Life has changed a lot since our latest newsletter. Although there are big differences in the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak between the different action labs, all were affected one way or another. We asked all our action lab leaders how the Corona crisis affected the farmers' lives and the activities of WaterProtect in the area.
Click below to discover their answers.
Action lab Spain
- How did the Corona crisis affect the life and the farming activities in the Action lab?
Work of the consortium has been every much reduced to that that can be done from home through teleworking.
Farming activities have continued but with fewer people helping in the harvesting of the products, and the reduced demand from bars, restaurants and hotels has obliged to search for solutions like the direct distribution of the products from the farmers to the consumers.
- What WaterProtect activities were done/cancelled due to the Corona Crisis?
One important meeting with key stakeholders to progress in the implementation of the sanitation safety plan (SSP) for use of regenerated water in agriculture has been postponed and it has not been settled yet when and how (face-to-face or on-line) it will be held.
Recording of interviews to farmers and stakeholders to gather their opinion on how WaterProtect has been beneficial for them was interrupted before completion.
- Did you find alternative activities to deal with the ones that were cancelled due to the Corona crisis?
Meetings/lab activities have not been cancelled but rather postponed or celebrated on-line.
Most efforts during the confinement have been put into the preparation of publications summarizing the work done.
Action lab Romania
- How did the Corona crisis affect the life and the farming activities in the Action lab?
From 23 March until 15 May 2020, the Romanian action lab was officially under emergency status due to COVID 19. Precautionary measures were taken on all territory of Romania and field trips did not occur during this period. Nevertheless, life went on, following the pattern of normality (a different kind of normality though ) in the rural archaic village of Breb (the center of the romanian action lab. Locals continued to work the land and carry on household activities, breeding animals; this was also possible because most farming activities are family based (semi-subsistence farming). Tour operators, on the other hand (the action lab is part of ecotourism destination, www.ecomaramures.com ) and many locals develop tourism related activities) were highly affected by this pandemic, as no income was generated in this period. But, the rebirth of nature in majestic colors in spring season brings optimism to the locals and they hope that, because beautiful nature is there, visitors will soon follow.
- What WaterProtect activities were done/cancelled due to the Corona Crisis?
During last months, since Corona outbreak all project field trips and other planned events were cancelled. Initial planning included: training seminars for farmers and other stakeholders on: i) best management practices related to manure storage, ii) EU funding on agriculture related topics; dissemination events; demonstration visits in the RO action lab; stakeholders' meetings for agreement on action plan for water management improvement.
- Did you find alternative activities to deal with the ones that were cancelled due to the Corona crisis?
Contact was continued with some stakeholders from the action lab via phone. The project team reconsidered some of the activities involving physical contact/meetings and for example training will be delivered on a later date and online materials will be sent for information to farmers and other stakeholders. We are trying to reschedule all planned events/meetings in the boundary of WaterProtect project and even outside its boundaries, especially because Ecologic manages the ecotourism destination and has a financial security in this respect for the next 3 years. Online planning meetings between local partners took place as well. As for online meetings with locals, this is difficult as usually people work outside in the gardens and furthermore, in rural areas they are not yet accustomed with these instruments.
Action lab Poland
• How did the Corona crisis affect the life and the farming activities in the Action lab?
Based on telephone interviews with farmers cooperating in the project, it can be concluded that the pandemic situation has had little impact on their agricultural activities. Field works were carried out without obstacles, in accordance with the adopted schedules. Due to restrictions , the offices provided telephone or online services. In this way, farmers had the opportunity to receive help or advice from their agricultural advisors. Nevertheless, due to the lack of assembly opportunities and other restrictions, all trainings in which farmers can participate have been cancelled. Considering the current situation with drought, this phenomenon has recently become a major concern for farmers in the catchment area.
• What WaterProtect activities were done/cancelled due to the Corona Crisis?
The planned and organized regional conference in Warsaw, Poland had to be canceled at almost the last moment due to the ongoing restrictions on the organization of meetings, caused by the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in March. However, the conference on presenting and exchanging experiences on good examples of local programs/policies, initiatives and partnerships that contribute to the effective management of drinking water resources, took place on April 2, 2020 in the form of a webinar. Although, the plan had to change, it did not affect its implementation, because the webinar attracted a lot of interest and gathered over 100 participants from over seven European countries, representing agricultural producers, drinking water producers, representatives of local institutions managing the environment, agricultural advisors, research institutes as well as representatives of the European Commission.
Also planned events in the pilot catchment ending the project in May did not take place. The aim was to summarize the project's achievements in the pilot catchment, results obtained and sharing observations during meetings . Three meetings were planned - one in the pilot catchment area for residents and farmers, the other for institutional stakeholders and the third for farmers and interested persons, also from outside the pilot catchment, in cooperation with the agricultural advisory center. Two individual meetings with agricultural companies were to complement the series of meetings. The restrictions already introduced in March and their increase in April meant that the plans for these meetings were not intensified, and the project team focused on completing the work in packages, preparing scientific publications and internal consultations regarding further plans to implement tasks in the new reality. Although the restrictions are currently lifted, the willingness to participate in the events that end the project are difficult to estimate, nevertheless, the project team hopes for fruitful meetings in September on the occasion of municipal harvest festivals.
• Did you find alternative activities to deal with the ones that were cancelled due to the Corona crisis?
Given the restrictions on moving and organizing meetings, we could only postpone planning the events. Given the limitations resulting from access to technical solutions, but also the change in the organization of work among project partners (working remotely), no attempt was made to replace traditional meetings with online meetings.
Action lab Denmark
- How did the Corona crisis affect the life and the farming activities in the Action lab?
Our action partner Landbo Limfjord reports that the farmers are carrying on as usual with their farming activities. Apart from the uncertainty on for example prices the farmers have only been affected a little. There has been some problems in the sales chains due to lock downs, but nothing big.
- What WaterProtect activities were done/cancelled due to the Corona Crisis?
We have cancelled interactions with the farmers planned for late March/early April.
- Did you find alternative activities to deal with the ones that were cancelled due to the Corona crisis?
We are still optimistic that we can manage to have some smaller workshop early September. We also planned a larger open meeting in May for farmers, consumers, stakeholders and authorities to wrap up the project in the Action Lab. Potentially, this could attract more than 100 participants. We will evaluate the situation early August to decide if this meeting will take place or if a virtual solution is more feasible.
Action lab Italy
- How did the Corona crisis affect the life and the farming activities in the Action lab?
Province of Piacenza was one of the Italian provinces most affected by the health emergency caused by Covid-19. Indeed, starting with eighth of March most of the activities were closed, but not the farming activities. However, in some cases, if collaborators or workers tested positive to the virus, the farms were closed. This was the case of our demo-farm, Azienda Agricola Mossi 1558, as stated by the commercial responsible and owner Silvia Mandini: “Our farm was closed for two weeks for precautionary reasons. However, after this closure, the activities in both vineyard and cellar restarted, but we had to adopt and apply all the new safety rules. Indeed, these new rules are now part of our internal safety guidelines. Furthermore, activities as the visits in the cellar were canceled and most probably will restart with middle of June. From an economical point of view, non-significant losses were registered but the sale approach has seen important changes. The orders for the large-scale retail trade, on-line and trough social networks increased significantly. A special sale promotion started, and 10% of the incomes were donated to our local health Agency for Covid-19 Emergency.”
- What WaterProtect activities were done/cancelled due to the Corona Crisis?
In this final phase of the project, several demonstration and dissemination activities with local stakeholders were scheduled for March and April and all had to be cancelled.
- Did you find alternative activities to deal with the ones that were cancelled due to the Corona crisis?
Where possible, training videos and informative material were created and shared through the Italian website of the project. This was the case for the presentation of WaterProtect GIS platform, which should have been presented to farmers and farmer’s consultants during official training activities of Consorzio Fitosanitario Provinciale.
Furthermore, some analytical activities were also pending but with the project extension until end of September, we will be able to complete. During the lockdown period, we also focus on further elaboration of all results obtained during the project and preparation of scientific publications. However, thanks to the project extension, a final scientific and demo meeting with the farmers in the demo-farm is scheduled for third of July.
Action lab Ireland
- How did the Corona crisis affect the life and the farming activities in the Action lab?
Farm practice has not been affected within the Irish action lab as farmers work to a large extent in isolation. However product prices are affected and those farmers who are selling at the Mart are much affected.
- What WaterProtect activities were done/cancelled due to the Corona Crisis?
Monitoring of herbicides in the rivers is ongoing and an intensified campaign will take place in early June. The Action Lab has focused on analyzing data, writing scientific papers and national articles. Some meetings with stakeholder have been canceled
- Did you find alternative activities to deal with the ones that were cancelled due to the Corona crisis?
Instead of disseminating project findings in a stakeholder workshop other ways to disseminate will be used.
Action lab Belgium
- How did the Corona crisis affect the life and the farming activities in the Action lab?
The corona crisis had a huge impact on the daily life in general. From the farmers side, the crisis came together with the start of the spring field activities. Luckely, farming was soon recognized as an essential sector so the supply of seeds, fertilizers, crop protection products, animal feed, … was never compromised. This meant that the daily work at the farm could go on. Farmers live in open areas so social distancing is less an issue and homeworking was not a fancy new way of working for them but daily routine.
Farmers who rely on foreign workers had more issues. Because of the closing of the borders, the foreign workers couldn’t come to the farm to help with the work. As a result, there were some initiatives where temporarily unemployed people helped at the farm. They switched their office work into field work for a couple of weeks. Hopefully this can give a positive impulse to more respect for the hard work farmers are doing.
The work could be done more or less as planned but the prices were collapsing. For a lot of products we rely on export to other European countries or overseas and this crisis closed many export channels. This means that huge reserves of potatoes are left in the storages instead of being turned into fries, milk or derived dairy products are not being processed, pigs stay in the stables because there is no export of porc meat, … So financially, a lot of farms are facing tough times and are hoping that the export of products is rising again so they can gain a fair price for their products.
Farmers who are installed for short-chain sell have a very good business. Customers prefer to buy their products at the farm instead of going to the supermarket, they respect the work farmers are doing, etc.
- What WaterProtect activities were done/cancelled due to the Corona Crisis?
We planned to have a final big event where we would demonstrate the overview of BMP’s applied in the region. We would have organized a small fair where they could see, try and experience which easy and cheap actions have been taken to improve the water quality. This was planned end of May but unfortunately we couldn’t organize is and it’s still unclear when it will be possible again to organize public events.
In March there was also a sprayer inspection round in the Bollaertbeek region. We planned to organize a second temporary public cleaning place because that’s the moment where a lot of farmers clean their spraying machine externally and potentially cause point source pollution. Unfortunately, following the lockdown measurements, we couldn’t organize any activity any more.
- Did you find alternative activities to deal with the ones that were cancelled due to the Corona crisis?
Instead of waiting for the possibility to organize a live event, we will make a video with an overview of different BMP’s implemented. This will be edited into a video that can be used as a webinar. So if it’s not possible to organize live events before the end of the corona crisis we will still organize a webinar with the farmers. This also give us the chance to guide them in the world of digital meetings.