P2P Agroecology: Developping peasant agroecology through training and the exchange of best practices The European agricultural model is reaching its limit. Employment in the agricultural sector is constantly decreasing, the use of pesticides has caused the number of chronic illnesses to sky rocket and European agriculture produces more than 400 million tonnes of CO2 every year. Therefore, it is urgent to change course and to focus European agriculture on peasant agriculture, that is to say a type of agriculture that is respectful of the environment as well as peasant and consumer health and that produces quality products thanks to many peasants in a thriving countryside. This project aims to develop peasant agroecology in Europe through training and the exchange of best practices from peasant to peasant. The project should work towards a systematic and global approach to peasant agroecology as well as an understanding of the political issues that influence its development. The project should also pay attention to specific issues within peasant agroecology such as the transfer of farms, the proactive management of cultivated biodiversity, technological independence and food autonomy in the rearing of animals. Over the course of the project, a reference document for peasant agroecology that is adaptable to different European countries will be drafted. It will be made public and shared among European peasant organisations to facilitate and encourage the introduction of training in peasant agroecology. This project will consist in five training seminars organised by theme: introduction to the identification of peasant agroecology in farms, transfer of agricultural businesses, proactive management of cultivated biodiversity, technological independence and food autonomy. Each training activity involves an analysis of agricultural policies relevant to the theme under discussion, theoretical training and practical implementation. A significant amount of time is automatically allocated to listen to the experiences of the peasants participating in the project and to exchange best practices. The participants will include peasants and peasants who are members of our partner organisations who are involved in the exchange of best agroecological practices. In total, there should be about 100 participants in this project. The steering committee groups together between one and three members from each organisation. They all meet during each transnational meeting. The group is responsible for the teaching material and the methodology of the training activities for each country. The seven transnational meetings will take place in the six partner countries and two of these meetings will take place in France. In order to ensure that there is correct information available about all the project members, one contact person will be selected from each organisation. The official language of the project is French. The common communication languages for informal written communication (email) are French, English and Spanish. The expected results are the drafting and circulation of a training reference document among the European peasant organisations which they will be able to adapt in order to introduce peasant agroecology training sessions, peasant to peasant discussions and the exchange of innovative practices. By the end of the project, the participants will be able to create thematic training sessions about the different aspects of peasant agroecology dealt with during the project. In the long term, the project will provide an increasing number of peasants with knowledge of peasant agroecology issues and practices. Moreover, it will allow these peasants to participate in the creation of a political framework that introduces peasant agroecology into the mainstream. Peasant agroecology will tangibly develop across Europe and all European citizens will feel its benefits through higher employment rates, better health, better care for the environment and improved quality of life.
P2P Agroecology: Developing peasant agroecology through training and exchange of practices This project was initiated in a context that is still relevant today, the context of a European agricultural model in need of profound transformation: employment in agriculture is constantly decreasing, the use of pesticides has led to an explosion in the number of chronic diseases, and European agriculture emits more than 400 million tons of CO2eq each year. The urgency to change course has even deepened since the beginning of the project. This context reinforces the relevance of such a partnership, which has worked to develop a training tool for peasant agroecology. The objectives of this project were: - to develop peasant agroecology in Europe through training and the exchange of practices between peasants; - to train in a global approach to peasant agroecology and to understand the political issues that condition its development; - to propose training in specific aspects of agroecology: farm transferability, dynamic management of farmed and cultivated biodiversity, technological autonomy and food autonomy in livestock farming. - to develop and disseminate a training referential document that can be adapted in the different European countries to facilitate and encourage the implementation of training in peasant-based agroecology; The initial architecture of the project was to be based on five thematic training seminars: "Introduction to the diagnosis of peasant agroecology at the farm level", "Farm transferability", "Dynamic management of livestock and cultivated biodiversity", "Technological autonomy" and "Local development". However, the health crisis that has shaken Europe since the beginning of 2020 forced the postponement and then the cancellation of 3 seminars out of the 5 initially planned. Only the first two activities could therefore be carried out. The participants were peasants who were members of the partner organisations and involved in the exchange of agro-ecological practices. In all, about 50 participants were able to take part in this project, about 30 per training activity, some of whom participated in both activities. However, the benefits of the project will benefit to a much wider audience. The first seminar "Introduction to the diagnosis of peasant agroecology at farm level" brought together 31 learners from the 6 member organisations for 3 days in February 2019 in Durango, Spain. These three days of training combined theoretical and practical training on peasant agro-ecology: presentation of the history and main principles, training on how to carry out a diagnosis on a farm scale, how to conduct an interview, practical application on five farms in the region, restitution of the results and analysis, collective reflection on ways to improve the farms diagnosed. The second seminar "Farm transferability" brought together 29 learners from the 6 member organisations for 3 days in October 2019 in Tilff, Belgium. These three days of training allowed for an in-depth study of the issues, obstacles and levers of farm transfer and generational renewal in agriculture: analysis of the different European contexts, analysis of concrete examples on farms in the territory, presentation of existing diagnostic and transfer support tools and practical application. The main deliverable is a training framework for peasant agroecology entitled "Promoting Peasant Agroecology", which has been distributed to European peasant organisations and which they can now easily use to set up peasant agroecology training and practice exchanges. The learners who participated directly in the project have become more competent in the topics addressed and are now able to develop thematic training on the various aspects of peasant agroecology dealt with in this project. The hoped-for result in the medium term is the appropriation by farmers' organisations, agricultural training organisations and popular education organisations of the content of the training reference framework in order to build new training courses or enrich existing ones. The member organisations of the partnership have already started this work. In the long term, the project should enable a growing number of farmers to master the issues and practices of peasant agro-ecology through training and to participate in the development of a political framework that will allow its generalisation. Farmers' agroecology will progress in Europe and will benefit all European citizens: beneficial effects on employment, health, the environment and the living environment.