Eco-Social Farming

As written in the project application, we wanted to boost the recognition of social aspects in agriculture and disseminate their importance among farmers. We tried to mainstream the idea of social...

As written in the project application, we wanted to boost the recognition of social aspects in agriculture and disseminate their importance among farmers. We tried to mainstream the idea of social farming so that more farmers would learn about it and be willing to provide services to people with special needs. We then wanted to recognize how social work can apply environmental aspects through social farming and disseminate them across social work and farming entities. We wanted more vulnerable people to co-create their living environment and recognize the relations between activity and its impact on nature and ecology. We then wanted to prepare the ground and framework for furthering these ideas in Central European countries in a more significant partner consortium of higher education institutions in some future projects to prepare better students for current life challenges.

During our two-year project, we conducted several activities to get and disseminate the newly acquired information among various target groups mentioned in the project application and above. a) On-farm study visits and in-depth discussions with social farmers and social workers are needed to identify their concrete approaches to enhancing social assistance well-being and optimizing their ecological footprint, landscape development, etc. (the inspiration for other organizations). We did all together 3 on-farm study visits in Germany, Slovakia and Czechia and three in-depth focus groups with farmers and social workers b) Development of an indicator matrix of social farms, a document elaborated on literature review, focus groups and observations c) Round tables in CZ (international group), GE (students and farmers), SK (international group) and online surveys testing these indicators (210 questionnaires, return rate 29 %) d) Short report (Handbook) for learners on locally anchored environmental interventions in the countryside (social farms for furthering environmental aspects in social work, higher education, and social elements in agriculture) e) three in-person project meetings, multiple emails, online calls, online meetings

We have three specific outputs: the Social Farm Indicator Matrix, the Online Survey results and the Handbook of Synergies on Social Farming and Ecological Goals (uploaded in E+PRP) and displayed at our website www.socialni-zemedelstvi.cz. Results include a change in thinking about social farming as a contribution to green social work and environmental justice, both on the part of social farmers, social workers and people with specific needs. Among the results is that we have focused on the public and implementers to be more aware of the social aspects of agriculture thanks to the project. We have shown how agriculture empowers people with disabilities, what concrete farm operations make the environment more sustainable, and what activities make participants more self-confident. We have shown that social farms promote participation and civil society and what tools they use. Through concrete examples, we have demonstrated how people with disabilities can become active on farms and thus become active players in creating a quality environment. This could have been shown by the outputs produced and their dissemination or by using the data collected during the project at international conferences.