News

A few weeks ago, RENETA organized the first training session for advisors on the topic of “supporting collective projects”. A significant part of new entrants wishes to develop their business within a collective framework. The notion of “collective” takes several ways: “working with”: each farmer is independent but shares and manages common tools or part […]

The 3rd Irish steering group meeting brought together the steering group in Portlaoise to discuss progress on the Newbie project and the plan for the coming year. The steering group is comprised of farm advisors, researchers, farming organisation representatives, financial personnel and recent new entrants to farming. The main objectives of the meeting were to; […]

At the Newbie consortium meetings we always dedicate one day to visiting new entrants for inspiration and discuss with them the challenges they face. Our team member Marcel Vijn writes an article of each visit which is published in the Dutch magazine Ekoland. For the Newbie project these articles are translated in English. You can […]

Domen Virant from Kmetija pri Ropet won NEWBIE Award 2019 in Slovenia. Domen is not quite the typical representative of young farmers. He took over the abandoned farm from his grandparents in 2015 and started a new farm business from the beginning. He did not choose the easiest way, but ambitiously began to diversify a […]

The preparations for the next European Newbie Event 2021 in Berlin have already started. The Bund der Deutschen Landjugend (BDL) is our host. The interactive conference will take place on the 20th of January 2021. This allows participants to combine the event with a visit to the Grüne Woche. To ensure an equally high standard […]

In November 2019 we called for applications for the Newbie-Award 2019. Innovative and imaginative newcomers from the German agricultural sector were invited to propose themselves and their business idea, their farm and their career for the Newbie-Award. The deadline for applications was February 29th, until then many farm managers and newcomers had applied. The selection […]

LINKING PROJECTS FOR A COMMON GOAL: THE SUSTAINABILITY AND MAINTENANCE OF SMALL FARMS AS A WAY TO FOOD SOVEREIGNTY The goal of Km0 Alentejo initiative is to maintain the small farms and the mosaic landscape, around the cities. To reduce the environmental footprint of food, but also to stimulate local production and contribute to food […]

The journalists from CORDIS have recently written a report on the Irish Newbie Award winner on 2020. Read the article here.

Newbie Portugal participated in the “Jornadas do Mundo Rural”, an event that took place on the 28 and 29th February in Alcoutim-Algarve in the South of Portugal and which brought together about fifty stakeholders working in rural development in the region. We shared our experience of the opportunities for new entrants that are linked to […]

The 2020 edition of the Flemish Newbie award goes about a little bit differently. One addition compared to last year is the introduction of a godparent system. Each participant is assigned a member of the Flemish steering board as their godparent for the competition. The goal is to further stimulate networking and introduce both parties […]

In order to have a permanent source of current information on the topic of cross-entry and new entry on facebook for all newbies and interested people in Germany, there is now the facebook page Newbie-Deutschland (FH Südwestfalen). In addition to the fan page of the Young Farmers Project (BDL), national and international events and information […]

Newbie UK presented at the Farm Advisory Service’s annual event: The New Entrant Gathering. The event brings a series of inspirational speakers with unique business models and resilient strategies. Some stories worth learning about is the Wee Farm Distillery in South Lanarkshire, the Laggan Outdoor Centre and agritourism exemplar in Dumfries and Galloway and the […]

On the 14th of February 2020, the Belgian Newbie team (KU Leuven) organized a meeting on the topic of business models in agricultural education in Flanders. The Newbie team invited diverse stakeholders in Flanders to discuss this topic and explore the opportunity of cross-institutional cooperation in this field. The idea behind the workshop is obvious. […]

Report by Rositsa Djambazova, our Bulgarian Newbie partner The #newbieproject field visits of Slovenian innovative farms was one of the most wanted events of #newbieconference2020.  The organization by the Department of Geography, University of Ljubljana was excellent. They prepared two itineraries for excursions. I was lucky to visit the South East of Slovenia, the Dolenjska […]

The Newbie Consortium looks back at a successful four-day program in Ljubljana. The title of the event is probably a very good summary of what we actually achieved during these days: creating  environments for dialogue on new entrants in farming. A dialogue requires people to be willing to share ideas and listen to each other. […]

Galway Snail Farmer wins Irish NEWBIE Farm Entrant Competition Steven Ryan from Tuam, County Galway has been selected as the winner of the 2019 NEWBIE new farm entrant competition. Steven diversified the farm business in 2014, setting up a snail farm alongside the family’s beef and sheep farm. The farm is now producing 4,000kg of […]

The 4th french steering group was held in Paris on the 15th january. 10 participants took part in the meeting, mainly advisors and coordinators from national network of rural organizations. The agenda  was mainly focused on the preparation of a national event planned in Paris in June 2020 about the issue of farm succession. Several […]

On December 16th, 2019 the fourth meeting of the German steering group took place in Berlin with twelve people. Two interesting presentations by Simone Sterly of BioFinanz on alternative financing options and the presentation of one of our case study farms CSA Speisegut  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJYWPawpc-s) by the founder and manager Christian Heymann provided the basis for […]

The idea came at the beginning of 2011, when two young entrepreneurs, Rita Beltrão and Filipe Verdasca, wanted to build a differentiating and innovative project in the agrifood sector in Marvão. Marvão is municipality with its centre in a medieval village located in a small montain area of São Mamede, a Natural Park  in the […]

The James Hutton Institute, as part of the EU-funded NEWBIE project (New Entrant netWork: Business models for Innovation, entrepreneurship and resilience in European agriculture), is again calling for applications for the 2019 NEWBIE Award, which highlights the work of pioneering new entrant farmers across the UK. The NEWBIE project offers an award to new entrants […]

NEWBIE Discusses Farm Incubators at Agriscot, one of Scotland largest farm industry events. November 20th. At the Agriscot farm industry event in Edinburgh, Newbie UK led an open seminar on farm business Incubators. After visiting Northern France with Newbie partner RENETA, a panel of delegates asked a room of participants “Could Farm Business Incubators provide […]

NEWBIE European Project launches 2019 Award for New Entrants The Newbie Prize is promoted to reward new agricultural business models that result from innovative ways to overcome the barriers that new agricultural entrepreneurs face when trying to establish themselves. In the Newbie project, these new entrepreneurs are defined as anyone who starts an agricultural business […]

The Institute of Mediterranean Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (ICAAM) of the University of Évora welcomed from 13-15 November a French delegation, including a member from RENETA – a French network of incubators for agricultural businesses, a member from a farm incubator of Gironde that is RENETA member and a rural press journalist. The visit is […]

Leuven, 19 November 2019. The KU Leuven Newbie team and Groene Kring organized together a field day on new business models in farming. This event frames within an exchange program between Acades and Groene Kring, both young farmers organisations in respectively Malawi and Flanders. The topic of this exchange program was new business models in […]

Together with a delegation from the Netherlands, three participants from Germany were part of the Newbie exchange to the UK from the 23rd till the 25th of October. They visited newbies in North Wales and Manchester to get to know a different perspective on handing over a farm and fresh ideas for starters. The exchange […]

What are the challenges faced by new farmers in France and which support do they receive? NEWBIE Partners Business Incubator-Gotse Delchev from Bulgaria, the James Hutton Institute from the UK and Evora University from Portugal went together with local stakeholders on an international exchange in Northern France from the 28th until the 31st of October. […]

Predominately rural region, Haloze Hills in Slovenia, hosted the 3rd National Discussion Circle meeting and an announcement of the NEWBIE Award of the Year 2018 within the occasion of the 5th Slovenian Rural Parliament (October 8, 2019) with more than 350 participants. 3rd Discussion Circle meeting was focused on supportive environment for new entrants (young […]

For the past few weeks our Belgian partner KU Leuven has been heavily involved with the topic of urban food strategies. Cities are increasingly worried about the food security of their inhabitants and many of them are creating a long term plan to tackle these issues. Belgian experts visited some example cities listed below. Paris […]

Lack of land and capital or the lack of knowledge or a network? This is what a group of European researchers and advisers want to investigate in the Newbie project. With the aim of finding solutions and recommendations for policy makers and future farmers. This time we are in Bulgaria, in the Sofia area, and […]

Pepe Aromas, a family farm located in Herdade da Azinheira and Sobral, in Évora-Portugal, is engaged in the production and marketing of Opuntia Ficus Indica and its by-products. The Portuguese National Rural Network (RRN) talked with the owners Susana Mendes and José Ferrão about the biological and sustainable project they are developing and their participation […]