Since the Green Revolution, worldwide agriculture has been characterized by a typical top–down approach. The degree of autonomy, creativity, and responsibility of farmers has been limited by the continuous external inputs of chemicals, machinery, advice, subsidies and knowledge. The issue of sustainability has brought complexity and uncertainty to this mainly linear...

Provisional AgendaThe Global Launch of the United Nations Decade of Family Farming (2019-2028)27-29 May, 2019FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy

The project successfully reinforced the basis for the cooperative management of shared multispecies fisheries in the four MedSudMed participating countries: Italy, Libya, Malta and Tunisia. This was achieved through the implementation of subregional research programmes, the establishment of scientific networks, and improved national capacity building. Fisheries scientists and staff in...

The initiative involves the close collaboration between scientists and fishers, combining fishers local and experiential knowledge with scientific information in the quest for solutions.

Welcome to the final newsletter from the Farm-Success project!Since you last heard from us we have been carrying out the final adjustments, tests, and translations to our online training platform. We have also held several multiplier events across Europe in which young farmers and other stakeholders have discussed the importance of succession processes...

On Monday 26 February the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies presented the identifying logo of the ‘mountain product’ optional quality term at the Chamber of Commerce of Sondrio. This initiative gives value to the work carried out by ERSAF together with Euromontana, which in recent years has...

Schola Campesina is a training and participatory research centre seeking to strengthen producers’ organizations in their struggle for food sovereignty through knowledge valorization and sharing. Based on the Nyéléni International Forum for Agroecology (2015), and on the principles of Dialogo de saberes, Schola Campesina seeks to boost the sharing of...

Permaculture is a holistic approach to agriculture that provides for human needs—high-quality food, fiber, fuel, medicine and building materials—while enhancing the ecosystems and communities from which these derive; it offers a set of ethics and principles and a means of integrating social and ecological processes in a way that is...

With the release, by the Ministry, of the common logo, Italian mountain producers have now all the normative references for the use of the optional quality term “Mountain product”.

Farm holidays, or agritourism for short, have been experiencing a significant increase in overnight stays for years. At the same time, it is more and more developing into a high-quality holiday offer. The striving for ever more demanding customers is to be seen quite sceptically. All too touristic structures endanger...

ERSAF, the Italian regional agency for agriculture and forestry services, who has been collaborating with Euromontana for many years for the promotion and valorisation of mountain products, started an experimental project, with the Lombardy Region, to implement the use of the optional quality scheme for “mountain products” in some of its...

Agritourism offers farmers the possibility of diversifying and generating additional income through on-farm touristic activities in order to help supplementing their low agricultural income. This helps to maintain the viability of active farms and rural communities. The more general understanding of agritourism states that agritourism activities support and promote agricultural...

Emanuele La Barbera and Alessandra Rabittiis, organic farmers in Umbria, Italy, have found a natural way of reducing the number of parasites causing suffering to their goats. Emanuele and Alessandra herd 70 camosciata delle alpi goats and produce milk and dairy products. Most of their farmland is dedicated to pasture,...

The programme aims to improve existing training and resources for CSA farmers, equipping them with the skills and tools to produce healthy sustainable food for local communities, and to encourage experience sharing with European countries where CSA is less established. The event took place over five days at Cascina Santa Brera,...

In the framework of its three years project “Mainstreaming small-scale low impact fisheries in the Mediterranean” funded by the MAVA Foundation, LIFE plans to reinforce its presence on the ground in order to provide increased support to the small-scale fishing communities in the region. Following a comprehensive interview process Prof. Iuri Peri was selected...

For years, the local fishermen have been enduring the effects of the financial crisis. The region’s banking system is limited to a few operators with strict constraints for attributing loans. Fishermen cannot necessarily provide a typical guarantee, making it difficult for them to obtain loans. Because fishermen do not always...

On February 24, 2017, Elisabetta Parravicini, Vice-President of Euromontana and President of member organization ERSAF (Ente Regionale per i Servizi all’Agricoltura e alle Foreste), presented Euromontana’s work and future objectives at a meeting on Italian mountains as driving forces for development. Elisabetta Parravicini began by recounting the history and outlining...

How the failure to properly recognise and regulate the EU’s fish producer organisations [POs] is failing the Common Fisheries Policy and smaller-scale fishermen and what should be done to resolve it.

In 2009 the Italian Association for Organic Agriculture (AIAB) launched the first bio-district in Italy. A bio-district is a geographical area where farmers, citizens, tourist operators, associations and public authorities enter into an agreement for the sustainable management of local resources, based on organic principles and practices, aiming at the...

Organic and eco-sustainable farming is particularly suited to farms situated within parks, because it does not harm local ecosystems as it does not use pesticides and promotes biodiversity, improving biological links and creating ideal habitats for animal life. It also promotes grants that reward farmers for acting as “guardians/stewards of...