Objective 1: Professional training of 20 farmers in large-scale cheese processing technology, trained by Austrian partners and spreading knowledge, including a sustainable guide, to all 700 cooperative members, in order to meet consumer demands for matured cheeses; Objective 2: Adaptability of the disadvantaged target group to digitalization, coming from rural, mountainous areas that are difficult to access and with limited access to technology, thus increasing productivity and market readiness; Objective 3: Social inclusion of the disadvantaged target group, in a transnational exchange of experience, getting in touch with an elite academic environment, specialists with experience in the dairy field, acquiring good practices on farms and generating new employment opportunities in the vulnerable local community. Objective 4: Approaching innovative methods of environmental protection on farms and factories in disadvantaged areas. The exchange of experience will address methods of energy efficiency and reuse of waste from farms (manure) and factories (whey). The results of the trainings will support the vulnerable community to gradually align with environmental protection and sustainable development, according to the Green Deal.
The number one priority of the project was: supporting cattle farmers in rural areas in terms of the dairy processing process. The geographical area where these farmers come from is difficult to access and has an extremely high potential for raising animals and obtaining milk production, for this reason, the quality of the milk is unquestionable. Prioritizing vocational training in the large-scale milk process of this vulnerable target group is directly proportional to their need and potential in the area they come from. However, this professionalization requires financing, which is difficult to access in the cooperative sector, for the transition from the stage of producers to processors. Heavily indebted, dependent on multinationals, which impose their own price on raw materials and in an acute lack of trainers, with a still low degree of maturation of the Romanian cooperative system, however, UNCST-BOVICOOP as a representative organization for small and medium-sized farmers associated in cooperatives, has identified this source of financing, respectively the partner according to the priority need, but also that of digitalization or environmental protection, through green sources.