The Farming Rathcroghan EIP focused on enhancing the livelihoods of local farmers while helping them preserve and protect the rich archaeological and landscape features of the Rathcroghan area for future generations. By placing farmers at the heart of the project, the initiative provided training and introduced innovative practices to safeguard archaeology. New products for site protection and managing access routes through farmland to key archaeological monuments were included. By the end of the project, 45 farmers were actively managing over 75% of the Rathcroghan plateau, home to 240 archaeological sites, including 70 national monuments. These farmers applied best practices to preserve the area's built heritage, improve water quality, and boost biodiversity. The project also increased awareness of Rathcroghan's cultural importance locally and beyond. Compensating farmers for their efforts in delivering natural and cultural ecosystem services helped preserve the area's heritage and improved the sustainability of their farming businesses.
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It summarises the reports from all Cross Visits. During the Cross Visits the AgriSpin team gradually learned how to capture what really matters in the cases that were visited. It is important that the characteristics in the overview are helpful for: ● deepening the understanding of the individual cases and the effect of particular innovation support actions; ● making comparisons between cases, even though they represent different sectors and cover different types of innovation.
What can support services do to stimulate innovations at farm level? This is the central question in AgriSpin. The Cross Visits aim at collecting information about innovations that have taken place or that are in progress. The members of the visiting team are predominantly support agents themselves, which allows for vivid exchanges of experiences. A cross visit creates space for intensive informal interactions between colleagues from different corners of Europe. This provides a basis for continuous contacts after the project.
The inspirational booklet is a guide. It offers a collection of examples of good working practices involving different types of actors such as advisors, researchers, technology suppliers, retailers, civil society groups and administrators. The examples are from the 12 different European countries participating in the AgriSpin project and represent different stages of an innovation process. The booklet also presents some tools and lessons learned, which can help the innovator better understand the innovation process in order to anticipate possible pitfalls.