In the course of a year, the partners of AgriSpin have visited each other to study innovation cases all over Europe in order to collect knowledge about what support services can do to stimulate innovations at farm level. Two reports paint the full picture of the initial outcomes of the Cross Visits.

Why Use a Cross Visit?

During a cross visit, the objective of the visiting team is to collect information about innovations that have taken place or are in progress. The members of a visiting team are predominantly support agents themselves and this allows for vivid exchanges of experience.

– A cross visit creates space for intensive informal interactions between colleagues from different corners of Europe, Eelke Wielinga explains.

Eelke is the leader of Work Package 2 of the AgriSpin project, which has been responsible for developing the Cross Visit method.

According to Eelke Wielinga, a Cross Visit allows for inspiration by watching how other innovation support services practise innovation at farm level.

– The Cross Visits allow colleagues to take a look in the kitchen of each other, Eelke emphasizes.

How to Conduct a Cross Visit?

Practically, this has been achieved by letting all partner organisations of AgriSpin organise one visit as host. Colleagues from each organisation have had the opportunity to take part in several visiting teams. For every partner there were 7 to 10 opportunities to participate in visiting teams and it was up to the partner to divide these slots between one or more colleagues.

In AgriSpin, the regular team size varied from 7 to 11 visitors and 1 to 6 hosts, adding up to an average of 11 people visiting farms and other stakeholders.

To make the Cross Visit successful, however, it is also important that at least one participant has sufficient experience in group facilitation and is familiar with the tools used during the cross visit.

– Actually, two is even better: one keeps an eye on the method and the other keeps to schedule, Eelke Wielinga adds.

When the Cross Visit is conducted in the right way, the desired outcome of the Cross Visit should be to inspire for improvements in the services being offered, to create a deeper understanding of innovation processes, to explore innovation practices as well as the role of support service providers and, finally, to establish a network of innovation support agents.

The Cross Visit Reports

Please, take a look at the two reports that summarize the AgriSpin Cross Visits. The first report covers the first seven Cross Visits and the second one covers all the Cross Visits.

Also, please peruse the reports that have come out of the individual Cross Visits. Check out the reports found under each Cross Visit.

The Cross Visit Manual

The final methodology for the AgriSpin Cross Visits is essentially a manual for the Cross Visit Method. Please, have a look at the methodology report and the step-by-step manual attached to it.