eTOMATOTraining and Orientation
for Multifunctional Agriculture enTrepreneurial Opportunities

eTOMATO

intends to systematise approaches for bringing key skills to University students, traditional farmers and new entrants, turning them into Multifunctional Agriculture (MA) practitioners.

The project sustains the collaboration of partner Universities expertise in the domains of MA and Farmers already adopting successful business models inspired by MA to create educational pathways aimed at reducing key skills fragmentation, overcoming the detachment between theoretical training learned at the University, and practical experience gained on the field.
It develops a path composed of three steps:

  1. Classes to acquire an entrepreneurial mind-set and related skills
  2. e-learning modules to focus on specialised MA knowledge
  3. Work-based experience at transnational level to practice on the field

Along with training materials, innovative tools are being developed: MA Readiness Tool aimed at assessing the internal resources of traditional farms and benchmarking them against the key resources required to implement MA farm within the three MA domains, and a MA Business Model Canvas aimed at designing successful and resilient MA businesses. These tools are employed by the students to race for the Business Model Competition, whose winners access to the transnational internship. For supporting the students and the traditional farmers in developing MA initiatives, the University partners establish a MA Help Desk, being piloted during the Business Model Competition and maintened beyond the lifetime of the project.

Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. Knowledge Alliances for higher education.

eTOMATO is an initiative of 10 partners from 4 European countries (BE, BU, IT, ES) aimed at creating an educational offer for easing the uptake of new business practices respecting the Multifunctional Agriculture (MA) framework, particularly in the domains of Social and Didactic Agriculture, Rural Tourism and Short Food Supply Chains.

What is the Multifunctional Agriculture?

The Multifunctional Agriculture is an approach for diversifying the agricultural business opportunities through the implementation of practices based on Lean Resources Management to bolster the Rural Development.
The MA outputs generate the so-called the Triple Bottom Line outcomes, which means at Environmental, Social and Economic level, carrying benefits to as many stakeholders as possible.