The WildMAPFiTs project begins its activity, and the six project partners held the Kick-off meeting. The meeting takes place in an online format, hoping to meet in person whenever possible.
The European Medicinal and Aromatic Plant (MAP) Farming, Processing and Training Alliance project, co-funded by the Erasmus + Programme of the European Union, supports the development of sustainable management strategies of wild harvests as well as easy-to-use post-harvest handling practices for various indigenous medicinal and aromatic plant species at local and regional food systems. To achieve this, the project links researchers’ theoretical and methodological expertise with practitioners and stakeholders from the medicinal plant production value chain.
At the kick-off meeting, the project partners presented their expertise and work on the project and defined the best strategies to achieve the project objectives. The necessary adaptations due to the pandemic situation were also raised. Among the many topics of conversation, a general overview of the state of the medicinal plant’s sector was discussed, especially in terms of training needs and digital tools that will be developed in the project, as well as stakeholders profiles.
There will several outputs to achieve in the project. Output 1, led by the UCD, comprises several deliverables and outputs, all related to identifying the training needs for sustainable Wild MAP collectors, through a complete analysis and thanks to stakeholders’ collaboration.
AKMI leads Output 2 and with the collaboration of all partners will design and deliver the state of the art, user friendly and appealing Open Educational Resources for the Training of both Collectors and
Processors of Wild MAPs.
The training developed by the project consortium will allow obtaining an AgroCertification when the OERs are successfully attended by Wild MAP collectors and processors enrolled. The development of this certification is led by the Turkish partner ÇOMU in the context of Output 3.
Output 4 focus on providing to wild MAP collectors and processors a GIS-Enabled tool for the Identification and Geotagging of Ecological Data, a digital tool that will gather useful, accurate and detailed information on Wild MAPs, at a local and regional level. This output is led by the project coordinator, HAO-DEMETER.
Output 5, led by FEUGA, has as objective to implement project developments and co-work with MAP Communities, achieving their engagement and feedback. MAPs Community receives special attention with a specific space on the project website, where stakeholders can apply to be part of the Wild MAPs Community.
In the upcoming months, project progress will be acheived and shared on the website and project’s social media. More meetings also will be held to ensure delivering to stakeholders the best training and tools for Wild MAPs practices.