Description
The knowledge of the NGOs is not being passed on to those needing it the most: people living in disadvantaged areas who would be enabled to do meaningful, sustainable farming work locally. At the same time NGOs have unused resources. Therefore this project seeks to establish a strong regional orcharding network, identifying and utilizing the internal resouces of civil society organizations, increasing the awareness on orcharding, and incentivising sustainable farming. Project activities include the development and establishment of a network model, provision of educational sample programs, publication of informational and educational print materials, organizing field work demonstrations and a travelling exhibition in Central and Western Hungary.
Summary of project results
The project addressed shortcomings of CSOs engaged with native fruit species based orcharding in relation to networking, education and awareness raising in order to support the dissemination of sustainable orcharding techniques at a faster pace that could contribute to the creation of livelihoods in disadvantaged rural areas. For that an “orcharding net” was set up in 6 counties of Transdanubian region of Hungary with the involvement of 28 different organisations and institutions and with regular internal workshops and organizational development events. The core group of the network made up of the most experienced organizations provided mentoring support for 8 local initiatives in the execution of local orcharding programmes, and helped to develop 12 display gardens in 11 different villages. Wider scale dissemination and professional education was carried out through 7 local grafting festivals, 6 orcharding days and 6 training serials in every county reaching out about 2000 people. In order to publish the most important information and aspects on orcharding 5 booklets were printed and disseminated in 4000 copies, and 4 short films were produced. The project was also supported by a communication campaign within which a wandering exhibition was exhibited in 6 different venues, and an action day was organized in the display gardens with the title “Day of the Open Gardens”. As an ultimate result the project managed both to facilitate a wide-scale, multi-sectoral cooperation and to promote native species based orcharding among a significant number of people.
Summary of bilateral results