Setting up a Learning Platform for Farmers' access to land

"European agriculture is experiencing a major crisis due to the decline of family farming and the trend towards industrialisation. Paradoxically, while farms are getting bigger, consumers, environmental groups, local authorities and others are increasingly supporting local food and sustainable farming systems. European agriculture urgently needs to find and train a new generation of farmers, particularly agroecological farmers. Based on various studies carried out at national and EU level, access to land is the number one obstacle faced by new farmers. All organisations collaborating in this partnership are grassroots organisations training and supporting farmers and future farmers in agroecology. We focus on helping them to secure farmland to start or develop their farming activity. RationaleEuropean exchanges are key for us as in each country very few organisations and public institutions focus on land for farmers. Besides, most of us are recent and seek inspiration from others to build up their activities and the capacity of our staff and volunteers. Objectives- create materials to document and analyse ways of doing on our core activities (e.g. acquiring land, advising farmers…). These materials are both practice-oriented and based on the experience of grassroots organisations and comparison between their approaches- Make these materials fit for the needs of grassroots organisations beyond the project partners and make them widely available- structure an educational programme for peer-to-peer learning, around our core activitiesTo reach these goals, it was particularly important to bring together experienced organisations with younger startup organisations. Our approach has rested on the following pillars: - practice-oriented, - peer-to-peer learning, - supporting start-up organisations, - added-value of European experience-sharing, - creating an open and lasting access to key professional resources. Participants and beneficiaries - Staff and volunteers of our organisations, engaged in supporting farmers, mobilising citizens and advising public and private landowners. They gained professional skills, as well as a wider understanding of their role, through European exchange and inspiration. Within this group, we had special attention for start-up organisations (Czech Republic, Romania, Greece). - Other grassroots land initiatives who invited to participate in our activities (webinar, on-line training, publications) - Key groups who indirectly benefited from the partnership, through being trained and supported by better skilled and more strategic organisations are: farmers and future farmers; citizens interested in food and farming; private land owners; and local authorities. Tangible outcomes- An analysis of the needs of land initiatives in terms of skills, tools and resources. Based on answers from 40 organisations, it offers a state of the art of existing organisations and their needs - A “Beginners’ Kit” on how to start a land initiative in 2 parts: how to set up an organisation and how to develop core land activities. - Series of advanced learning packs on core land activities, including:* 4 advanced European packs on Public Engagement, Impact Assessment, Land Matching Platforms and Land Acquisition. Various formats, depending on the audience: print, digital, videos. Our highlight publication is “The Guardians of the Land” published in 6 languages to be widely available to interested citizens* 8 country packs on topics such as future farmers’ needs, fundraising strategies, farm succession, private landowners, etc. Various content and formats: policy analysis, guidebooks, toolkits, educational videos, etc. – 6 webinars, including ""How to assess the impacts of agroecological farms?"", ""Buying Farmland"" or ""Managing farm donations""– 5 mentoring in groups of 2 or 3 enabled us to gain new skills and consolidate approaches in new areas of work– 2 Trainings: 1 on “Business Models”; 1 on “Fundraising” decisively helped consolidate our professional skills– 7 Multiplier Events enabled us to share our results with about 250 participants: rural organisations, farmers and aspiring farmers, public institutions, citizens- On-line communication, notably on www.accesstoland.euKey intangible outcomes include (see impacts): - consolidated skills, tools and strategies of partners in various areas: fundraising, public engagement, capacity to advise farmers...- new work areas and added legitimacy to work on them: farm succession, acquiring land buildings, etc.- quality of the group as a support network (e.g. in covid times) and a key resource for inspiration, tools, contacts, etc.- improved networking with other rural development organisations and public institutions in our own country-improved understanding of the needs of our stakeholders: farmers, future farmers, private landowners, etc. and capacity to turn these into both practical action and policy recommendations"