Activities

Last dissemination of project results

The event for dissemination and promotion of achieved results for project ‘Developing open educational resources and blended modules for agriculture and rural development’, was held on 23rd and 24rd of March 2018 in hotel Mokliste in Kavadarci.

The project is financed by the program Erasmus+ and it is implemented by Goce Delcev University – Stip in collaboration Agrarian University – Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Greece, National Extension Agency and Federation of Organic Producers.

Over 50 participants from different agricultural institutions and companies, professors, students and agronomists, high school kids as outermost beneficiaries of the project results took participation in the event.

As moderator of the last dissemination event was project assistant from Goce Delcev University – Stip, Asst. Prof. dr. Emilija Arsov and she present the project in general with accent on project partners, budget and financier of the project.

After the basic information, she presented the database of pesticide with practical demonstration, while, Assoc. prof. dr. Fidanka Trajkova, has demonstrated the use of Online Calculator for Fertilizer Use which can be applied for calculation of necessary nutrients for 25 field and vegetable crops.

As practice in other dissemination event, also Mr. Gjorgj Hadzi-Kotarov from the Federation of Organic Producers has presented the content of different type of lectures held in Bulgaria and Greece, with an aim to improve the production practices in conventional, integrated and organic agricultural production. During the event, participants discussed and shared positive experiences from their immediate participation in the project.

At the end of the event, the participants developed rich and useful debate about necessity of more projects of this kind, which will bridge and connect agricultural practices and information technologies.

From the dissemination event, we can took as a conclusion that all the activities done in the project are very useful for all the participants in agriculture, and they are tools for the future good agricultural practice.

Dissemination of project results

Final project meeting with project coordinator partners

The last project meeting in the frame of OERarD, take place in Stip, at Goce Delcev University, in the period from 11 to 13 of March.
The main aim of the project was to report the all activities done in the period of the project. Coordinator of the project Prof d-r Zoran Zdravev give brief report about the outputs:

- Outcome 1: Development and publishing Guidelines for growing crops – all guidelines are done and put on the web of the project and all the interested part can get it for free;

- Outcome 2: Online Calculator for Fertilizer Use – mobile application done and use from the agricultural side;

- Outcome 3: Online Pesticide Database – online database for disease, insects and weeds and protection pesticide components;

- Outcome 5: Accredited module - Improved plant and environmental protection and adequate use of pesticides by using IT based tools – done and apply for accreditation;

- Outcome 7: Accredited module - Rational use of fertilizers for optimal yields and environmental protection – done and apply for accreditation.

All the activities were successfully finished, and the partners again discuss about new project ideas. All the partners agree with the idea to continue to work and collaborate together.

Dissemination of project results

The event for dissemination and promotion of achieved results for project ‘Developing open educational resources and blended modules for agriculture and rural development’, was held on 2nd and 3rd of March 2018 in hotel Sirus in Strumica.

The project is financed by the program Erasmus+ and it is implemented by Goce Delcev University – Stip in collaboration Agrarian University – Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Greece, National Extension Agency and Federation of Organic Producers.

Over 30 participants from different agricultural institutions and companies, professors, students and agronomists, as outermost beneficiaries of the project results took participation in the event.

The project coordinator, Prof. Dr. Zoran Zdravev from the Faculty of Informatics, Goce Delcev University – Stip, has presented the overall project with its activities and major outcomes. As participant in the project from the Faculty of Agriculture and project assistant, Goce Delcev University – Stip, Asst. Prof. dr. Emilija Arsov has presented the database of pesticide with practical demonstration, while, Assoc. prof. dr. Fidanka Trajkova, has demonstrated the use of Online Calculator for Fertilizer Use which can be applied for calculation of necessary nutrients for 25 field and vegetable crops.

Mr. Gjorgj Hadzi-Kotarov from the Federation of Organic Producers has presented the content of different type of lectures held in Bulgaria and Greece, with an aim to improve the production practices in conventional, integrated and organic agricultural production. During the event, participants discussed and shared positive experiences from their immediate participation in the project.

At the end of the event, the participants developed rich and useful debate about necessity of more projects of this kind, which will bridge and connect agricultural practices and information technologies.

Fifth project management meeting

The five project management meeting organized at the Agriculture University in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, was with the main aim to meet the management team and to discuss about the project activities report and financial issues.

All the activity and workshops is almost done in the frame of the date that are write in the project.

The Project coordinator, give detail explanation about all the Outcomes, and about the budget separately contact with every partner one-by-one.

Till the end of the project, the project team participants still need to finished the two methods for accreditation, and the deadline is January 2018.

The management team also discuss about the last project management meeting who will take place at Goce Delcev University in Stip, Macedonia, in March 2018.

Fourth project management meeting

The fourth project management meeting organized in Bitola, Macedonia, has the primary aim to meet the management team and to discuss about the project activities report and financial issues.

All the activity and workshops is almost done in the frame of the date that are write in the project. The management team also discuss about the next management meeting who will take place in the Agriculture University, Plovdiv, Bulgaria in September.

Workshop

The Mediterranean Agronomic Institute in Chania was the host institution for the second time for a workshops organized in Chania, under Intellectual output 2, concerning Soil Properties and Quality Assessment. During the 5 working days, Aristeidis Stamatakis had introduced the participants into the soil managenment system in EU and Greece. The overall aim of the lecture is to provide the knowledge and skills with regards to the principles and objectives of Soil Science and Sustainable Soil Management.

Thursday afternoon was used for a practical work - Soil sampling from two fields close to MAICH area (citrus trees, olive trees). Also, workshop included laboratory work, such as measurements of pH, E.C, exchangeables, micro nutrients, organic matter, mechanical analysis, total CaCO3 and introduction to instrumental methods of analysis (ICP-OES, Ion Chromatography, Kjeldahl.Great opportunity to change the information and methodology of work in the field of soil sciences.

Another set of activities

The Mediterranean Agronomic Institute in Chania was the host institution for the workshops organized under Intellectual output 2, concerning organizing organic farming. During the 5 working days, Prof. Gkisakis had introduced the participants into the development process of the organic farming in EU and Greece. Thursday afternoon was used for a visit to an organic olive oil farm, on which the participants were able to get familiarized with practical issues that each organic farm has to deal with.
The last workshop will cover the topic of the significance of balanced nutrition of the plants and how to obtain that balance through performing soil analysis.

Project Management Meeting

It’s been 6 months since the last meeting of the project management meeting. A lot of activities took place, lot of trainings, lot of knowledge transfer.

Plovdiv, Bulgaria is the place where the members of the project management team will gather to have a look over project implementation. To evaluate what’s been done and what is to be done in the next 6 months. The meeting will take place at the premises of the Agricultural University in Plovdiv, from 26^th ‘till 28^th of September 2016.

Second training course

From 15^th to 20^th of May, 8 participants from the National Extension Agency and the Federation of Organic Producers were given theoretical and practical experience regarding the principles of Integrated Pest Management on several crops. The morning sessions were oriented in providing theoretical knowledge in which professors from the Agricultural University in Plovdiv were explaining approaches which are in use of so called integrated pest management technique.The afternoon hours were used for field visit, in which everything which was elaborated in the classroom was explained as functioning model in the open.

First training course

The Agrarian University in Plovdiv was the first host institution to mark the beginning of the training activities under the blended courses module. In the five days training activities, participants from the National Extension Agency and the Federation of Organic Products were exposed to the various techniques of organizing organic production, how to prepare and the significance of proper rotation scheme, the legislation which controls the organic production in the EU and how students are participating in the knowledge transfer process through taking part in practical training at the University’s training ground.

While the theoretical part was taking place in the morning hours, visits to organic sites was taking place in the afternoon hours, providing chance to the participants to visit organic vineyards, winery, orchard, biodynamic farm and organic beekeeping farm.

The next training activity will take from May 15^th -21^st

First coordinative meeting

The premises of the MAICh on the beautiful Ireland of Crete hosted the representatives of the institutions, members of this project. In a three-day meeting activity, the management board took a review of the project development since it had begun on October 15h, 2015.
At the first day of the meeting, GDU representatives had informed project partners on the outcome of the First control given by the National Agency (NA). It was stated that according to the minutes from the NA, there were no objections to the dynamics of the project implementation and minor suggestions were given, related to the administration of documentation. Later that day, it was agreed that Moodle platform will be used as official Learning Management System (LMS) during forthcoming Plovdiv first training workshop and for the remaining three training workshops as well.

As far as Output 1 - OER developing and publishing is concerned, it was stated that all the teams for production of the brochures are set. A guideline for preparation was sent and teams are gradually moving forward. As for the Output 2, “Online Calculator for Fertilizer Use”, the development of this tool is in accordance with the time table. As the development of the tool was scheduled for April 2016, this has been achieved by establishing a team which will work on the development of this tool. Output development – O3 “Online Pesticide Database”. GDU team had sent a request to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy (MAFWE) to grant access to the Certificates issued by tis ministry. MAFWE had respoedned positevilly to the request granting the use of the documentation related authorization for use of pesticides and fertilizers.
O4 “Courses 1&2 creation and tutorials preparation”. An information was provided by the CIHEAM/MAICh local coordinator, Yannis Livieratos, PhD that initial steps were taken and by the time the courses will take place, everything should in order. As for the date for implementing O4, “Courses 1&2 creation and tutorials preparation”, MAICh suggested that in October there is meeting going on in Chania and that it would be nice to connect these two occasions and to represent the project and its goals on the Conference. The suggestion was accepted and the first training workshop will take place in the first week of October 2016.
Output development – O5 “Courses 3&4 creation and tutorials preparation” - Course structure, activities, and expected outcomes was discussed among project partners. The representatives from Agrarian University in Bulgaria did inform the partners that they have already selected the professors that will give training to the participants, names of candidates were received and room bookings was made as requested by the participating institution. Everything’s set to begin with the first training from Monday, April 11th.
The partners had agree to set the date for the next PMI meeting in Plovdiv. The date is set to 25-28.09.2016.

The project members wish to thank Local coordinator Ioannis Livieratos, PhD and his assistant Carolyn Owen, PhD, for the splendid organization of this First coordinative meeting in Chania, Greece.

Kick-off Meeting

Shtip, October 14th, 2015 was the place in which the Kick-off meeting under Erasmus+ program took place. Previously, University Goce Delchev had submitted a project-proposal named as Open Educational Resources and Blended Modules for Agriculture and Rural Development. The proposal was granted by the National Agency of European Educational Programmes and Mobility and the implementation phase was ready to begin.

Representatives from all partner institutions were present at the meeting and used the opportunity to introduce their institutions, but to discuss issues related to project implementation as well.

In that manner, the project participants had agreed to make minor modification to the implementation part, especially to the one in which courses for transfer of know-how take place. Namely, previously planned courses for proper use of fertilizers and organic production of Mediterranean crops, which were set to take place in Chania, Greece instead of taking place in April/May 2016, will take place in October and November respectively. Similarly, the trainings scheduled for September and October in Plovdiv, Bulgaria on IPM of continental fruits and Preparation of organic pesticides will take place in April/May 2016.

In the remaining part of the meeting, participants agreed to maintain regular communication in order to avoid any possible bottleneck situation.