When rural areas are depopulated, or when traditions need to be updated or upheld, what can be done? From July 4-7, the Cross Visit in Romania demonstrated that innovation and inventions used in innovative ways are a viable solution.
Innovative Markets: Community Enterprise
How do small-scale farming communities deal with the challenges of migration and land abandonment stemming from falling local income? This project shows the value of linking small-scale producers for their mutual benefit. Advantages are obtained on behalf of all small-scale farmers by procuring one food-safety authorization for multiple producers, by buying consumables together to reduce direct cost as well as by promoting all the products from the area as one group at various events.
Innovative markets: Private Enterprise
This project demonstrates how a local producer has benefited from the young farmer grant and investment measure under the National Rural Development Plan by diversifying his means of income. With the help of the grant, the producer has installed a processing unit for the production of ice cream, enabling him to sell ice cream at local events. He has also made two rooms available for guests and runs a bike rental service.
Model Sheep Fold
Model Sheep Fold is a good example of how traditional farming methods are supported by technical expertise to ensure that the traditional way of life in Romanian villages may be maintained. The sheep folds are furnished with solar panels so that the shepherds can enjoy improved living conditions while staying with their flocks of sheep in the hills during the summer. The solar panels supply the shepherds with electricity for light and for charging their cell phones, enabling them to stay in contact with their families, and also make hot water available to them, thereby raising the hygienic conditions in the sheep folds.
Viscri Association
In order to increase milk prices to stop the decrease in cow numbers, the Viscri Association was established. By improving milk quality and quantity and by assisting with negotiations with milk processing companies, the association has increased the price of milk obtained by the farmers and has stopped the decline in cow numbers in the area. By pooling local farmers’ need for simple training, the acquisition of small equipment as well as the negotiation of milk prices, the Viscri Association has thus solved economic and landscape conservation problems with minimal expense.
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