APRENTISEM (“Good practices for learnings related to farmers seeds”) is part of an ongoing process initiated ten years ago by the european networks for promotion and development of cultivated biodiversity. This projects aims at facing a major issue : genetic erosion of cultivated varieties. This erosion mainly comes from the lost of knowledge and know-how related to on-farm seed conservation. APRENTISEM aims at carrying out an analysis of partner’s peer learning paths, in particular by identifying good practices. APRENTISEM’s more specific objectives are to contribute to i) improving participants’ skills and knowledge related to cultivated biodiversity (120 farmers, artisanal seeds producers and agricultural facilitators) ; ii) strengthening partners’ trainers and facilitators’ skills in terms of facilitation and support ; iii) promoting peer learning within the european networks for agrobiodiversity preservation and development. The evaluation methodology bases on concrete case studies (i.e. learning activities focused on peer learning) in order to analyze in real conditions the different practices carried out by the partners. These activities have been defined according to the target audience’s requests related to skills transfers on precise themes. The project’s activities encompass a great part of learning issues faced by farmers : how to process and add value on-farm to cultivated biodiversity products? ; how to act collectively/mutualize a work on live beings? ; How to produce one’s own seeds and what is the farmers seeds’ legal, economic and political context? This analysis will be completed by sharing and capitalizing pedagogical experiences between partner’s staffs and key-persons. At the end of the project, a good practices guide will be edited and the project’s results will be disseminated within partner’s organisations’ members (148 organisations implying about 25,000 persons). The project’s results will also be spread at european level within partner’s networks (research institutes, universities, European Coordination for Let’s Liberate Diversity, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements - IFOAM, European Coordination Via Campesina - ECVC).
Erasmus + APRENTISEM program has three specific objectives from the needs of members of three networks working for seed biodiversity and plans on farms : Réseau Semences Paysannes, Rete Semi Rurali and Red de Semillas. 1) Improving the skills and knowledge specific to crop biodiversity of programme participants. This concerns technical aspects (cultivation techniques, storage and conservation and use of equipment) and also organizational aspects (collective management, cooperative) and processing/valorisation ; 2) strengthening coaching and facilitation skills of trainers, coaches and facilitators from partner organisations ; 3) the promotion of peer-to-peer learning in European networks for preservation and development of agrobiodiversity. The evaluation methodology is based on concrete case studies, that is training activities focusing on peer learning. These activities were defined on the basis of the demand of the target audience (farmers, seed producers and agricultural animators), interested in skills transfer on these specific topics.
APRENTISEM aims to improve knowledge of farmer-to-farmer (peer-to-peer) learning in professional situations. The public of the partner associations belongs to the agricultural sector, which induces specificities in terms of adult education. Farmers are indeed experimenters who build their knowledge and know-how empirically throughout their career. Thus, the activities proposed by the project aim to respond to concrete learning needs, defined on the basis of the target audience's demand. They touch on many of the problems faced by the farming public: how to transform and add value to the products of cultivated biodiversity on the farm; how to act collectively / share work with living organisms; how to produce one's own seeds; what is the legal, economic and political context of farmers' seeds? This analysis will be completed by the exchange of pedagogical experiences and the capitalization of these experiences between the resource persons of the partner organizations to promote the value of this type of learning.