The aim of the project was to develop a tool, the sustainability self-assessment questionnaire. This helps agricultural farmers to examine to what extent their own farm complies with the sustainability principles. In addition, it helps farmers to develop sustainability development strategies for their own farms. Some of the project activities (personal interviews, professional conferences, the questionnaire) also showed further development needs. The project gave both professional organizational partners and business actors serving farmers the opportunity to get a more accurate picture of farmers' sustainability-related knowledge and motivation, further development issues became identifiable, and communication activities became more precise. In addition, the project also provided basic information for policy decisions. Data sets were created in both Hungary and Slovakia that were not available before. Based on the feedback, the self-assessment questionnaire also provides a good starting point for measuring the utilization of various EU agricultural and rural development subsidies. Thus, the project strengthened the professional capacities and external professional recognition of the project partners.
The specific goal of the project is to provide individual agricultural entrepreneurs and farmers with a methodology and a very detailed set of criteria that will help them evaluate their own farms in terms of sustainability principles and goals. Evaluating their own farms from a sustainability perspective is also a self-education and personal learning process. It shapes the thinking of farmers living with the opportunity and brings to the fore issues that were not previously present in their daily activities. In addition, it helps develop and strengthen certain competencies. These include the ability to synthesize, innovative thinking, and the ability to plan long-term processes.