the theoretical approach and in certain aspects limited to the university experience and the students (MKD-KI-1 & MKD-KI-2, Table 1). As a part of the Faculty of Agriculture, Goce Delcev University in Shtip there was an office for rural development that provided training for farmers and was involved in bridging the gaps between the academia and the farmers (2008-2012), but after internal reorganisation it stopped working (MKD-KI-2, Table 1).

On the other hand, non-formal education is present throughout the country with various types of activities and with various target groups. NMK has been a part of the IPARD (EU4RuralAreas)<fnref n="189" /> programs supervised by a special department from the MAFWE, AFSARD and NEA since 2006, and it was active for two periods, 2007-2013 and 2014-2020. The IPARD program is aimed both at the farmers and regulatory bodies in order to establish, support and implement agricultural standards aligned with the EU regulations. During this period, various workshops and practical educational seminars had taken place, predominantly focusing on how farmers can best move towards more sustainable production. Apart from that, the National Federation of Farmers¹⁹⁰ has been regularly organising seminars, webinars and workshops targeted mainly farmers, both in terms of production and especially soft skills development; however, none of them are defined as 'agroecology', even though some aspects of the agroecological principles are covered. Ruralna Koalicija ('The Rural Coalition') is particularly active in training programmes that are focused on women and youth as marginal groups in agriculture. Farmahem as a coordinating body with Meden istok (Honey East)<fnref n="191" />, and Swiss Agency for Development and Collaboration (SDC), providing annual four-months-long training programmes for beginner beekeepers, with theoretical and practical approach, and the successful 'graduates' receive bee colonies to start with practical work and honey production (MKD-KI-1, Table 1).

Various NGOs have organised different educational events, focused mostly on young farmers, rural youth, and consumers (MKD-KI-1, Table 1). However, these events are rarely focused primarily on agroecology and usually combine it with other topics, such as environmental protection, civil movement, and support of rural areas. Even in the case when the educators are from universities, the events are not consistent or follow a particular preset schedule that repeats on monthly or annual level, rather they are part of a bigger projects mainly funded by various EU projects and Embassies projects (MKD-KI-2 & MKD-KI-3, Table 1). An example of an NGO providing these services is the Institute of Communication Studies, which has a dedicated website called Doma¹⁹², providing information for the citizens on the topics of the environment and biodiversity (MKD-KI-1, Table 1). Supported by the British Embassy in Skopje, they are producing a range of short documentaries on topics and case studies from across the country, focused on environmental issues. The Ecological Society Planetum (supported by Civica Mobilitas) has different educational and training projects on topics such as waste management, alternative renewable sources of heating greenhouses, eco-tourism (MKD-KI-1, Table 1), targeting both farmers and the general public, depending on the scope of the programmes.

## 3.2. LIVING LAB

<figure><img src="image_1431.png" /></figure>

Living lab as a term is not yet broadly used in NMK (MKD-KI-2, Table 1). It is challenging to understand what it stands for, and depending on personal interpretation, some ongoing projects can be seen as living labs, mainly projects that have been carried out in collaborations with experts from the agricultural faculties, involved usually as consultants or coordinators (MKD-KI-1, MKD-KI-2,

Table 1). This was the case of the initiative 'From seed to seed', in the southeast part of NMK. The main motivation of the initiators was to find an alternative way to establish a stable network of

<footnote n="189">¹⁸⁹ https://ipard.gov.mk/mk/za-ipard/ - ¹⁹⁰ https://www.nff.org.mk</footnote>

<footnote n="191">¹⁹¹ https://medenistok.mk - ¹⁹² https://doma.edu.mk</footnote>
producers and institutions that would prioritise the use and conservation of traditional varieties,
and work on bringing them to the market. Started in 2018, it was coordinated by the NGO
Fabia CSB, and in collaboration with the Faculty of Agriculture, Goce Delcev University in Shtip
it managed to provide a successful example for involving students and producers in practical
work in terms of establishing a small seed bank, both in-situ and ex-situ, of autochthonous
varieties (mainly of beans and vegetable crops). However, the initiative was never classified
officially as a living lab, again due to the lack of recognition of the term (MKD-KI-2, Table 1).
Some other projects that are planned to start in the near future can be considered as living
labs, but the lack of infrastructure and previous experience with this type of work in NMK might
be a limitation (MKD-KI-2, Table 1).

3.3. MOVEMENT

<figure><img src="image_1432.png" /></figure>

The movement activity category seems to be the most developed and active
one in NMK on the topic of agroecology, especially through different non-
formal education and training programs, events, and working groups. Different
movements focus on different target groups, e.g., farmers, consumers, potential
producers, depending on their philosophy and the projects they are involved in. These projects
are funded by bigger EU projects, national programmes or international organisations (usually
Balkan collaborations), or through different embassies as part of their work in NMK. However,
a movement defined as explicitly agroecological does not exist, although the actions of some
NGOs are more closely related to it than others (MKD-KI-1 & 2, Table 1).

The Slow Food Movement<fnref n="193" /> is present in NMK since 2008 and to this day is one of the most
recognisable groups in terms of food sovereignty acting strongly in terms of promotion of local
and regional crops and food traditions. Zelenata Arka (Green Ark)<fnref n="194" /> is an NGO working mainly in
Skopje that is responsible of the first urban garden in NMK, 'Bostanie', where enthusiasts can be
involved in the care and production of food for personal consumption, along with other events
aimed towards 'social change towards building regenerative and holistic bonds between people
and nature. Another national NGO, Kolektiv Z<fnref n="195" />, is a feminist-led youth collective focused on
climate and social justice, and along with other likeminded NGOs, has formed a participatory
platform focused on the National Green Deal and Balkan Green Deal. The platform provides
opportunity for participation and emphasises concerns in line with the upcoming Green Deal
on EU level, as well as education on the topic of climate change and climate responsibility.
Nacionalna mreza za agrobiodiverzitet (National Network for Agrobiodiversity) is a recently
established (spring 2021) non-formal unregistered network with the main aim to encourage
discussion for plant biodiversity, and establish a collaborative network of people who can
work on diverse issues, and understand which are the neglected aspects of agroecology as
focus for future projects (MKD-KI-2, Table 1). The key informants emphasise that the activities
from the NGOs are rarely recognised, and even more rarely supported by the government.
Additionally, these activities that are linked to agroecology are very dependent on external
funding, and lack of coordination, collaboration, and monitoring, meaning that there is often
repetition of the themes and activities or focus on less important aspects in the wider context
of agroecology (MKD-KI-2, Table 1).

From organisational aspects, agricultural cooperatives, which are commonly associated with
agroecology, are not well known, or established in NMK (MKD-KI-2, Table 1). The concept of
cooperatives has been strongly damaged and weakened during the socialist period (Erjavec

<footnote n="193">¹⁹³ https://slowfood.mk</footnote>

<footnote n="194">¹⁹⁴ https://www.facebook.com/zelenataarka/, http://zelenataarka.mk/</footnote>

<footnote n="195">¹⁹⁵ https://www.facebook.com/KolektivZ, https://www.kolektivz.mk/</footnote>
et al. 2014). Additionally, stronger producers secure their production and collaboration with consumers or processors, usually because they are recognizable and associated with certain tradition and quality and have no interest in joining a cooperative or producer groups (Erjavec et al. 2014). With this in mind, many movements are focused on the smaller producers, which are also the ones more commonly practising agroecological principles. Dobra zemja (Good Earth)<fnref n="196" /> is the first Macedonian Organic Food cooperative that provides a direct connection between the consumers and the smaller producers of organic produce, for whom it is difficult to be competitive on the market, due to the way and scope of their production. The cooperative provides a subscription to weekly fruit and vegetable baskets (this was the first organisation that provided this model in NMK), along with a shop in the capital Skopje, and participation in various events that support local, organic, and sustainable food production.

3.4. PRACTICE

<figure><img src="image_1433.png" /></figure>

The politics of NMK is strongly directed towards EU accession, which affects NMK's strategies, policies and legislation in terms of sustainable management of natural resources and agricultural practices (Ivanovska and Andonov 2018). Regarding agroecology in practice, the general information availability and emphasis on the positive aspects of organic food, has led to an increase in the demand, while the production is still dominated by the conventional mass food production concept (K-1, Table 1). On the one hand, conventional products from NMK cannot be competitive on the market, both at national scale or abroad, as the size of the production is very small, especially in comparison to major producers from the vicinity, such as Greece and Turkey (MKD-KI-1, Table 1). On the other hand, the main ways of support (i.e. through subsidies based mainly of cultivated area and production capacity) do not fully encourage smaller farmers and producers to transition towards agroecological production, which limits and reduced the production capacity and availability of organic, biodynamic, or similar products (MKD-KI-1, Table 1). Therefore, the market is mainly dominated by large producers, while smaller producers that for various reasons practise agroecology are forced to look for alternative markets (e.g. fairs, online sells mainly through social media, events) which although help for their recognition, are limited and require much greater effort.

In the National Strategy for Nature Conservation 2017 – 2027 document (MOEPP, 2018) a whole chapter is dedicated to practices aligned with agroecology and agrobiodiversity conservation, yet these programs remain only theoretical, same as some sectors in the governing bodies, which have no on-field projects and activities (MKD-KI-1, Table 1). These bodies are seen as ‘financing bodies’ from which the farmers only receive subsidies, rather than receiving continuous support and guidance (MKD-KI-1, Table 1). Most of the governmental subsidies are direct producer support (commodity-linked payments per area or per animal), and a considerably small part of the subsidies are directed towards structural rural development and agriculture advancement (Volk et al. 2014). Additionally, these are market-oriented sector-based policies, focused on boosting production without consideration of structural and technological deficits, rural poverty, and small farm areas (Erjavec et al. 2014).

Farmers are officially required to follow a number of regulations depending on the scope of their production in line with the regulative for 'Dobri Zemjodelski Praktiki' (Good Agricultural Practices) established in 2007, and Common Agricultural Practices (Dimitroevski et al. 2014), which are in line with agroecological practices, if they want to be considered eligible for different

<footnote n="196">¹⁹⁶ https://www.facebook.com/dobrazemja, https://dobrazemja.mk</footnote>
subsidies (MKD-KI-2, Table 1). However, these regulations exist on paper only and there is no methodology or protocols set to measure what is actually happening on the field (MKD-KI-1, MKD-KI-2, Table 1). Agroecology is rarely practised on a larger scale, and the large producers are continuing with many unsustainable practices (MKD-KI-1, Table 1).

Subsidies are provided for organic production, which can be considered as stimulation for agroecological production, but this is always more focused on larger areas of organic production rather than on autochthonous and less common crop varieties or agroecological practices (MKD-KI-2, Table 1). In theory, organic producers are obliged to use certified organic seeds, and are especially encouraged to use locally-adapted varieties, manure, beneficial insects, border flower strips (MKD-KI-2, Table 1). However, the infrastructure to help this transition towards organic is not fully in place. Although conventional agriculture is still dominating, some of the organic agroecological practices have also been implemented with conventional growers, i.e., use of beneficial insects instead of hormones in tomato greenhouses as a method of pollination or pest control alternatives (MKD-KI-2, Table 1). Despite the above, there is not enough promotion and knowledge exchange regarding the benefits of these methods across the country and among the producers (MKD-KI-2, Table 1).

A positive example is a project for the protection of the autochthonous Macedonian bee that started 15 years ago. Even though the project was receiving a lot of doubt from the beginning, both from experts and the general public, continuous efforts showed the genetic particularities of this bee, and lot of subsequent projects focused on its protection and management by sustainable agricultural practices followed (MKD-KI-1, Table 1). One of the main ones is the 'Meden Istok', group of beekeepers that provide educational workshops for young beekeepers for sustainable practices, along with an online platform and certification of sustainable bee products.

Additionally, there seems to be a 'new wave' of food producers who, driven by their moral and ethical beliefs, work in line with the agroecological principles and want to produce healthier food or see the potential of food of higher quality from local origin (MKD-KI-1, Table 1). These products are becoming more competitive on the market (MKD-KI-1, Table 1), but they are somewhat limited, in terms of accessibility and prices, as they are often targeting people living in the capital and with a higher living standard.

### 3.5. SCIENCE

<figure><img src="image_1434.png" /></figure>

The lack of definition of agroecology is also evident in the case of science and research infrastructure. The key informants pointed to two faculties, whose departments have done research on topics related with agroecology, the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje) and the Faculty of Agriculture (Goce Delcev University, Shtip). Biodiversity conservation is an important topic in NMK, and the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University, Skopje is also involved in research projects in this regard, but always from the ecological perspective (MKD-KI-1, Table 1). Funding for research and scientific projects is a major issue as the funding coming from the government is scarce and often too complex or limiting (MKD-KI-2 & MKD-KI-3, Table 1). Financial support from
the government directed towards research, development, advisory and expert services on the topic of agriculture is around 1% out of the total subsidies given to agriculture (Volk et al. 2014). Individual university members can search for additional funding through other projects, but additional resources are required, while lack of staff and administrative issues are quite common (MKD-KI-2 & MKD-KI-3, Table 1). Research projects have also been developed by certain governmental sectors, but they are often done as a desk-research without reporting what is happening on the field and are not well promoted (MKD-KI-1, Table 1).

The Macedonian Ecological Society has some projects that can be correlated with agroecology or implementation of agroecological practices, but a formal working group does not exist, and individual projects are a part of other working groups in collaboration with different experts (MKD-KI-2, Table 1). In collaboration with the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) it has supported various scientific publications such as a book on autochthonous bean species, (MKD-KI-3, Table 1). The Rice Institute in Kocani (east NMK) has worked with autochthonous rice varieties to produce more resistant hybrid varieties (MKD-KI-1, Table 1), but no scientific publications are available. Key informants especially emphasised the lack of support from the government to the specialised departments of the universities to conduct more serious scientific research, although various publications regarding agroecological practices have been published, e.g. on pesticide calculators, soil pollution, value of biodiversity, trends in agriculture.
## 4. AGROECOLOGY INITIATIVES, CASES AND EXAMPLES

<table><caption>**Table 2:** An overview about initiatives, cases and examples described and analysed.</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">INITIATIVE N°</th><th rowspan="2">INITIATIVE NAME</th><th rowspan="2">SCALE</th><th rowspan="2">TYPE OF STRUCTURE</th><th rowspan="2">AIM</th><th colspan="5">ACTIVITY CATEGORIES</th></tr><tr><th>EDUCATION & RESEARCH</th><th>LIVING LAB</th><th>MOVEMENT</th><th>PRACTICE</th><th>SCIENCE</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>Filip's Garden<br>Gradinata na Filip</td><td>Local/ National</td><td>Informal structure</td><td>Informal education via various media and raising awareness</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>From seed to seed<br>Од семе до семе</td><td>Regional/ National</td><td>Association</td><td>Conservation of autochthonous varieties and their reintroduction on the market</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Rural Coalition<br>Ruralna Koalicija</td><td>National</td><td>Civil society</td><td>Improvement of life standards and opportunities in rural areas</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Slow Food Macedonia</td><td>National</td><td>Civil society</td><td>Enable access and platform to all interested parties in food sovereignty</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_1435.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1436.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1437.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1438.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1439.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1440.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1441.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1442.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1443.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1444.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1445.png" /></figure>
<table><caption>**Table 3:** Additional initiatives, cases and examples in the country - not included in this report.</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">INITIATIVE NAME</th><th rowspan="2">SCALE</th><th rowspan="2">TYPE OF STRUCTURE</th><th rowspan="2">AIM</th><th colspan="5">ACTIVITY CATEGORIES</th></tr><tr><th>EDUCATION & RESEARCH</th><th>LIVING LAB</th><th>MOVEMENT</th><th>PRACTICE</th><th>SCIENCE</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>GEF-PMG Macedonia</td><td>National</td><td>National steering committee (team of experts)</td><td>Support of small, locally developed projects.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>The Green Ark Zelenata arka</td><td>Local</td><td>NGO</td><td>Permaculture, urban gardening, food sovereignty.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Honey East Meden Istok</td><td>Regional</td><td>Organisation supported by the SDC</td><td>Sustainable use of resources and biotechnical methods for bee products.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Our Good Earth - First Macedonian Organic Food Cooperative Dobra Zemja</td><td>Local/ National</td><td>Cooperative</td><td>Cooperative working only with organic products with member-based participation in its management.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Nature Conservation Program in North Macedonia</td><td>National</td><td>Farmahem and Helvetas Swiss Inter-cooperation</td><td>Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Project for assisting the country in resource conservation and sustainable management.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Centre for development of the eastern region</td><td>Regional</td><td>Formal organisation</td><td>Planning and implementation of strategies for preservation of the characteristics of the region from various aspects.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Macedonian Ecological Association</td><td>National</td><td>NGO</td><td>Various activities out of which some are indirectly related to agroecology.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Collective Z Kolektiv Z</td><td>National</td><td>NGO</td><td>Climate and social justice.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_1446.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1447.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1448.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1449.png" /></figure>

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<figure><img src="image_1461.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1462.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_1463.png" /></figure>

EDUCATION

<figure><img src="image_1464.png" /></figure>

PRACTICE

<figure><img src="image_1465.png" /></figure>

MOVEMENT

<figure><img src="image_1466.png" /></figure>

LIVING LAB

<figure><img src="image_1467.png" /></figure>

SCIENCE

INITIATIVE N°1 – GRADINATA NA FILIP

# GRADINATA NA FILIP — FILIP'S GARDEN

Facebook: @Gradinatafilip

Gradinata na Filip is an umbrella for several different types of non-formal education activities, all developed with the aim to provide channels of information and education on the topic of sustainable food productions and ecology for children and youth, in a more practical and useful manner. Gradinata na Filip is led by an individual who is an agronomist, but different activities are carried out in collaboration with other entities and are focused on different target groups.

In collaboration with Slow Food Macedonia, this initiative is working on the Project 'School gardens in North Macedonia - Green polygon for education'<fnref n="197" /> since 2018. This project is closely collaborating with 10 public schools across the country in order to help them learn about sustainable food production, establish a garden, and make sure the garden stays an accompanying part of the formal education as much as possible. The children as well as the teachers receive structured informal education via workshops or webinars, and are afterwards assisted in the creation and management of the garden. In addition, the lead person of the organisation is also the main editor of the children's magazine 'Полжавче' (Little Snail), where various educational information is presented in an informal manner to make them more understandable for children and also contribute to the national newspaper 'Nova Makedonija', in the children's addition 'Kolibri' where they contribute with materials on the topic of ecology, healthy food in the education, countrywide ecological initiatives etc.

In collaboration with the Radio Pela, the organisation has also developed a radio show and a YouTube channel (since August 2021), which offer a platform for informal education on agroecological food production from the own experiences of the initiative (as the lead person is also a producer of both fresh and traditionally processed food), and through interviews with different initiatives from NMK.

The concept of agroecology is closely related with all the different activities that are part of Gradinata na Filip with ecological food production and healthy foods as particular points of interest. However, the term 'agroecology' is not consistently used as such, mainly due to the lack of recognition by the public, as mentioned earlier. The collaboration with various non-governmental (Slow Food Macedonia, Radio Pela), and public and governmental organisations (public school) provides a wide network through which the informal education methods can reach a bigger audience at a crucial age (children and young adults). Future projects entail preparation of official educational material aimed both for children and their teachers, focused on all the aspects of food growth and production that follow the agroecological principles, as well as continuing the current projects of non-formal education through social and online media.

## KEY FEATURES

* **Type of education and training:** workshops, practical activities, and non-formal education on agroecology

* **Main topics:** agroecological practices and sustainable food systems

* **Type of legal entity:** non-formal

* **Accessible to:** interested public school and individuals

<footnote n="197">¹⁹⁷ https://www.facebook.com/slowfoodgradini.mk/</footnote>
## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Gradinata na Filip is a novel initiative in the sense that it approaches education on the topic of agroecology from modern and informal aspects. The practical experience, the educational qualifications, and the enthusiasm of the members of the organisation, are crucial in the work done, and of special significance due to the collaboration with public schools, which is not so common in NMK. This manner of education and raising awareness is especially focused on the youth, as an active step to increase their involvement and motivate them to return/stay in the rural areas, and practice agriculture aligned with the agroecological principles.
<figure><img src="image_1468.png" /></figure>

LIVING LAB

<figure><img src="image_1469.png" /></figure>

PRACTICE

<figure><img src="image_1470.png" /></figure>

EDUCATION

<figure><img src="image_1471.png" /></figure>

SCIENCE

<figure><img src="image_1472.png" /></figure>

MOVEMENT

INITIATIVE N°2 – FROM SEED TO SEED

Од семе до семе

FROM SEED TO
SEED

**From seed to seed** is an initiative focused on establishment of a community seed bank to conserve traditional autochthonous varieties (mainly beans, other legumes, and vegetables), and make the genetic material available for anyone interested to grow them, both as a marketable product and for personal use. The participants in the initiative also contribute towards conservation and circulating of seeds. This is the first project of this type, as in NMK seed conservation is done ex situ in several different agricultural institutions in the country, while the priority of the initiative is to extend and focus on in situ conservation.

The initiative started in 2018 and was established by the NGO Fabia CSB (Bogdanci), as part of a 4-year project supported by the Swiss Foundation Pro Specie rara. The association, acting as a project leader, involved the Faculty of Agriculture, Goce Delcev University in Shtip, local and national NGOs and producers in different project activities. Important to note is the collaboration with the Faculty of Agriculture, where students took active part in the activities along with producers, various NGOs, and interested individuals. The students were tasked to do "seed to seed" reproduction and short description of autochthonous varieties, while the results were presented to the producers and they were encouraged to use the autochthonous varieties as well as provide material for the community seedbank that could be used by other producers. The idea for establishment of a community seed bank was also presented to the producers and the NGOs, and steps for its establishment were taken. The main motivation of the initiators was to provide a stable network of producers and institutions that would prioritise the use and conservation of traditional varieties, and further work on their commercialisation and secure their market position. This would contribute to raising the awareness towards the traditional varieties, improvement of their consumption and production habits, aligned with some agroecological principles. The collaboration with students has focused on strategies for involving the youth in seed saving and showing them practically the potential of these types of crops.

The scope of this initiative is completely aligned with the agroecological concept, as it aims to provide support and an example for obtaining a stable economic income by the implementation of agroecological practices because all production is organic and especially focused on reducing the use of natural resources or using inputs from sustainable origin. It is an innovative living lab, which takes on an interdisciplinary approach, and tries to include different target groups. This living lab also became part of a recently established Network for agrobiodiversity (Мрежа за агробиодиверзитет), a group of experts, practitioners and enthusiasts who share information and knowledge through social media.

In the future, the initiative, along with other similar ones from neighbouring countries, plans to establish a Balkan network for biodiversity, as well as continues to find different ways to include more producers and retailers, as well as universities and research institutions, NGOs, and enthusiasts.

KEY FEATURES

* Main topics: agroecological practice and production and raising awareness

* Founded in: 2018

* Type of organisation supporting the living lab: NGO

* Type of actor involved: farmers, students and individuals

* Scale of the living lab: regional
## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

The initiative shows an interesting example of how living labs could have their place in NMK. The success is mainly due to a lot of personal involvement or the leaders, who have indeed managed to link different actors (faculty, practitioners, NGOs), but have also faced many rejections. Located in one region of the country, it is a good example that regional networking is important for better success and closer collaboration. An interesting observation is that this project, which could be seen as a living lab, indeed requires a good coordinating body, since the different actors have different needs and responsibilities that need to be well synchronised.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

<figure><img src="image_1473.png" /></figure>

**NATURAL RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT:** They are especially aware and dedicated to support and promote only organic production with reduced inputs from unsustainable sources.

<figure><img src="image_1474.png" /></figure>

**TRADITIONAL FOOD AND HERITAGE CONSERVATION:** The main focus is conservation of traditional foods, and especially conservation of reproductive material to be able to grow a diversity of crops.

<figure><img src="image_1475.png" /></figure>

**EDUCATION:** The project has established collaboration with a faculty, and it provides practical knowledge for the students.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

<figure><img src="image_1476.png" /></figure>

**COOPERATION:** Cooperation and support from governmental institutions is crucial for ensuring proper establishment and sustainability of the living labs. However, they reported to have faced numerous limitations in that sense, suggesting that this has largely impacted their work in a negative manner.

<figure><img src="image_1477.png" /></figure>

**GOVERNANCE:** Living labs are demanding as they involve different actors with different responsibilities. Thus, involvement of more people in the internal governance is needed to ensure better coordination and reach a larger audience that could contribute to the success.
<figure><img src="image_1478.png" /></figure>

MOVEMENT

<figure><img src="image_1479.png" /></figure>

EDUCATION

<figure><img src="image_1480.png" /></figure>

SCIENCE

<figure><img src="image_1481.png" /></figure>

LIVING LAB

<figure><img src="image_1482.png" /></figure>

PRACTICE

INITIATIVE N°3 – RURAL COALITION

<figure><img src="image_1483.png" /></figure>

РУРАЛНА КОАЛИЦИЈА
KOALICIONI RURAL

https://rural.mk

RURAL COALITION

Ruralna Koalicija was established in 2011. Their work is focused on the development and improvement of the living conditions in rural areas around the country. Initially, they recognized the need to develop capacities of smaller farmer organisations, and 10 years later farmers remain their main focus group, but they have extended their collaboration with organisations working on ecology and agrotourism. Since 2017, one of their main aims is also to provide various types of support for women in the rural areas as a marginalised group, and they especially work on empowering women, both as producers and active members in the community.

Ruralna Koalcija is a registered formal association, with a managing committee, and around 50 smaller local farmer's associations and organisations as members. This enables them to work on national level, but with specificity on regional and local level, depending on the issues and needs vocalised by the members. Farmers and producers are their main target group and through different projects they are involved in different aspects of the farming sectors. 'Ruralna Koalcija' rely on funding from projects, and so far they have taken part in projects on national level (public or private projects), and international collaborative projects.

Ruralna Koalcija is a crucial member of the governmental council for cooperation between the Government and the civil society ('Совет за соработка меѓу Владата и граѓанското општество'), along with various working groups, where they are offered an official platform to voice the needs and concerns of the members of their association. Although the term, 'agroecology' is non consistently used, due to the lack of its general recognition as mentioned earlier, their activities align with the concept in terms of encouragement by practical show of the possibilities to use agroecological practices and education. They have been largely involved in monitoring of the on-field development in the context of farmers' implementation of the recommended Good Agricultural Practices and have reported the urgent need for monitoring in order to ensure that these practices are enforced properly. Their large network has enabled them to organise non-formal educational and hands-on training events, of which especially important are the ones where farmers who have implemented agroecological practices show other farmers how beneficial they can be. From the social aspect, their projects with women and young people as marginalised groups in rural areas are quite important in the context of ensuring qualified and numerous human capital involved in, and familiar with the concepts of organic farming and green economy.

Ruralna Koalicija is not a part of a larger network, but they actively collaborate with other organisations from the Balkan region. In NMK, they collaborate with other organisations as well as experts from different fields mainly through projects. The 'Ruralno Zensko Lobi' (The Rural Female/Women's Lobby), an informal working group in their organisation, has been one of their priorities in the past few years. They have seen a lot of interest in these projects and are exploring different possibilities in the future (more training both on practical and soft skills for women, establishing an online 'farmers' market' for women, where they can sell their produce country-wide).

KEY FEATURES

* Main goal: rural development

* Founded in: 2011

* Type of organisation: civil society organisation

* Farming sectors: all

* Scale of the organisation: national
<figure><img src="image_1484.png" /><figcaption>**Picture 1:** (Left) Distribution of material regarding gender equality in the rural regions. (Right): Rural coalition stand during an open air event in Skopje. Source: Rural Coalition.</figcaption></figure>

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## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Ruralna Koalicija is an interesting example of a civil society organisation focused mainly on rural areas in NMK, which is not often the case for other NGOs, mainly due to infrastructural limitations, and a lack of direct contact with the locals. The strength of 'Ruralna Koalicija' is exactly this, working with a wide network of local producers with whom personal contact and trust has been established. Additionally, they are a rare example of an organisation that has been actively involved in decision making bodies where they directly voice the needs of the farmers and the on-field situation, something that has been emphasised as one of the main constraints of agroecological development of the country.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

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**COOPERATION:** An extensive network of collaborators that allows them to be active in various projects and on various issues.

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**GOVERNANCE:** Ruralna Koalicija is a positive example of how a non-formal organisation can take part and actively try to participate in creating policies on issues they work with.

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**SOCIETY AND EQUITY:** Gender equality and increasing the awareness among women in rural areas regarding their rights and opportunities has been one of their main activities in the past years.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

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**COMMERCIALISATION IS LOCAL, FAIR AND/OR COLLECTIVE:** Although the initiative is working on establishing a fair market for the local producers, their power is limited as reaching a bigger market which is stable, well-known, and more accessible, needs direct governmental support and strategy.
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MOVEMENT

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EDUCATION

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PRACTICE

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LIVING LAB

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SCIENCE

INITIATIVE N°4 – SLOW FOOD MACEDONIA

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Slow Food®
Macedonia

https://slowfood.mk

SLOW FOOD MACEDONIA

As a part of the international Slow Food movement, Slow Food Macedonia aims to ensure access to everyone to good, clean, and fair food. The main focus of Slow Food Macedonia is the protection of local food biodiversity and gastronomic traditions, as well as education through various events, where both producers and consumers can become part of the movement. Slow Food Macedonia is a two-level structure, comprising 10 regional 'conviviums', branches active in different regions around the country, which are coordinated by the national committee.

In NMK, Slow Food was established in 2008, although it took 10 additional years for the formal establishment of Slow Food Macedonia as such. It is a formal private organisation, belonging to its members who can take on a different role within the organisation depending on their experience, interests, and active involvement. Any individual (producers, culinary experts, consumers, educators) whose personal values regarding food accessibility and manners of production align with the philosophy of the movements can become a member and participate in the organisation of activities.

The Slow Food Movement communicates the concept of agroecology and in line with this Slow Food Macedonia also implements the concept of agroecology on three aspects, ecological, economic, and social, along with the concepts of food sovereignty, organic production, biodiversity conservation, and local development. However, the extent of the use of agroecology is limited due to the recognition of the term and often organic production is used as replacement. They have organised a number of projects and events, with notable examples of mapping of local biodiversity (in the context of food production), and traditional culinary practices. The 'Ark of flavours' is a project focused on mapping and informing about particular local products and gastronomic traditions that are at risk of disappearing. Along with this is the promotion of agri tourists capacities in more and less popular parts of NMK, and making them more visible for the public. On their social media, Slow Food also does informative segments about small local businesses that are not always well-known across the county, and the more conventional supermarkets. Various events (Craft beer salons, wine degustation, small dinners for national and international guests as part of other cultural events etc.) are also part of their promotion activities.

As an organisation, they are recognized for the open-air events, which they organise across the country, with a focus on particular crop/product when they are in season. Smaller producers can exhibit their produce and have face-to-face conversations with the consumers to explain better how they work, and what are the benefits of supporting them. Thus, consumers can first experience a product, learn about and try the products and be more motivated to support the local producers. Mainly through social media or as part of these events they also carry out various campaigns that inform and voice the benefits of reducing food waste, the benefits of organic production, the dangers of pesticides and GM crops. Being an officially recognized part of Slow Food International, the North Macedonian branch is considered as one of the backbones of Slow Food Balkan and Europe, and has been involved in numerous collaborations, on national and international level. In the future, Slow Food Macedonia plans to continue with its activities to promote, support, and encourage local and sustainable food systems in the country, and food sovereignty.

KEY FEATURES

* Main goal: food sovereignty

* Founded in: 2008

* Type of organisation: formal NGO

* Farming sector: all

* Scale of the organisation: national
<figure><img src="image_1496.png" /><figcaption>**Picture 2:** Slow Food open taste event for promotion of traditional food (left); Cover page of the first issue of Polzavce (right). Source: SlowFoodMacedonia.</figcaption></figure>

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## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Slow Food Macedonia is part of a bigger international network, an important strength that allows for adopting practices and methodology of management that have proven to be successful. It is a recognised organisation, both among producers and consumers, national and international, which helps in the acceptance of their values and philosophy. Its active participation in various projects has inspired many other organisations, and can be considered one of the leading parties in the movement for increasing awareness for local and sustainable food production and consumption.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

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**COOPERATION:** Cooperation and forming a stable network of people that take an active stance is at the core of their philosophy. They are very much active in terms of involving different actors that take part in the food system.

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**TRADITIONAL FOOD AND HERITAGE CONSERVATION:** Conservation of traditional food and culinary practices are their main topic of interest, and they are active in terms of finding new creative and impactful ways to promote it.

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**EDUCATION:** They aim to find suitable ways for educating different target groups such as producers, consumers (both adults and youth), as well as other interested parties in sustainable food.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

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**NATURAL RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT:**

Although their values and practices are aligned with management and preservation of natural resources, they still need to be in line with the official legislation which is not fully supportive in this context. Current legislations do not differentiate between autochthonous or traditional varieties nor there are no programmes and subsidies that encourage producers to cultivate them, thus the main motivator for the producer are usually personal beliefs or legacy.

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**ENERGY AND WASTE MANAGEMENT:**

They try to raise awareness about the importance of waste management, however, in NMK there are unclear regulations and very limited infrastructure that can enable this. The discussion of waste separation is most often in the context of household waste.
5. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVE

Considering the history of North Macedonia, and especially bearing in mind the limitations from economic, political, and infrastructural aspects, it is understandable why the recognition and practice of agroecology in the country is strongly limited. However, the size, along with the characteristics of the country, provide a unique set of opportunities for implementation of practices aligned with the agroecological principles that can lead to a real change in the food system.

The key informants emphasised on this potential, but also the urgency in terms of defining agroecology, along with standards for measuring and understanding its current state in the country, and efficient ways to bring it closer to all various groups, i.e., farmers, producers, consumers, students, governmental, and non-governmental bodies. Although the agroecological community is relatively small, it is indeed active and diverse, composed mainly of enthusiasts who have their own vision for the agroecological development of NMK. The lack of governmental bodies' involvement is the constraint that key informants as well as initiative representatives underlined many times. Farmers, as well as other interested parties, often find more support in coalitions and NGOs, than in regulatory bodies, which poses the need for an open dialogue among all interested groups. The NGO sector currently carries out most of the agroecology related activities, but they are rarely recognised, supported, or initiated by governmental bodies. Additionally, their role is to provide novel ideas whose beneficial aspects would be further implemented and regulated by governmental bodies in order to ensure proper execution and sustainability. Currently, the two sectors seemingly function separately, one establishing regulations and legislation focused on agriculture and rural development, and the other developing various activities, inspired by current projects of interest that can be financed, or are of intra-organisational interest. Long term, these two sides must discuss and find ways to implement agroecological measures and practices in different legislation documents and develop supportive policies for their implementation.

Agroecology is indeed the sum of its parts, as its principles lay in the ecological, economic, and social aspects, yet in the case of North Macedonia there is not a clear and stable approach and methodology of how this can be put to good use in practice. This often makes agroecology a keyword on paper that never get put into practice. Another key aspect is the trend of reduced interest among the younger generations in rural life and farmer lifestyle, and NMK is not an exception. The issue is pertinent not only from the aspect of rural development and food production, but also considering the pressure in urban areas, and the need for alternative projects for food production and distribution. Agroecology can help in this regard, however the education sector holds a key position in this, as both the formal and non-formal education can contribute in terms of developing the consciousness regarding the value and opportunities of agroecology in both rural and urban areas.
ABBREVIATION

NMK: Republic of North Macedonia

SDC: Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation

NGO: Non-governmental organisation

IPARD: Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance-Rural Development

MAFWE: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy

MOEPP: Ministry of Environment and Physical Planning

AFSARD: Agency for financial support of agriculture and rural development

NEA: National Extension Agency

GIZ: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Acknowledgements are due to the key informants and initiative representatives who not only provided the information necessary to complete the report, but were also open about their experience, shared contacts and were enthusiastic to participate in the interviews. Additional acknowledgement goes to the reviewers of the manuscript and their efforts for its improvement. Despite various limitations, I hope this report can serve as an encouragement for future development of agroecology in North Macedonia, direct on the issues and inspire solutions.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No101000478

REFERENCES

Agroecology Europe (2020) Agroecology initiatives in Europe. 232 pages. https://www.agroecology-europe.org/mapping-of-agroecology-initiatives/

Balogh L, Katalin R, Balazs B (2020) Mapping agroecology in Hungary. https://www.agroecology-europe.org/mapping-of-agroecology-initiatives/

Dimitrievski, D., Kotevska, A., Stamenkovska, I.J., Tuna, E., Nacka, M., 2014. Agriculture and agricultural policy in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. In: FAO (ed), Agricultural policy and European integration in southeastern Europe, pp. 121-134.

Economy of agriculture forestry and water (2014) National strategy for agriculture and rural development for the period 2014-2020

Erjavec, E., Mortensen, K., Volk, T., Rednak, M., Eberlin, R., Ludvig, K., 2014. GAP analysis and recommendations. In: FAO (ed), Agricultural policy and European integration in southeastern Europe, pp. 39-58.

Ivanovska, S., Andonov, S., 2018. Agrobiodiversity in Southeast Europe – assessment and policy recommendations – country report Macedonia. GIZ, Skopje, North Macedonia, 77 p.

MOEPP, 2018. Национална стратегија за заштита на природата (2017-2027). https://www.moepp.gov.mk/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Национална-стратегија-за-заштита-на-природата-2017-2027.pdf

Volk, T., Rednak, M., Erjavec, E., 2014. Cross country analysis of agriculture and agricultural policy of southeastern European countries in compassion with the European Union. In: FAO (ed), Agricultural policy and European integration in southeastern Europe, pp. 9-134.

Wezel A, Bellon S, Doré T, et al (2009) Agroecology as a science, a movement and a practice. Agron Sustain Dev 2:27-43. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0394-0_3

Wezel A, Goris M, Bruil J, et al (2018) Challenges and action points to amplify agroecology in Europe. Sustain 10:1-12. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051598
Info materials of projects
MAPPING AGROECOLOGY IN
ROMANIA

**AUTHOR:** Raluca Dan and Ana Ghiban, Eco Ruralis.

**REVIEWERS:** Baptiste Grard and Alexander Wezel, ISARA; Vasileios Gkisakis, ELGO-DIMITRA.

**TO CITE:** Dan, R. and Ghiban, A. (2023). Mapping agroecology in Romania. In: Wezel, A., Grard, B. and Gkisakis, V. (eds). Mapping agroecology in Europe. Country Reports Series, Vol. 1, ISARA, Lyon, France; Agroecology Europe, Corbais, Belgium.

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This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No101000478.

The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.

More information about the H2020-Agroecology for Europe project can be found here: www.ae4eu.eu

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ROMANIA
---
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The current report provides an overview on the development and current state of agroecology in Romania, as a part of the H2020 project Agroecology for Europe (AE4EU). It also showcases 12 representative initiatives for agroecology, without pretending to be exhaustive, and resulted from interviews conducted with relevant stakeholders and secondary research. The content of this report is systematised according to five activity categories: Education and Training, Living labs, Movements, Practice, and Science.

Although a broadly unknown term at the society level and only very recently used and approached by various stakeholders, agroecology has a long history of practice in Romania due to its high number of rural population engaged in small-scale agriculture. Agroecology has been practiced mainly under the name of peasant or traditional agriculture throughout decades. Numerous practices are existing in present days and the knowledge has been passed through generations while witnessing an emerging tendency of development with new entrants in agriculture under the names of permaculture, natural agriculture and environmental-friendly agriculture. Agroecology is mainly understood as a practice of working with the nature and not against it, and in most cases is recognised as organic agriculture. However, a more holistic understanding of a practical, social, educational and political concept exists too and the term itself is developing with the global trend.

The lack of recognition of the historical practitioners of agroecology by authorities, the lack of a unified accepted definition of agroecology and awareness in society and various stakeholders, together with the lack of vision and financial support from the public authorities are the major obstacles in front of the up-scale and development of agroecology. Still, many opportunities reside in the numerous small-scale farmers practicing agroecology and continuing a traditional knowledge, as well as in the increasing number of young people entering agriculture and the emergence of new innovative initiatives.

The initiatives presented in this report include several aspects of agroecology and show a variety of approaches that reflect the current status and the evolution of agroecology in Romania. They include civil associations, universities, farmers, producer associations, researchers and enterprises aiming at better promoting, raising awareness and developing agroecology, supporting and up-scaling the existing practitioners and initiatives, increasing cooperation and co-creation between multiple stakeholders, and produce change in the legislative framework to better and adequate the support for the future of agroecology.
ROMANIA
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (IN ROMANIAN)

Raportul prezent oferă o perspectivă asupra evoluției și stadiului actual al agroecologiei în România, ca parte a proiectului Orizont 2020 Agroecologie pentru Europa (AE4EU). Illustrează, de asemenea, un număr de 12 inițiative reprezentative, fără pretenția de a fi exhaustive și care au fost identificate pe parcursul interviurilor conduse cu reprezentanți relevanți în domeniu (denumiți informatori cheie) și cercetare secundară. Conținutul raportului este prezentat urmărind cinci piloni: Educație și Training, Laboratoare Vii, Mișcări, Practică și Știință.

Deși necunoscut pe scară largă la nivelul societății și doar recent utilizat și abordat de diferiți actori, agroecologia are o istorie lungă de practică în România, datorită populației sale rurale numeroase implicate în agricultură. Agroecologia a fost practicată cu precădere drept agricultură țărănească de-a lungul timpului, numeroase practici existând și astăzi, precum și o cunoaștere transferată de-a lungul generațiilor, în prezent fiind martoră la o tendință emergentă, o dată cu noi intrați în agricultură și practicată sub termenii de permacultură, agricultură naturală sau prietenoasă cu mediul.

Agroecologia este cu precădere înțeleasă ca practica lucrului cu natura și nu împotriva ei, iar în cele mai multe cazuri este recunoscută drept agricultură ecologică, deși se regăsesc și înțelegeri mai cuprinzătoare de concept practic, social, educațional și politic, care se dezvoltă odată cu tendințele globale.

Lipsa recunoașterii practicanților istorici ai agroecologiei de către autorități, lipsa unei definiții unificatoare a agroeoclogiei, alături de lipsa unei viziuni și a unui sprijin financiar din partea autorităților reprezintă principalele obstacole în fața dezvoltării agroecologiei. Cu toate acestea, nenumărate oportunități rezidă în numărul mare de mici agricultori din România și continuitatea cunoașterii tradiționale, precum și numărul în creștere al tinerilor care intră în agricultură și apariția de noi inițiative inovatoare.

Inițiativele prezentate în acest raport includ numeroase aspecte ale agroecologiei și oferă o varietate de abordări, care reflectă situația actuală și evoluția agroecologiei. Acestea include asociații, universități, agricultori, asociații de producători, cercetători și întreprinderi care urmăresc o mai bună conștientizare, promovare și dezvoltare a agroecologiei, sprijinul eforturilor existente, creșterea cooperării și a procesului de co-creare între multipli actori și schimbarea cadrului legislativ în vederea unui sprijin mai bun și adecvat pentru viitorul agroecologiei.
# 1. METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The information regarding key informants in Romania are summarised in Table 1.

<table><caption>**Table 1:** List of key informants in Romania.</caption><thead><tr><th>Key informant n°</th><th>Type of organisation</th><th>Main sector of involvement</th><th colspan="3">ACTIVITY CATEGORY CONCERNED</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>Farmers organisation</td><td>Small-scale agroecological agriculture, family farming, lobby and advocacy</td><td>People</td><td>House</td><td>Wireless tower</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>NGO</td><td>Agroecological agriculture, community supported agriculture</td><td>House</td><td>Wireless tower</td><td>People</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Research-University</td><td>Food science and technology education, organic agriculture</td><td>People</td><td>Lab</td><td>House</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>NGO</td><td>Interdisciplinary research, rural socioeconomics, organic agriculture</td><td>Lab</td><td>People</td><td>House</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>NGO</td><td>Nature conservation, rural development</td><td>People</td><td>People</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Private sector</td><td>Consultancy and policy analysis, social sciences research, rural development and networking,</td><td>People</td><td>People</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Research-University</td><td>Economic sciences, agricultural sciences, organic agriculture</td><td>People</td><td>Lab</td><td>House</td></tr></tbody></table>

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## 2. CONTEXT

With almost half of its population living in rural area and with a total area of 12.5 million ha of utilised agricultural area, Romania is accounted for one third of EU's farms<fnref n="198" />. It comprises almost 3.4 million individual farms with most of the utilised agricultural area is arable (8.3 million ha), followed by pastures, hay fields and permanent crops (4.8 million ha), and family gardens (0.2 million ha)<fnref n="199" />.

Following the fall of the communist regime in 1989, the beginning of the current agricultural system can be traced. Using mainly the former regime's agricultural structure, privatising the state farms and consolidating the gap between large and small-scale farms, Romania oriented towards industrial agriculture with the new large farms' average area of 2.491 ha based on direct public support and subventions (Knight, 2010).

According to the Romanian National Institute of Statistics<fnref n="200" />, in 2020, the average area of a peasant household (individual farm) was 3.6 ha, lower than the European average. Meanwhile, the "medium-sized European farm" around 16.6 ha (Alexandri and Luca, 2019, p.12) is missing in the polarised Romanian farm structure, based on a dual market of small holders and a few large landholders (Szocs et al., 2015). In part, these numbers represent the inheritance from the land devolution reform in 1990, after the long period of communist land collectivisation (Szocs et al., 2015).

The number of small farms is in continuous decline, while the share of land controlled by large farms is growing. The process of speculation and the massive investments targeting natural resources across the whole country – including the land owned by small-scale farmers, has and is still having far-reaching effects of "weaking rural economies and hampering the development of a dynamic rural sector" (Szocs et al., 2015, p.4). Market economies have not replaced subsistence agriculture yet, since the production per ha of Romanian small farms being a lot larger than of the bigger farms: on 12.1% of the land, farms under 2 ha produce 25.1% over the agricultural productivity (Miron and Lup, 2013; Varga, 2020, Korthals Altes et al., 2020).

With the adherence to the European Union in 2007, Romania started benefiting from the direct payments of the Common Agricultural Policy hence, subsidies being very attractive for large farms. Following the reform of CAP 2014-2020, the amount of direct payments for agricultural farms in Romania has highly increased (Szocs et al., 2015). Currently, agriculture is highly subsidised with CAP grants representing 40% of farm income (Alexandri and Luca, 2019). As CAP decoupled payments are area based, large farms owned by legal persons get a very large share of the CAP-grants. Alexandri and Luca (2019) estimate that 97% of farms receive only 40% of the total amount of direct payments, and the remaining 3% getting 60% of the subsidies.

Perceived and used as ecological and/or organic agriculture by part of the key informants (ROU-KI-3, ROU-KI-4, ROU-KI-6, Table 1), agroecology is identified and recognised to have a long and diverse history in Romania (ROU-KI-1, ROU-KI-3 and ROU-KI-7, Table 1), though the term itself has only recently been used by more stakeholders.

The use of the term "agroecology" in Romania is linked to those of 'ecological' or 'organic agriculture', treated and promoted in specialty literature since the beginning of 1980s, while being nationally officially recognised in 2000 through an emergency decree, being followed by specific regulations (Toncea et al., 2016).

<footnote n="198">¹⁹⁸ https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Table_2_-_Number_of_farms_by_type_of_farm_labour_2016_(thousands).png</footnote>

<footnote n="199">¹⁹⁹ https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Farms_and_farmland_in_the_European_Union_-_statistics#Farmland_in_2016</footnote>

<footnote n="200">²⁰⁰ https://insse.ro/cms/en/content/rga-2020</footnote>
The development of the concept of agroecology is related to the emergence and development of ecological agriculture since late 1970s, when the first publications and papers had been published by the teacher's team from the Agronomy Institute of Cluj-Napoca and later on at other Romanian agricultural centres (Moudry et al., 2018a) for example in Bucharest and Timișoara. Pioneer scientific work on the organic agriculture concept can be traced back to 1981 with the first Romanian scientific paper called "Biological Agriculture"<fnref n="201" /> and the promotion and support of the agroecosystem concept (Toncea et al., 2016a). The total area under organic farming continues to increase, with 2.9% of organic area out of the total utilised agricultural area<fnref n="202" />.

According to all key informant interviews, agroecology is mainly understood as a holistic and integratory concept larger than, and eventually comprising, ecological agriculture, having at the centre "working with nature, and not against it" philosophy and practice (ROU-KI-1, ROU-KI-4, ROU-KI-5, Table 1). Another part of key informants (ROU-KI-1, ROU-KI-5, Table 1) define agroecology according to three activity categories (practice, science, and social and political movement) and one introducing the term of "peasant agroecology" as distinct of the sole use and understanding of "agroecology" (ROU-KI-1, Table 1).

As all key informants declared, in Romania there is no specific legal framework on agroecology. Moreover, the existing regulations and measures that might contribute to the development of certain elements of agroecology are in fact European, namely the Common Agricultural Policy and its eco-schemes measures, with almost no national adaptation to better support agroecology. A lack of vision and appetite towards agroecology by the central relevant public Romanian institutions (ROU-KI-1 and ROU-KI-7, Table 1), a general void of institutional support (ROU-KI-6, Table 1), as well as an agro-industrial orientation (ROU-KI-1, Table 1) has been reported, impeding the development and up-scaling of the existing opportunity and potential that Romania has in the high numbers of small-scale farm households (ROU-KI-1, ROU-KI-3, ROU-KI-4 and ROU-KI-6, Table 1) and long history in practicing agroecology (ROU-KI-1 and ROU-KI-6, Table 1).

Even if agroecology is being considered as an abstract concept and difficult to put in simple words (ROU-KI-5 and ROU-KI-7, Table 1) and at the level of society in general there is either no or only slightly awareness of it (ROU-KI-1, ROU-KI-2, ROU-KI-4, and ROU-KI-7, Table 1), there are efforts carried out to promote it (ROU-KI-1, Table 1). There is an increasing tendency among new-entrants in agriculture or remigration (ROU-KI-1 and ROU-KI-3, Table 1), and many existing networks and stakeholders of civil society to put in the practices, and to study and advocate agroecology (ROU-KI-2, ROU-KI-3, ROU-KI-6 and ROU-KI-7, Table 1) through education and trainings, projects, cooperative production and short-supply food distribution, policy briefs and recommendation.

Agroecology finds its chance to develop and upscale in the formal recognition and to support of those who are already practicing it (ROU-KI-1, ROU-KI-6, Table 1) or the existing practices and networks (ROU-KI-5, Table 1) through investments and adaptation of school curricula's to better reflect the current reality and future solutions (ROU-KI-4, Table 1) in the European strategies and regulations, and, in general, in the large dissemination of it as a concept and examples among public at large (ROU-KI-6, Table 1).

<footnote n="201">²⁰¹ PAPACOSTEA, Petre P. (1981), Agricultura Biologică, Editura Ceres</footnote>

<footnote n="202">²⁰² https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Organic_farming_statistics</footnote>
# 3. CURRENT SITUATION OF AGROECOLOGY

## 3.1. EDUCATION AND TRAINING

<figure><img src="image_1515.png" /></figure>

With the development of organic agriculture in the 1990s and 2000s globally, the initiation of Bachelor and Master programmes and curricula on issues such as organic farming, sustainable agriculture and development, and food science and technology are following. Mainly, these curricula are developed by the universities of agricultural sciences and veterinary medicine established in the major cities in Romania with branches open or presence in other cities and towns. However, until today there has been no development of an agroecology curriculum.

The main universities to offer educational programs - BSc, MSc, PhD on organic agriculture and respective applied technologies are located in main cities, such as the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine in Bucharest<fnref n="203" />, the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca<fnref n="204" />, the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Ion Ionescu de la Brad²⁰⁵, and the Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Timișoara²⁰⁶. In the recent decades, the number of agricultural high school units has decreased with the years²⁰⁷, with only 57 units in the whole country at present time, facing financial cuts<fnref n="208" />.

Education on organic agriculture has been in parallel provided by civil associations and informal groups, as well as vocational adult training and learning programmes courses recognised by the Ministry of Education and provided by training enterprises or NGOs. More and more examples in the last decade include individuals and informal groups or recent established non-profit associations that offer a variety of workshops and courses on permaculture, natural agriculture, soil fertility, and resources management (ROU-KI-1, ROU-KI-2 & ROU-KI-6, Table 1) which dedicated to a diverse public, from children, to urban gardeners, or to new entrants in agriculture. Often, they develop with own or few human and financial resources (ROU-KI-2, Table 1) and involve experiential education, such as long term internships, on-field workshops, and courses which are presented as initiatives below. Major opportunity and need outlined here are the education for very young generations (ROU-KI-6 & ROU-KI-4, Table 1) and combining theoretical education with experiential learning.

An often underappreciated educational aspect since decades is the informal education realised in rural areas and at the farm level where generational transfer of agroecological knowledge and practice is taking place in informal and creative way (ROU-KI-1, Table 1). Unrecognised at the society level, its up-scale suffered (ROU-KI-1 & ROU-KI-6, Table 1) with almost unknown examples of long time internships resulted as a cooperation between universities and farms (ROU-KI-1 & ROU-KI-4, Table 1).

Still, informal education provided on the farm is increasing through international programmes such as World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF)<fnref n="209" /> or initiated in a direct manner by farmers (ROU-KI-1, Table 1) with longer-term experiential and learning-by-doing activities, workshops and courses. Peasant to peasant education through workshops, study visits, webinars and manuals provided around the themes of peasant agroecology, agroecological practices, and soil fertility are being provided and developed within the peasant association "Eco Ruralis", as well as by individual farms (ROU-KI-1, Table 1).

<footnote n="203">²⁰³ https://www.usamv.ro/index.php/en/ - ²⁰⁴ https://www.usamvcluj.ro/ - ²²⁰⁵ https://www.uaiasi.ro/</footnote>

<footnote n="204">²⁰⁴ https://www.usab-tm.ro/en - ²²⁰⁷ https://www.crpe.ro/agricultura-educatie-pentru-agricultura</footnote>

<footnote n="208">²⁰⁸ https://worldvision.ro/2021/03/16/world-vision-romania-liceele-agricole-taiate-din-lista-prioritatilor-educatiei-o-decizie-care-anticipeaza-ca-romanii-vor-manca-din-exporturi-si-in-anii-care-vin/</footnote>

<footnote n="209">²⁰⁹ https://www.wwoof.ro/</footnote>
## 3.2. LIVING LAB

<figure><img src="image_1516.png" /></figure>

The concept of living labs is in most part not familiar to stakeholders, with the exception of certain academic members or civil organisations involved in EU-level projects (ROU-KI-4 & ROU-KI-5, Table 1). Even though the term of living lab is not used as such, some identified initiatives may fall under the description of living lab, involving the co-creation of knowledge and research, transdisciplinary activities, applied research with concrete results, and cooperation of multiple stakeholders. One of the identified initiatives and potential living lab is Agronomia Agro Food Innovation from the city of Cluj-Napoca (see details in part 4).

## 3.3. MOVEMENT

<figure><img src="image_1517.png" /></figure>

According to the key informants, there are many organisations, informal groups, and also individuals, mainly in the sectors of food and agriculture and environmental protection, that are recognised through their work for promoting or putting agroecology in practice. The majority of them refer to organic farming and high nature value farming or environmental-friendly agriculture, while the concept of agroecology is rarely used (ROU-KI-1 & ROU-KI-5, Table 1) and only one reference is affiliated to a corresponding international movement of La Via Campesina.

The beginnings of agroecological civil associative sector in Romania are related with the establishment of four organisations in late 1990s: the Organic Farmers Association of Romania (BIOTERRA)<fnref n="210" />, the Romanian Association for Sustainable Agriculture (ARAD)²¹¹, the Agroecology Association (Agroecologia), and the National Federation of Ecological Agriculture (FNAE)²¹² who are working towards promoting ecological agriculture and the development of agroecosystems (Moudry et al., 2018). Their activity marks the cooperation and involvement of numerous stakeholders such as farmers and agricultural enterprises, academics and universitites, certification bodies, and public institutions, bringing contribution to set up the first regulations regarding ecological agriculture in Romania<fnref n="213" />, as well as the implementation of recommendations and standards regarding ecological production and products. Early 2000s witnessed various conferences dedicated to ecological agriculture, trainings dedicated to farmers and support in obtaining certification, research and technological transfer projects, as well as demonstrative farms and plots, participation to international study visits and fairs, and the development of partnerships with numerous European similar organisations and with the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM).

The Eco Ruralis association is one example that evolved from its inception in 2009, currently building and putting in the centre of its mission and entire activity the concept of agroecology while developing programmes and activities on three major activity categories (see the initiative part - activity category movement). As some key informants declared (ROU-KI-6 & ROU-KI-7, Table 1), most of the actors in the civil movement are active on specific aspects of agroecology, and least are approaching in a holistic manner the concept of agroecology, that seems still unknown within the movement. Many other examples provided are related to extension services or agricultural development in relation with environmental protection such as Agricultural Development and Environmental Protection in Transylvania (ADEPT) Foundation<fnref n="214" /> since 2004, WWF-Romania on high nature value farming since 2006, and more recently, Milvus Group Bird and Nature Protection since 2017, that created a local label to promote and support small-scale farmers active in the Nature 2000 site of Valea Nirajului-Târnava Mică.

<footnote n="210">210 https://www.bioterra.org.ro/ - 211 http://agriculturadurabila.ro/ - 212 http://fnae2000.weebly.com/</footnote>

<footnote n="213">213 RO Emergency Decree, O.G. 34/2000. https://legislatie.just.ro/Public/DetaliiDocument/21942</footnote>

<footnote n="214">214 https://fundatia-adept.org/ro/home/</footnote>
Since 2013, the Urban Centre of Good Initiatives (CUIB), located in the city of Iași eastern Romania and initiated by the Mai Bine association, is approaching multiple aspects of agroecology from sourcing local food for conscious consumption, food waste, and waste-management, in a holistic narrative advocated among many stakeholders (see the part 3).

The movement around agroecology is getting more populated with new actors, change according to key informants (ROU-KI-1 & ROU-KI-6, Table 1), organised in informal groups or acting as individuals hence agroecology and related concepts face either a revival and or a further development.

### 3.4. PRACTICE

<figure><img src="image_1518.png" /></figure>

Agroecological practices are considered to have existed in Romania since decades and still continuing to present day, due to the great rural population engaged in farming (ROU-KI-1, ROU-KI-5 and ROU-KI-6, Table 1), though confronted with numerous challenges. The use of heterogeneous traditional and local plant seed varieties and animal breeds, crop rotation, intercropping, the use of natural phytosanitary treatments, the use of green and animal manure, and the use of low-tech and hand tools are just a couple of the example practices provided by key informants (ROU-KI-1, ROU-KI-2, ROU-KI-4, ROU-KI-5 and ROU-KI-6, Table 1). Besides, agricultural practices are doubled by the existing of social and cultural practices that fall under the description of agroecology such as preservation of traditional heritage (e.g. like in food recipes and food processing), the collective work of lands and the use in common of public resources (ROU-KI-1, Table 1). Many of the existing small-scale farmers are practicing agroecology without knowing or naming it as such, either as a result of continuation of older generation's way of doing agriculture or of a personal conviction (ROU-KI-1 and ROU-KI-7, Table 1).

At the same time, the number of farmers engaged in certified organic agriculture has increased since the 1990s, especially due to subsidies and compensatory payments under the Common Agricultural Policy (ROU-KI-4 and ROU-KI-7, Table 1). Most of the key informants interviewed pointed out a distinction between small-scale subsistence and semi-subsistence farmers, and farmers more oriented towards the market, highlighting a diversity of practices in the first ones, with less consciousness over the concept of agroecology, while the second one with a clearer intent in adopting agroecological practices.

Since 5 to 10 years, as well as a consequence of the 2020 pandemic of Covid-19, a new group is emerging, of young urban citizens accessing rural land to practice natural agriculture, and mostly permaculture or organic agriculture with high potential impact for the future of agroecology and development of rural areas<fnref n="215" /> (ROU-KI-1 and ROU-KI-6, Table 1).

With an increased consciousness among consumers and producers regarding environmental-friendly agriculture and short-supply food chains in the last decade, many practical initiatives have been established facilitating a direct relationship between the two (see Asociația pentru Susținerea Agriculturii Tărănești and Cutia Tăranului, two examples of community supported agriculture in the initiative part under the practice activity category) or creating food hubs to increase access to market and to local products for various local producers stakeholders, such as Nod Verde in the city of Cluj-Napoca, North-West of Romania or Cumsecade in Odorheiu Secuiesc, located in center of the country, and many others.

<footnote n="215">215 https://www.zf.ro/profesii/romanii-pleaca-mars-oras-tara-2020-s-dublat-fluxul-pozitiv-catre-20205699</footnote>
3.5. SCIENCE

<figure><img src="image_1519.png" /></figure>

Formal research on agroecology is rather limited and at the beginning in Romania (ROU-KI-6 and ROU-KI-5, Table 1), developed mostly within EU-level projects, involving civil associations, universities and national institutes. The concept of agroecology in the research domain is still new in Romania, often under various and conflicting understandings (ROU-KI-1, Table 1) or remain unknown (ROU-KI-6, Table 1).

The foundation of agroecology in Romanian science resides in the work of the teacher team from the Agronomy Institute of Cluj-Napoca in the late 1970s and represented by the publication of numerous courses, papers, and books and later on in the activity of other Romanian agricultural centres from Timișoara, Bucharest or others (Moudry et al., 2018b). Agroecology had been defined through the lens of ecology and the first scientific paper to address ecological agriculture appeared in 1981 (Papacostea, P., Biological agriculture), in parallel with the scientific promotion of the agroecosystem concept by D. Teaci, I. Puia and V. Soran (Toncea et al., 2016b).

Currently, at the level of academic and research sector, there is a variety of bachelor and master curricula on ecology, organic agriculture, sustainable agriculture and development, though none officially on agroecology. According to key informants, research related to agroecology is insufficiently carried out, due to recent emergence of this term (ROU-KI-5 and ROU-KI-6, Table 1), as well as a lack of public support for its development (ROU-KI-7, Table 1).

Organic agriculture and practices, and sustainable development are rather the issues around which research is mostly developed by research institutes and universities (ROU-KI-3 and ROU-KI-7, Table 1). Chronically underfinanced in general, research faces also a challenge in approaching agroecology (KI-KI_7, Table 1).

Besides formal research, there are the empirical science, produced since generations by peasants and farmers in the fields (ROU-KI-1, Table 1), and the innovation based on their individual and collective observations, trial and error approaches, and transmission of the newly produced knowledge to the next generation through informal ways (word of mouth or by practice). This way of long historical research is mostly not recognised and valued within the general society and often also among other stakeholders (ROU-KI-1, Table 1), with few civic organisations supporting and promoting it.

Additionally, participatory research on subjects that may fall under the definition of agroecology though encountered (ROU-KI-1 & ROU-KI-3, Table 1), rarely implies a democratic participation of both the farmers and the academic researchers in the conducted research (ROU-KI-1, Table 1).
## 4. AGROECOLOGY INITIATIVES, CASES AND EXAMPLES

<table><caption>**Table 2:** An overview about initiatives, cases and examples described and analysed.</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">INITIATIVE N°</th><th rowspan="2">INITIATIVE NAME</th><th rowspan="2">SCALE</th><th rowspan="2">TYPE OF STRUCTURE</th><th rowspan="2">AIM</th><th colspan="5">ACTIVITY CATEGORIES</th></tr><tr><th>EDUCATION & RESEARCH</th><th>LIVING LAB</th><th>MOVEMENT</th><th>PRACTICE</th><th>SCIENCE</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>Provision Transylvania</td><td>Local</td><td>Association and farm</td><td>Offering experiential learning at the farm, workshops and courses on agroecological practices</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>IncrEdible Forest Resources</td><td>National</td><td>Enterprise, NGO</td><td>Developing wide-range of practical and online courses and workshops about nature and resilience</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>PermaFLORA</td><td>Local</td><td>Association</td><td>Experiential education for children, urban gardening projects and curricula in kindergartens and schools</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Agronomia Agro Food Innovation</td><td>Regional</td><td>Enterprise, University</td><td>Valorising research and knowledge in university and creating access to market for local products</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>CUIB</td><td>Local</td><td>Enterprise, Association</td><td>Offering alternative ways of responsible and environmental-friendly life style</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Hosman Durabil</td><td>Local</td><td>Association</td><td>Contributing to a more sustainable and tolerant future through local agricultural and cultural initiatives</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Eco Ruralis</td><td>National</td><td>Association</td><td>Promoting peasant agroecological agriculture, peasants rights and food sovereignty</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Rural Being Association – The peasant box Asociația Ființa Rurală – Cutia Tăranului</td><td>National</td><td>Association</td><td>Facilitating direct short-distribution food chain through regular food box deliveries</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Living seeds Semințe Vii</td><td>Local</td><td>Enterprise</td><td>Traditional and peasant plant varieties production</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Nature 2000 product from Niraj and Tărnava Mică Valley Produs Natura 2000 din Valea Nirajului și Tărnavei Mici</td><td>Local</td><td>Association</td><td>Label to support local farmers with contribution to the conservation of natural resources.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>The Barn with Goodies Șura cu Bunătăți</td><td>Local</td><td>Enterprise</td><td>Producing traditional food products from foraged wild plants and local ingredients</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>12</td><td>Association for Support of Peasant Agriculture Asociația pentru Sustinerea Agriculturii Tărănești</td><td>National</td><td>Association</td><td>Facilitating direct and in solidarity CSA partnerships</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_1520.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1521.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1522.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1523.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1524.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1525.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1526.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1527.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1528.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1529.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1530.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1531.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1532.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1533.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1534.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1535.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1536.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1537.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1538.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1539.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1540.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1541.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1542.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1543.png" /></figure>
<table><caption>**Table 3:** Additional initiatives, cases and examples in the country</caption><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">INITIATIVE NAME</th><th rowspan="2">SCALE</th><th rowspan="2">TYPE OF STRUCTURE</th><th rowspan="2">AIM</th><th colspan="5">ACTIVITY CATEGORIES</th></tr><tr><th>EDUCATION & RESEARCH</th><th>LIVING LAB</th><th>MOVEMENT</th><th>PRACTICE</th><th>SCIENCE</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>The taste of Iași<br>Gustul Iașiului</td><td>Regional</td><td>Project, digital marketing platform</td><td>Facilitating the direct access of consumers to local and regional food products.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>SolBun<br>Cooperative<br>Cooperativa Sol Bun</td><td>Local</td><td>Cooperative</td><td>Agricultural cooperative of organic, high nature value and mountainous based producers.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Fundulea National<br>Agricultural<br>Research and<br>Development<br>Institute<br>Institutul de Cercetare<br>și Dezvoltare Națională<br>Fundulea</td><td>National</td><td>Public institute</td><td>Public research unit and development field regarding the cereals, industrial and forage crops, and agroforestry.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Green Hub<br>Nod Verde</td><td>Local</td><td>Food hub</td><td>Food hub aggregating local products, consumers and HoReCa.</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

<figure><img src="image_1544.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1545.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1546.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1547.png" /></figure>
<figure><img src="image_1548.png" /></figure>

EDUCATION

<figure><img src="image_1549.png" /></figure>

PRACTICE

<figure><img src="image_1550.png" /></figure>

SCIENCE

<figure><img src="image_1551.png" /></figure>

MOVEMENT

<figure><img src="image_1552.png" /></figure>

LIVING LAB

INITIATIVE N°1 – PROVISION

<figure><img src="image_1553.png" /></figure>

https://provisiontransylvania.com
Facebook: @Provision-Transylvania

PROVISION

**Provision** is a learning centre for regenerative living and non-violence based at an educational and family farm in the Transylvanian village of Alunişu (North-Western Romania), and initiated by the Provision Transylvania non-profit association. Its aims are promoting the use of agroecology non-violence and creative arts, supporting life-enriching systems, and supporting the expansion of people's ideas and visions towards natural ecological systems and human cultural heritage.

Provision farm is a small family farm operated by a family of three people, and organised around the vision and principles of regenerative and peasant agroecology. Relying mostly on work done by hand and horsepower, Provision is situated on little less than 2 hectares of land, including orchards, vegetable gardens and fields for grains and also 10 milking goats, chickens, ducks and horses, providing around 80% of all the food consumed by the everyone living and staying on the farm and at the centre. Since 2012, Provision offers an educational programme tailored to people's needs, from experiential learning at

the farm to particular one day up to one-week workshops and courses, in a holistic and playful way and it's open and dedicated to any interested individual person or groups.

The experiential learning involves a minimum short term of 2 weeks up to long-term periods of 2 months or longer, after completion of the two weeks at the Provision farm. It consists in learning offered by real life examples, hands-on practices and, nature and farm exposure. Combining on-site knowledge, skill-sharing of the 2 persons running the farm, and learning-by-doing, the main aspects that this module approaches are: working on the farm (daily tasks such as animal care, cheese making; seasonal work such as planting, growing, harvesting, preserving and more particular projects such as natural building and infrastructure improvement) and working with the village community (partaking in the work of the villagers, learning skills first-hand and have cultural exchanges). All the activities take place on the 2 ha of land that belong to the Provision farm, including orchards, vegetable gardens and fields, and also animals from chickens, ducks and goats.

Besides experiential learning, every year Provision offers courses and a range of workshops in the fields of agroecology and nonviolence, focusing on self-sufficient living, non-violent communication and their interrelation. The courses are offered by teachers, local and international, including the peasant community from the village and the two persons running the farm. They may vary from one day up to one week and approach a variety of subjects such as basic skills in peasant lifestyle, natural and traditional building,

KEY FEATURES

* **Type of education and training:** experiential learning, workshops and classes

* **Main topics:** agroecology practices, transition towards agroecology, sustainable food systems

* **Training duration:** 1 day up to 2 months

* **Course language:** Romanian and English

* **Founded in:** 2012

* **Accessible to:** individuals/ groups

<footnote n="160">¹⁶⁰ Howard Gardner's theories challenged the traditional notion that there is one single type of intelligence that only focuses on cognitive abilities. To broaden this notion of intelligence, Gardner introduced eight different types of intelligences consisting of: Linguistic, Locoal/Mathematical, Spiritual, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal and Naturalist.</footnote>
soil management and organic gardening, animal care and husbandry, and fibber arts. A combination of classroom theory and hands-on farm experience is foreseen to maximise learning and enjoyment.

Provision learning centre works with and involves in the educational programme for a diversity of people, from local peasants who engaged in peasant-to-(future)-peasant knowledge and skill sharing, or experts of specific issues such as members of international movements and organisations.

The development and continuity of the programme are ensured through the fees offered on a sliding scale (a basic fee, a balanced fee, and a community fee) for each course, according to students' financial possibilities, while covering the organisational costs.

Agroecology, self-sufficiency and non-violence are placed at the heart of both the educational programme and the Provision Transylvania's mission and activities, that seek getting (re)acquainted with and putting in practice old, lost or new practices and skills towards more autonomy, creativity and sustainability in agroecological living. Provision states non-violent and agroecological life style as its core values, for example self-sufficient living skills, agroecological practices, permaculture, and non-violent communication. Through its educational programme it hopes to bring people's learning to a path of learning circles: first in a class, then in a farm-experience and after that, back in the life situation of each student.

<figure><img src="image_1554.png" /><figcaption>**Picture 1:** Provision Transylvania (left); photo from 'The solution are in the Soil' workshop (right), 2019, July.
Source: Provision Transylvania.</figcaption></figure>

## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Provision learning centre and farm for agroecology and nonviolence has developed a space for experiential learning and for peasant-to-peasant knowledge and skill sharing in an informal and complex approach, while offering short-term courses on specific issues in regards to agroecology and self-sufficiency, and facilitating insight into the complex nature and life of ecological and human systems. Provision is bringing people on wider circles: first in a class, then in a farm-experience and after that, back in the life situation of each student.
<figure><img src="image_1555.png" /></figure>

EDUCATION

<figure><img src="image_1556.png" /></figure>

MOVEMENT

<figure><img src="image_1557.png" /></figure>

PRACTICE

<figure><img src="image_1558.png" /></figure>

LIVING LAB

<figure><img src="image_1559.png" /></figure>

SCIENCE

INITIATIVE N°2 – INCREDIBLE FOREST RESOURCES

<figure><img src="image_1560.png" /></figure>

IncrEdible
Forest Resources

https://incredibleromania.com
https://ecosistematica.org
http://aulamicosfera.com

INCREDIBLE FOREST
RESOURCES

**IncrEdible Forest Resources** is an educational movement in Romania with double role of building a more autonomous life with responsibility towards the environment and a small enterprise offering a wide-range of courses about nature and resilience, more precisely on organic agriculture, natural medicine and cosmetics, wild food, and natural art.

Started in 2016 as an informal group with two founders, it grew up to the present day into the enterprise IncrEdible Forest Resources, involving six employees and many other short and long term collaborators, offering a variety of paid courses and educational programmes.

IncrEdible Forest Resources provides in-person and online courses with the aim to give people the occasion of finding out how they can enjoy the resources to be found in nature through understanding it and developing a mutual beneficial interaction between the two. Reproducing old

knowledge and latest scientific findings, IncrEdible courses approach a wide array of subjects such as: organic gardening, food forest, medicinal and aromatic plants, tinctures and ointments, foraging wild mushrooms and wild plants, canning and preservation, and dyeing with natural plant pigments.

The courses are envisioned in both structure and time length to provide gradually information up to a medium level of complexity, enough for the students to have a deep understanding of the topic and be able to further self-educate and continue discovering. In this regard, most of the courses are organised with a two-part structure: a theoretical one, consisting in pre-recorded sessions and self-evaluations, and a practical one, on the site, farm or forest. The time-length of each course vary and can go up to 750 hours, with a 6-months access to the platform to learn in a personal pace. Up to present time, approximately 500 people attended the courses and workshops provided.

Since 2019, as a result of an international cooperation, IncrEdible started managing an online platform called Micosfera, including in their offer mycology related courses, developed in Spanish language, besides all the above mentioned courses which are in Romanian.

IncrEdible works closely with the EnCaRe association, aiming at providing free workshops and courses on self-sustainability, foraging and the school of nature. These courses take from three days up to one week and are targeted rural communities (neo-rurals and older locals), professors and educators, parents, and employees from various public institutions (especially with relevance to the food, agriculture, health

KEY FEATURES

* **Type of education and training:** physical and online short and long term workshops and courses

* **Main topics:** organic agriculture, wild food, natural medicine and cosmetics, natural art

* **Training duration:** 3 days up to 6 months

* **Course language:** Romanian and fewer in Spanish

* **Founded in:** 2016

* **Accessible to:** adults, children & public institutions

<footnote n="161">¹⁶¹ Genuino Clandestino was founded in 2010 as a communication campaign to denounce a set of unfair rules that, by equating processed peasant foods with those of large food industries, has made them illegal. For this reason, since its inception, it claims the free transformation of peasant foods. https://genuinoclandestino.it/chisiamo/</footnote>
and nature sectors). Part of the workshops and courses are delivered in person, mainly those in rural communities on subjects such as canning and preserving, labelling and marketing, edible wild mushrooms and plants, and living as a neo-rural in a rural community, while others are envisioned as online courses to be attended at each one's pace.

All workshops and courses are designed, provided and held by the team of IncrEdible and several other professional and self-taught experts in the various topics approached.

Many elements of agroecology are found at the basis of both structures and their activities with the respect for the environment as the main driver and principle, while aiming at an increased resilience and autonomy in humans relations to nature. Their vision unfolds in several direction covering organic agriculture, wild food and plants, and rural life, addressing individuals, communities, and public institutions.

<figure><img src="image_1561.png" /><figcaption>**Picture 2:** Wild Mushrooms Foraging while on the site and morphology (left); taxonomy analysing after samples collection (right), 2019. Sources: https://www.facebook.com/IncrEdibleResources/photos/1112098969317007 and https://www.facebook.com/IncrEdibleResources/photos/688010108392564.</figcaption></figure>

## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

IncrEdible Forest Resources came up and developed a wide-range of almost unique courses based on the holistic vision that humans are part of nature and a mutual beneficial interaction between them can be learned and further cultivated for the future to come. The courses answer the increasing appetite and needs of people to become more autonomous in food production and foraging, while also adapted to the pace of the students. One strength is derived from the close connection with EnCaRe association, ensuring accessibility to knowledge to a variety of groups in society.
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EDUCATION

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MOVEMENT

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PRACTICE

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LIVING LAB

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SCIENCE

## INITIATIVE N°3 – PERMAFLORA

Urban Health
by Claire Association

https://claudiaranja.wixsite.com/traicublandete
Facebook: @Permaflora

# PERMAFLORA

PermaFLORA – "everything is gardening" consists a series of gardens in Mureș county (centre-North of Romania), aiming at creating spaces where food is grown in a clean way and where a sense of wellness, fulfilment and (re)connection with the daily food and nature can be cultivated by city dwellers and children, mostly, through experiential education.

PermaFLORA was founded in 2018 in the city of Târgu Mureș as an informal initiative by a small team of two and later it was included as a project of the Urban Health by Claire (non-profit association), thus enabling the team to receive financial support from a wider range of sources. PermaFLORA runs an urban garden in the proximity of residential areas and a 0.5 ha countryside plot in a village, 20 kilometres away from the city of Târgu Mureș.

Since its inception, education is the central for the life of the initiative with learning by doing, learning from and with nature and its complexity, and children, as the next generation in full development, as their main interests. Through PermaFLORA urban children have the occasion to be reconnected with gardening and nature and educated about agroecological ways of growing food, by getting involved in short-stay camps or in urban gardens on their kindergartens.

PermaFLORA cooperates with city local kindergartens, as well as some primary and secondary schools, to introduce gardening into their curricula. They support teachers in building schoolyard gardens and distribute heirloom seeds, coaching for teachers, and providing materials that can be used in class. Due to a lack of flexibility of kindergarten and schools curricula or institutional support for teachers, only a few kids gardens were developed. The development is also due to the teachers' enthusiasm and tenacity.

In 2019, the countryside garden had been the site of a five-days long pilot summer camp dedicated to "children from the city" of all ages, with a focus on children coming from marginal groups. During the week, the teams consist of in people with various experience and formation (pedagogical, gardening etc.) prepared a series of activities based on observation, experimenting practices of growing food and composting, cooking, discussions and reflections, and visits in the surroundings around topics such as food, water, forest, pollinators, social relations and principles.

So far, PermaFLORA grew with the support of many individuals through their involvement, their knowledge or specific resources needed for planned activities, as well as private donations. As networking and community are among the essential principles of PermaFLORA, cooperation with local farmers and producers, other local and international associations (e.g. Slow Food International), experts, and local institutions brought also financed projects for example a relevant one with Slow Food concerning distribution of seeds and training manuals on the role of pollinators to 25 school teachers.

## KEY FEATURES

* **Type of education and training:** experiential learning, reflection focus & knowledge focus

* **Main topics:** food and farming education, permaculture, healthy, slow and responsible lifestyle

* **Training duration:** 5 days up to one school year

* **Course language:** Romanian

* **Founded in:** 2018

* **Accessible to:** children & kindergartens
While the initiative does not explicitly use the concept of agroecology, related concepts are at its heart, among them are permaculture, organic gardening, food education, cooperation, community-building, degrowth, slow food and life, diversity, and reconnection with nature.

The team is currently developing a manual consisting 20 gardening activities, four for each season, dedicated to kindergarten teachers to be used in the class. Each activity will also include simple and seasonal vegetarian recipes. In doing this, they are collaborating with two teachers to better align the activities with curricula and teachers' needs. The launch of the guide is aimed to involve local stakeholders including the local town hall, Forest District, and other supporters of sustainability and green spaces, in order to further stir up cooperation and a better inclusion of gardening in children's' life. Their goal is to make the manual free and accessible for any teacher to use.

<figure><img src="image_1567.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1568.png" /><figcaption>**Picture 3:** Pictures from SnailKids Camp, July 2021. Sources: https://www.facebook.com/slowfoodmures/photos/pcb.854464375178524/854457415179220/ and https://www.facebook.com/slowfoodmures/photos/pcb.855163075108654/855157125109249.</figcaption></figure>

## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

PermaFLORA highlights the importance of education in agroecology and food systems. One insight is in collaborating directly with schools and teachers for developing "children from the city" interest in how food is grown, increasing awareness of topics such as the importance of organic farming and seasonality in produce. The initiative also illustrates the value of teaching by example through live garden demonstrations and reconnecting children with nature.
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LIVING LAB

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EDUCATION

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PRACTICE

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SCIENCE

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MOVEMENT

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https://gourmeticus.ro

INITIATIVE N°4 – AGRONOMIA AGRO FOOD INNOVATION

# AGRONOMIA AGRO FOOD INNOVATION

Agronomia Agro Food Innovation is a spin-off developed by five faculties of the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca with the aim to capitalise on the scientific knowledge and research resulted within the university, and commercialise agri-food products produced at its farms and research stations, as well as other quality local products from the region. Established in 2016 as an enterprise with limited responsibility with the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Cluj-Napoca (USAMV) as sole shareholders, currently Agronomia Agro Food Innovation involves 15 employees, daily workers in certain periods, and students carrying out their university practice or internships. Besides, it cooperates with agricultural high-schools offering post-graduate practice, as well as with various stakeholders (e.g. Local Action Groups, NGOs) for specific objectives and projects.

## KEY FEATURES

* **Main topics:** development and marketing of local products, food processing, research

* **Founded in:** 2016

* **Type of organisation supporting the living lab:** enterprise

* **Type of actor involved:** agricultural enterprise, scientists, students, food hubs, farmers, NGOs, local action groups etc.

* **Scale of the living lab:** regional

Ingredients used by Agronomia Agro Food Innovation to produce food are taken from the Experimental Educational Station of USAMV called the Cojocna Farm, a 667 ha ecologically certified farm producing crops and raising animals (300 cows, 250 pigs, 800 sheep, 12000 hen) which are processed in the 6 production spaces of the university. Since 2020, Cojocna Farm obtained organic certification for its dairy products (milk, cheese, fermented milk products) produced in their own milk processing factory.

Besides, the online platform serves as an aggregator of local products from a 70 km radius produced by other local producers (some former students) who can ensure quality products, organic or agroecological, or at least processed as possible. Due to CAP cooperation measures and developed projects in cooperation with NGOs and Local Action Groups, new producers have been identified and the platform had been promoted in the region.

Agronomia Agro Food Innovation works based on a close cooperation between the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, the Faculty of Agriculture, the Faculty of Horticulture, the Faculty of Zooculture and Biotechnologies and the Faculty of Food Science and Technology, each of them running activity in its sector (e.g. research, crop cultivation, animal raising, etc.). The Faculty of Food Science and Technology is responsible with processing the raw ingredients and producing dairy, meat and pastry products to be commercialised in their own stores and on the online platform.
Although not naming itself a living lab, all these processes are connected, and meant to engage multiple actors from students and post-graduates to farmers, Local Action Groups and NGOs, as well as private firms (eg. Marketing companies, Romanian EIT Food Hub, Nod Verde Food Hub etc.) to produce and test new research and studies, new food recipes, new varieties, new ways of cooperation and innovations, etc. It holds also competitions dedicated to students with ideas for innovative agri-food services or products, with the possibility to be tested and commercialised through the platform, as well as be trained and coached by mentors around the initiative. Out of the research within the university and involving students or farmers, new food recipes emerged out of which Agronomia Agro Food Innovation grew their own line of products named Gourmeticus Academicum, a brand standing for the Farm to Fork concept and at the intersection between premium quality products and local primary ingredients.

Since its inception, the initiative had to pass several stages: acquiring the necessary authorisations for processing activity and marketing of products, re-purposing the existing production pilot stations of the university from educational to larger scale production, launching a physical shop and a coffee house in the university campus available to all citizens and an online marketing platform.

Agronomia Agro Food Innovation is financially supported through its own commercialisation activity, as well as through cooperation projects financed by the National Rural Development Plan. In the future, there are plans for Agronomia Agro Food Innovation to be an active part of a bigger living lab initiated by USAMV, Biodiversity Campus Park and Farm in the city of Cluj-Napoca, consisting of an apiary, a tech pavilion, greenhouses, spaces for animals a biogas station and aiming at increasing research, conserving animal breeds through innovation and cooperation with various stakeholders and opened to the large public.

<figure><img src="image_1575.png" /><figcaption>Băcănie (47)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1576.png" /><figcaption>Băuturi răcoritoare (7)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1577.png" /><figcaption>Gourmeticus 100% (23)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1578.png" /><figcaption>Lactate (14)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1579.png" /><figcaption>Mezeluri (20)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1580.png" /><figcaption>Ouă proaspete (3)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1581.png" /><figcaption>Patiserie și Panificație (5)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1582.png" /><figcaption>Plante decorative (4)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1583.png" /><figcaption>Produse BIO (10)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1584.png" /><figcaption>Uleiuri (3)</figcaption></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1585.png" /><figcaption>Verdeturi de sezon (5)</figcaption></figure>

**Picture 4:** Caption of the online platform. Source: https://gourmeticus.ro/magazin/.
## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Agronomia Agro Food Innovation is looking to enhance cooperation between several stakeholders and produce new ways of cooperation and stir-up innovation in agri-food production, processing and marketing. Complementary to the on-going development of the sites under the administration of the university, it fosters linking academia with civil society, keeping up with the most recent approaches, such as farm to fork.

### POSITIVE IMPACTS

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**COOPERATION:** Agronomia Agro Food Innovation is looking to enhance cooperation between several stakeholders and produce new ways of cooperation and stir-up innovation in agri-food production, processing, and marketing.

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**COMMERCIALISATION IS LOCAL, FAIR AND/OR COLLECTIVE:** One of its main aims is the commercialisation and promotion of local products from a 70 km radius, at a fair price to ensure quality for consumers and decent income for producers.

### LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

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**GOVERNANCE:** In many instances, the legal form of an enterprise with limited responsibility is restrictive for certain grants or projects according to the existing law, thus become a challenge in contracting financial support.
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MOVEMENT

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PRACTICE

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EDUCATION

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LIVING LAB

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SCIENCE

INITIATIVE N°5 – CUIB

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CENTRUL URBAN DE
INITIATIVE BUNE

https://incuib.ro

# CUIB – URBAN CENTRE OF GOOD INITIATIVES

CUIB (Central Urban de Inițiative Bune) is a social enterprise and bistro for responsible consumption located in Iași (Eastern Romania). Its aim is to offer alternative ways of consumption following a holistic approach, where the ecological, social, and economic dimensions of production, sourcing, consumption, and waste are actively considered and improved. CUIB was founded in 2013 by the Mai Bine association, who is working towards sustainable development and resilience in the areas of ecology and environmental protection, education, social economy, and civic responsibility.

As an acronym for "Urban Center for Good Initiatives," CUIB serves as a bistro, a hub for local and solidarity products, and a space to host workshops and events. The CUIB bistro offers a seasonal menu of vegetarian meals, aimed at reducing emissions and promoting environmental-friendly alternative ways to consumption.

Within this, 80-90% of the ingredients are locally sourced, and products like coffee and tea that must be imported are Fair Trade certified. CUIB promotes a 'water without plastic' approach that sees water as a human right, opting to not sell bottled water. They also limit their waste by using reusable materials and composting organic waste at their urban garden. In the space, they also bring together and sell products from Romanian social enterprises.

Since 2017, after a couple of years having been certified as an activity of social economy of the Mai Bine Association, CUIB started operating as a private enterprise with limited responsibility whose only shareholder is Mai Bine and, currently, engaging a team of approximately twenty people, from employees to volunteers. This split was made deliberately to allow CUIB to have an independent financial strategy while still benefiting from the ideas and vision of Mai Bine. In the past, the project has benefited from small local public funding schemes applied through the 'Mai Bine' association, while throughout the time its funding sources diversified, part of the projects also contributing to the aim and development of CUIB. CUIB is deliberately local in its scope as it collaborates with producers from the city of Iași and the surrounding region, including vegetable cooperatives, bakers, beekeepers, and breweries to source its ingredients. In this spirit, one of its goals is to reduce its food miles to a minimum by sourcing 90% of its ingredients from a radius of up to 100 km.

While CUIB does not specifically make use of the term agroecology, the initiative supports many related concepts including sourcing locally, circularity in the food supply chain, social economy, fair trade, supporting small producers, and reducing waste and emissions.

## KEY FEATURES

* **Main goals:** promoting a resilient and environmental-friendly lifestyle and alternative ways for responsible consumption

* **Founded in:** 2013

* **Type of organisation:** social enterprise

* **Farming sector:** multiple

* **Scale of the organisation:** local, with regional links
CUIB hopes to become the first 'Zero Waste' certified space in Romania by 2023, to reduce at best the distance between farm to fork, to establish the first food bank and to put the basis of a circular-economy model in Romanian HORECA. Through Mai Bine, the team is currently piloting a small closed-loop production model, composting organic waste from the bistro in a recently established urban garden where herbs and other vegetables are going to be grown and used at the bistro. They also plan to further reduce their food waste and emissions, the later with the help of two electric cargo bikes.

<figure><img src="image_1595.png" /><figcaption>Picture 5: The CUIB Bistro. Source: https://incuib.ro/.</figcaption></figure>

## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

CUIB's holistic approach highlights the importance of the environmental-socio-economic dimensions of agroecology. By prioritising small producers and Romanian social enterprises, it contributes to local resilience to support the incomes of those engaged in ecological, small-scale, and often traditional ways of growing and producing.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

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**ENERGY AND WASTE MANAGEMENT:**

CUIB has reduced its carbon footprint compared to other communal commercial/social spaces by 10 times, avoiding 11.000 packages to reach the landfill and recuperating approximately the same amount, saving at least 23 million of litres of water.

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**EDUCATION:**

As a pioneer of holistic approaches to sustainable consumption in Iași and one of the few at national level, CUIB has contributed to facilitating a gradual change for the better in public consciousness around resilient lifestyle and responsible consumption.

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**SUSTAINABLE AND FAIR ECONOMICS:**

With a vision of social entrepreneurship and circular economy, CUIB is sourcing its products and ingredients from local producers in Iași and the surrounding region, including vegetable cooperatives, bakeries, beekeepers, and breweries.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

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**COMMERCIALISATION IS LOCAL,**

**FAIR AND/OR COLLECTIVE:**

Financial sustainability is sometimes a challenge for CUIB due to high rental costs, as well as lower profit margins that come with their practices at the heart of the initiative, such as not selling water and overpricing Fair Trade coffee and tea as on the market.

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**GOVERNANCE:**

The lack of political long-term view on agroecology and current rigid regulations are not well-adapted to capture and address the concepts with which Mai Bine works, impeding or leaving little room to innovate in this direction, forcing initiatives to struggle in a grey area in certain aspects, at the limit of legality (e.g. reducing food waste and receiving remaining or unused products from supermarkets as ingredients in their menu).
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MOVEMENT

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PRACTICE

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EDUCATION

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LIVING LAB

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SCIENCE

INITIATIVE N°6 – HOSMAN DURABIL

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ASOCIATIA
HOSMAN
DURABIL

https://www.moara-veche.ro

HOSMAN DURABIL
ASSOCIATION

Hosman Durabil is an association based in Sibiu county, aiming at contributing to a more sustainable and tolerant future through local agricultural and cultural initiatives. Their areas of intervention are in preserving cultural heritage, including bringing community values and traditions into modern life, and promoting a viable vision of Romanian rural life.

The association was founded in 2005 by two families, and currently, the team is an international and multicultural with eight members, who are foremost artisans, farmers and local activists who show that a life in the countryside is possible. The initiative started in response to calls to form a tourism initiative in the region, idea that was shaped in favour of an initiative that would benefit the local economy more sustainably.

KEY FEATURES

* **Main goal:** contributing to a more sustainable and tolerant future through local agricultural and cultural initiatives

* **Founded in:** 2005

* **Type of organisation:** non-profit association

* **Farming sectors:** multiple

* **Scale of the organisation:** local, with regional

The association houses a number of projects. Comprising of a refurbished mill and a renovated barn, the centre hosts cultural events such as theatre and concerts, as well as other initiatives such as a local bakery and a newly founded Women's Digital Center. Some illustration of the project host:

* Moara Veche - The Old Mill: an alternative a collective cultural centre, representing the main activity of the association. They acquired the mill in 2004 in a state of ruin. After the restoration and up until 2016, the milling of the grains into flour was taking place; due to the decline of the local economy, a few locals still use the mill.

* Șura Culturală - The Cultural Barn: had been an old barn renovated in 2017 to create space for lodging and use year-round for various events or use it through paid dinners and village tours.

* Brutăria Luijza - Luijza's Bakery: In 2010, one of the first small bakeries with direct sale in Romania was opened inside the old mill. Through freshly baked bread using a traditional fire oven, it serves to diversify the economic and cultural life in the village.

* Din Hârtibaciu, cu drag - From Hârtibaciu, with love: is a local label initiated by Hosman Durabil to further contribute to the development of the region by labelling products coming from the wider southern Transylvania region, Hârtibaciu valley. Small and medium-sized producers from the region can use the brand for free as long as they respect certain regulations such as following traditional techniques, sourcing raw materials locally from their communities, and treating all employees equally. The brand covers producers of vegetables and fruits, meat and dairy, honey, bread, jams, cereals, and other artisanal non-food items.

Hosman Durabil recognises their own growth as linked to the growth of Romanian civil society and wanted to create spaces where those with a common vision could come together. Since 2010, they hold two yearly fairs: The Fair of Possibilities and the Day of the Mill fair. Their aim is to create a space where producers can meet, exchange and circulate ideas too – not just products. They have also developed
a catalogue for small craftsmen in the region in order to facilitate their exchange and collaboration. Since then, they have also engaged in dialogues with local political actors on issues of land grabbing and other threats faced by local communities.

The association supports itself and develops projects and initiatives in the village or the region through generating funds associated with the use of the Cultural Barn by other groups, community dinners, gastronomic events or village tours, as well as through other various source such as private foundation, European funds, transnational cooperation funds.

Though not explicitly using the term agroecology, related concepts represent the base of their mission and activity, such as rural solidarity, rural economy and development, collective work, community, anti-racism and diversity.

Hosman Durabil is a member of Longo Mai Co-operatives, an international network of agricultural cooperatives, as well as of the national peasant association Eco Ruralis. Always looking for new possibilities to build up sustainability in the village, for the future, Hosman Durabil is planning to open an officially recognised local gastronomic point, opening new financial opportunities to offer constantly prepared food to individuals and groups using local products.

## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

The projects supported by Hosman Durabil illustrate the value of working to serve and integrating with local communities rather than creating isolated initiatives. They show this through taking steps like rehabilitating old properties and building upon, and thereby helping save the traditional products and practices that are at risk in rural areas, while finding new ways and ideas to contribute to a diverse and more sustainable rural place.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

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**COOPERATION:** The brand From Hârtibaciu, cu drag gathers currently 28 small and medium-sized producers local producers and craftsmen, aiming at bringing together producers alike. Besides, in many of their initiatives, Hosman Durabil cooperates with other associations, local facilitators and communities to complement their competences or resources in the area.

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**TRADITIONAL FOOD AND HERITAGE CONSERVATION:** Their projects and efforts are in good proportion oriented towards restoring old buildings and putting them again in the social circuit, as well as the promotion of local food, seeds and nature.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

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**SUSTAINABLE AND FAIR ECONOMICS:** Through the lifetime of the association, they have been facing challenging financial periods, with a small team and limited capacity to contracting sustainable grants.
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MOVEMENT

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EDUCATION

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PRACTICE

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SCIENCE

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LIVING LAB

INITIATIVE N°7 – ECO RURALIS ASSOCIATION

ECO RURALIS
ASSOCIATION

<figure><img src="image_1615.png" /></figure>

Asociatia Turanilor și Turanicii din România

https://www.ecoruralis.ro

**Eco Ruralis** is a national association of peasants and small-scale food and agricultural producers promoting peasant agroecology and representing peasants' rights, needs and interests.

With 17.000 members across the entire country up to present day, Eco Ruralis was created in 2009 by a couple of peasant families, aiming at representing their own rights, including the right to use and sell seeds, the right to land and access to market and the right to take part in the decision-making process of public policies regarding food and agriculture.

Eco Ruralis is working towards strengthening the peasant movement, promoting food sovereignty and peasant agroecology as path and principles and at the heart of the society, having recognised and implemented peasants' rights at all levels in public policies regarding food and agriculture, facilitating peasant to peasant knowledge and practice transfer and education in general. The association also foster local, national, and international alliances and cooperation's of food sovereignty and human rights implementation in rural areas.

The activity of the organisation is overseen by a Coordination Committee consisting in 5 peasant members, a secretariat of two and three major working groups run by members on the issues of the Right to Seeds and to Land as well as Peasant Agroecology and Rural Youth.

Up to now, Eco Ruralis has been developing on-going programmes and actions on the following issues: the right to seeds, the right to land, access to the market, peasant agroecology and rural youth, rural women, national public policies and sectorial production, peasants' rights, rural migrants, and cooperation in Eastern Europe.

Agroecology and more specifically, peasant agroecology is put at the centre of the association's vision, and work - promoted on the three activity categories of social and political movement, practice and peasant science and innovation. In this sense, Eco Ruralis has been facilitated, supported and developed long-term activities on both practical level, as well as at public policies level.

* **Practice:** Since 2011, Eco Ruralis is organising annually a national seed distribution, offering a small quantity of traditional and peasant plant seed varieties alongside with information regarding

KEY FEATURES

* **Main goal:** promoting small-scale peasant agroecology, representing peasants' rights

* **Founded in:** 2009

* **Type of organisation:** non profit association

* **Farming sectors:** multiple

* **Scale of the organisation:** national with international links

SCIENCE

PRACTICE

EDUCATION

MOVEMENT
agroecological phytosanitary, allelopathy and practices solutions to be implemented by peasants for free, while encouraging their autonomy regarding seed. The hundreds of vegetables, medicinal and aromatic plant varieties are saved, multiplied and produced by members of the association and organised in a collective and participatory way within Eco Ruralis Seed Working Group and resulting in an annual Catalogue of Peasant Seeds.

* **Education:** Supporting peasant-to-peasant knowledge and practice sharing and generational transfer, Eco Ruralis is annually facilitating and organising interchange visits, workshops, trainings, webinars of a variety of topics related to food production, seed saving, soil fertility, agroecology, and decision-making processes between farmer. At the same time, the association is managing and developing the 'World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), an international programme that offers people the chance to be host farmers and volunteers who work together and have knowledge exchanges on organic farms.

* **Science and innovation:** Peasant innovation as an individual and collective way of bringing evolution in all aspects of rural life from production to culture, economy and society is of great priority in the association's work, as well as the members locally adapted practices of food production, the seed and animal breeding, building and adapting tools for small-scale agriculture, and to putting in practice an own process to articulate a common vision for thousands of farmers across the country.

<figure><img src="image_1616.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1617.png" /><figcaption>**Picture 6:** Eco Ruralis Seed Working Group meeting, July 2021 (above). Source: https://www.facebook.com/ecoruralis/photos/4292405637473060. Peasant to peasant education, July 2021 (bottom). Source: https://photos.app.goo.gl/u9YorJZ4wYooPjB27.</figcaption></figure>
**Social and political movement:** One of the main aims of Eco Ruralis is having peasants at the centre of the decision-making processes regarding food and agriculture at all levels, thus all the running programmes on the issues above mentioned consists in a major work on influencing public policies and implementing peasant rights as according to the United Nations Declaration of Peasants and other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) in the national legislation.

The activity of Eco Ruralis are funded through individual donations, European grants and independent foundations grants, with a clear stand against funding from corporate companies and companies that violate human rights and produce environmental destruction, and political parties.

Eco Ruralis is a nation-wide organisation, with members in all counties, thus its activity is unfolding in several places across the country. Since 2011, it is a member of the European Coordination of Via Campesina and La Via Campesina, the largest grassroots international peasant movement, and bringing contribution on the right to seeds, land grabbing, agroecology or access to land practical and political work.

## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Eco Ruralis is promoting peasant agroecology as a solution for the future of food and agriculture on all activity categories and at all levels through a diversity of activities addressing multiple stakeholders such as peasant-to-peasant workshops and skill-shares, collective seed production and distribution, and cooperation with researchers.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

<figure><img src="image_1618.png" /></figure>

**COOPERATION:** Eco Ruralis is a member-based association and its entire work consist of cooperation of peasants in working groups, in peer-to-peer exchanges or collective seed multiplying. Besides, Eco Ruralis is part of several local, national, European, and regional alliances, project consortiums, and networks aiming at promoting agroecology.

<figure><img src="image_1619.png" /></figure>

**EDUCATION:** Through its workshops, trainings, webinars, info kits or reports, Eco Ruralis has managed to contribute to the promotion of the concept of agroecology, as well as change widen people's knowledge (peasants and public at large) about peasant practices in agriculture, agro-biodiversity, access to land and to raise consciousness around peasants' rights.

<figure><img src="image_1620.png" /></figure>

**NATURAL RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT:** Through its annual seed distribution, thousands of packages of traditional and peasant seeds are cultivated by small-scale producers enriching and maintaining biodiversity, while adapting seeds to local environmental conditions, strengthening their traits to resist to climate change and with no chemical inputs needed.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

<figure><img src="image_1621.png" /></figure>

**GOVERNANCE:** In many aspects of its activity, Eco Ruralis is challenged by national or European frameworks that are not adapted to agroecology or do not allow peasant rights to be exerted. At the same time, they are often confronted with numerous changes at the central government, and with visions more inclined towards industrial agriculture, posing more obstacles in developing agroecology.
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PRACTICE

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MOVEMENT

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LIVING LAB

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SCIENCE

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EDUCATION

INITIATIVE N°8 – RURAL BEING ASSOCIATION

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Cutia
Țăranului

https://cutiataranului.ro

RURAL BEING ASSOCIATION

Cutia Țăranului is an association working to revive and support the relationship between the Romanian small-scale producer and the city population. The initiative facilitates the connection and helps arrange regular food box deliveries from producers directly to consumer members.

Cutia Țăranului started in 2012 in the city of Cluj-Napoca (North-Eastern of Romania) as an informal initiative. As it developed, it was moved under the umbrella and coordination of the Ființa Rurală (Rural Being) association in order to gain legal status.

The primary aim is to facilitate a direct relationship between small producers and consumers and thus promote a shorter food chain. Their website serves as a platform that connects producers to member consumers. Producers build an online profile containing information about what they offer, variation, frequency of delivery, and establish a price based on the products to be included in the box (e.g. vegetable, dairy, meat) and the size of the box. Once the connection is made, producers deliver food boxes on a regular basis directly to the door, giving

consumer members a chance to interact with the producer to find out more about where and how the products were grown and consolidate their relationship in time. Currently, Cutia Țăranului engages 20 family and group producers covering nine cities in Romania and delivering food boxes to consumers engaged on long-term in the partnership and depending on the regularity of the specific box (weekly for the vegetables or less frequent for dairy and meat boxes).

As a secondary aim, as well as a natural and essential part of the process unfolding, the association is pursuing educating producers on topics like sustainability, long-term solutions, and the importance of the social dimension of their relationship to their consumer members, organising once in a while meeting sessions with the interested producers. As such, the project does not exclude producers based on their current agricultural practices, but rather includes those who are open to learning different, more environmental-friendly approaches (e.g. less synthetic inputs, more plant treatments and fertilisers, diversified species and varieties) and those practicing small-scale agriculture. Cutia Țăranului also encourage producers to diversify their production and cover more of consumer members' food needs to prepare several almost integral meals from the received products, underlining equality, paying the respect and attention to one's own efforts and potential overwork in the agricultural activity.

KEY FEATURES

* **Agroecological practices concerned:** small-scale

environmental-friendly agriculture, crop rotation, animal welfare, short-supply chains, direct marketing

* **Founded in:** 2012

* **Farming sectors concerned:** horticulture-vegetables, livestock, permanent crops

* **Lead organisation:** Rural Being non-profit association

* **Types of stakeholders involved:** producers, consumers

* **Scale of the initiative:** national
<figure><img src="image_1628.png" /><figcaption>Eniko si Istvan Butyka</figcaption></figure>

Cutia cu legume

Cutie cu legume si zarzavaturi livrata saptamanal. Pentru o familie de 2 persoane. Contine legume si zarzavaturi proaspete si diverse in functie de anotimp.

ULTIMELE LOCURI
DISPONIBILE

<figure><img src="image_1629.png" /></figure>

SĂPTĂMÂNAL

<figure><img src="image_1630.png" /></figure>

LEGUME SI ZARZAVATURI

<figure><img src="image_1631.png" /><figcaption>Laszlo si lutka Gyurka</figcaption></figure>

Cutia cu legume

Livrata saptamanal. Pentru o familie de 2 persoane. Contine legume si zarzavaturi proaspete culese cu grija, in functie de anotimp.

**Picture 7:** A couple of producers of weekly vegetable boxes. Source: https://cutiataranului.ro/destinatie/cluj-napoca/.

On the side of consumer members, the association emphasises responsibility about what it means to buy local food and becoming conscious about the long-term impact of purchasing choices. Naming and considering them as members of the initiative is a step forward, more afar from the relationship of seller-buyer, but to create a community that seeks, finds and develops value beyond consumption.

Cutia Tăranului is not affiliated with any source of institutional funding. In 2017, they received a small financial contribution from the French embassy in Bucharest, which develops with internal resources.

Most producers and consumer members are located around the city Cluj-Napoca, where it also started. However, the project is active across Romania including Bucharest, Timișoara, Brașov, Sibiu, and Arad. Their target is producers who live and produce relatively close to cities in order to facilitate a short supply chain and enable that close and direct relationship between the urban consumer and the rural producer. As such, producers also need to be able to deliver goods regularly and personally, as the boxes are delivered directly at the homes or working places of the consumers, based on a prior understanding. Cutia Tăranului also seeks producers who take care of what they do and how they produce, and wish to valorise their labour in a different way, rather than relying on extensive marketing.

Though not explicitly referencing agroecology as a concept, Cutia Tăranului refers to related concepts such as producing seasonally, locally in a small-scale and environmental-aware agriculture, autonomy through financial sustainability, and producers' relationship with their land, among others and with their consumer members.

The project was inspired through collaborations with Eco Ruralis, an association promoting peasant agriculture and food sovereignty in Romania. They are not members of any other regional networks outside of that.
## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

What makes Cutia Tăranului stand out from similar initiatives in Romania is their prioritisation of producer-consumer relationships and producer well-being. When consumer members commit to order a food box, they agree to enter in a long-term personal relationship with the producer that is built on openness and mutual benefit. Behind the scenes, the team also accompanies producers to open up about their experiences, struggles, and relationships with members. As a result, the project has also had to let some producers go when it was not a right fit, both in terms of the project values and the relationship with consumers, despite the quality of their products.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

<figure><img src="image_1632.png" /></figure>

**COMMERCIALISATION IS LOCAL, FAIR AND/OR COLLECTIVE:** Cutia Tăranului has offered producers financial sustainability and the ability to valorise their produce and labour in a more holistic and fair way. Many producers have gained access to a different market segment, lessening their dependency on traditional market sales and creating more autonomy on the long-term.

<figure><img src="image_1633.png" /></figure>

**EDUCATION:** The initiative pursues educating producers on topics like sustainability, long-term solutions, and the importance of the social dimension of their relationship to their consumer members. At the same time, emphasises the responsible consumption of local produce and long-term impacts among consumer members present at environmental fairs where they sell their products and promote organic agriculture.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

<figure><img src="image_1634.png" /></figure>

**SUSTAINABLE AND FAIR ECONOMICS:** The producers have difficulty in fully valorising their own labour and in a traditional and historical fashion, many small-scale producers are not accustomed to ask for an equitable price according to their practices and amount of work, therefore seldom there is hesitance in raising the prices of their food boxes.
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PRACTICE

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EDUCATION

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LIVING LAB

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SCIENCE

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MOVEMENT

## INITIATIVE N°9 – SEMINȚE Vii

# SEMINȚE Vii

Semințe Vii is a small-scale initiative of traditional and peasant seed producers from the village of Dâmbroca, in south-eastern Romania. Established in 2015 by a peasant, it grew involving 4 women and their families, putting peasant agroecology at the heart of the agricultural seed production. Formally organised as a small enterprise, Semințe Vii offers through their online platform a great diversity of traditional and peasant plant seed varieties (vegetables, aromatic, medicinal and accompanying plants) to customers. The way of organising through cooperation between the four families of the Semințe Vii group, they continue the long tradition of the peasant living, incorporating local practices and knowledge, social relations and organisation, transfer of knowledge to newer generations and building networks with other peasants in other regions.

Semințe Vii was born out of the desire to revive old plant varieties from the region and not only offer the possibility for peasant and gardeners to have access to diverse, nutritious and healthy seeds, but also as an alternative to the industrial seeds on the market.

<figure><img src="image_1640.png" /></figure>

Semințe Vii

http://seminte-vii.ro
Facebook: @Semintevii

## KEY FEATURES

* **Agroecological practices concerned:** crop rotation, plant allelopathy, natural fertilisers, heterogeneous plant varieties cultivation

* **Founded in:** 2015

* **Farming sectors concerned:** horticulture-vegetables, permanent crops

* **Lead organisation:** Semințe Vii enterprise

* **Types of stakeholders involved:** farmers

* **Scale of the initiative:** national

They are continuing a long history and tradition of the peasant way of living and transfer of knowledge from one generation to another, as thus involving in the seed production three generations within the same family (grandparents, parents and nephews).

The seed production is organised on several gardens and small-plots plots of land belonging to the extended family, and according to practices of crop rotation, plant allelopathy, and only after the soil has been prepared in advance with manure, ash and other natural soil fertilisers. Following local knowledge and practices, plant health is ensured by preparing and utilising artisanal natural phytosanitary solutions (e.g. mixed-plant decoction, maceration extract).

Throughout time, the seed stock evolved from a handful of old plant varieties from the family's heritage or collected from the village to hundreds of peasant heterogeneous varieties, from seed exchanges and through cooperation with the national peasant association Eco Ruralis. Currently, Semințe Vii manages a collection of 600 hundreds of plant varieties, entering a rotational process of renewal each couple of years. A secondary aim of Semințe Vii is the sharing of the peasant knowledge, therefore accompanying the seed envelopes with basic essential information for cultivation and often offering online advice to new entrants in agriculture in regards to seeds cultivation.

The group is also a member of the national peasant association Eco Ruralis. As a member of the Seed Working group of the association, Semințe Vii is producing seeds and contributing to its annual free seed distribution organised at national level and in Republic of Moldova.
Since 2018, Semințe Vii put the basis of a peasant seed house in cooperation with Eco Ruralis, aiming at storing seeds produced by the members of the seed working group, hosting a space for meetings and workshops for peasants, and be the centre of the annual distribution. The stored seeds are organised through an own system of labelling and description developed within Eco Ruralis since 2012. The seed house and main garden are often open to visitors (individual persons, groups, researchers, institutions) interested in witnessing this initiative and offered space for peasant-to-peasant skill-sharing about seed sowing, harvesting, desiccating, and storing.

Peasant agroecology has always been at the heart of Semințe Vii, though not since the beginning as a term, but as a knowledge and practice that has been passed on from one generation to another, incorporating new ideas as it continues to develop.

## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Semințe Vii is an initiative that answer to both needs of peasants to be able producing and sharing their own farm-saved seeds and the needs of other peasants, gardeners and new-entrants in agriculture to have access to diverse, nutritious, healthy and reproducible seeds. Throughout the time, Semințe Vii has put seeds in the hands of dozens of thousands of people.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

<figure><img src="image_1641.png" /></figure>

**COOPERATION:** Semințe Vii group bases its activity on cooperation between the four families to organise the seed production, and contributes to increasing cooperation between peasants as a member of the seed working group of Eco Ruralis and of the collective annual national seed distribution.

<figure><img src="image_1642.png" /></figure>

**NATURAL RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT:**

Semințe Vii produces heterogeneous plant varieties, saved and multiplied through decades, and then adapts them to the various local weather conditions and through peasant breeding methods, build their resilience to climate change through continuous interactions in the environment to maintain agro-biodiversity. Using plant allopathy, the group enhances plant cooperation and therefore reducing needs of other inputs.

<figure><img src="image_1643.png" /></figure>

**TRADITIONAL FOOD AND HERITAGE CONSERVATION:** With traditional and peasant seeds varieties production, selling and distribution, side by side with the knowledge and practices applied and transferred, Semințe Vii is contributing to maintain the cultural identity of rural communities and the traditional peasant way of living.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

<figure><img src="image_1644.png" /></figure>

**GOVERNANCE:** Current European and national laws and regulations impede the full realisation of the rights of peasants to use, multiply and mainly sell their farm-saved and peasant plant varieties, thus Semințe Vii is restricted to fully legal develop its activity, occupying a vulnerable place on the market.
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PRACTICE

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EDUCATION

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SCIENCE

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LIVING LAB

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MOVEMENT

INITIATIVE N°10 – NATURE 2000

<figure><img src="image_1650.png" /></figure>

https://milvus.ro/en/

# FROM THE NIRAJ – TÂRNAVA MICĂ VALLEY

The **Nature 2000 product from Niraj - Târnava Mică Valley** is a local label developed by the Milvus Group Bird and Nature Association in the Natura 2000 site of Niraj Târnava Mică Valley, with the aim to support local farmers who through their activities contribute to the conservation of natural resources.

Along with Milvus Group becoming in 2005 custodian of the Niraj Târnava Mică Valley Nature 2000 site and hence numerous actions to ensure the protection of local nature, the idea of developing a local label to counter-balance the conservation restrictions and highlight the benefits of living and working in a protected area appeared.

In 2019, the label became functional after a European funded project, aiming at mapping and evaluating the ecosystem services in the governed Nature 2000 site and their contribution to the main economic sectors (mainly agriculture, forestry, tourism, fishing and hunting).

Utilisation of the label is available under no cost for a wide-variety of products such as agricultural products, plants/produce collected from the nature, animals and products derived from their husbandry and from beekeeping, products resulted from collected plants or cultivated crops and artisanal products (e.g. soap, wooden sculptures, textiles), and is addressing all persons, legal or natural, who live or develop an activity in any of the localities comprised by the Nature 2000 site.

At the same time, utilisation of the local label is conditioned by a set of criteria to be met by the applicants, in order to guarantee the products that have been produced, handcrafted or prepared in the region and did not harm the nature:

* Not using forbidden substances and/or GMOs, hormones and other industrial animal fodder and be in accordance with the existing laws and regulations;

* Declaring the produced quantity;

* Responsibility towards the produced goods;

* If cultivating a plot larger than 20 ha, to having submitted and receive eco-schemes payments;

* Using 100% natural materials in case of crafts;

* Peregrination in the Niraj Târnava Mică Valley, if other, to be stated as such.

## KEY FEATURES

* **Agroecological practices concerned:** small-scale traditional crop cultivation, foraging, extensive animal raising

* **Founded in:** 2019

* **Farming sectors concerned:** all sectors

* **Lead organisation:** non-profit association

* **Types of stakeholders involved:** farmers, beekeepers, craftsmen

* **Scale of the initiative:** local

SCIENCE

EDUCATION

PRACTICE
These criteria have to be accompanied by a contract and other documents that certify the producer, depending on the case and type of activity, before submission to Milvus Group. The mark is officially registered at the State Office for Inventions and Trademarks and the local producers are fully able to commercialise their products by using the label.

Many aspects of agroecology are building the local label of "Nature 2000 site Niraj and Târnava Mică Valley", but not using the term as such. Conserving natural values while encouraging healthy local food and crafts production and social welfare represent the basis around which the label wraps, contributing to a good governance of the land in respect to the existing flora and fauna.

<figure><img src="image_1651.png" /></figure>

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<figure><img src="image_1654.png" /><figcaption>**Picture 8:** Products under the label of Natura 200 Nirajului and Târnava Mică Valley.
Source: https://milvus.ro/un-nou-brand-produs-natura-2000-din-valea-nirajului-tarnavei-mici/.</figcaption></figure>

## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

Milvus Group's initiative to create the local brand "Nature 2000 site Niraj and Târnava Mică Valley" emphasises an agroecological vision and practice of having both conservation of natural areas and also local populations not feeling disadvantaged because their work in an area is submitted to certain regulations. The local brand created on the local market adds an extra value for the products with a sense of community. Through the criteria and conditions of using the label, it fosters a good governance over the land, and interaction and understanding of people of the values a Nature 2000 sites conservation. It is at the same time a good practice example that can inspire other initiatives in Romania, and not only covering Natura 2000 sites, but guaranteeing eco-friendly and healthy products in various regions.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

<figure><img src="image_1655.png" /></figure>

**EDUCATION:** The existence of the local label draws attention towards the mutual benefits that arise from co-existence with a nature conservation area and through promotion activities that Milvus Group had organised, consumers are more aware of their contribution when buying a labelled product.

<figure><img src="image_1656.png" /></figure>

**NATURAL RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT:** Through creating and promoting the label, Milvus Group encourages farmers in the region of Niraj Târnava Mică Valley Nature 2000 site to adopt environmentally friendly practices, conserve and enrich existing biodiversity, ensuring the protection of big mammals and endangered bird species.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

<figure><img src="image_1657.png" /></figure>

**GOVERNANCE:** Due to changes in the national law, all NGOs had been removed as custodians of natural protected areas, including Milvus Group, impeding thus the development of the local brand in relation with an active management system of the Niraj Târnava Mică Valley Nature 2000 site, as it has been undertaken in the past.
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PRACTICE

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MOVEMENT

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EDUCATION

## INITIATIVE N°11 – THE BARN WITH GOODIES

# THE BARN WITH GOODIES

Șura cu Bunătăți - The Barn with Goodies - is a small social enterprise from the village of Copalnic, northern Romania offering a diversity of artisanal food products, mainly produced from foraged wild mushrooms, plants and fruits from the surrounding meadows and forest.
The enterprise produces syrups from foraged wild plants and jams from fruits and foraged wild fruits, ointments, vegetable spreads and other conserves, prepared in a slow manner and for some products, following the tradition of using wooden fire.

For a couple of years, it functioned as a link between the northern village of Copalnic, where the production was taking place and the city of Cluj-Napoca, where they were sold directly through a network of consumers, until 2018 it fully relocated in the village, while expanding the direct distribution to other proximity localities.

The idea behind the initiative is mainly to make use of what the nature, especially the forest, has to offer and promote wild plants and their medicinal and therapeutic characteristics; all these are foraged by the two founders, while other ingredients are being taken from local producers in the villages or nearby, with the aim to valorise local production, and supporting the small-scale producers or from the old, traditional orchard that the family owns.

Since the beginning, the distribution is based on online or phone pre-orders, and currently, even more as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, when dozens of social media groups have emerged in search for more local, diverse and healthy food. Orders are being distributed on a regular basis, once a week in the proximity localities and once a month in the city of Cluj-Napoca (100 km away).

Up to recently, The Barn with Goodies run their business without any funding and being registered as a simple producer. In 2021, they established a social enterprise and contracted a grant, to further develop employing four women and one man from the village with full benefits, and continue valorising ingredients from other villagers. With the received funds, a small production factory is in process of being established. The Barn with Goodies is affiliated to the national peasant association Eco Ruralis.

## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

The Barn with Goodies is a good practice example of living with and in proximity of the common lands and making use of it in a agroecological way. As they declare, in their activity they are not forcing anything, and assume that the list and quantity of products vary due to the seasonal changes and productions in the nature.

<figure><img src="image_1663.png" /></figure>

Facebook: @SuracuBunatati

## KEY FEATURES

* Agroecological practices concerned: foraging

* Founded in: 2016

* Lead organisation: social enterprise

* Types of stakeholders involved: farmers

* Scale of the initiative: local
<figure><img src="image_1664.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1665.png" /></figure>

**Picture 9:** Preserved products like jam and vegetable spreads (left). Source: https://www.facebook.com/SuraCu-Bunatati/photos/2990234931228064; Mushrooms at dehydration and the traditional pot under the wooden fire for cooking several recipes (right). Source: https://www.facebook.com/SuraCuBunatati/photos/2921303551454536.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

<figure><img src="image_1666.png" /></figure>

### NATURAL RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY

**MANAGEMENT:** Supplying their ingredients from small-scale farming, foraging and from the old, traditional orchard the family owns, The Barn with Goodies supports an agricultural system that maintains and contributes to agrobiodiversity, also to the realisation that not.

<figure><img src="image_1667.png" /></figure>

### TRADITIONAL FOOD AND HERITAGE

**CONSERVATION:** Many of the products offered by The Barn with Goodies are based on traditional ways of preparation and cooking and continue, after a generational gap in history, the relying on the forest and surroundings to provide part of the food that we consume.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

<figure><img src="image_1668.png" /></figure>

**COOPERATION:** Seldom, the team behind the business find it challenging to meet with other producers who think alike and be open about foraging and the produce of forest, and also trust is not every time given for a cooperation to thrive. The business advanced slowly, relying on the existing available human resources.
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PRACTICE

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EDUCATION

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LIVING LAB

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SCIENCE

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MOVEMENT

INITIATIVE N°12 – ASAT ROMANIA

<figure><img src="image_1674.png" /></figure>

ASAT
ASOCIATIA PENTRU SUSTINEREA AGRICULTURII TĂRANEȘTI

https://asatromania.ro

ASAT ROMANIA

**The Association in Support of Peasant Agriculture (ASAT)** is representing a partnership model of community supported agriculture (CSA) in Romania. Initiated in 2008, the model has been inspired by the French AMAP ('Association pour le Maintien d'une Agriculture Paysanne'), aiming at creating a direct, at first hand and in solidarity partnership between urban consumers and small-scale food producers located in the proximity of that city. The partnership represents a mutual engagement, within which people are equally and integrally benefiting of the harvest resulted from the plot cultivated by a producer.

Started as a pilot initiative between consumers in the city of Timișoara and a village in Timiș county, western Romania, the model was extended in other cities across the country from 2010 to 2013. Currently, ASAT partnerships are active in 4 Romanian cities, being supported and overlooked by the ASAT association, protecting the brand and monitoring that principles in partnerships are respected. The ASAT association has a team of five volunteer members.

KEY FEATURES

* **Agroecological practices concerned:** production adapted to human-scale agriculture, respect for environment and animal care, local peasant agriculture, solidarity and active partnering, short-supply chains

* **Founded in:** 2008

* **Farming sectors concerned:** vegetable production

* **Lead organisation:** non-profit association

* **Types of stakeholders involved:** farmers, consumers

* **Scale of the initiative:** national

Since its inception, over 25 small-scale producers provided fresh products for more than 10.000 consumers and since then, ASAT has maintained with enthusiasm its initial founding core values and principles: production adapted to human-scale agriculture, respect for environment and animal care, local peasant agriculture, solidarity and active partnering, full transparency over production, processing and costs involved, proximity of producers, equitable prices for both producers and consumers, risk and benefits partaking, active participation of consumers, respectful social relationships at the farm and within the partnership, formalisation of partnership through contract. All these values and principles, as well as main aspects of developing a partnership are comprised in a charter.

The partnership regards mainly vegetable production and is created at the initiative of motivated consumers and formalised via a due diligence contract with the identified local producer, stipulating the common agreed way of organising the partnership and based on the ASAT charter.

The partnership is based on the active involvement of all partners, under the following process: the producer is expected to identify all costs, including processing, working the land, seedlings, day labourers, renting land, the producer's own labour, and contributions to social security and health, agree to do everything in their power, following the charter principles and given climatic conditions, to deliver certain quantities in seasons and maintain transparency throughout the whole partnership. The consumers commit to a yearly subscription that can be paid upfront as support for investments or in intervals, partake the benefits of high yields, as well as risks due to climate and other conditions, participate at least to one visit at the farm.
Sharing of the harvest takes place weekly at a common agreed space in the cities where the partnerships are active, where products are equally distributed on the spot, with the active participation of the consumers and producer. Food waste is a concern that is collectively discussed and decided, as for example in Timișoara, the surplus is shared to a kitchen at the delivery point.

During this entire process, the partnerships benefit the support of the ASAT team in better understanding by the producers of the budget entailed by a full year production and quantifying all costs (including income and social benefits) or in raising awareness among the consumers in regards to the particularities of peasant agriculture, and in organising local events to promote the ASAT model.

Since its inception, the project has evolved to specifically target producers that do not have access to land and support the installing of newcomers in agriculture, thus covering the costs of the land lease and other initial investments needed.

Agroecology is not representing a main term used in the ASAT partnerships or model, but is strongly reflected in all aspects of a partnership life, from the environmental elements (human-scale natural agriculture, no use of synthetic inputs, water and waste management, use of traditional plan varieties), economic elements (upfront investment, financial transparency, equitable prices), to social ones (solidarity, active involvement, understanding benefits and risk partaking, security for marginalised small-scale producers).

ASAT is autonomous and self-financed, benefiting from the support of the local institutions in specific occasions. It is also a member of the URGENCI international network, being also connected to the CRIES association in Romania, working towards promoting a social or solidarity economy. In the future, ASAT is looking more towards enhancing further the solidarity element, similar to a recent example of consumer's decision to cover part of the costs of a basket of produce for a disadvantaged family and have it at a lower price. They also want to create a participatory fund between different partnerships to be used for extreme situations, such as a producer that fits ASAT's principles but needs more capital to be able to meet their potential. The association also wishes to strengthen partnerships with other social enterprises in a time of new potential due to increased funding possibilities for those operating in rural spaces.

## WHAT CAN WE LEARN?

ASAT is a model that differentiate itself from the typical CSA food distribution schemes by their commitment to their core principle: a direct and (economically) unmediated relationship between the producer and the consumer, with equal sharing of benefits and risks and a transparent budget.
<figure><img src="image_1675.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_1676.png" /></figure>

**Picture 10:** (left) Visit by consumers to their local producer. Source: https://www.facebook.com/AsociatiaASAT/photos/4078689222141946; Consumers involvement in sharing the produce at the distribution location (right). Source: https://www.facebook.com/AsociatiaASAT/photos/4636108903066639.

## POSITIVE IMPACTS

<figure><img src="image_1677.png" /></figure>

### NATURAL RESOURCES AND BIODIVERSITY

**MANAGEMENT:** Engagement in small-scale natural agriculture by producers is essential for an ASAT partnership, comprised in the own charter, including adaptation of plant varieties and animal breeds to local specifics, development of crop diversity, soil fertility, no use of chemical inputs, reasonable water governance, etc.

<figure><img src="image_1678.png" /></figure>

### SOCIETY AND EQUITY

Among the main principles of the model are mutual respect, solidarity and direct unmediated relation, fostering a complex partnership, within which all partners have to be active to succeed. ASAT promotes a model of participatory and democratic model, deeply rooted in building trust and better understanding of inequalities in society in regards to access to land, market or to food.

<figure><img src="image_1679.png" /></figure>

### SUSTAINABLE AND FAIR ECONOMICS

The ASAT model is based on full transparency of the costs entailed by all aspects of production, taking into consideration and equitable price for both producers and consumers, as well as the support for a producer to be able to start or develop the production, thus advance payment in the partnership is possible as an investment for the producer.

## LIMITATIONS & CHALLENGES

<figure><img src="image_1680.png" /></figure>

### SOCIETY AND EQUITY

A challenge to the model's up-scaling is the general reluctance of consumers or producers to be committed to a long-term partnership, involving their active participation and a full transparency over production, thus generating unbalances between the members or continuation of the partnership outside ASAT by compromising one of these elements.
## 5. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVE

Many of the initiatives illustrated in this report include several aspects of agroecology. However, the concept and its activity categories, and the term itself is rather unknown or abstract among stakeholders or only very recently used by certain stakeholders (mainly researchers and civil associations).

Many other initiatives have emerged in the last years, from practitioners to initiatives focusing on education in permaculture, soil fertility, seeds saving and agrobiodiversity, plant nutrition and protection and to cooperations between different stakeholders to find innovative way of working together, accessing the market or increase research. However, a better dissemination and awareness among the consumers and farmers, as well as at the level of authorities is needed in the future through mass-media, direct communication and info materials in a localised and simple language.

With the increased interest of young generations into climate change, opportunities rely on focusing more on the pre-school curricula on agroecology, as well as adapting the existing educational curriculum for higher grades to include more theoretical information, but more practical activities, such as school gardens and farm visits.

As many key informants pointed out, financial support is an essential element for the up-scaling and development of existing and future agroecology, including a change in the European CAP and the national priorities in the Romanian strategic plan, as well as through creating public financed programs in food, agriculture, education and research. The need for a shift in the current vision oriented towards industrial agriculture and the formal recognition of the peasant profession would strengthen the livelihoods practitioners of agroecology, and would give a boost to the continuation of the good existing practices in Romania and transfer to newer generations, without needing to revive lost ones.

Romania might be on the brink, but the future looks promising with the green objectives set up at European level and experiencing an exuberance of initiatives, though small and local in their activity. With a consolidated networking and a concerted bottom-up effort a shift in vision and framework could be produced at higher, central levels.
## ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to express our deepest appreciation to all the people and organisations involved in the mapping of agroecology in Romania and the 12 initiatives documented in this report, who agreed and took the time to be interviewed by us, present their work and provide data for this report. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No101000478.

## REFERENCES

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Douglas, K., 2010. România și Politica Agricolă Comună, Viitorul micii agriculturi românești în Europa. Report, Eco Ruralis Association, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. URL https://www.ecoruralis.ro/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/RaportPAC.pdf (accessed October 2021)

Eurostat, 2016, Farm Structure Survey, Table 2 – Number of farms by type of farm labour. URL https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Table_2_-_Number_of_farms_by_type_of_farm_labour,_2016_(thousands).png (accessed October 2021)

Eurostat, 2018, Farms and Farmland in the European Union. URL https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Farms_and_farmland_in_the_European_Union_-_statistics#Farmland_in_2016 (accessed October 2021)

Korthals Altes, W. et al., 2020. Technical report on Quantitative Analysis of Land Holdings and Land Market Trends, short hand out with main results. Report, Ruralization project. URL https://ruralization.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/RURALIZATION_D6.3_Final-v1.0-1_compressed.pdf (accessed October 2020)

Mihai, A., 2021. Românii pleacă în marș de la orăș la țară. Ziarul Financiar. URL https://www.zf.ro/profesii/romanii-pleaca-mars-oras-tara-2020-s-dublat-fluxul-pozitiv-catre-20205699 (accessed October 2020)

Miron, L., Lup, A., 2013. Analyse of the structure of the agricultural farms by size and the share of the livestock among them. An argument for more helping for the small farms Scientific. Papers Series Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and Rural Development 13(2), 235-40.

Moudrý et al., 2018. Agroecology Development in Eastern Europe – cases in Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Sustainability XXX Romanian National Institute of Statistics, 2020. General Agricultural Census. URL https://insse.ro/cms/en/content/rga-2020 (accessed October 2021)

Szocs, B.M.A., Rodriguez B.M., Srovnalova, A., 2015. Land Grabbing in Romania: Fact finding mission report. Report, Eco Ruralis Association, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. URL https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_x-9XeYoYkWUWstVFNRZGZadIU/view?resourcekey=0-yh6W2QH7pAg1uSeppedGAA (accessed October 2021)
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GENERAL CONCLUSION

This first volume of the country reports series constitutes an important step for the documentation, analysis and development of agroecology, as well as its expansion in Europe. The 13 countries studied within this volume show contrasted situations regarding this development. While the concept, approach, and implementation of agroecology is still in its infancy in certain countries, there are many exiting initiatives with a direct or indirect link to agroecology and some of its principles. Further, clearly defined educational and training programmes are lacking in many countries despite many formal or informal initiatives in this area. Dedicated research units, as well as research programmes and projects, are very limited in most countries, thus knowledge generation and sharing remains limited.

This work has provided information about a unique number of initiatives linked to agroecology as an opportunity to illustrate what is already happening and what needs to happen for the development of agroecology in Europe. The current coexistence of different visions, definitions and use of the concept of agroecology (Gallardo-López et al., 2018) makes this opportunity to compare – to a certain extent – the development of agroecology very useful to enlarge its development.

More countries are currently being mapped, which will make up the following volumes of this series. This will allow a broader analysis and provide enhanced insight for the future development of agroecology in Europe.

Reference

Gallardo-Lopez, F., Hernandez-Chontal, M.A., Cisneros-Saguilan, P., Linares-Gabriel, A., 2018. Development of the concept of agroecology in Europe: A review. SUSTAIN. 10, 1–23. HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.3390/SU10041210
MAPPING THE DEVELOPMENT OF
# AGROECOLOGY
## IN EUROPE

COUNTRY REPORTS SERIES
VOLUME 1

MARCH 2023

Wezel A. - Grard B. - Gkisakis V.