The international partnership of the Regions 4Food project had its meeting in Brussels on 18-19 October 2021.
On the first day of the negotiations (October 18, 2021) discussions were centred on the management of the project. From the issues tackled it is worth highlighting that the South Transdanubian Regional Innovation Agency Nonprofit Ltd. organizes a dissemination event until 30 November 2021, in which it briefly describes the most important elements of the Hungarian action plan, as well as the policy recommendations formulated within the project.
The professionally more exciting day was the second (October 19, 2021). External organizations (such as Campden BRI Hungary Nonprofit Ltd. from Hungary) could attend the meeting online, whilst the staff of the European Commission Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development and the COPA-COGECA (the organization representing the interests of European agricultural farms and agricultural cooperatives) also participated in person and shared their presentations. What was said during the day is well summarized in the policy recommendation of the Regions 4Food project. It defines the following directions for development in support of digitization, especially in the field of agriculture, forestry and aquaculture, and specifically relevant for rural areas:
- the creation of more public and freely accessible data platforms and ensuring interoperability between those,
- creating an ecosystem that supports the digitization of the food chain,
- increase private and public investment for wider digitization,
- promotion of customized hardware and software applications in the sector,
- development of modern curricula, launch of multidisciplinary training programs,
- communication and awareness-raising to extend digitization,
- development of agricultural digitalisation products and services in cooperation with users (co-design process).
