News from the Member States

Our website provides links to the National Networks (NNs) and a recent review of these websites reveals the wide range of activities that NNs are involved with. It confirms NN expertise in agri-food, environment, and social subjects. You can use an auto-translate tool on your browser to read all the latest news from all the NNs. Here's a flavour of what is available just now:

A new name for the NN and an October event centred on agri-photovoltaic systems are among the online information available from Germany’s NN. New membership possibilities at the Croatian NN are advertised on their website, which also promotes interesting results from a CAP-funded project exploring farmer responses to the ‘potential of the rhizosphere microbiome in the adaptation of agriculture to climate change’.

Spain’s NN has been profiling the country’s four ARIA project entries as well as thematic material including NN topics such as rural entrepreneurship, gender equality, and depopulation. In Czechia the NN reports on a recent LEADER exchange initiative aimed at sharing learning between peers about successful projects and effective strategy implementation.

A current call for technical assistance funding to support event communication tools is announced on the Lithuanian NN website and an event calendar published by the Irish NN helps to keep its viewers up to date with the latest upcoming meetings concerning Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027. The Luxembourg NN raises awareness annually at this time of year, about a regular national food waste reduction project based around municipalities, private individuals, associations and companies who make their fruit trees available to the public within the ‘Yellow Band’ campaign 'Harvesting is allowed here!'

Rural Youth Programme participants are encouraged by the Maltese NN while CAP funding opportunities and NN membership invitations are publicised by the Slovak NN. New LEADER groups and access to telework opportunities are among the NN online stories highlighted in France.

Austrian NN website content promotes a Polish project on its homepage aimed at increasing ‘agrotonics’ skills for agricultural students learning about farm mechanisation and digitalisation. Romania’s use of generational renewal funding to tackle African Swine Fever is also noted on the homepage of Austria’s NN website. In Romania itself, rural innovation support from Local Action Groups and Operational Groups is among the information provided by the NN for CSP stakeholders.

The CAP’s Managing Authority and Paying Agency in Cyprus have recently supported the island’s ‘7^th festival of Rural Culture’, while coastal communities are the subject of a story found on the Latvian NN website. Dutch news from the NN draws attention to an on-farm event that will help build capacity in short supply chains, sustainable arable farming, and strip cultivation. Estonia’s NN advertises its interesting podcast series of ‘Rural Stories’.

Belgium is the only Member State with two national networks and its Flemish website presents tips for wildlife-friendly mowing as well as sustainable business tools calculating feasibility forecasts for insect breeding. The value of demonstration farms is underlined by Belgium’s French speaking Wallonia’s website which reports on findings from applied agri-food research ‘characterising the impact of the mode of nutrition of dairy cows from barn-dried hay on the quality of milk and cheese produced.’

If you are interested in networking stakeholders from the organic sector you could follow the Italian NN’s story about an initiative to share knowledge between ‘biological districts’. Agri-food support is equally prominent on Portugal’s NN website, which is also networking information about our upcoming Evaluation Helpdesk Workshop in Luxembourg about assessing the added value of LEADER. Bulgaria’s Managing Authority presents a ‘Handbook for practical application of the conditions for maintaining land in good agricultural and ecological condition’ on its website pages about CAP 2023-2027.

Events focused on food quality systems, farmland biodiversity protection, and a smart rural energy cluster are among topical posts on the Polish NN homepage, and Denmark’s Agricultural Agency hosts a database on its website listing beneficiaries of CAP support searchable by all 2021-2022 measures. Visitors to the Greek NN site are reminded that ‘the main added value of networking is to find solutions to problems faced by rural areas, through the exchange of knowledge and information, as well as encouraging dialogue between stakeholders’.

Finnish NN website stories showcase a series of enlightening testimonials from different CAP-funded projects, while communication about CSP implementation, young farmers, and rural broadband is in the news in Slovenia. This review of the NN website links from our website also showed the Swedish NN’s useful complementary links to aquaculture as well as new ways to reduce food waste from broccoli plants.

Please send us news from your NN that has strong interest for other Member States and we will look for the best options to promote the information through our communication channels and help spread the word.