
Climate Smart Agriculture
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is an integrated approach to managing landscapes—cropland, livestock, forests and fisheries—that addresses the interlinked challenges of food security and accelerating climate change. The effects of climate change can be mitigated using climate smart agriculture. This could include developing new resistant varieties which are tolerant to heat, salinity and resistant to floods and … Continue reading Climate Smart Agriculture

Final SEED Project Report Published
SEED partners are pleased to announce the publication of their final report on Assessment Standards for Quality Assurance and 5 connected Annexes. The report establishes a set of assessment standards that are attached to the Joint Curriculum, which comprises the content of the curricular units. Some of the assessment standards were designed using the ECVET … Continue reading Final SEED Project Report Published

Measuring the Environmental Performance of Agriculture
Digital data has been gathered to examine the environmental impact of farming. Against the background of increased attention to the sustainability of the agriculture sector, the OECD has developed indicators of the environmental performance of agriculture. Covering the OECD as a whole and all individual OECD countries over the period 1990-2018, the data in this … Continue reading Measuring the Environmental Performance of Agriculture

Webinar: Data Governance Issues in Digital Agriculture. A farmer’s perspective
A webinar organised by the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Data Science User Group. Friday, Nov 5, 12:00-1:00 p.m. Central US Time, Data Science User Group monthly speaker event: Foteini Zampati will talk about ” Data Governance Issues in Digital Agriculture. A farmer’s perspective.” How to attend: The event will be hosted online via Zoom (https://illinois.zoom.us/j/92602473524?pwd=cExZQVN6UHFxVU1UR0Zad2JPaHZtQT09). To attend, … Continue reading Webinar: Data Governance Issues in Digital Agriculture. A farmer’s perspective

SEED Conference, the project that planted innovative seeds
Last September 2021 SEED – Smart Entrepreneurial Education and training in Digital farming – KA3 Erasmus plus project finished. SEED started in 2018 and during 3 years of work established a lot of important collaborations among partners and the final meeting “Agrifood Digital Innovation” in Spello (Italy held more than 50 participants. The conference focused … Continue reading SEED Conference, the project that planted innovative seeds

Precision or Digital or Smart Farming
Are you confused about the differences between Digital Smart and Precision farming? DTN has produced a summary to clarify these terms. Digital farming involves implementing technology such as data science, digital communication channels, and automation and sensors to improve agricultural outcomes. Farming systems operate through an integrated set of activities performed by farmers under their … Continue reading Precision or Digital or Smart Farming

World Food Day: OECD call for better food systems
The first UN Food Systems Summit was held during the UN General Assembly in New York on September 23 2021. The purpose was to accelerate action and to transform food systems to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. There are three major challenges facing food systems, firstly ensuring food security, secondly supporting people’s … Continue reading World Food Day: OECD call for better food systems

Digital Agricultural Data Webinar
Register for Webinar which is part of the Research Data Alliance Interest Group for Agricultural Data (IGAD)’s Coffee Break initiative. It will take place on 20 October 2021 at 13:00 CEST. The webinar, titled Growing Digital Agriculture from the Grassroots: designing just and sustainable agricultural data applications will feature Sarah-Louise Ruder, Dr. Hannah Wittman, and Kevin Cussen, … Continue reading Digital Agricultural Data Webinar

European farmers urgently need to diversify their activities, support from Horizon Europe
According to Horizon, the EU’s research and innovation magazine, boosting biodiversity on farms is crucial to make them more resilient to climate change and protect future food security. Researchers suggest however it will not happen without change across the food supply chain from seed production to consumer. Research suggests the farmers most interested in promoting … Continue reading European farmers urgently need to diversify their activities, support from Horizon Europe

European Regions Week workshop on rural connections
As part of European Regions week, an online workshop will be held from 11.30-13.00 CET on October 14th 2021 on the theme “Rural Connections – green and digital innovation to unlock the potential of rural and remote areas”. The workshop is organised by the European Broadband Competence Offices Network and the Council of European Municipalities … Continue reading European Regions Week workshop on rural connections

SEED Project holds its final conference
The SEED Project (Smart Entrepreneurial Education & training in Digital farming) held its final conference on Thursday September 9th 2021 at the Brussels Office of the Umbria Region. The conference theme was “New Educational Perspectives for Digital Entrepreneurship in agriculture“. Download the SEED final conference agenda. The event aimed to contribute to innovative actions concerning the … Continue reading SEED Project holds its final conference

SEED Project holds final peer review event
Partners in the SEED Project held their final partner meeting and peer review event in Ghent and Brussels on 7-9 September 2021. The project welcomed more than 50 participants from across Europe to examine the outputs and activities of the project and help establish a plan for exploitation of the outcomes. The exploitation plan was … Continue reading SEED Project holds final peer review event

SEED Project Final Partner Meeting
Partners in the SEED Project held their final partner meeting at the University of Ghent, Belgium on Tuesday 7th September 2021. The meeting was in a hybrid meeting format (face to face and via Zoom) due to remaining Covid travel restrictions. The Smart Entrepreneurial Education and training in Digital farming – SEED project develops skills in agriculture … Continue reading SEED Project Final Partner Meeting

Draft SEED report on assessment standards
Members of the SEED project have created a report on “Elaboration of assessment standards for national and transnational work-based learning activities”. This provides valuable quality aspects developed through the use of the European Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET) framework. EQAVET provides VET providers with a straightforward way to monitor and improve the … Continue reading Draft SEED report on assessment standards

Agricultural Innovation Trends in 2021
Among the latest trends in digital farming are Digitisation, Internet of Things and sustainability. These are considered to be major trends which are guiding many industries in recent years. These technologies and the increasing interest and engagement with “green” matters are influencing developments in the agriculture sector. This huge digital transformation is being referred to … Continue reading Agricultural Innovation Trends in 2021

Study: towards sustainable agriculture with biodiversity-friendly alternatives
A European Commission funded research study has examined sustainability of large scale intensive wheat farming and its impacts on the environment. As intensive agriculture is associated with large-scale impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services, food security and human health, it is important to shift to more sustainable, yet highly productive, farming practices. The study assesses such … Continue reading Study: towards sustainable agriculture with biodiversity-friendly alternatives

Building agricultural resilience: OECD News
Set in the context of climate change, which is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme events, causing production losses, damaging land and assets in agricultural sectors, and threatening livelihoods around the world. THE OECD has published a new report on “Building Agricultural Resilience”. The latest OECD-FAO report proposes a new approach to building agricultural … Continue reading Building agricultural resilience: OECD News

Advancing Sustainable Agriculture: the role of advanced farm machines & solutions
Advancing sustainable agriculture in Europe is possible, but to do so, technology uptake needs to rapidly increase and digital farming has be further developed. Advanced technologies and innovative sensing along with improved information technologies have provided the potential for transformations in agricultural. The practices development of modern digital advances require an understanding of traditional agricultural … Continue reading Advancing Sustainable Agriculture: the role of advanced farm machines & solutions

What farmers need to be modern climate-friendly and profitable
Farming feeds all of us — yet in rural communities, farmers are under pressure from mounting climate volatility and limited access to modern tools like the internet. How can agriculture stay resilient and grow with the times? Watch the interview with Beth Ford, CEO of the farming co-op Land O’Lakes, as she shares her plan … Continue reading What farmers need to be modern climate-friendly and profitable

OECD report on Government support to agriculture
Government support fo agriculture has continued to grow worldwide in recent years, but is often failing to meet its stated aims of improving food security, livelihoods and environmental sustainability, according to a new report from the OECD. There are relatively low levels of innovation. Monitoring of 54 countries showed that only 6% of all budgetary … Continue reading OECD report on Government support to agriculture

LiveAdapt: extensive livestock adapts to climate change
LIFE LiveAdapt is part of the LIFE programme of the European Union, in which a multidisciplinary team of entities from Spain, Portugal and France will identify and assess, for four years (2018-2022), solutions for the adaptation to climate change of extensive livestock production models in southern Europe. Why this project? The negative impacts that climate … Continue reading LiveAdapt: extensive livestock adapts to climate change

What role for the OECD Green Recovery Database?
As part of a Green Recovery post-Covid, Governments have the opportunity to unleash innovation, undertake wider reaching and fundamental restructuring of certain sectors, accelerate existing environmental plans, and make use of environmentally sustainable project developments. The OECD has established a database of Green Recovery initiatives to share what is being done and provide examples of … Continue reading What role for the OECD Green Recovery Database?

Optimising the processing of UAV-based thermal imagery
The UAV Research Center (URC) at the Faculty of Bioscience engineering – est. 2019 – focuses on sensing technologies with drones through interdisciplinary collaboration. It undertakes research on the automation of drone flights, remote sensing using drones and data processing, with particular interest in precision agriculture and industrial inspection applications. One of their recent projects deals … Continue reading Optimising the processing of UAV-based thermal imagery

Social Hackathon Umbria 2021
After a one-year break due to the pandemic, the Social Hackathon Umbria will celebrate its fifth anniversary with a major digital co-creation event focused on the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and shared with Fertitecnica Colfiorito and FAO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. #SHU2021 foresees a four-day Hackathon, Workshops, Exhibitions and Laboratories, next 1-4 July 2020 in the beautiful setting of the Colfiorito Park, a … Continue reading Social Hackathon Umbria 2021

SEED Webinar during European Green Week, June 7th 2021
“The carbon footprint of digital technologies in the AgriTech and Precision Agriculture sectors” The European Environment Agency warns that “Europe’s environment is at a tipping point”. This event examines the situation in the agriculture sector, sharing practices as well as issues and challenges being faced. In the context of the European Green Deal … Continue reading SEED Webinar during European Green Week, June 7th 2021

Urban digital farming initiatives
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted just how susceptible countries are to turmoil in the global food supply. Small countries like Singapore have restricted space for agricultural development. One solution is to create vertical farming hubs. Vertical farming is the practice of growing crops in vertically stacked layers. It often incorporates controlled-environment precision agriculture, which aims to optimise plant growth, … Continue reading Urban digital farming initiatives

SEED publishes Joint Digital Farming Curriculum in 4 languages
Partners in the SEED Project have developed and finalised the curriculum content for the Joint Qualification in Digital Farming. The results have been validated with national focus-groups and through international peer-review events. They are now published and available as a brand-new Curriculum mapped both on DigComp and EntreComp. The curriculum can be used as a … Continue reading SEED publishes Joint Digital Farming Curriculum in 4 languages

Digital agriculture: UmbraFlor, EGInA and Ciuffelli made SEED
The project for Smart Entrepreneurial Education and training in Digital farming – SEED – is drawing to a conclusion. Coordinated by UmbraFlor, the nursery of the Umbria Region, the project involves the Agricultural High school of Todi and the European Grants International Academy of Foligno, together with other partners from Spain, Belgium and Slovakia. The … Continue reading Digital agriculture: UmbraFlor, EGInA and Ciuffelli made SEED

SEED Project presented at EUROGEO2021
The SEED Project was disseminated at the EUROGEO 2021 Conference on April 23rd 2021. Due to the Covid pandemic the conference was held online, hosted by UNEC, Madrid, the Spanish Open University. The conference theme Sustainable Development Goals for all, where the SDGs seek to promote a multidimensional model of development capable of guaranteeing sustainability. This … Continue reading SEED Project presented at EUROGEO2021

Digital agriculture: the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra invites you to become a Digital Farmer
The aim of the Smart Entrepreneurship Education and Training in Digital Agriculture – SEED project is to develop skills and competences and to support the preparation of a common qualification for digital agriculture. The Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra is organising a digital farming training course in May 2021 focused on the issue of … Continue reading Digital agriculture: the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra invites you to become a Digital Farmer