Practical Pathways to Sustainable Farming: EUFRAS Autumn Coffee Break Highlights Crop-MATCHING and TERRA Projects

On September 24, 2026, the European Forum for Agricultural and Rural Advisory Services (EUFRAS) successfully hosted the first Coffee Break event of the autumn season, focused on the theme “Practical Pathways to Sustainable Farming – Crop-MATCHING and TERRA”.

Crop-MATCHING: Practical Agronomic Solutions for Small-Scale Farms

The first presentation focused on Crop-MATCHING, a four-year Horizon Europe project coordinated by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki under the leadership of Prof. Konstadinos Mattas. Bringing together 16 partner organizations across 13 countries, the project addresses the specific challenges of small-scale farmers, who face economic and environmental pressures alongside limited access to practical innovation.

Dr. Katerina Paltaki (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) emphasized that there is no "one-size-fits-all" solution in sustainable agriculture. Instead, Crop-MATCHING identifies, assesses, and matches locally tailored cropping practices—such as crop rotation, intercropping, strip cropping, and cover crops—to specific farm contexts and regional needs. The project is developing a database of 100 best crop-matching practices, fact sheets, an e-learning platform with an AI-driven personalized recommendation tool, and will integrate its findings into the EU Farm Book.

Pilar Zapata Aranda (BIOAZUL), Communication and Dissemination Leader for Crop-MATCHING, elaborated on stakeholder engagement. She detailed how national working groups across 10 study countries and a broader thematic network involve academia, the private sector, public bodies, and civil society to select and refine success stories from the field.

The event concluded with an interactive Q&A session underscoring the strong operational synergy between the two projects: Crop-MATCHING provides concrete, field-tested agronomic practices, while TERRA delivers the educational, digital, and certification framework needed to train and formally validate those competencies.

Participants and speakers emphasized that agricultural advisors serve as the essential bridge between scientific research and practical implementation on the farm, ensuring that innovative practices and validated skills translate into long-term sustainability across European agriculture.

For those who were unable to join the live online session, the full recording is now available on the official EUFRAS YouTube channel. We hope you enjoy watching it!

Mark your calendars for the next EUFRAS Coffee Break event, taking place on October 29, 2026. We look forward to meeting you there!

TERRA: Validating Skills and Micro-Credentials for Regenerative Agriculture

The second part of the session introduced TERRA, an Erasmus+ project dedicated to learning, training, and competence recognition in regenerative agriculture.

• Andrés Dochao (TERRA Viva Ibiza, Project Leader) explained that TERRA offers farmers and agricultural workers formal, transparent recognition of practical skills through micro-credentials and Open Badges.

• Gonzalo Corrales (Union of Small Farmers and Breeders - UPA, Spain) provided the farmer’s perspective, highlighting the need to bridge educational concepts with everyday farm operations, support generational renewal, and utilize digital learning tools. He also introduced the use of Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) to establish lasting partnerships between educational institutions, advisory services, and farm networks.

• Daniela Varone (CIOFS-FP, Italy) presented the technical framework of the TERRA educational model. Rooted in field survey research across Spain, Italy, Poland, and Greece, TERRA features a free digital self-diagnosis tool, 21 short-term training units (525 total hours) structured into 4 thematic modules (Foundation, Biodiversity, Farm Operations, and Business Management), Moodle-based e-learning, gamified escape rooms, and Europass Digital Credentials alignment (EQF Level 4). The model underwent rigorous field testing with approximately 1,200 European users.

The online gathering brought together 92 registered participants from 25 countries, demonstrating strong pan-European engagement among agricultural advisors, researchers, VET providers, and rural stakeholders.

The event was officially opened by Anita Dzelme, Vice-Chair of the EUFRAS Board.

The session was moderated by Natalia Truszkowska from the Polish Farm Advisory and Training Centre (PFA). In her opening remarks, she highlighted two central questions facing farm advisors across Europe today: how practical agricultural knowledge can best support the transition toward sustainable and regenerative farming, and how farmers and advisors can effectively develop, demonstrate, and validate the skills necessary for this transition.