Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is an approach promoted by FAO, starting in 2010, to create technical, policy and investment conditions conducive to sustainable agricultural development that addresses climate change issues while ensuring food security.
“Investing in climate-smart agriculture is essential for enhancing food security and economic development in a sustainable manner.”
accordingly to Chakib Jenane, World Bank Regional Director for Sustainable Development.[1]
EVECSA – European Vocational Excellence for Climate Smart Agriculture – shall build strong skills ecosystems through strong Communities of Practice (CoP) in the next four years. The project, recently started, foresees that 22 partners will collaborate to establish six Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) in six countries. The Italian CoVE is composed of three organisations: LAND, CESIE and CORERAS. Ten agro-VET providers, six enterprises or industry- and sector representative organisations, four universities and two knowledge partners will be involved.
Following the establishment of centres of excellence at the national level, a platform (PoVE) will be established at the European level to serve as a tool for sharing best practices and collaboration among the various CoVEs.
This transnational cooperation will deliver the European Vocational Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture (EVACSA) which will continue to shape climate smart agriculture education policies and practices that foster sustainable production of food, job opportunities, and well-being for all.
In the first phase of the project, we met the regional captains to launch and provide guidelines to establish the first event at the CoVE level, which will involve all partners and other CoVE-level stakeholders. The Italian CoVe’s public presentation took place May 9th at the Second Stakeholders forum, organised by the Centre for Sustainability and Ecological Transition of Unipa. We had the opportunity to present the project to the general public and relevant stakeholders.
In the next months, LAND will develop a survey with the aims to reveal needs as well as resources within each CoVE in relation to the skills ecosystem and the transition to climate smart agriculture.
EVECSA is funded by the ERASMUS+ project, and will last for a period of 48 months. In collaboration with Bygholm – BYGHOLM LANDBRUGSSKOLE (Denmark – Coordinator), Asmildkloster – ASMILDKLOSTER LANDBRUGSSKOLE (Denmark), Green Academy – JORDBRUGETS UDDANNELSESCENTER ARHUS (Denmark), Kalo Organic – VIDEN DJURS (Denmark), FBCD AS (Denmark), AU – AARHUS UNIVERSITET (Denmark), EAMANRESA – Departament d’Acció Climàtica, Alimentació i Agenda Rural (Spain), BOSCAT FUSTA SL (Spain), UVic-UCC – FUNDACIO UNIVERSITARIA BALMES (Spain), CESIE ETS (Italy), LAND IMPRESA SOCIALE SRL (Italy), CORERAS – CONSORZIO REGIONALE PER LA RICERCA APPLICATA E LA SPERIMENTAZIONE (Italy), Aeres – STICHTING AERES GROEP (Holland), AFC – STICHTING AGROFOODCLUSTER (Holland), KATAPULT – STICHTING PLATFORM TALENT VOORTECHNOLOGIE (Holland), ProAgria – PROAGRIA KESKI-POHJANMAA RY (Finland), KPEDU – KESKI-POHJANMAAN KOULUTUSYHTYMA (Finland), SEDU – SEINAJOEN KOULUTUSKUNTAYHTYMA (Finland), LUAS – LAPLAND UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES (Finland), Pow.ZD. – POWIAT ZDUNSKOWOLSKI (Poland), UPWr – UNIWERSYTET PRZYRODNICZY WE WROCLAWIU (Poland), Energia- ENERGIA OZ SP ZOO (Poland).
Do you want do know more about EVECSA?
Are you a VET organisation, VET staff or VET student interested in climate smart agriculture issues? Do you work for an agricultural company and would like to learn more about green skills? To learn more, contact margherita.rosi@impresasocialeland.org.
[1] World bank, Advancing Climate-Smart Agriculture Technologies in Africa, press release – March 8, 2024. Available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2024/03/08/advancing-climate-smart-agriculture-technologies-in-africa.