Belgium

Belgium is one of the pilot countries of the FARMWELL project. The core partners in Belgium are:

The 1st Practice Group meeting that focused on discussion about social challenges of farmers – took place through two online sessions with the participation of 29 stakeholders, including farming organizations and individual farmers and one government representative.

• The first session was held on 22 June 2021
• The second session was held on the 24 June 2021

Participants were distributed over these 2 meetings in small groups based on geographic proximity.

Social challenges of farmers identified in Belgium are presented in the mapping report:

The main challenges that the FARMWELL project will focus on in Belgium include:

• Coping capacities of farmers

The 2nd Practice Group meeting – that focused on presenting and discussing social innovations in response to crucial challenges that impact on farmers’ wellbeing – took place through an in-depth expert interview on the 21/ 02/ 2022 and two online sessions on 14/02/2022 and 21/02/2022. All in all, 18 people have been involved in the sessions including farmers’ representatives, social innovation presenters and non-farmers representatives e.g. government officials, experts.

The social innovations presented during the 2nd Practice Group meeting in Belgium were:

• Mental Health Literacy for Farm Gatekeepers – This social innovation provides training to farm gatekeepers in order to detect certain problems of the farmers in an early stage. Farm gatekeepers signal a problem, as well as transferring a farmer to the right aid channels. Farm gatekeepers can also act as experts to solve certain problems in a structural manner

  • Agro-Zorgwijzer, this is a digital reference scheme with an overview of relevant aid channels in case farmers are confronted with certain problems.

  • Competency Scan – A digital competence scan that also delves into aspects of mental wellbeing

  • Learning Networks on mental wellbeing, a new social innovation launched by Ferm-Agravrouwen wherein peer-to-peer learning among farmers is stimulated. In consultation with UGLOS and the lead coordinator, a decision has been made to conduct a forecasting SROI on this social innovation in a later stage of the project

Belgium  has carried out practical innovations action according to the specific needs of the farmers, allowing experimentation & co-learning. Pilot actions have been based on collaborative & interactive models, with the purpose of creating new linkages and connections between farmers and other stakeholders, building on their capacity for long-term cooperation.

You can read the pilot report here: Academy on Tour – learning a language to make problems debatable.