OSI is Reaching Farmers at Home with Online Training Modules

OSI Europe has collaborated with ASAP, a Polish sustainable agriculture association, to help improve best practice knowledge transfer in order to drive on-farm performance and sustainability.

Established in 2018, the ASAP platform was initially focused on providing training for farmers in the arable and horticultural sectors. However, OSI Europe has since collaborated with ASAP to help develop online training modules for Poland’s livestock farmers to drive improvements in key areas of sustainability.

There is currently a lack of accessible resources available to Polish farmers, which is why OSI is aiming to fill this knowledge gap. Working with ASAP, OSI are looking to provide clear and concise learning modules on topics that will improve sustainable farming practices and generate greater value for producers. By providing these modules online, OSI can reach a greater amount of farmers, and in a faster time.

The development of online learning modules for the livestock sector will also help move the industry further towards meeting the four European Roundtable for Beef Sustainability (ERBS) targets:

· Reducing greenhouse gas emissions across the beef sector by 15% by 2025

· Decreasing total usage of antibiotics to below 10mg/Kg PCU by 2023

· Reducing the use of HP-CIA's by 50% by 2023

· Ensuring mortality rates are below 1.5% by 2030.

OSI and ASAP worked together to launch an antibiotics module earlier this year, and is aiming to increase the amount of modules available to farmers over the coming months. Participants will receive detailed training on key aspects of sustainable beef production. The aim of these e-learning sessions is to provide farmers with greater technical knowledge and expertise to implement best practice that will drive on-farm performance.

Collaboration

This project also complements OSI’s Sustainability 365 farmer recognition programme launched last year. This programme identifies best practice farmers and facilitates idea sharing among farmers and partners throughout the supply chain, so that they can learn from each other.

These two projects combined are key in helping us to offer solutions to our producers which will help improve the overall sustainability of our industry.