New Entrant netWork: Business models for Innovation
Being the largest youth organisation in rural Germany with more than 100,000 members, representation is a cornerstone of BDL’s work. For that reason, the German Rural Youth Association (BDL = Bund der Deutschen Landjugend e.V.), has used the forced time-out of the Covid19 pandemic to launch the “Young Farmers Study” in its Young Farmers Project. […]
The Irish Newbie competition for 2021 has recently closed for entries. New entrants include those who are newcomers to agriculture, those changing enterprise, those diversifying and successors on existing farms. The entries will now be shortlisted and the judging panel will visit each of the finalists. The farm visit will include an assessment of the […]
The Belgian Newbie team of KU Leuven and the German Newbie team of Fachhochschule Südwestfalen are developing a Massive Open Online Course together about how to create a strategic business model in the agricultural sector. The course will be hosted on EDX, an international learning platform, starting from January 2022. For this course, the two […]
RENETA organized a Discussion Circle on 24th June 2021 on the topic of “Food and Agricultural Policies to support new entrant?”. Over 150 participants gathered from different regions of France, including Martinica! The meeting took place in Mimizan (Nouvelle Aquitaine Region), co-organized by RENETA and the “Landes” District, which has an ambitious policy to support […]
Slovenian farmer stories available online During summer Slovenian team filmed the last 3 farmer stories (11 in total). First is Domen Virant who took over the abandoned farm from his grandmother in 2015 and started a new farm business from the beginning. He admitted that “a farm without mechanization and financial stability is a big […]
The Portuguese Newbie team organized a national visit to different initiatives and projects of interest, instead of the programmed international exchange due to logistic constraints from the pandemic. The visit took place between the 14-15 July and we were joined by a Bulgarian delegation of four. The two-day program aimed to get to know different […]
This time, the German Newbie Award goes to “Grow Up Salicornia GbR”. The salt plant “Salicornia Europaea” contains valuable nutrients and tastes spicy. “Grow Up Salicornia GbR” is Germany’s first regional grower of fresh salicornia. The founders of the start-up are Ken Dohrmann and Julian Engelmann. Together, the two founded their company in 2020. The […]
Newbie Exchange in Portugal in July 2021 This article will report on the international exchange by the Bulgarian Newbie team to our Portuguese Newbie team. Topics included: local policy and best practices in short food supply chains and new entrant support This summer the University of Evora organized a national visit to the region Idanya-a-Nova […]
On the 19th of July the Belgian Newbie team launched their third and final edition of the Newbie Award. Just like previous years they aim to find the most inspiring new farmer among the participants. Interested Flemish farmers can apply on www.biosfere.be/newbie between the 19th of July and the 20th of August 2021. The nominees […]
Risk, responsibility and liability in multifunctional agriculture Multifunctional agriculture (MFL) companies receive many visitors to their farms. That gives questions about risks, responsibility and liability for you as farmer. In the revised brochure Risk, responsibility and liability in multifunctional agriculture, MFL farmers get answers to this questions. Many new entrants in farming do have a […]
On 26th of September 2021, Germany will elect its 20th federal parliament. While many issues need fast political reaction, like steering Germany through the ongoing Covid19 pandemic, the agricultural sector and especially young farmers need reliable long-term policy. The German Rural Youth Association (BDL – Bund der Deutschen Landjugend e.V.) has been advocating for the […]
The sixth Irish NEWBIE Steering Group meeting was held on Zoom in light of continued Covid 19 restrictions. The meeting included an update on progress in the project and to discuss planned activities for the remainder of 2021. The completion of two international exchanges depending on Covid 19 restrictions was discussed in detail. This steering […]
Nicolas and François from the “Collectif Fermier des Arbolèts” has been selected as the French Newbie award for 2021. Created in 2016 on a former pork/cereal farm, the collective now brings together 7 organic farmers belonging to legally independent farm: GAEC La Bergerie des Arbolèts (goat and sheep breeding, yoghurts and cheeses), GAEC Le Jardin […]
On May 7, 2021 the Slovenian NEWBIE Steering Group meeting was held at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. The meeting was dedicated to discussion on policy recommendations and future NEWBIE activities. We began with round discussion about existing, planed and needed policy recommendations for new entrants in agriculture in Slovenia. […]
The Newbie project is nearing the end of its duration and with it comes our final conference. More details will be made available in the near future, but we can already announce the official date: the 27th of October. Please mark this date in your calendar to join us during this conference.
Afonso Pereira and Marieke Devillé are the winners of the last edition of the Portuguese Newbie competition for new entrants, with their company Alma Organica. Having lived abroad for some years, they decided to move back to Portugal and settled in Odemira, Alentejo with a project focused on sustainability, agrotourism and valorisation of local resources. […]
The search for a farm as well as the search for a farm successor poses a similar problem to different people: How do I find a suitable person/farm? The initiative hofnachfolger-nrw.de from Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia tries to solve this problem. It is an association of rural youth, the Chamber of Agriculture of North Rhine-Westphalia and […]
This week the NEWBIE team for the UK held their penultimate Steering Group meeting (online). We began with a fascinating update from each steering group member on their recent work involving new entrants. Then there was a vibrant conversation about potential policy recommendations in terms of widening out the land matching service, mentoring schemes and […]
Very strong candidates competed in the 3rd NEWBIE competition for innovative new entrants in Bulgaria, organized by the Business Incubator-Gotse Delchev and the National Steering Group under the NEWBIE project. The winner is the GREEN TO GO farm. Stefan Tsonev and Vesi Mircheva from GREEN TO GO farm grow leafy vegetables, spinach and baby spinach […]
Hoeve Kazan, a beef cattle farm owned by John and Saskia Joha, is located on the borders of North and South Holland and Utrecht. They started with four cows and five sheep and now have a thriving business with a thriving farm shop. How did a shoemaker’s daughter and the youngest son of a dairy […]
On 23rd February 2021, around 40 interested Newbies joined an interactive web seminar on “Conversion to organic agriculture” using the conference tool Zoom. After the preceding “Digital Agricultural Office” on 2nd February 2021, BDL (German Rural Youth Association) collaborated once more with the BLE (Federal Office for Agriculture and Food, Germany) to host an informational […]
Kylie Magner from Magners Farm in Moyglass, Co Tipperary has been selected as the winner of the second Irish Newbie project, new entrant competition. Kylie is a free range poultry farmer who has recently added beef and sheep enterprises on the farm. Having returned to the farm after a period working abroad Kylie was eager […]
On 25 February 2021, the French Rural Network, the European Partnership for Innovation (PEI AGRI) and the RURALIZATION project presented the webinar “Innovating for the renewal of agricultural generations in France and Europe”. RENETA presented the NEWBIE project and led a workshop on multi-actor cooperation for the installation of new entrants. With 9 speakers and […]
The Portuguese Newbie business Amor é Cego started from João Rosado’s desire to maintain the traditional olive grove that has been cared by his grandfather for over 60 years. With no intent to increase production, a main concern was to secure income to cover the costs of maintaining the farm. Their business strategy focused on […]
Once a year the Slovenian team publishes the National NEWBIE newsletter with news about the activities carried out in the past year, events, results, educational information and other interesting news for new entrants and their supportive environment. The newsletter is disseminated within the NEWBIE network and in various media channels. Despite the pandemic situation, the […]
Last week the Belgian Newbie team filmed the last of their 10 Newbie videos. In a short while it will be made available on our YouTube channel. Topic of this last video is the small farm of new farmer Niels, De Veldhoeve. Niels started his farming career as a student worker on a pig farm […]
Hutton has concluded their second UK award process. Tomnah’a Market Garden, a community-focused enterprise located at Comrie Croft in Perthshire, has been declared the winner of the NEWBIE UK award for New Entrant Farm Business of the Year for 2020. Tomnah’a is run by Cristy Gilbert, Sam Parry and Judith McGowan and some dedicated volunteers […]
The jury considers it an enormous achievement how Jessica and Maurits, as new entrants into agriculture, have developed a fully-fledged agricultural company from scratch in a short period of time. Most of all how they did this: based on a very clear vision of what a sustainable livestock farm should look like, with two important […]
On 2nd February 2021, 275 interested participants logged in to listen to and participate in an interactive web seminar on the “Digital Agricultural Office”. Since 2019, BDL (German Rural Youth Association) has supported the BLE (Federal Office for Agriculture and Food, Germany) in hosting a series of informational web seminars. Previous topics covered a broad […]
The fifth Irish NEWBIE Steering Group meeting was held on Zoom in light of continued Covid 19 restrictions. The meeting included an update on progress in the project and to discuss planned activities for the coming year. The progression of the Irish contribution to NEWBIE toolkits was discussed in detail. This steering group is comprised […]
