GUARDIANS · Smart solutions to empower small- and medium-sized farms as guardians of the territory

Ensuring a sustainable food system requires, above all other factors, re-entrusting our primary production to the guardians of our territory, the owners of small- and medium-sized farms and farm structures in rural areas. GUARDIANS focuses on understanding their challenges and empowering them with a set of digital innovative solutions that will help them to bridge the current technological gap between small and large farms.GUARDIANS will put in place a set of cost-effective and human-centric digital solutions, which aim to support and empower the penetration, sustainability and resilience of more agroecological farming models, like regenerative agriculture, natural grazing, alternative managed grazing strategies, and the promotion of pollinators in different farm structures. To do this, a multi-actor co-creation methodology, a set of adoption pathways and 9 different technologies, combining software and hardware (i.e. drones, sensors), will be customized to cover the farmers' needs.These digital solutions will be tested through a total of 24 small- and medium-sized farms and farm structures with a wide range of production types (arable crops, woody crops, grassland and livestock production) in 6 pilots represented by farming cooperatives (acting as one stop shops) from 5 different countries with diverse environmental, climatic and socio-economic conditions. As a result, GUARDIANS will increase the uptake of innovative digital technologies by farmers, guaranteed by the use of a multi-actor approach, integrating farmers and agricultural stakeholders at all stages of the project, as well as scientists, technicians and SMEs.Cascade funding and connections to specific stakeholders (agricultural cooperatives, agrifood hubs, DIHs, OGs) will be used as multipliers to allow GUARDIANS to roll up its impact throughout Europe. It is expected to roll-out and replicate GUARDIANS results up to 92 farms around Europe during the project duration.