3rd meeting of the Advisory Working Group of the Spanish AKIS Coordinating Body

The 3rd meeting of the Advisory Working Group of the Spanish AKIS Coordinating Body took place on 19 November. Around 50 participants representing national and regional public administration, agricultural organisations, research centres, the academic world and, in short, the entire agri-food chain, addressed the different areas in which they want to have an impact in relation to agri-food advice.

As regards the Digital Transition Advisory Board , a working subgroup with 25 members has been formed, and experts from the world of technology and input companies are expected to join. After consolidating the conceptual framework, it is expected that the cases will be identified and a subgroup meeting will be organised for the end of December or the beginning of January.

As regards the Innovation Advisory Service , progress is being made until the end of November on the conceptual framework by sharing examples from European, national and regional platforms and a repository of cases has been created, including the Innovation Support Services (ISS) and their practical examples of how the ISS have developed their functions in projects or initiatives (from GGOO and other cases).

Work will also be done to collect training and capacity building requests in order to adapt policies and resources to the real demands of the sector.

The Advisory Service for Young and New Farmers also has a working subgroup that will meet shortly to finalise the conceptual framework and define the next steps.

Regarding the Sustainable Nutrition Advisory Networks , it is worth mentioning that the subgroup met at the end of October and the objectives and theoretical framework were defined. Topics such as:

• What is considered advice according to RD 1051/2022
• What is an independent advisor?
• Training needs
• Possibility of sending surveys to a wider audience (not just identified actors)
• Advisor networks, leverage existing ones
• Examples of good practices (e.g. Valencia)
• Soil physical-chemical data viewer (ITACyL)
• SATIVUM
• European Soil Monitoring Act

Proposals from other entities representing actors who should be part of this working group but are not currently will also be taken into account in this group. In addition, a survey will be prepared asking about how these actors address and what needs they detect in advice on sustainable nutrition. It is estimated that by next February the needs and case studies that can respond to the needs detected will be identified. These may be operational groups, projects, regulations applied in another country/region, innovations, etc. For the months of March-April, a report will be drawn up with political recommendations and proposals that the Administration can carry out to solve the needs detected.

As regards the Plant Health Advisory Networks , the aim is to create an updated and harmonised database on the different groups, networks, number of people advised, crops, surface area, strengths and weaknesses.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the work carried out by the working group on Advisory Networks in Organic Production . After identifying the theoretical framework, it is expected that the actors, i.e. advisors, advisory bodies, public bodies, and persons advised who fulfil this function in relation to organic production, will be completed before the beginning of 2025. Case studies will then be identified, needs will be analysed between January and March of next year and finally a report with policy recommendations is expected to be drafted.