Institute’s representatives at ‘EIP-AGRI Operational Groups: Innovation in practice’

Institute’s representatives at ‘EIP-AGRI Operational Groups: Innovation in practice’

At the beginning of May, the event entitled the European CAP Network Conference ‘EIP-AGRI Operational Groups: Innovation in practice’ was organized in Estoril, Portugal. The Conference was attended by 2 representatives of IBPRS-PIB: Anna Szosland-Fałtyn, Ph.D. from the Department of Food Quality in Łódź and Agata Wierzbińska, M.Sc., Coordinator for International Cooperation.

The conference gathered over 550 participants from almost all EU countries, most of them were farmers and producers implementing projects within national Operational Groups.
 On the first day of the conference, field visits to Portuguese farmers were organized, during which the participants had an opportunity to see real life farms and get acquainted with how they have been implementing projects within their Operational Groups. The thematic areas of the presented GOs were related to pollination, fertilization and management of fruit orchards, agroforestry, horticulture and viticulture.
 The next 2 days of the conference were marked with presentations of the government and EU officials who delivered key notes speeches on the future of EU agriculture; as well as discussions on international cooperation within the Operational Groups. During the conference, a Polish contribution was strongly emphasized – 2 GOs from Poland presented their projects: GO ‘Cooperation for the innovative local market’ and GO ‘Bee Hive Supervision System’. Poland was also widely represented by universities and research institutes, as well as public administration units.

The ‘EIP-AGRI Operational Groups: Innovation in practice’ conference was above all a great opportunity for professional networking, and gave a fantastic opportunity to learn more about the activities and thematic scope of about 50 Operational Groups from all over Europe, which presented their achievements at individual stands in the exhibition space. Conference workshops held in international groups allowed the participants to exchange experiences, challenges and ideas for the development of international cooperation within the future Operational Groups.