Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development

Most agricultural rural areas in the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan are characterized by drastic changes in the agriculture and nutrition sector, due to privatization, modernization and increasing differences between large-scale agro-holdings and small holder farms. The importance of rural development and the need to develop perspectives for agricultural land use is both recognized by politics and education. With regard to this a lack of sustainable development strategies and integrated approaches for the regional or local level exists as well as for up-to-date methods and skilled people to assess and further develop agro-ecosystems services, which are not only agricultural products but also environmental and social services. Professionals need to be educated and trained to adopt theoretical development concepts for specific local conditions, access (international) experiences and apply up-to date methods for the assessment of agro-ecosystems and for natural resource and agriculture land use planning and management.Objective of the proposed project SARUD is therefore (1) to develop a professional master programme on sustainable agriculture and rural development tailored to the demand for professionals of public services, local and regional governments, private service providers and enterprises. Together with partners in local working groups three Russian universities representing different regions and three universities in Northern Kazakhstan develop and implement praxis oriented curricula. (2) Situation analysis and experiences on the local and regional level are enriched and exploited through the build-up of a knowledge platform on sustainable agriculture and integrative rural development by involving national network partners. (3) Through the project activities the training competences for the agricultural sector and further education faculties and their inter-regional network will be strengthened.