Kislépték Egyesület, Pannon Helyi Termék Klaszter and the „Helyben vagyunk” trademark on 21 November this year invited all those organisations and individuals who are in some way involved in the short food supply chain (SFSC) to a joint discussion. The Living Lab was created under the international Eu4Advice project, with a pilot year, focusing on the Hungarian specificities but integrating into international experience.

Around 30 people joined the event. The participants came from very different backgrounds. Without being exhaustive, the participants represented municipalities, Leader organisations, Rel mentoring, universities, vegetable baskets, the National Chamber of Agriculture.

At the beginning of the meeting Katalin Kujáni and István Kovács welcomed the participants, then they explained the purpose of the Living Lab and described the current situation and the vision for the future.

The aim is for SFSC organisers to be part of a network, as they can reach out to small farmers in the most remote areas. They have to answer questions on the field, so it is good to have information and knowledge in all areas.

There are 3 main areas for their selection: knowledge, skills and ability.

As the number of farmers in Hungary is decreasing, the role of the advisors is also to convince the younger generation to think creatively and to show good examples of how to make a decent living from agriculture.

Training material for SFSC organisers was also presented, which should include:
– knowledge of alternative farming systems
– "Soft skills" problem solving, critical thinking
– basic digitalisation skills, data management
– marketing and consumer behaviour, 4P
– basic knowledge of food production technology
– fresh produce packaging and labelling
– innovative solutions

Today, out of 105 Leader Associations in Hungary, only 13 are involved in producing local products. There is a growing demand and focus on these products and experiential rural knowledge transfer. The main challenge of the Living Lab is to provide farmers up-to-date information through well-trained SFSC organisers. It was good to see that there are many points of view and many opinions, but one common goal!