Our project idea is based on following facts for smallholder farming:
- remains a predominantly family activity (86.1%, EUROSTAT 2020)
- EU farm managers are typically relatively old males (68.4% male in 2020 and a 57.6% of them (both sexes combined) at least 55 y.o.)
- very few farm managers in EU have full agricultural training (only 10.2% had full agricultural training, and 17.5% had basic training in 2020)
- fewer farms, fewer farmers (people employed in agriculture fell from 6.4% of total EU employment in 2005 to 4.2% in 2020)
- young farmers remain scarce in EU (in 2005, 7.3% were under 35 y.o. and fell to 6.5% in 2020)
- female farmers are a continuing minority but the share is increasing (from 26.4% in 2005 to 31.6% in 2020)
Smallholder farming “suffers” from the aspects of governance, modus operandi, financing, marketing, handing over, supply chains (mainly during COVID-19 / after Ukraine war), etc. Moreover, farmers in eco/organic farming face additional hurdles, stemming from their rooting to traditional agriculture where cultural & biological evolution was anchored on the interaction of traditional and indigenous farmers with the environment, without utilising inputs, capital or modern scientific knowledge, but only intensive experiential knowledge of balancing productivity and agrobiodiversity management in the form of diversified agricultural systems (Maghirang, DeLaCruz, Villareal, 2011). The philosophy and primary goal of our project, focus on enhancing the appeal of agroecology Adult Education programs specifically tailored for smallholder farmers, while empowering educators with effective tools capable of engaging farmers in advanced educational pursuits while preserving valuable, often overlooked, silver knowledge.