Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth) produces a huge biomass also under dry conditions and is therefore an ideal green manure for Mediterranean cropping systems. However, the incorporation of this green manure into the soil is challenging. This video presents three different machines – disk harrow, stone burier, and crimper roller...

During the next 7 years, the new CAP is going to invest around EUR 37.5 billion in Italy's farming sector and rural areas. Key political priorities have been defined at European level such as: jobs, sustainability, modernization, innovation and quality. In parallel, flexibility is given to Italy to adapt both...

Traditional farming systems have been abandoned to the favor of intensified agricultural practices, due to environmental, structural, economic, and sociopolitical constraints. Consequently, mountain landscape and biodiversity were seriously affected. The aims of this PhD thesis were to study the widespread of the abandonment phenomenon, in particular in the Alpine area,...

Professional documentaries on young farmers, winners of the third edition of the national contest of Mipaaf / National Rural Network "New Success factors", which selects the best practices in rural development made by young farmers who have benefited from the EAFRD funds. The documentaries are made by young professionals selected...

The FAO/UNEP joint programme is catalysing partnerships among United Nations agencies, other international agencies, governments, industry and civil society whose activities, together, can promote the necessary transition to sustainability. An Agri-food Task Force (ATF) on Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) has been established, comprised of representatives of Member States, United...

In this Transnational Cooperation (TNC) project youngsters from the territories of 6 Local Action Groups (LAG) discover local traditions and legends, and innovate their cultural and rural identity of today through storytelling and movie production. Recognizing the importance of the countryside’s young citizens the LAGs, which have come together in this...

Apple production in South Tyrol is a true illustration of a vibrant agricultural innovation system. It is a collaborative and pluralistic structure that comprises private and public actors, different tiers of producer organizations, cooperatives, research, extension and advisory services, all geared towards integrating small-scale apple producers in a highly productive, profitable and efficient system.Today,...

Organic farming no longer serves a niche market in the European Union (EU). In spite of the global economic crisis, the mainstreaming of organic products has maintained its impressive trajectory: since 2008 there has been an average annual growth rate of 8%; annual turnover has risen to €20 billion; and more than 500...

Documentaries on the Best Practices in Rural Development carried out by young farmers that have been granted support under EU Rural development policies.

Documentaries on the Best Practices in Rural Development carried out by young farmers that have been granted support under EU Rural development policies.

In the world, more than 80 per cent of farms are family farms – in total more than 500 million economic and social entities. In Europe 25 million people, 172 million hectares of agricultural land and 12 million farms are involved in EU agricultural production. A vast majority of these...

Fishing is a human activity that has gone on for millennia. Nowadays, it remains one of the very few large scale economic activities that is still based on the ‘hunting and gathering’ of wild biological resources, contrary to agriculture or animal farming, where a few productive species and races were...

This report presents the synthesis of case studies analysed by the action-research activity. The aim is to give a description of the practices carried out by farmers, individually or collectively, which can be considered as sustainable ways to use plant genetic resources with the purpose that these practices be spread...

In constrained environments such as mountainous and Mediterranean areas the sustainable use of forage resources by domestic herbivores has to combine production, conservation of high environmental value areas and product quality. The sustainability of animal production systems relies on their ability to reconcile economic performance based on the added value...

The concept of “High Nature Value farming” developed in the early 1990s from a growing recognition that the conservation of biodiversity in Europe depends on the continuation of low-intensity farming systems across large areas of countryside (see Beaufoy et al., 1994; Bignal et al., 1994; Bignal & McCracken, 1996; 2000)....

Fish All Days allows customers to buy fresh fish straight from the boat – or have it delivered directly to their doorstep. By combining more traditional educational and promotional campaigns with the use of new technology and social media, a trawler from Molfetta has developed a loyal network of customers. The...

Family farming is the most common operational farming model in Europe – representing 97 % of the European Union’s (EU) 12 million farms. Thus it is of great importance in the EU. It covers a diverse range of situations, including farms of all sizes. While there are obvious differences across...

Documentaries on the Best Practices in Rural Development carried out by young farmers that have been granted support under EU Rural development policies.

12 million farms, 172 million hectares of agricultural land, 25 million people involved in agricultural production – these are some of the key data for the EU farming sector in 2010; but what about the situation of individual farms and how do things differ between Member States and as compared...

Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) have established in parallel to conventional food chains, playing a key role in the emerging food networks that are continuously arising as an alternative to the globalized agri-food model. The diversities and particularities of the experiences existing all over the world (box schemes, farmers’ markets,...