Abstract:

Andalusia is a Spanish region with a population of 8.5x106 inhabitants distributed among 785 municipalities. The rural area represents 51.7% of population and integrating 94.3% of the municipalities. Likewise, 57% of the Andalusia territorial extension (49,932 km2) is used for agricultural activities, reaching the Andalusia Agricultural Income 37.3% and 5.2% of the total of Spain and the European Union (EU), respectively.

The EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is managed and funded at European level from the resources of the EU’s budget and it regulates the agricultural sector in all its member countries. The main objectives of CAP are:
- Providing affordable, safe and quality food
- Ensuring a fair standard of living for the agricultural community
- Preserving natural resources and respect the environment

The CAP was created in 1962 and has undergone since then successive reforms. Currently is in place the reformed CAP for the 2023-27 period (the previous one 2014-22) which is considered the second most important reform that it has experienced throughout its history.

The Andalusian Institute for Research and Training in Agricultural, Fishery, Food and Ecological Production (IFAPA) is the single Andalusian public research organization dedicated to agriculture, livestock, fisheries and sustainable development and its main purpose is to promote research, technological innovation and training in the agri-food and fishery sectors as well as facilitate the knowledge transfer to advance in the modernization and profitability of agriculture.

In the knowledge transfer context, IFAPA started in 2023 the project 'Specialized Training in CAP 2023-2027', with the aim of transferring effective knowledge on relevant topics that define the Spanish Strategic Planning according to the latest CAP reform (2023-2027). The target audience consists of professionals with a university degree and higher technicians in agricultural vocational training. In this way, it is intended that the knowledge transfer action leads to the most efficient and widest possible dissemination of contents towards the Andalusian agricultural sector.

The training activities of the project are taught in blended learning format with a duration of 30 hours (6h face-to-face; 24h e-learning). To date, 8 of the 12 planned course editions foreseen for the period 2023-2024 have been completed. A total of 219 students were enrolled of which 145 (66.2%) obtained the final qualification.

The gender distribution, 52% of the enrolled student were women. By age, 3% were students under 25 year-old, 62% between 25 and 45 and 35% were students older than 45. The grades of students that passed the training were in the 6.1-9.4 range out of a maximum of 10.

With 3 editions left to be taught, it is estimated that approximately 200 professionals will pass the training activity. A significant percentage of these students develop their professional activity in the field of technology transfer and advisory services to farms. Therefore, this training program is an interesting contribution to the knowledge transfer of topics linked to the CAP 2023-2027 and it is expected to improve the decision-making management of agricultural holdings.

Keywords:

Agri-food, Common Agricultural Policy, Knowledge transfer, e-Learning.