Description
Today we see that bad economic development is characteristic of the Tunjice hills, and agriculture is being carried out mostly as supplementary activity. Due to the current economic crisis, people have started to work more intensely on farms again. The goal of the project is therefore to give some will and knowledge to existing farmers and half-farmers, and above all to future takeovers of the farms. The project want to create opportunities for activities that already were very highly developed in the area, as well as they are giving numerous families their daily livelihood. Today, with the transformation and in a different context, this can aslo mean a new opportunity for new economic development of the region. The projects main activities are training and motivating of local farmers, as well as education of primary-school youth including the set-up of orchards on school grounds.
Summary of project results
Bad economic development is characteristic of Tunjice hills today. Agriculture is being carried out mostly as supplementary activity (from 80 farms only 5 are cultivated by pure farmers, the rest are only part-time farmers or pensioners). The goal of the project was to give a will and knowledge to existent farmers, and above all, to future takeovers of farms, and to create opportunity for activities, that had already been highly developed in the area in the past. Tunjice had rich fruit growing tradition and meadow orchards are kept in large degree. Tunjice have very good conditions for fruit growing considering position, altitude and climate. It also has a very active Fruit-growing and gardening association that was founded in 1998 with the intention of preserving old varieties of fruit. The association tries to continue tradition of fruit growing and encourages local people to recognize in this new challenges and opportunities. In this regard, the project was very successful. What was in the past just thinking of a group of enthusiasts is now recognized as an opportunity not just in Tunjice, but much wider. Since the end of the project, the association was invited to participate in several promotional events, and with various partners it is preparing future projects. The association was also invited by one of larger merchants in Slovenia to develop a joint project that will help to further the idea of preserving old fruit sorts by promoting cultivation of old fruit sorts and use the fruit in culinary art. They hope that this partnership with a commercial entity will in a long run secure future development of the project. There were three key activities composing the project: (1) Training and motivating of local farmers included a series of lectures and workshops related to fruit-growing were delivered and the concept for integration of individual farms in touristic fruit path was developed, (2) Education of primary-school youth included organization of fruit-growing clubs in primary schools, setting up the orchards on five school grounds, and organization of quiz »Young fruit grower« - which is planned to expand throughout Slovenia. (3) An event titled »Fruit day« with the exhibition of fruit and fruit products, repeated in many locations. One of the important results is also web catalogue of old fruit sorts that was upgraded with 40 additional fruit sorts.
Summary of bilateral results