The main project foundations is to develop and implement a specifically designed curriculum for ICTs for agricultural purposes and the knowledge and skills for delivering this curriculum through VET. The goal is to achieve more successful adoption of specifically developed ICTs for agriculture, that will contribute to the development of the agriculture sector and the rural areas. Considering the important role of the young farming population and the advisors in the agricultural extension for the development of the agriculture, we have put special attention on creating a curriculum for the following target groups: high school students, farmers, advisers and teachers. Additional aspect that is considered in defining the target group, is involving individuals with special needs.

The project Farming 4.0 contains 5 intellectual outputs (IO). In this first phase of the project, the first IO was finished. The results gained from the Focused needs analysis showed the knowledge and needs of the target groups (farmers, high school students, teachers and adviser’s). For the completion of the first IO, several activities were conducted. The first activity was the development of the questionnaire, followed by the conducted field surveys and in-depth interviews with our target groups as a second activity. The final activity of this IO was the development of the report containing the results and analysis of the previously conducted surveys. In this first phase of the project, the project team already started with the activities that are part of the second IO which is the e-collaboration platform.  An analysis of the already existing e-collaboration platforms was made as the first activity of this output. All initial project activities and objectives that were determined are carried out accordingly to the project deadlines.

The Farming  4.0 (Agriculture 4.0 Information and Communication Technology for Future Agriculture) project has a 24 month duration.  It is a Key Action 2 Erasmus+ ‘Cooperation for innovation and exchange of good practices’ project. This kick – off meeting took place in Canakkale, Turkey, with the project coordinator as our host.

General guidelines for the project are:

• Explanation of all intellectual outputs
• Explanation of all activities in every intellectual output
• Definition of activities, timeline and tasks
• Suggestions of changes in the multiplier events

Coordinator organization of the project:

Cankkale Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, Turkey

• Project manager: Prof.Dr. Harun Baytekin
• Project coordinator: Prof.Dr.Kemal Celik
• Administrative tasks: Hilal Celik

 The priorities of the kick-off meeting  were:

• Good analysis of the ICT knowledge and skills
• Easy to use collaboration platform
• Easy to understand curriculum and guideline for integration of the curriculum

To find out more about our project visit the project website: www.digifarming.eu