News list

On February 21, 2023, the final multiplier event of the RAMONES-PL project was held at the Continental Hotel in Skopje.

The event was attended by 34 participants, representing the targeted stakeholder groups, including the advisors from the NEA, representatives of the management of the NEA, local farmers that are using the advisory services, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy, the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food, and representatives of the NGO sector in the sector.

The ME was held in Lielā zāle, Ozolnieki, Latvia on 16 February 2023.  The Rural Advisory Monitoring and Evaluation System linked to Precision Learning (RAMONES-PL) project was showcased at the dissemination event in Latvian Rural Advisory and Training Centre (LLKC). Our objective is to strengthen rural advisory services through a monitoring and evaluation system that supports the development of personalized, work-based training programs and a quality certification scheme.

The final event of the RAMONES-PL Project "Monitoring and evaluation system of rural consultancy linked to precision learning" in Italy, held in Centro Congressi Cavour in Rome, represents a moment of dissemination and comparison, with consultants, regional administrations, and other actors in the agricultural and forestry world, on the results and outputs achieved within the project, as well as an opportunity to reflect on the role of consultancy in the CAP.

According to our work plan, we are going to organize at least 7 events and meetings, and the activities will cover every project country. The data below is constantly updated as details become available. 

Transnational Partnership Meeting: 9-10 February 2023. Slovak University of Agriculture, Nitra, Slovakia, by SUA

Multiplier Events:

We really enjoyed meeting our project partners and distinguished guests last week in Mosonmagyaróvár, who joined the so-called transnational partnership meeting (TPM). This was the second opportunity (due to the pandemic in the first phase of the project) to physically organize such kind of event, and this time we also had a choice to continue our stay with dissemination and knowledge exchange at the i2connect mid-term conference/poster session. Thanks to all the discussions, the tasks and possibilities of the final phase of the project became much clearer for all participants.

Gazda Kontroll advisors and GAK project coordinator met again, in the same location, Apaj, Pest county as last summer, hosted by Szomor Farm, which is also a farm demo site for interactive innovation and a partner of the farm advisory service providing organisation, in a convenient distance from the two Hungarian partners, to come together, in a traditional rural Hungarian - Puszta - environment, allowing not only discussing, but also, directly testing some of the practical methods.

On the 23rd and 24th of June in Bitola in the premises of the National Extension Agency, the partners held two days of testing and piloting sessions for systematic use of the advisory logbook and issue tracking software provided by the open-source Mantis platform.

The partners worked together with the advisors from NEA on the additional customization of the Mantis software based on the needs that were identified from the testing and proceeded with the piloting of the software.

Participants of the IO4 Piloting phase joined for a common discussion about the experiences and following steps of using the e-learning system. The next stage of the pilot will also have to be commenced, by more systematic use of the advisory loogbook and issue tracking sofware both the one operated by Gazda Kontroll (GK), and the other, provided by the project (open source Mantis).

Besides the RAMONES-PL project, LLKC is actively working in other capacity development programs, to improve quality of services through the training of advisors in specific, targeted areas to increase competency and skills.

As part of the gLOCAL Evaluation Week 2022, in cooperation with the i2connect and RAMONES-PL project,  CREA organized the webinar "Defining a people-centered meaningful evaluation framework for the assessment of advisory performances" which took place on the 3rd of June 2022, with participation and short presentation from our project's partners, titled: "The utility and use of tailored performance assessment tool of advisory services: the RAMONES-PL project experience".

RAMONES-PL's Italian partner CREA has prepared and shared a practice abstract according to the structure of the EIP-Agri common format.

The EIP-AGRI common format facilitates knowledge flows on innovative and practice-oriented projects from the start till the end of the project. The use of this format also enables farmers, advisers, researchers and all other actors across the EU to contact each other.

On 12.4.2022, a multiplier event of the RAMONES - PL project took place at the SUA, Faculty of Economics and Management in Nitra. The event was attended not only by advisors but as well by representatives of government institutes. Ing. Zuzana Repiská, Deputy for Professional Activities of the Agroinstitute, Mgr. Dana Peškovičová, PhD., Director of the Project Management and External Relations Department, the National Agricultural and Food Center, and Ing.

One of the main and most useful results of RAMONES-PL are a series of e-learning packages tailored to the need of field advisors, according to the preliminary data collection steps of the project, such as the identification of the most frequent activities, the dictionary of competence, and the questionnaire to access importance and proficiency level of advisors regarding certain service areas.

The Third Transnational Partnership Meeting of the project was held in Skopje, North Macedonia between 10-11.03.2022. The meeting was organized in a blended way, with online presence of some of the partners. 
During these two days participants discussed ongoing activities and next steps.
The main goals of the meeting were: 
- summary and evaluation of the prepared methodology, learning content developed in IO2
- presentation and real-time testing of the online participant collaboration platform and mobile applications set up in IO3

During the last three days, EU H2020 i2connect project training was organized by Hungarian project partners and experts, participated by 15 farm advisors and specialists. The event was co-facilitated by Gazda Kontroll, RAMONES-PL project expert, and hosted by GAK, our project coordinator.

Project monitoring, survey, and e-learning platforms are ready to provide the combined functionalities required by the expectation of the project. RAMONES-PL farm advisors - experts working under the Gazda Kontroll RASP network - met today in Godollo, Hungary to finalize the first phase of the pilot and as planned, to start the short evaluation and personalized learning period, before entering into the next round of the experimental learning program. Participants filled out the advisory questionnaire, developed by the results of Output 2, evaluation methodology.

Advisors and experts of Gazda Kontroll met in Mosonmagyaróvár, Hungary on 7-8 December, when they also participated in the exercise which is planned to be utilized in the formulation of personalized competence development, during the first learning phase. They responded to a short quiz containing open questions related to their everyday tasks with regards to the provision of advisory service. Based on the assessment of the results, the knowledge gaps can be better identified for each colleague, and the learning content created accordingly.

A first session of the Multiplier event planned in Nitra, Slovakia was implemented on 30. November 2021.

The main goal of the event was to provide participants with information about the RAMONES-PL project, its results achieved so far, as well as the planned activities in fulfilling its main goal. At the event, they presented several freely available software solutions that can be currently used in the provision of consulting services.

As a result of current anti-pandemic measures, the planned event took place online via MS Teams.

Programme:

The first multiplier event of the project will take place in parallel with the launch of the pilot program on Friday, 5 November 2021, at 9.30 am in Gorka Hall B of MATE University, Gödöllő, Hungary.

The main objective of the event is to disseminate information about the project, the results achieved so far, and the planned next steps. We have received great interest, nearly 150 registrations so far, one day prior to the event; so that we plan to implement it in a blended way. More we will report after the next day

The Consortium planned to publish altogether five newsletters, this first now, covering the period from the project start until the end of summer 2021, while the next issues by every six months. The first issue highlights the main work steps in progress (surveys, interviews, methodologies, tools, platforms), contains a short summary of the events and meetings, the Learning Teaching Training activity, as well as provides a brief project overview.

Experts of IPN (https://www.ipn.bg.ac.rs/) will introduce their system used for the tracking of advisory service provision on 21 September 2021 (14:00) for the RAMONES-PL project partners, to demonstrate a working solution in the everyday practice for over a decade.

This week we implemented the Learning Teaching Training activity in Godollo, Hungary. We really enjoyed being back to the normal way of life meeting each other - as this was the first physical event in the project (due to the pandemic). Training participants were the experts of the project target country partners, who will act as trainers of advisors in the pilot phase. On the first day we gathered in Babatpuszta, while the next 2 days were held in the University Campus.

For the facilitation of the progress in the design of the monitoring and assessment methodologies of the project in Slovakia, our partner from the Slovak University of Agriculture (SUA) organized an event participated by 3 advisors and 2 SUA staff in the office of the department, while the director and deputy director of Agroinstut, another farm advisor from Komarno and the coordinator connected online.    

On the first day of summer 2021, the staff of the advisory network of Gazdakontroll, partner of the RAMONES project, as well as the representatives of the coordinator could meet again in a real farm environment - after many months of online captivity. The  event was hosted by the Szomor Eco Farm, that is situated on the west side of the Kiskunság Puszta. Participants discussed about the methodology of monitoring and evaluation, and also to get prepared for the one year operational phase, when actually carrying out and testing the model. 

The project partnership is working on an online tool, based on open source components, which will be tested during the pilot learning and certification programme. It aims at issue reporting, time tracking, progress monitoring, reporting etc purposes in rural advisory service provision. The technical description, the system configuration, extension(s) development as well as the structural setting up will be documented and shared with any potential advisory service providing organization across the EU, who is interested to implement a similar activity.      

The consortium elaborated the main document of the first project output by the end of February 2021. The report “RAS dictionary of competences” presents the results of the output O1 - “RAS dictionary of competences”. A RAS competency dictionary is needed in order to pinpoint the competences requested to perform specific tasks, according to a set of capacities to be acquired at the level of the individual advisor and/or of an organization, i.e. teamwork; adaptability; communication, IT, management etc. and to define professional standards in the interest of all stakeholders.

The Ramones Farmers Survey was planned in order to discover what the clients of advisors find the most needed advisory services and what competences of the advisors they evaluate important. The project partners developed a questionnaire (consisting of 16 questions) and made it available in the six languages of the project partners in an online form. Through their network among farmers who utilize advisors, the partners disseminated the questionnaire. The survey ran between December 2020 and February 2021. 214 farmers responded to the questionnaire during this period.

Representative organisations of leading RAS providers gathered for joint discussions at the national level, in North-Macedonia, Slovakia and Hungary. The events were held online, due to the limitations of physical meetings during the period. 

The main discussion points (see below) were provided in advance by the coordinator and the task leader GKO.

The information gathered from the interviews are incorporated in the main Output 1 Report.

Several RAMONES-PL project partners (CREA, LLKC) and experts are also team members of the i2connect : "Connecting advisers to boost interactive innovation in agriculture and forestry" project consortium, which is running in parallel in the next 2 years with our project. WP3 / Task 3.3 of the i2connect project aims especially to develop methods and tools for an "innovation friendly" management of advisory services.

RASP organisations are to be participating in the Case Study Analysis (CSA)  in 3 target countries, for the validation of the professional business processes, and conducting the survey related to the most needed services and competences, as well as integrating the dictionary in the organizational policy.