PRESS RELEASE
October 2024
CarboFarmHub: Moving Forward with Cross-Border Cooperation for Sustainable Agriculture
The Carbon Farming Awareness Hub (CarboFarmHub) continues its mission to promote sustainable agriculture and carbon farming through cross-border collaboration, as demonstrated during the project’s second annual meeting held in Ferrara, Italy, in September 2024. This Erasmus PLUS initiative, co-funded by the European Commission, aims to empower young farmers and raise awareness about the importance of sustainable food systems in addressing climate change and carbon farming.
The meeting, hosted by Centoform in Ferrara, brought together partners from Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain to assess progress, plan upcoming activities, and explore future initiatives. The event began with an opening presentation by Akis Karamavros (New Agriculture New Generation), who outlined the agenda for the two-day meeting. This was followed by a presentation from Domna Zourelidou (New Agriculture New Generation), who provided a detailed overview of the project’s implementation to date, including timelines, key performance indicators (KPIs), and areas for further development.
The project team recently convened to discuss key updates and milestones. Mariaelena Romanini from Centoform shared findings from the first Monitoring and Evaluation Report, while Anastasia Zafeiropoulou from the Academy of Entrepreneurship outlined the progress in developing a Global Framework of Initiatives. Partners from across the consortium also highlighted the various actions being implemented in their respective countries. Álvaro R. Quintana from ECOVALIA presented the strategy for raising awareness and boosting community engagement around the project. The day concluded with an overview of upcoming activities and a focus on financial and administrative oversight, led by New Agriculture New Generation. Additionally, keynote speaker Marco Foschini from Clust-er Agrifood provided an in-depth look at the agrifood sector in Emilia Romagna, showcasing the region’s efforts toward sustainability.
On the second day, participants engaged in field visits to two local farms associated with the APO CONERPO Group: the Azienda Osti in Codrea and the Mantovani Farm in Ospital Monacale (Ferrara Province, Emilia Romagna region,Italy). These visits offered a hands-on opportunity to observe sustainable farming practices in action and discuss their potential application within the CarboFarmHub project. Thanks to the two on filed visit and the explanation of the representative of the group, Dr, Massimo Basaglia, the participants had the chance to see how the involved farms have been experimenting a set of techniques aimed at increasing the resilience of the peer plants, since the group is one of the major producer of peers in Europe and peers hare also one of the D.O.P. products in the area, to heat weaves and drought, by using a combination of bio-based products (biochar, bio fertilizers, cover crops, etc.).
The Ferrara meeting was instrumental in laying the groundwork for future initiatives, including the development of an open-access educational platform designed for young farmers. This platform will provide essential training to raise awareness about carbon farming and promote sustainable agricultural practices. In addition, each partner will soon organize national events in their respective countries, as part of the project’s Communication and Dissemination Plan.
Looking ahead, the next CarboFarmHub project meeting is scheduled to take place in Seville, Spain, in March 2025. This upcoming meeting will further build on the progress made so far and continue fostering collaboration between the partner countries.
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