So that agriculture can help the disadvantaged in Slovakia as well

Mainly in the countries of Western Europe, but also in others, connecting the agricultural environment with social services is a relatively widespread way of helping disadvantaged people. The most widespread name for this concept in the world is “Social Farming”, in our country we know it under the term “social agriculture”. During our activities in this area and the activities of the Working Group for Social Agriculture in Slovakia, of which we are co-founders, we discovered that the situation in the development of this concept in Slovakia is the weakest even among the V4 countries. There was no information, advisory and educational service for those interested in this concept. Likewise, the concept was not captured in any strategic documents of the public administration and in the related legislation. With the project, we therefore decided to solve this deficiency together with a partner from Norway (Høgskulen for landbruk og bygdeutvikling), where the concept also has a long history. The project was also carried out with the assistance, as part of volunteer work, of the mentioned working group.

Thanks to the project “Starting the development of social agriculture in Slovakia”, we have created a web portal www.socialnepolnohospodarstvo.sk, which provides information about this concept, current events and positive examples in Slovakia and the world, the possibility of networking those interested in implementation and involvement, and other information. In partnership with the Implementation Agency of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of the Slovak Republic, we implemented a series of training sessions for advisers on social agriculture for the managers of the eight Regional Centers of the Social Economy, which also created advisory centers for the concept of social agriculture in these places. We created methodical material for the course “Fundamentals of Social Agriculture” and subsequently implemented it for the public at two locations in Slovakia. We have published 5 informational and methodical materials that will facilitate the way for those interested to start this activity. We broadcast 7 live webinars “Let’s talk about social agriculture” with interesting guests and topics, the recording of which is available on our Youtube channel.

These activities significantly contributed to the creation of an information-advisory and educational service. We reminded several national and regional strategic documents for more favorable conditions for the development of SP in Slovakia. The organization of the international conference “AGASI – AGRICULTURE AS AN ACTOR OF SOCIAL INCLUSION” was a big challenge and at the same time an international benefit, which significantly contributed to the perception of the benefits of the concept of social agriculture by the public administration, policy makers and potential interested parties, and also confirmed the global dimension of its use in practice. The speakers were representatives from Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland.

However, due to the pandemic, we had to hold the conference in a hybrid format, and its recording is also available on our Youtube. We organized the conference in cooperation with the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, and its co-financing with the OECD proved to be beneficial, as they want to focus more intensively on this topic after the conference. The conference was sponsored by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic, Samuel Vlčan. The Slovak delegation, whose members develop activities related to social agriculture, visited a partner organization in Norway, where they learned about social agriculture in Norway in the form of lectures and visits to places where it is implemented. Thanks to the project, we also created an hour-long film “Yards that help” approximating the current state of SP, positive examples in Slovakia and barriers limiting its development.

An unplanned success was that at the Ministry of Agriculture and Regional Development of the Slovak Republic, thanks to our initiative, we managed to create a new job for an employee who has the topic of social agriculture on his agenda, and we also established a Thematic Working Group for the Implementation of Social Agriculture in the EPFRV covered by the National Development Network rural SR.

The concept of social agriculture has been overlooked in Slovakia for a long time, while mainly thanks to examples from abroad it is clear that, in addition to helping the disadvantaged, it often solves many other problems in the regions and contributes to their development. Thanks to the project, there was a significant shift in the perception of this concept and its benefits for society by the public administration, policy makers and the public. In Slovakia, the foundations have been laid for it to begin to develop systematically.

The establishment of the Working Group for Social Agriculture in Slovakia was initiated together with the chairman of Druživa, o.z. professor of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra prof. Ing. Magdaléna Lacko-Bartošová, CSc. Already in 2017. Currently, it has 17 members who are representatives of the academic community, public administration, non-governmental organizations and people from agricultural practice. Based on the outputs, the group determined the priorities that should start the systematic development of social agriculture in Slovakia, and these were reflected in this project.