Latvian organic cattle farm invests in eco-friendly machinery

A family farm, specialising in high quality beef cattle breeding, used EAFRD support to acquire new, cost-saving and more environmentally friendly machinery.

Krikši farm’s main activity is breeding Charolais cattle for organic beef production, partly in the Abava Nature Park, Latvia. In 2008, it was awarded the status of breeder of pure Charolais cattle. As the farm’s area kept expanding, the owner decided to invest through the Latvian Rural Development Programme (RDP) Measure 04 (Investments in physical assets) in acquiring new machinery (including a hay tedder, a front mower, a grass chopper and a trailer). Consequently, the net turnover of the farm increased by at least 10% (or more than half the amount invested in the project) and the production also increased by 10%. The project helped cut fuel consumption by reducing the number of trips that were necessary to the fields, and had a positive effect also on the growth of the crops and thus on the quality of the feed base. 

Find out more about the project here.

The ENRD is collecting examples of projects and initiatives launched primarily by rural communities in coping with the COVID-19 emergency, supporting rural businesses and fostering solidarity with those more vulnerable in this exceptional situation.

The outbreak of COVID-19 is significantly affecting all aspects of life across Europe, threatening our health and challenging our socio-economic systems. In rural areas farmers, rural businesses and communities are all affected. This page aims to disseminate examples that can inspire other rural stakeholders and also provides information about European Commission initiatives aimed at alleviating the current difficulties faced by rural Europe. To submit your initiatives, contact: publications@enrd.eu.

Update: the ENRD CP office in Brussels remains closed until at least 3 May 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. However, our team remains fully operational and available via email, social media and website. Feel free to contact us at any time!

The Smart Rural project is a two and a half-year preparatory action supported by the European Parliament and implemented by the European Commission (DG AGRI). It aims to inspire villages to develop and implement Smart Villages strategies across Europe and will draw conclusions about how to support Smart Villages in the future CAP Strategic Plans.

In total 17 villages from different parts of Europe will receive guidance and technical support. Five villages from Ireland, Finland, France, Czechia and Greece have already been pre-selected, and 12 more villages will be selected from applications received up until 11 May 2020. Check the project website for more details about the application process.

Euromontana has published a factsheet for Managing Authorities with guidance on how to target mountain areas in the next EU programming period. Focusing on Cohesion Policy, it covers all the steps involved in the design and implementation of Operational Programmes, from the ex-ante evaluation to the monitoring of implementation and the ex-post evaluation.

The factsheet also provides examples of specific tools available for the development of mountain areas, such as Community-Led Local Development (CLLD), as well as recommendations on how to improve coordination between different EU funds including EAFRD.

The European Commission’s Group of Chief Scientific Advisors have highlighted that although the availability of food is not a major concern in Europe, ensuring a sustainable, safe, affordable and nutritious supply of food is a challenge^[1].

Advice on how to deliver an inclusive, fair and timely transition towards a sustainable food system in Europe, delivering health, environmental and socioeconomic benefits, will be published in spring 2020, and will inform the European Commission’s forthcoming Farm to Fork Strategy for Sustainable Food.

Click here for more scoping papers, scientific opinions, and related events.

[1] This observation predates the current COVID-19 emergency.

Three new videos by the ENRD highlight the achievements of LEADER and show in practice how it connects, innovates and empowers rural communities across Europe.

The videos were produced with the help of LEADER Local Action Groups from Belgium, Czechia and Spain. They are available on the ENRD’s dedicated YouTube channel and in the LEADER Resources section of the ENRD website.

The Walloon Network for Rural Development (Belgium) is promoting the videos produced by LEADER LAGs in Wallonia.

The videos show how the LAGs work in practice to the benefit of their rural communities. New videos are regularly added to the Walloon Network's Youtube playlist and to its resource centre.

Rural Youth Europe has launched a series of podcasts called 'Rural Voices'. The first episode is about shrinking spaces for civil society and it explores the challenges and restrictions faced by civil society – with a particular emphasis on young people and their organisations.

There is also a blogpost describing the study session which took place last month in the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg, France. Participants aimed to identify positive examples that promote civil society participation, including mechanisms used by national and/or local/regional authorities and initiatives by civil society.

The report of the 6th Meeting of European Rural Networks(RN)’ Assembly, held on 16 December 2019, reflects the participant’s contributions and discussions about the state of play of the CAP Reform and potential next steps, the current RNs’ governance structures, and the emerging findings of the RN’ 2019 self-assessment.

The highlights report of the 3rd ENRD Thematic Group meeting 'Bioeconomy and climate action' focuses on practical ways in which climate data and monitoring frameworks can enable farmers and rural communities to apply effective climate change mitigating approaches in their activities.

This new briefing by the ENRD examines possible steps for planning Smart Villages initiatives and provides recommendations for both policy planners and LEADER stakeholders for the next programming period. These orientations are based on the outcomes of the first ENRD LEADER Thematic Lab on 'Smart Villages'.

The Common Network Statistics (CNS) report shows the achievements of NRNs drawing on 2018 data, providing a good overview of NSU activities and thematic priorities, as well as identifying trends and tracking progress.

The webinar, held on 1 April 2020, focused on how to design support for Smart Villages in the future CAP Strategic Plans based on the ideas being discussed by Poland. Other Member States were able to exchange information and questions about their own situations.

Presentations from the day are available on the event page.

The Thematic Group on ‘Bioeconomy and climate action’ organised an additional remote technical exchange of experiences on rural biogas production around Europe on 19 March 2020, in response to specific requests from its members.

Presentations and the highlights report from the day are available on the event page.

Presentations and case studies prepared for this event are now available on the event page. These materials have been made available online although the event itself was unfortunately cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Given the circumstances related to COVID-19, this month we are again not publishing the list of upcoming events which normally accompanies the Newsletter. We invite you to keep an eye on the Upcoming Events section of our website, where we list all events - indicating if they are planned to take place, happen online or are cancelled. We do our best to ensure this section is up-to-date.