Within the scope of the Mediterranean Agroecology Caravan – MedCaravan Project, Wheat Association held an Introduction to Agroecology Camp in Karaburun, Izmir on 23-25 September 2022.
The Mediterranean Agroecology Caravan – MedCaravan Project, which is carried out by Buğday Association in order to compile traditional agroecology knowledge and disseminate agroecology, brought together experts, educators and representatives of food communities in Izmir at the Introduction to Agroecology Camp on 23-25 September 2022.
Organised at the Furma Farm in Karaburun, Izmir, the Boot Camp covered topics such as the principles of agroecology, functional forests, soil restoration and the political economy of agroecology. In the event, which was organised to support the work on the development of agroecology education materials prepared within the scope of the project and to disseminate agroecology knowledge, the project team also explained the importance of compiling agroecology knowledge from the field and how it can be compiled.
Mediterranean Agroecology Caravan – MedCaravan Project
The deterioration of soil quality, impending drought and water scarcity, loss of biodiversity, pollution and the devastating effects of climate change requires the urgent dissemination of sustainable and fair production and sharing methods. Therefore, we urgently need to learn and share good practices in food production. It is imperative that producer communities and organisations that share and support sustainable ecological practices implemented by small producers and family farms become widespread while trying to restore the health of humans and other living creatures and the deteriorating structures in nature.
Supported by the EU under the Erasmus+ Programme and led by DEAFAL (European Delegation for Family Farming in Asia, Africa and Latin America) from Italy, in partnership with Buğday Derneği (Turkey), URGENCI (France), Zelena Tranzicija (Serbia), HSEP (Croatia) and FCiencias. ID (Portugal), the Mediterranean Agroecology Caravan – MedCaravan project aims to compile and share good examples that can be applied at every stage from food production to access, and thus to spread agroecological practices.
With the MedCaravan project, work is being carried out to develop a methodology for training in agroecology and to create a platform to collect local and rural agroecological knowledge and give farmers the opportunity to share their ancient knowledge. The project also aims to facilitate access to these good practices for anyone who needs them.
The project partners developed a common definition of agroecology to determine the scope of the project’s work and determined the common vision and principles of the project. Within the scope of the project, a methodology for collecting agroecology knowledge from rural areas was developed. In March 2022, a training was held to transfer this methodology to all project partners and then to develop information collection activities in each country.
Training materials on agroecology are being prepared by the project partners. Work is underway to make all outputs of the project available on the e-learning hub of URGENCI.
