Professional training in organic food production: a cross-country experience

Author(s):

Raquel Guiné, (CI&DETS/ESAV, Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Viseu, Portugal)

Daniela Costa, (DEAS/ESAV, Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Viseu, Portugal)

Paula Correia, (CI&DETS/ESAV, Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Viseu, Portugal)

Cristina Costa, (CI&DETS/ESAV, Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Viseu, Portugal)

Helena Correia, (DEAS/ESAV, Instituto Politécnico de Viseu, Viseu, Portugal)

Moises Castro, (EOSA – Estrategia y Organización S.A., Vigo, Spain)

Luis Guerra, (EOSA – Estrategia y Organización S.A., Vigo, Spain)

Catherine Seeds, (SRUC – Scotland’s Rural College, Aberdeen, Scotland)

Collette Coll, (SRUC – Scotland’s Rural College, Aberdeen, Scotland)

Laszlo Radics, (Association for Hungarian Organic Farming, Budapest, Hungary)

Meahmet Arslan, (Mustafa Kemal University, Antakya, Turkey)

Soner Soylu, (Mustafa Kemal University, Antakya, Turkey)

Monika Tothova, (Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovakia)

Peter Toth, (Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Nitra, Slovakia)

Salvatore Basile, (Biocert Association, Naples, Italy)

...Show all authors

Single Sentence Summary:

This study illustrates the professional training activities in the field of organic agriculture and established vision for planning of future training programs, in different countries, with maybe different social, educational and cultural realities.

Abstract:

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the agricultural activities and past experiences in professional training in the context of mobile learning in different countries (Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Hungary, UK, Italy and Turkey).

Design/methodology/approach

For the survey, a questionnaire was prepared in English and Portuguese and then translated into the languages of the participating countries. It was delivered electronically for answering online by adults only. The participation was voluntary and in the end 133 consented valid questionnaires were obtained. For the treatment of the data, SPSS was used and basic descriptive statistics tools were applied, together with tests, namely, crosstabs and χ² tests, considering a level of significance of 5 percent.

Findings

The results showed that the majority of the participants presently have some agricultural activity and one-third is thinking about starting one in the future. Most of the participants want to produce food organically, with significant differences among the countries studied in this paper. Most of the participants were enrolled in training activities in agriculture, especially those with higher education. This participation showed significant differences between countries as well as according to the dimension of the farms owned by the participants. A significant association was found between being a teacher in forming activities related to agriculture and being a farmer. When compared to distance learning, the training activities in classroom were the most frequent, with significant differences among the countries.

Practical implications

This study allowed characterizing the learning activities in the field of organic agriculture and established vision for planning of future training programs, in different countries, with maybe different social, educational and cultural realities.

Originality/value

Because the study included the participation of people from several countries all around Europe, the results obtained enrich the scientific area of training in organic farming, in view of distance learning vs classroom learning on a more global basis.

Keywords:

Distance learning, Questionnaire survey, Mobile learning

Type:

Research paper

Publisher:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Received:

13 November 2016

Accepted:

28 March 2017

Acknowledgments:

The authors thank to Project Leonardo da Vinci – Transfer of Innovation ECONewFARMERs: Building a future for new farmers in ecological farming through vocational training (2013-1-PT1-LEO05-15535).

Copyright:

© Emerald Publishing Limited 2017
Published by Emerald Publishing Limited
Licensed re-use rights only

Citation:

Raquel Guiné, Daniela Costa, Paula Correia, Cristina Costa, Helena Correia, Moises Castro, Luis Guerra, Catherine Seeds, Collette Coll, Laszlo Radics, Meahmet Arslan, Soner Soylu, Monika Tothova, Peter Toth, Salvatore Basile, (2017) "Professional training in organic food production: a cross-country experience", The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, Vol. 34 Issue: 3, pp.259-273, https://doi.org/10.1108/IJILT-11-2016-0052

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