27 de January de 2021
January 25, 2021. The National Rural Network is the entity designated to select the candidates for all Spanish projects that have decided to submit their applications to the third edition of the "Rural Inspiration Awards 2021," organized by the European Networking Rural Development (ENRD).
- The 3rd edition of the "Rural Inspiration Awards 2021" - organized by the European Network for Rural Development - reveals the projects that have received support from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) for the period 2014-2020.
- Participants compete for the award in 4 thematic categories, plus a fifth by popular vote
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Spanish national teams
The national projects selected to compete in Europe, according to the 4 thematic categories, are:
1. Green Future: Projects that address climate change (mitigation or adaptation):
► Hydromediterranea (Salomó, Catalonia)
High-quality aquaponic vegetable garden that utilizes the waste generated at the fish farm to initiate a self-sustaining and ecological vegetable production process.
► Trasdeza Natur (Cortegada Silleda, Galicia)
An organic garden that cultivates local varieties of vegetables and fruits and transforms them into sustainably dehydrated products using solar energy. Wastewater is treated in a plant pond (green filter) and reused for irrigation. Its products are packaged with recyclable and compostable materials:
2. Digital Future: Digitalization Initiatives in Agriculture and Rural Communities.
► Living museums (Valladolid, Castilla León)
This technological project aims to use SMART technology to automate all stages of visits to 14 cultural centers, several of them located in towns with fewer than 100 inhabitants. The goal is to add value and dynamism to local culture by opening rural museums that have been closed due to lack of funding.
► GO Camidecol (Noreña, Asturias)
This project monitors beehives using visual and sensory technology to capture the physical characteristics of the environment. This allows for faster determination of the quality and types of honey in the region, using advanced sensors. The challenge is to connect all the devices to each other and to servers capable of sharing data online, hundreds of kilometers away.
3. Resilient Future: Projects demonstrating their contribution to strengthening the resilience of rural Europe:
► Pilot project on circular bioeconomy at local scale with social and training dimension (Bordablanca, Navarra)
Josenea is a circular economy company dedicated to biomass cultivation: it collects biowaste from its neighbors and transforms it into compost to fertilize its own crops, regenerating the soil and climate. The project contributes to the creation of green social jobs.
► GO Match funding Madrid Km region (Madrid)
A pilot project for financial innovation aims to shorten commercial channels for local agroecological production, contributing to production planning through pre-sales to consumers and subsequent customer loyalty. The goal is to connect producers and consumers without intermediaries and, in addition, to promote the local product among the local population.
4. Socially inclusive future: initiatives that contribute to the inclusion of rural society (gender, generational renewal, disability, senior citizens, etc.):
► Andalusian Shepherds School (Granada, Andalusia)
The Andalusian Shepherds' School is a training project that includes the teaching of traditional and rural knowledge, along with environmental aspects related to livestock farming . The main objective is to support generational renewal in rural areas. With nine editions already held, this project has a student recruitment rate of between 60 and 90% in livestock farming.
► GO RETA: Network of Farm Incubators (Solsona, Catalonia)
Agricultural incubators are programs that facilitate generational renewal in agriculture by providing so-called agricultural test spaces. The RETA operational group promotes these spaces, which help overcome the lack of generational renewal, foster employment, landscape conservation, and sustainable agricultural production models.
Nominees
The European Rural Network has received—along with the eight Spanish proposals—more than 120 applications from the 22 Member States. The announcement of the shortlisted candidates for the awards will be published in March at the following link.