Consortium of EU-FarmBook meets in Tallin: Platform will soon be ready for uploads

EU-FarmBook will soon be ready for uploads, resolved the project consortium during their June meeting in Tallinn. All efforts will be concentrated on informing potential contributors. The Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge (METK), who hosted the meeting, was the first Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) in Europe to announce their commitment.

Minister Madis Kallas: EU-FarmBook supports green transition

Madis Kallas, Minister of Regional Affairs, welcomed personally the EU-FarmBook consortium in the Ministry of Rural Affairs in the center of Tallin. “European green transition can give rise to many questions, answers to which may differ by country. EU-FarmBook could help bring together the output of scientific research and offer innovative solutions to producers. They would be able to search the database for practical information on how to better cope with the challenges raised by the green transition”, he said, and underlined: “I am proud to say that Estonia is one of the pioneers in transitioning agricultural and rural sectors to digital governance”.

*Madis Kallas, Minister of Regional Affairs welcomed Pieter Spanoghe and the EU-FarmBook Consortium in Estonia*

Estonia is a role model

Pieter Spanoghe from Ghent University, General Coordinator of EU-FarmBook, thanked the minister for the hospitality on behalf of the consortium and pointed out: “We are looking towards the contribution of Estonia, and we hope, that many other countries will follow”. Estonia’s plan is to link the national knowledge and networking platforms with EU-FarmBook.

*Helena Pärenson from the R&D Department of the Ministry of Rural Affairs presented the CAP support measures in Estonia*

The Baltic state is an early adopter on digitalisation in agriculture: The first digital platform to share agricultural knowledge went online in 2001 (www.pikk.ee) and in 2007 a national rural network platform followed (www.maainfo.ee).

Konstantin Mihhejev, Hanna Tamsalu and Pille Koorberg from the Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge (METK) and members of the EU-FarmBook Consortium explained the AKIS environment in Estonia

Currently, METK is working on elaborating a new technical online platform to bring all relevant information for farmers, foresters, and other rural actors under one umbrella. “If all EU member states would support the new platform in the same way as Estonia, the platform would soon reach its goal to be the point of reference for farmers, foresters, and advisors”, Pieter Spanoghe resumed.

Contributors should contact EU-FarmBook Coordinator

The uploading needs some preparation: Details on the information, the so-called knowledge objects, and the publication rights have to be verified in advance. The Ghent University coordination team is preparing a form with all the needed information and the details will be communicated by the communication channels of EU-FarmBook soon. The project coordinator of EU-FarmBook will also provide this information upon request. Please contact:

Pieter Spanoghe: pieter.spanoghe@ugent.be

“There is so much expertise of AKIS in Europe, please share it on EU-FarmBook and make it accessible to the practitioners”, emphasized Pieter Spanoghe. The goal of EU-FarmBook is to support farmers and foresters in tackling numerous challenges such as climate change and the transformation of agriculture and forestry.