Students in Agrafa will get to know the meadows and the practiced animal husbandry

Greek students are expected to offer their knowledge in a real environment, in the context of a European project that will take shape in the area of ​​Agrafa in the Karditsa Regional Unit. In the pastures of the area, livestock farming develops in a traditional way. The students will get to know the pastures and the practiced animal husbandry in the area, they will discuss with animal breeders and local actors. The project is supported by the Association of Greek Shorthorn Cattle Breeders (EEEBBFB). In particular, as the researchers report, the project is titled: “Advanced Training for Sustainable Rangeland Management’ (Advancedtraining on sustainablemanagement of pastoral systems (TranSuMan), and was approved by the European Commission in the context of KeyAction 2 (KA220 HED)- Cooperation partnerships in higher education. It aims to develop an innovative educational approach to create a professional profile, able to face in an interdisciplinary way the sustainable management of European grassland ecosystems.According to this approach, academic knowledge together with the experience of local actors (stakeholders) will contribute to creating a favorable learning environment for students (tomorrow’s professionals), enabling them to work in a real environment.

The project is coordinated by the UniversitadegliSudidiCamerino (Italy) and the FundacionUniversidadCatolica de ValenciaSanVicenteMartir (Spain), the UniversitateaBabesBolyai (Romania) and the University of Thessaly are represented by the Department of Forestry, Wood Sciences and Design. The members of the department, professor Michalis Vrachnakis, associate professor, participate in the project Ioannis Kazoglou and associate professor Marios Trigas. At the same time, it will employ a team of 17 students (8 undergraduates and 9 postgraduates). The project will last until December 2023. More specifically, with its completion it is expected to increase the green skills of students and develop new educational material for the sustainable management of grassland ecosystems and pastoral systems. Various issues related to their management, such as financial and environmental, are examined, with the aim of providing deeper knowledge for the exploitation of work opportunities. The real education of the students with local factors, emphasizes to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, the professor Mr. Vrachnakisis the strong point of the project, not only for defining management principles, but also for producing open educational content for the formation of new researchers and professionals.

According to Mr. Vrachnakis, the specific objectives of the project are to define common guidelines and strategies for the sustainable management and utilization of grasslands, to define teaching methods and strategies to involve stakeholders in the teaching/learning process. But also the transfer of knowledge to Higher Education students about the complexities of rangeland management, including the design of sustainable production chains based on high quality products and the management of bottom-up processes. It should be noted that the preservation of the traditional pastoral systems that develop in the meadows is a major objective of EU policy, as they represent important areas (hotspots) of biodiversity, are cradles of cultural heritage, are key elements of European landscapes of high aesthetic value and offer high potential for preserving agriculture and high nature value farms (HighNatureValueFarming). Their preservation can only be achieved with a high level of knowledge resulting from an interdisciplinary approach to the system of governance and organization of their management

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