Europe is on a mission to lead the world in tackling climate change, aiming to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. At the heart of this ambitious endeavour is the European Green Deal, which sets a clear goal: a minimum 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
While agriculture accounts for 10.1% of these emissions, it also holds immense potential for carbon storage in soils. The challenge lies in finding ways to minimise emissions without compromising food production. Recognising the need for climate change adaptation, the agricultural sector needs to test and implement innovative mitigation and adaptation solutions, with an eye on their scalability and transferability across diverse regions.
An important player in this transformation are farm advisors, recognised as key actors in fostering climate smart innovations and exchanging valuable insights with farmers. Their role is to accelerate the transition to climate smart farming systems across Europe, securing a sustainable future for agriculture while actively combating climate change.
Empowering farm advisors to drive climate smart farming across Europe
The overall goal of the Climate Smart Advisors project is to mobilise the agricultural advisory community in the EU, facilitating the widespread adoption of climate-smart farming practices among farmers across Europe. The project seeks to enhance the role of agricultural advisors and advisory service providers by equipping them with the necessary technical and methodological expertise to deliver tailored guidance. By implementing and sharing the innovative approaches and tools gathered in its sister project Climate Farm Demo, Climate Smart Advisors aims to drive the widespread implementation of CSF practices across the farming community on a wider scale, across EU Member States and associated countries.
To achieve this, Climate Smart Advisors, coordinated by ILVO in Belgium, brings together a consortium of 73 partner organisations from 27 countries. Through these organisations, the project will directly engage with a minimum of 1500 advisors - 140 to be trained as Climate Smart Coaches, equipped to support capacity building in their peers, and 1360 supported in their development as Climate Smart Advisors.
“Advisors are seen as key players in the process of helping farmers tackle the challenges associated with climate change. However, work needs to be done to further strengthen advisors’ capacities for providing targeted and context-specific climate smart advice, to fully live up to this expectation. This is exactly the core of our project: we will support advisors in strengthening their knowledge and skills, by providing dedicated training, by supporting peer coaching and knowledge exchange, and by developing a repository of dedicated tools and practices.”
𑁋Lies Debruyne, ClimateSmartAdvisors project coordinator
The 7-year long Climate Smart Advisors project is just kicking off with the large partners' meeting taking place in Brussels. The meeting aims to establish a foundation for building a strong community for pioneering new approaches and strategies to reshape the agricultural landscape, and contribute to Europe's climate-neutral future.
Innovation for Agriculture is the national coordinator for the Climate Smart Advisors project in the UK. In total, 36 advisors will be recruited and trained, who will support the farms taking part in the Climate Farm Demo project with climate proofing their businesses.
