Precis nicola penford

Article for Farmers Club Journal by Nicky Penford, Lecturer at Scottish Agricultural College, Aberdeen on study tour to Romania Scything is a very satisfying technique, but as I swished my way across the hay field I appreciated why many Romanian farmers find the increasing use of Allen scythes preferable, particularly in the midday heat of 35 degrees. Scything was just one of the many things I learnt about on my study tour to Romania funded by a Farmers Club Charitable Trust bursary. I chose Transylvania in Romania as it has the most extensive area of traditional farming in Europe which maintains the greatest botanical diversity of meadows ever recorded. I wanted to find out what opportunities exist to help farmers conserve these meadows and the communities and way of life that they support. Traditional farming that maintains areas of high wildlife interest has been categorised as ‘High Nature Value’ farming by the EU – not the snappiest of titles, but a useful term to compare farming systems around Europe that produce far more than just food. It could also be a significant part of Common Agricultural Policy reforms in 2013.

I was hosted by two NGOs, Fundatia ADEPT and the Pogany-Havas association, through contacts provided by the European Forum for Conservation and Pastoralism. These organisations are an excellent example of how a combination of EU funding, commercial sponsorship and great initiative can have a real impact on securing the livelihoods of the local farming community and the landscapes they manage through a diverse range of projects. Their vision is to achieve biodiversity conservation at a landscape scale, not primarily by creating protected areas, but by working with small-scale farmers to create incentives to conserve the semi-natural landscapes they themselves have created. There are several transferable concepts and initiatives that could be applicable in the UK within small scale farming communities, such as crofters in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.

Nearly half of Romania’s 4.2 million farm holdings are under one ha in size and do not qualify for support. Half of all farms have fewer than five cows. Small producers deliver to one or two milk collection points in villages, from which processors take delivery. To ensure the survival of HNV farmed landscapes, these milk collection points must remain in profitable operation and this was an important role of the two projects I visited.

Small scale dairy production is the key to the survival of the HNV landscapes of Romania and hay production is the mainstay of this dairy system, as the cows are kept inside in barns behind the house through the long cold winters. One cow is said to eat four cartloads of hay over the winter; “one hay cart for each leg” is a local rule of thumb. Crops are grown on the valley floors, with valley sides given over to hay-meadows and large expanses of communal grazing land for both sheep and cattle.

EU accession in 2007 has produced new opportunities but also many new rules and regulations. One of the farmers I stayed with said the EU rules governing milk hygiene and agri-environment schemes “were worse than Ceausescu” and so considerable amount of effort has been put into helping local producers to deal with them. ADEPT has been in the forefront of a campaign for flexibility in enforcement of regulations. As part of this campaign, the wildlife NGOs Milvus, WWF and ADEPT published a booklet on Minimum Food Hygiene Conditions. This is an important clarification which will enable small producers to resist the threat represented by excessive regulations. 40,000 copies in Romanian and 10,000 in Hungarian were distributed throughout Romania in 2008.

Gourmet food was a highlight of my visit and many producers are registered with the Slow Food movement, originally an Italian organisation promoting the use of locally produced high quality food.

This was instigated by a visit by HRH, The Prince of Wales and prompted the formation of ‘Saxon Village Preserves’. This is helping to develop good quality food which benefits the local environment at a fair price. ADEPT helped form Slow Food Târnava Mare, the first Slow Food group in Romania, bringing together consumers (hotels and restaurants) with local farmers and producers The grasslands of Transylvania are of international conservation importance, as reflected in the EU Natura 2000 designation for 85,000ha in the Târnava Mare area, which ADEPT helped to obtain. This designation has enabled access to funding for a range of projects under the EU LIFE programme, highlighting the important positive link between conservation designations and rural development.

This is a 356,330 euro project with partnership funding from the Orange phone network. This project shows how conservation designations can bring opportunities and not the constraints often perceived by farmers. Orange Romania has given a boost to local producers in recent years through their choice of Târnava Mare area to provide 700 Christmas baskets for clients and 3,500 for their staff. They contain locally made herb teas, ‘palinca’, (local spirit made from plums), jam and honey.

I was impressed by the community-owned micro-processing units known as food barns. ADEPT has developed a basic model, easily replicated, for village-level food processing that meets hygiene regulations for small producers. I saw a local woman bring in her crop of rhubarb into the food barn to make into jam that could be sold at the farmers’ markets. The UK company Bottle Green had a contract with local suppliers to obtain elderflower cordial, which was processed in the food barn.

I was asked to talk to local farmers about how farming in Scotland differs from their area and why western Europeans think Transylvania is so important. When I showed them slides of Scottish silage production, they were amazed that our cattle could eat just one species of grass instead of the range of health giving plants that are found in their hay. I highlighted the role of agri-environment schemes in the UK and told them how our farmers were getting paid to recreate, at great expense, the species-rich grasslands that we have almost lost but which they still have in great abundance. I was asked for advice on how their new agri-environment schemes could be developed to make them practical for small farmers.

At SAC at Aberdeen we often have students from HNV farming areas, particularly crofting land such as the Outer Hebrides. These areas need young custodians who understand the importance of the areas they farm for wildlife and landscape, but can combine this with initiative and entrepreneurial skill to add value to the high quality food they can produce. Student exchange visits to see this in action in Romania will help to achieve this.

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