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FARMLAND Farm Activities for Rural Model Learning And Nature Didactics

Due to reform of EU Agricultural Policies, aids to agriculture are no longer bound to the quantity of products, thereby abandoning protectionist policies for a more open market careful to the quality and origin of products, protection of consumers, environment and well-being of animals. Farmers are facing risks and opportunities on the main road for business development, competitiveness, diversification, multi-functionality, valorisation within wider rural contexts. There is growing interest in the agritourism or farm staying, which allows visitors to enjoy a human dimension that is increasingly difficult to find in the hustle and bustle of city life. Special impulse along these lines comes from school tourism, which seems to show growing appreciation for educational and entertainment open-air opportunities available at farm schools offering well-tested didactic activities as life experiences. To improve the quality of these important experiences, facilitate their circulation and develop skills required for management of farm educational-logistical activities, it is essential to create a training system that can involve together agricultural entrepreneurs and other human resources, such as teachers as a category facing serious employment difficulties as well as persons in charge of social and youth services. In fact, both public and private schools are less and less able to offer permanent jobs to vocational and high education graduates and trained people representing the growing ranks of unemployed and under-employed intellectuals, most of them women. A trend to reduce, both for demographic and public spending review, the number of schools, above all in rural areas, is augmenting the need for families to enroll their children at day-care centers even at a very early age. This creates difficult situations, such as time and money spending for parents, culminating in decisions that often force women to give up their jobs. This project intends to create a bridge in which training programmes simultaneously offer opportunities to agricultural enterprises and to those who can become a useful part of the evolution of farm schools towards a real service for schools and families relying on social care, educational activities in connection with school institutions and educational tourism (farm and kindergarten school). The main methodology used at the farm schools is based on “learning by doing”, typical of the traditional farmers’ heritage, with practical courses on gardening and horticulture, management of farm animals, traditional food making, use of ecologic material for buildings, knowledge, cultivation and propagation of herbs for health and food purpose, sustainable waste management, recycling, use of renewable energy sources and energy saving systems. The teaching materials for transfer of innovation form a gallery of case studies, are provided by “Agricoltura è Vita" association, responsible for “Scuola in fattoria” network in Italy.

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