THE IMPORTANCE
Knowledge, skills and innovation are the indispensable foundation of sustainable development. Modern agriculture is largely based on new technological solutions closely related to the increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICT) and various software solutions, for both training and managing the production processes. Apiculture as an agricultural branch is not an exception of this. Yet, apiculture remains largely dependent on self-study from individual experience, while the technical and technological training is poorly explored.
In Europe there is still a huge gap in technological development and organization of apiculture. Training in apiculture calls for a serious consideration, as it records less and less contact and support for the bee-keepers. In addition, in a vast majority of European countries and regions, especially those of southern Europe, a well-developed sphere of formation and transfer of knowledge is required for quite some time.
At the same time, apiculture is very present as an agricultural branch in BEE-IN consortium countries Greece, Italy, Cyprus and North Macedonia, where, on the other side, Vocational Training Education (VET) offers very poor to non-existent training in this field. Building a sustainable regional future for the large extent hence depends on the intersection of the two which, even though a concern that should be addressed in all parts of society as a critical strategic area for development and economic activity, has in so far not been given a fair attention in educational and training practices.
OUR AIM
BEE-IN project partnership made a desk research on the issues and needs the bee-keepers are facing as well as their expectations, from one side, but also, the challenges in the VET system, and then developed the BEE-IN project idea of introducing digitalization in apiculture and VET.
Given these preliminary considerations, the first challenge of BEE-IN project is to boost knowledge and technology transfer in the apiculture sector. The possibility to increase the level of information available to apiculture practitioners about new technologies and training is directly linked to sectorial investments, economic and environmental efficiency and sustainability, food healthiness and safety as well as the ability to compete in the international market area.
In that context BEE-IN project is focused on innovative approaches to knowledge exchange that were taking advantage of new digital technologies, and that were based on synergies between information management and communication for development. Its objective is to foster the introduction of digital training in VET by bringing relevant expertise and resources across the international development community into a more coherent and systematic approach.
