eTOMATO is an initiative of 10 partners from 4 European countries (BE, BU, IT, ES) aimed at creating an educational offer for easing the uptake of new business practices respecting the Multifuntional Agriculture (MA) framework, particularly in the domains of Social and Didactic Agriculture, Rural Tourism and Short Food Supply Chains.
MA is the approach for diversifying agricultural business through the application of Lean Resources Management practices to promote the Rural Development. The MA outputs generate the so-called the Triple Bottom Line results (Environmental, Social, Economics), carrying benefits to as many stakeholders as possible.
eTOMATO intends to systematise approaches for bringing key skills to University students, traditional farmers and new entrants, turning them into MA practitioners. The project sustains the collaboration of partner Universities expertise in the domains of MA and Farmers already adopting successful business models inspired by MA to create educational pathsways aimed at reducing key skills fragmentation, overcoming the detachment between theoretical training (learned at the University) and practical experience (acquired on the field). It will develop a path composed of three steps: i) classes (entrepreneurial skills), ii) e-learning modules (MA knowledge) and iii) work-based experience (transnational/national level). Along with training materials, innovative tools will be developed: Firstly, an MA Readiness Framework, aimed at assessing the internal resources of traditional farms and benchmarking them against the key resources required to implement MA farm within the three MA domains and secondly, a Business Model Canvas, aimed at designing successful and resilient MA businesses.
For supporting the students and the traditional farmers in developing MA initiatives the Universities will build-up a MA Help Desk (piloted during a Business Model competition) and maintened beyond the lifetime of the project.