent and open-minded, for the sustainable transformation of agriculture to be achieved. The NEXT Food project (2020), in the Inventory of the skills needed for a transition to more sustainable agriculture identified among other the following skills for the future for farmers: interdisciplinarity, holistic knowledge, lifelong learning, applying tools for sustainable farming, digital and soft skills. Finally, the 2021-2027 Digital Education Action Plan addresses how the deployment of digital technologies, such as blended learning, can be used to improve and extend education and training in rural areas. Unfortunately, certain limitations have made it difficult for farmers to fulfil the expectations as promoters of sustainable development. As they live in rural areas, they are often lack access to reliable information and training opportunities based to their specific learning needsKnowledge and innovation have a key role to play in helping farmers and rural communities meet substantial challenges. Although there is already a substantial amount of knowledge available to answer these challenges, it tends to stay fragmented and insufficiently applied in practice. The insufficient or too slow uptake of new knowledge and innovative solutions in farming, in particular by small and medium-sized farms, hampers a smooth transition towards a more sustainable agriculture as well as the farm sector's competitiveness and sustainable development (Preparing for Future AKIS in Europe, 2019.) Therefore, farmers, as well VET actors involved must simultaneously step up their efforts across the EU to develop new applied knowledge to achieve the CAP objectives and deliver on international commitments.<< Objectives >>Farm4SD purpose:Farm4SD aims at developing a holistic, innovative and inclusive approach to farmers’ and especially to medium and small farm holders’ training on the pillars of the sustainable agriculture–The Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, EU Green Deal, From Farm to Fork and Biodiversity Strategies and the new CAP – combined with entrepreneurial and soft skills, so as farmers and C-VET educators to upskill and reskill, in order to become true factors of change and contribute to environmental protection, to the sustainable growth of our planet and to rural development. Target groups:• Farmers, especially medium and small farm holders• VET providers, Teachers and Trainers• Advisors, Researchers and Farmer Organisations, HEIs, adult education institutions, local authorities, policy makers, NGOsFor these target groups the project aspires to:• Develop a culture of sustainability and innovation among EU farmers and empower them by providing a set of cutting-edge training resources building on skills intelligence, available in digital and open media• Foster the capacity building of C-VET educators in sustainable agriculture, advanced training methodologies and skill’s recognition approaches, to be able to meet the needs of the agricultural labour market. • Support the development of micro-learning, digital based VET resources well aligned to evolving working methods and key competences in the subject area• Enable the green and digital transformation of agricultural sector and C-VET provision by offering policy recommendations• Support inclusion and accessibility in VET by reaching farmers in rural areas and C-VET educators faced with geographical and socio-economic barriers• Utilize the EQF, the updated ECVET, ECTS and micro-credential approach to facilitate transparency and recognition of competences, learning, advocacy, and employability in the sustainable agricultural sector• Increase the capacity of participating organisations to collaborate at transnational level and adopt new methods and best practices in their everyday operations that can be transferred all over Europe and beyond<< Implementation >>Project Activities• Project Management activities that include all the management actions that will be implemented to support the successful delivery of the Farm4SD project, such as implementation of 5 face-to-face transnational project meetings; the development of contractual agreements with all partners; Erasmus+ financial & administrative guidelines, documents, and templates; Meetings’ agendas and minutes; interim and final reporting activities; Operation of a project management platform (BaseCamp); Establishment of a Project Management Committee to ensure that agreed project objectives and results will be achieved on time, within scope and budget, meeting all stakeholders’ needs. • Dissemination and Exploitation activities that include the development of the project logo and the branding strategy; document and presentation templates; project leaflet; dissemination and exploitation plan; dissemination reports; project website; social media pages; project's video; press releases and e-Newsletters. In addition, 4 promotional events/multiplier events named “Farm4SD Info-Day” will be implemented in each partner country and one Final Conference. • Quality Assurance and Impact assessment activities that include the development of the Quality Assurance plan; implementation of Quality Assurance Surveys and development of the corresponding reports; development of the Impact plan and implementation of Impact and risk assessments• Jointed Staff Training Activity (LTTA): The Farm4SD LTTA has as an aim to bring together vocational educators/trainers, staff or associates of partner organisations in order to reskill and upskill on sustainability in the agricultural sector, on key competences regarding agriculture entrepreneurship, funding opportunities, advanced VET learning methods and techniques and the implementation of the updated ECVET, ECTS and Micro-credential approach in validating learning outcomes. • Development of the following Results:R1-Farm4SD Methodological Framework on the Pillars of Sustainable AgricultureR2-Farm4SD Modular Training CourseR3-Farm4SD Train-the-Trainers Programme for VET EducatorsR4-Farm4SD Multifunctional and Interactive Platform R5-Farm4SD Recommendation & Good Practice Booklet<< Results >>The Farm4SD project is expected to have the following outcomes provided in all partner languages:1) Results R1-Farm4SD Methodological Framework on the Pillars of Sustainable Agriculture: an innovative methodological framework about the sustainable agriculture’s pillars teaching and farmers’ skills upgrade. It will discuss the gaps in these fields, the peculiarities and needs of the target groups in each partner country, the best practices in farmers’ C-VET provision, as well as the skills’ recognition paths based on established European VET tools and approaches: EQF, updated ECTS or/and ECTS, Micro-credential approachR2-Farm4SD Modular Training Course: a needs-oriented blended-learning curriculum and training modular package for farmers to equip them with knowledge and skills regarding: the pillars of the sustainable agriculture, business skills that are needed so as farmers to become real entrepreneurs and transform their business in order to continue to exist in the new “sustainable” era, specific soft skills such as creativity, emotional intelligence, communication, networking and agility, and EU funding opportunities for the sustainable transition of the agricultural sectorR3-Farm4SD Train-the-Trainers Programme for VET Educators: a training programme to ensure that VET educators are fully trained to harness the potential of the Farm4SD suite of resources (R2) to support farmers to build key hard and transversal high-value skills sets and are well-educated regarding advanced training methodologies, online and offline, as well as the EU qualification validation tools.R4-Farm4SD Multifunctional and Interactive Platform and Delivery of the Farm4SD Modular Training Course (MOOC): a multifunctional online learning platform, linked also to the project’s website, that will support and supplement the activities pursued, including the implementation of R2 and R3, and facilitate the exchange of knowledge between members of the platform and the broader target audience.R5-Farm4SD Recommendation & Good Practice Booklet: recommendations and good practices that capture all the project’s lessons-learned and the insights derived from stakeholders’ consultation, which can be taken up by local, regional, national and EU institutions and policy makers, so as the quality of C-VET provision and policies, regarding farmers’ education on the pillars of sustainable agriculture, entrepreneurship, funding opportunities and soft skills, to be improved and better practices to be supported. 2) Tangible outcomes:· Contractual agreements, Erasmus + financial & administrative guidelines, documents and templates, Meetings’ agendas, minutes and attendance lists, project reports, Quality Assurance, Risk and Impact Plan, assessments reports.· Dissemination and Exploitation Plan, Dissemination reports, e-Newsletters, Facebook and Instagram pages, Project Website · Project logo, branding framework and leaflet, Documents’ and Presentations’ templates, Project’s presentation3) Intangible outcomes:· Implementation of one LTTA (C1)· Implementation of 5 face-to-face partner meetings and at least 4 online· Creation of networks of cooperation at local, regional, EU and international level consisted of the partner organisations, the associated partners and members of the local communities and their networks.· Increased knowledge and awareness on the themes of the project and its outputs through the “Farm4SD Info-Day” multiplier events and the final conference, reaching 150 individuals and stakeholders · At least 350 stakeholders will be reached via the implementation of R1· At least 220 farmers and VET educators will be trained via the implementation of the LTTA, R2, R3 and R4· Engage at least 30 stakeholders in the process of developing the policy recommendations (R5) · Reach more than 2.000 stakeholders, through dissemination actions

In recent years, climate change has caused a remarkable instability which is affecting the availability and quality of water in many European regions. The lack and difficulty of managing this matter, not only within farming sector is generating tensions between regions and enterprises due to the availability, quality and distribution of water. Considering also the fact that certain products are of notably high water demand and that on certain countries the hydraulic network for agricultural activities is old with many leakages, the gravity of the presented issue is imperative.These evidences and missing short-term and long-term solutions/ perspectives for sustainable solutions build the basis for this project aiming at:raising awareness about the danger of water shortage and the risks of pollutiontraining allowing to optimize the use and quality of water resourcesExchange of examples related more efficient and less polluting farming techniquesWater is a primary resource for agricultural production as well as it is important factor for other sectors and at the same time a public good with public interest behind.Agriculture as the main user of water resources has a significant responsibility in managing of natural resources. And to widen further the topic: agriculture as a sector has influence on water usage; as well on climate change – at least the part of the change which is caused by humans.The project wants to follow a bottom up approach which means learning from practitioners and making their knowledge, patterns and methods in the field of sustainable water management on farming, based on 3 elements:Summary GuideCase studiesTraining modulesThe project’s training methodology is based on the Open Educational Resources (OER) approach, thus developing digital training materials that will be available under a creative commons license allowing their use and distribution free of charges.