Rationale

Agricultural advisory services are essential for supporting farmers in managing productive processes, gathering their needs, sharing information, promoting new farming practices, and fostering collaboration among stakeholders toward the further development and the modernization of the sector. However, over the last two decades in the EU, the provision of agricultural services has faced several challenges, including a lack of closeness to farmers, misalignment between farmers' needs and the services provided, a lack of credibility/trust, and reluctance to pay for agricultural support services. Additionally, they lack up-to-date competencies and capacities to address the complexity and dynamics of contemporary AKIS.

In this regard, it is worth noting that modern agricultural systems exhibit a plurality of agricultural service providers, as well as various advisory approaches, methods, and tools for provision, along with new and diverse relational dynamics among advisors. The farmer is no longer the sole target of agricultural service provision but rather the final recipient of a series of knowledge flows and relational interactions that are necessary for delivering the service.

To cope with the weaknesses and challenges, advisory services have gained centrality under 2023-2027 CAP, where their competencies, roles and functions are emphasized as crucial for enabling its functioning and innovativeness in view of the modernization of the sector (Tab.1). In fact, the integration of advisory services within AKIS signifies a general strengthening of these services in terms of competencies and the ability to provide useful and necessary support to farmers. It also involves the reorganization of their relational dynamics within AKIS, including repositioning within and outside agricultural systems and interconnecting with all relevant actors who influence the quality and performance of consultancy services upstream and downstream of service provision.

The CAP, therefore, offers a diverse range of support, from setting up and reorganizing the consultancy structures themselves to enhancing competencies and promoting forms of networking and interconnection with relevant actors and knowledge and innovation infrastructures, as well as participation in innovation processes.

In this respect, through the CAP it is intended to empower the advisory services tackling with the following key challenges:

• Better tailoring advice upon farmers’ needs and opportunities.
• Addressing emerging needs, including innovation brokerage, modernization and digitalization, climate change and market-related issues.
• Adapting to diverse farmer profiles, including new entrants, part-time farmers, and those who are hard to reach.
• Expanding access to information through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary cooperation, as well as the use of ICT tools.
• Bridging the gap with research and increase participation in research and innovation projects, in view to get on-time information and maintain up-to-date competences.
• Intermediate between researchers and farmers by ensuring communication of farmers’ needs back to the researchers and well-tailored innovative solutions.
• Engaging in a holistic approach to advice that connects technical guidance with farm profitability and market concerns while also pursuing specialized support.
• Connecting with international networks to access knowledge and advisors with specialized expertise when necessary.
• Participating more actively in the definition of policies and programs to inform decision-making, gain ownership, and ensure precise up-to-date and relevant competencies for supporting farmers in their implementation.
• Seeking insights from specialists within and out respective AKIS, including in other countries.

Table 1: Approaches to advisory

Source. Our elaboration based on Faure et al., 2016

How to integrate advisory services?

Among the others some effective interventions might be the followings (list not exhaustive):

Cooperation for innovation

• Financial and professional incentives/awards for the engagement as partners in operational groups.
• Simplification of bureaucracy for accessing and reporting participation.
• Running the realization of cross visits between operational groups to allow peer-to-peer learning.
• Running the organization of demonstration actions as part of the projects of operational groups.
• Promoting the setting up of operational groups aimed at developing training and advisory models and tools for tailored services.

Training, discussion groups, peer-to-peer reviews, cross-visits and other forms of knowledge sharing

• Financial and professional incentives/awards for the active participation to professional networks, including Horizon EU projects.
• Financial and professional incentives/awards to up-date competences and to act as trainers of trainers
• Peer to peer learning programmes between advisors, cross visits, discussion groups and community of practice that enable systematic collective critical thinking and reflection along with individual learning.
• Vouchers to access to training programs, professional associations and networks.
• Vouchers to buy-in research/academic/expert backoffice.
• Support the setting up of Knowledge Sharing Platforms: Create platforms for sharing experiences, best practices, and lessons learned among advisors and project participants, facilitating ongoing communication and collaboration.

Information access and sharing:

• Backoffice.
• Public repositories of advisors, by detailing competences, topics and contacts, at the benefit of the farmers.
• Digital Datawarehouse that include relevant on-time data for advisory provision.
• Repository of benchmarks of farming indicators/systems.
• Good practices forums.
• Public awareness campaigns to inform about the availability of public funds for the use and provision of advisory services.

First insights from practices

The practices presented in this "Compendium" showcase the critical role of data and digital tools in enhancing the effectiveness of advisory services, fostering collaboration, and supporting sustainable agricultural practices. Some key points can be highlighted:

• Data-Driven Decision Making: The establishment of interconnected databases, as seen in the Datawarehouse case (ES), highlights the importance of data in providing tailored decision support for farmers and policymakers. Access to comprehensive data allows for informed decision-making that is focused on the needs of the agricultural sector.
• Coordinated Advisory Services: The ROPO registry demonstrates the value of a centralized resource that brings together various advisory service providers. This coordination ensures consistent application of regulations and fosters collaboration among stakeholders, enhancing compliance and knowledge sharing.
• Integration of Knowledge and Resources: The Digital Knowledge Hubs illustrate the potential for integrating diverse sources of information—from research to capacity-building initiatives—into a cohesive platform. This integration supports continuous learning and adaptation, enabling stakeholders to stay updated on best practices and innovations.
• Support for Compliance and Best Practices: The focus on regulatory adherence in the ROPO case underscores the necessity for advisory services to provide clear guidance and support, ensuring that agricultural practices align with legal and environmental standards.
• Enhanced Communication and Collaboration: All cases emphasize the role of digital tools and platforms in facilitating communication among farmers, advisors, and policymakers. This connectivity is crucial for sharing knowledge, addressing challenges, and promoting collaboration across different levels of the agricultural system.

Food for thinking

Questions for opening the discussion and reflect on how to better direct AKIS interventions towards the better integration of the advisory services are:

Delivery:

• How to organize a feasible system for enabling access to impartial and high-quality service provision?
• How to design and implement advisory services aimed at providing a more targeted support addressing specific farmers' needs?[PP1]
• How can we enhance collaboration among various stakeholders (farmers, researchers, policymakers) to improve the effectiveness of advisory services?
• How mainstream the use/provision of advisory service across the variety of CAP interventions?
• What are the most pressing needs of farmers today that advisory services can address effectively?

Training and Capacity Building

• What training and capacity-building initiatives are necessary for advisors to effectively integrate into AKIS and meet current agricultural challenges?
• How among advisors can be created and enhanced to facilitate knowledge sharing and collaboration across borders

Monitoring and Evaluation

• How to assess/evaluate advisory service services, by capturing SWOTs, needs for development, actual pathways and effects?
• How to organize and conduct systematic evaluations of the advisory services?
• How can we measure the impact of advisory services within AKIS to ensure they are contributing to sustainable agricultural development?
• How to structure and ensure the implementation of assessment procedures for quality and performances of advisors at system, organizational and individual levels??

Long-Term Vision:

• How to rethink the role and functions of public and private advisory services in the specific AKIS and how to vision their reorganization, in terms of infrastructures, organizations and competencies, to better address needs and opportunities for the modernization of the sector?

How to follow-up with the results of collection of akis-in-practice!

• The collection of "AKIS-in-Practice" must be expanded through continuous dialogue with partners to provide a broader scope of the different approaches of advisory services.
• A specific networking activity with Advisory networks projects (CORENET, EU4Advice, NBSoil, ClimateSmartAdvisors, OrganicAdviceNetwork, AdvisoryNetPEST, STRATUS) funded by Horizon EU that connect advisors across all EU Member States will help sharing knowledge and to be up to date about opportunities that these project can offer in term of training and support to implementing advisory services that are able to best tackle challenges or seize opportunities on farms, in forests and rural villages.
• Joint workshops with the CoPs might be directed to increase familiarity and to co-develop possibly innovative and major focused types of interventions and programs to support the major integration of advisory services within the AKIS.

Further sources of information

• EU SCAR AKIS (2019), Preparing for Future AKIS in Europe. Brussels, European Commission
• SWG SCAR-AKIS Policy Brief on the Future of Advisory Services