Italy

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

The 1st Practice Group meeting that focused on discussion about social challenges of farmers – took place through one online session on the 7 July 2021 with the participation of 17 stakeholders , including:
• farmers, farmers’ representatives and other stakeholders (besides producers, farmers ‘organizations, grassroots organizations and food networks, other organizations and journalists were engaged)

Social challenges of farmers identified in Italy are presented in the mapping report

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

• Employment/irregular employment/low-paid workers

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 online session on 11/02/2022 with the participation of 19 stakeholders including farmer’s representatives and social innovation presenters.

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

• Ghetto Out-Casa Sankara: It is a voluntary organisation which mainly aims to (1) promote integration and social inclusion, through the development of solidarity networks pursuing the self-production of 0 miles and fair-trade products, and food self-sufficiency, (2) to increase awareness on citizenship and workers’ rights through the support of trade union and social protection activities, with the necessary institutional connections, to fight against all forms of exploitation and rights violation

• Humus Job: The first agricultural job-sharing platform that allows small companies to share labor force, related costs, equipment and investments through territorial network contracts. The main goal of Humus Job is to promote and boost ethical and sustainable work in agriculture in Italy, by creating new connections among companies, and by intersecting job supply and job demand between workers and farms.

Italy  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: Irregular work in agriculture