In the South Moravian region, around the village of Velké Hostěrádky, farmers start to cooperate and have established the first Czech Farmer Cluster. In addition to enhancing biodiversity status of the landscape, they aim to increase the economic prosperity of individual cluster members and to promote the region and biodiversity sensitive farming along with its unique products towards the wide public and potential customers.
Martin Hutař and his farm VH Agroton play the role of leading farm in the Cluster. Currently, the Cluster consists of 8 farmers, together managing about 2,000 hectares of arable land, grassland, vineyards and horticulture.
"The FRAMEwork project comes right on time and creates an opportunity to implement the existing idea of farmers cooperation, which has not been realized yet due to the lack of time and appropriate resources. Aside from the main biodiversity objectives across our landscape, I also see project benefits in streamlining of valuable knowledge and info transfer to us, farmers, and thus enable the further preparation and implementation of another joint projects and activities" quotes from Martin Hutař – Veselá Biofarm.
The first meeting of the Czech Farmer Cluster took place in June 2021. During the meeting objectives of the project, individual activities and expectations of its members were presented. However, the most important part of the meeting was the discussion on the possibilities of mutual cooperation and the implementation of possible activities and measures in field.
In the Czech Republic, agriculture covers approximately 38% of the total land. Agricultural activities are thus becoming a key impact factor to the biodiversity of landscape and soil. Ecosystems directly and indirectly affect the quality of life of all inhabitants, the landscape and the overall prosperity of society. Farmers and the public are governed by legal obligations, but more needs to be done. We have to pay more attention to the surrounding environment and be actively involved.
"While there is an increasing demands on conventional agriculture, the consumer would be lost in all product labels such as regioal, domestic, farming, organic or eco-friendly etc.. Therefore, it is the task of us - organic farmers, to show out the importance of our activities and, through appropriate tools, to spread awareness and increase the attractiveness of organic products with all behind their production" quote Jan Trávníček sr. (VH Agroton)
Participating farmers of the Velke Hosteradky region are fully aware of all of this. Most of them manage their land organically, but they find the Farmer Cluster as means of mutual help and coordination of joint activities in the landscape so that they have the greatest possible effect. In recent years, bird monitoring provided by the Czech Society of Ornithology (CSO) has been regularly carried out in the area of Velke Hosteradky. Over the next 4 years, farmers in the Cluster will follow up and continue in bird monitoring and continously assess the effect of the jointly implemented measures. Similar observations will also be made for pollinators and habitats.
„We believe that the FRAMEwork project and newly established Czech Farmer Cluster, in which our company participate, will enable and help, among the other things, to achieve one of our goal, which is to re- occurance of the Grey partridge (perdix perdix) in our landscape“. Quote Jiří Hřivna, social enterprise Jasan.
During upcoming cluster meeting, the discussion on possible measures protecting predator birds in the landscape (and consequently reducing pests occurance) will take place.
At the same time, other possibilities of practical cooperation between cluster members through the sharing of storage facilities, mechanization, cultivation of more thrifty varieties and mutual provision of their sales are already being developed. Last but not least, possibilities of promoting the area towards public have been discussed – e.g. by creating educational paths through agriculturally varied landscapes.
Farmer Cluster and its activities has been established with the support of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (Faculty of Environmental Sciences) as a partner of the European project H2020 FRAMEwork. This project brings a proven concept of Farmer Cluster existing in the UK and other European countries. In the coming years, the path to the transfer of mutual experience, a comparison of the functioning of these clusters and the improvement of biodiversity status across the landscape as a result of implemented measures, will be opened.
„During initial contact with farmers, I was quite surprised by their positive feedback and willingness to participate in the project and farmer cluster. Due to the fast spread of information abour the Cluster, we are currently registering interest in membership also from farmers of the wider area. I believe that the next 5 years will allow us to set up Cluster in the right and functional way, will establish cooperation with stakeholders and the public, and last but not least, to create a prototype for further development in other places and regions across the Czech Republic“ said Jan Travnicek, who is coordinating the Cluster.
For more information visit: www.framework-biodiversity.eu/
For more information about Czech Farmer Cluster Velké Hostěrádky visit: https://framework.fzp.czu.cz
We have agreement of the owner of the photos ( PRO-BIO/VH Agroton) to use them in this Press release.
