Community Support Action (CSA), an EU Horizon 2020 project, designed to enhance peer-to-peer learning through on-farm demonstration activities, AgriDemo-F2F mapped over 100 demonstration farms across Europe and studied best practices for farmer-led knowledge exchange.
The AgILe lab developed a farmer-centred multi-actor approach to develop tools to uncover and extend how farmers want to and can learn best from each other to support this process. The AgILe net led events to involve Irish farmers and advisors in developing, testing and evaluating demonstration events.
One example is the lab’s facilitation of a farmer discussion group (with their specialist advisors) to co-design an evaluation process to support discussion groups to operate optimally to support farmer learning. The method was communicated by advisors using the effective method at national advisory conferences, a national dairy cooperative, and at training for all Teagasc advisors.
The project’s core idea – that knowledge exchange is non-linear and farmers value learning from peers – informed guidelines and policy recommendations to strengthen interactive innovation in agriculture. It was in AgriDEmo-F2F that the AgILe lab developed and tested what was an early iteration of its Living Lab Toolbox (with projects SKIN and CERERE that were running concurrently).