IALB-EUFRAS-SEASN Conference 2025 in Brussels

Advisory work and education are key to overcoming the major challenges faced by rural areas and agriculture, both now and in the future. The agricultural sector is struggling with cost pressure and food production price fluctuations that cannot be influenced. It is affected by a shortage of skilled workers, as well as by climate change and the loss of biodiversity. Increasingly stringent animal welfare standards, changing dietary habits, artificial intelligence and digitalisation require ongoing adjustments in land management. Furthermore, agriculture is being perceived more and more critically in society. The role of rural advisory services and education goes far beyond supporting and training farmers to produce healthy and safe food: it is about the holistic integration of knowledge from different fields and networking between them. A dynamic cross-border cooperation of independent advisors and organisations supports this.

Advisory services and education are valued as a central instrument for implementing strategic and political goals. Advisors are professionals who support transformation and innovation processes towards climate neutrality, a world without hunger, a sustainable, biodiversity-friendly economy, and dialogue with society. The agriculture-related goals of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Green Deal, the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the EU Strategy for Agriculture, developed by the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agricultural Policy in September 2024, are ambitious and require professional implementation and support from neutral advisory services, as well as being anchored in rural education and training systems.

At the conference, the IALB, EUFRAS and SEASN advisory networks will present their position paper on the role of advice and education in the agricultural knowledge and innovation system.

The IALB-EUFRAS-SEASN 2025 conference, held at the Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the EU in Brussels, will focus on the current and future role of rural advisory services in relation to agricultural policy objectives. Workshops will discuss examples of best practice in the provision of professional support in the form of advice, training and innovation projects, and develop approaches for further developing the role of advice in various policy and thematic areas.