Summary

Using adapted working tools and getting assistance for ‘do it yourself’ projects are both technical and economic approaches that are seldom explored by conventional agricultural development. Yet, these approaches can have a decisive impact for setting up as a farmer, converting the existing farming practice into organic farming, or producing agronomic innovation in the field of agro-ecology.

EAFRD support helped to realise this peasants’ knowledge base which is about collaborative research and development. It is openly accessible online in the form of detailed articles and technical tutorials, gathering more than 250 pages and over 50 plans for low-tech agro-ecological farming practice. The idea is that peasants’ knowledge is a ‘common good’, to be distributed and modified freely.

Results

USAGES project helped realise a free and open encyclopaedia of open low tech solutions for agriculture.

By 2017, 17 technical plans and tutorials were collectively tested and approved and 23 technical plans were under prototyping.

A section on rules and regulations related to farm buildings and machinery was developed, providing all the administrative and technical background information on risk, security, certification, etc.