LIST contributes to the development of European rural areas

Published on 23/02/2017

Agriculture is one of the biggest sectors in many European Union economies. It is also key to the development of rural areas, which cover some 80% of EU territory and are home to 17% of its population. However, rural depopulation is jeopardising these areas.

NARA is looking to address this issue. This European project is centred on developing a training programme for young farmers. By analysing their training needs, the aim is to improve their business development in Europe and to adapt their training to the current demands of the agro-industrial sector.

LIST and its project partners want to encourage the development of new initiatives aimed at promoting business (agri-food) and jobs (for young people, the unemployed and women) in the countryside. This also entails helping young people enter the labour market and supporting population settlement in rural areas. The last aim of this project is to hone the skills of farmers in the agri-food industry as a whole. This calls for an upgrade in both the skills and professionalism of European farmers and farming organisations.

To achieve this, an online training course has been developed, its design based on a comprehensive analysis of young farmers' training needs in six areas of knowledge: food safety, post-harvest technologies, transport & logistics, soil, water and derived products, packaging, and entrepreneurship.

To help deliver this project, LIST carried out an analysis of the training needs of young employees/farmers, designed the content of the transport & logistics module, and ran a pilot session.

The lessons in each module are presented to participants in a simple and fun way, and supplement their initial schooling by covering topics which tend to be neglected in mainstream programmes. In this way, young farmers can acquire the highly specialised knowledge they need to do their work and make more efficient use of a variety of resources.

The training programme is free of charge and participants who complete it will receive a certificate of attendance.

The project partners are:

  • Luxembourg: LIST,
  • Cyprus: MARKETMENTORO,
  • Italy: Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment (Di3A) – University of Catania, 
  • Spain: TECNOPACKAGING, Aula Dei Science and Technology Park Foundation (coordinator).

You can register on www.naraproject.eu.

Learn more on NARA by visiting our page on the project.

 

 

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Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST)

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