Integration of the eco-efficiency tool FarmLife into the agricultural education landscape in Austria

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Integration of the eco-efficiency tool FarmLife into the agricultural education landscape in Austria

Integration of the eco-efficiency tool FarmLife into the agricultural education landscape in Austria

Created: July 10, 2018
Last updated: January 11, 2022

Mag.a Elisabeth Finotti

Economics and resource management

In preliminary projects, the farm management and life cycle assessment tool FarmLife was intensively revised - especially in terms of practicality and applicability in teaching. The application of FarmLife should be anchored in agricultural practice in order to promote the sustainable use of inputs as well as location-appropriate and performance-oriented farm management.

FarmLife must be spread using future-determining multipliers; The use of the operations management tool, including the comprehensive educational package developed for it, should therefore be integrated into the training of the next generation.

In this scientific activity, the information structures for sustainability assessment between the HBLFA and the Austrian educational landscape are to be established and stabilized. As the use of the FarmLife tool is expanded, it is also subject to ongoing control and quality assurance.

The following agricultural educational institutions should be included:

1) Agricultural technical schools (LFS) with an agricultural focus

2) Higher federal educational institutions (HBLA and HBLFA ) - in particular with a focus on the environment and resource management

3) University and college: HS for Agricultural and Environmental Education Vienna (DI Veronika Hager), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (Institute for Organic Agriculture, Dr. Gabriele Gollner)

4) Adult education: Rural Further Training Institute (LFI), Environmental Education Center (UBZ)

The first contact steps have already been taken. An implementation concept was also created in which the process for the planned seminars or courses was defined and the necessary technical processing was implemented on farmlife.at.

2 rails are required:

1) The farm management tool FarmLife should be used across subjects in agricultural schools and in this way also promote the tool's introduction into agricultural practice. An offer of regular training events for teachers (especially the subject coordinators for certain subjects in the agricultural school curriculum) is intended to provide them with the best possible support in their teaching work regarding FarmLife. In addition, the educational and teaching material should be made available on various digital channels.

2) The path to increasing use of FarmLife in agricultural practice in Austria can lead directly through the training of farmers and thus affects the area of adult education. The existing implementation concept is intended to be used in agricultural training institutions. An Austria-wide communication network is intended to ensure that those responsible for the HBLFA 's eco-efficiency research group, together with those responsible for education in national agriculture, find a long-term educational concept in the area of sustainability assessment that is incorporated into the various agricultural educational institutions.

In the long term, the multipliers should have a constant effect in order to support the broad application of FarmLife both in agricultural (training) education and in practice.