Hungary, Western Transdanubia (Szombathely)
Description
Kislépték Association focuses on small-scale farmers and producers by providing support service for them and representing their interests as in average extension services mainly focus on industrial actors but not on the actors of the Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) who are the smallest ones. Their main barrier which holds them back from developing is the challenge of receiving appropriate and up-to-date knowledge on every step of the value chain, including production, small scale processing, labeling, logistics, alternative sales channels, marketing and communication.
Thus, Kislépték’s and its Living Lab’s most important task is to provide knowledge, information and capacity building for small scale producers in order to address their specific challenges, often tightly bound to regularoty and legislative questions. In Hungary, a Living Lab will be established in Szombathely, within the region of Western Transdanubia. This LL will focus on establishing an SFSC-focused knowledge platform and mentorship network for SFSC actors.
Living Lab Manager
Viktória Nagy, Kislépték
Supporting Partners
Specific Challenges
- No formal SFSC advisory system implemented in Hungary via AKIS
- SFSC advisory task is too complex for individual advisor
- Requirements for SFSC advisors are not defined
- Lack of organizations bringing together individual advisors
- Missing specific training materials for advisors in the educational system
- SFSC actors cannot define their interest and cannot attain valuable advice
Vision
The main objective for the next years is to develop specific consultancy service that can be integrated into the country-specific AKIS systems. The Hungarian-based Living Lab also aim to act as a knowledge-transfer hub and provide SFSC-specific supporting services at sub-regional level in Central and Eastern Europe.
As part of a functioning SFSC advisory system, a platform attracting SFSC advisors and SFSC actors should be established, providing knowledge repositories and creating spaces for collaboration, while focusing on the needs of producers. Plan how the system could operate in the most efficient way and integrate it into the AKIS network.