A five-year, EU Horizon 2020 funded project was launched in Dublin recently with the aim of improving agricultural advisors use of digital tools and services.
The goal of the project is to ultimately enable better uptake of digital technologies by European farmers.
European agriculture is facing critical challenges over the coming decades, particularly the sustainability of food production.
The Farm Advisory digital Innovation tools Realised and Shared (FAIRshare) project, which is being led by Teagasc, plans to bring 22 partners from 15 countries across Europe together.
This project aims to engage, enable and empower the independent farm advisory community, through sharing of tools, expertise and experiences.
Project co-ordinator, professor Tom Kelly from Teagasc said: “Electronic data generation, analytics and communication technologies have the potential to enable more accurate, faster and better decision-making on farms.
There is a danger that digitisation and future innovations will be hampered unless the rural advisory community is mobilised to take ownership of digital tools and to advocate at the user interface.
According to Kelly, The FAIRshare project has two main objectives. Firstly, to develop an open inventory of the digital tools and services in use internationally; this will be available to all advisors.
Secondly, to create a ‘living lab’ which empowers advisors from across the EU to engage and interact with the online inventory.
The FAIRshare project will fund 40 different advisory cases that will enable advisors to address the challenge of embedding digital tools in different advisory and farming contexts across the EU.
Concluding, Kelly outlined: “Special focus will be on co-designing powerful communication and engagement approaches for advisors to advocate and inspire their peers and farmer clients, driving a stronger network for the wider and better use of digital tools.”