Empowering Rural Tourism through Entrepreneurship with Youth

The Erasmus+ project „RURALYOUTH” (“Empowering Rural Tourism through Entrepreneurship with Youth”) forms a lifelong education system for tourism students, who would like to be the entrepreneurs in rural areas. The project creates actions to improve knowledge of agricultural, touristic, rural, cultural and entrepreneurship among young people and will prevent miss-match for tourism students. With this project, which was formed with 6 partners, it was aimed to support the development of rural areas, to support lifelong learning, to increase awareness of the nationality through education and technology-based distance education model and to develop action plans in line with the European Youth Strategy.

Erasmus+ project „RURALYOUTH” live events in 2022:

The “Train the Trainer” activity of the international Erasmus + project “Ruralyouth” was organised in České Budějovice, Czech Republic in August, 2022. The training activity was organized by the project partners from ProEdu (Czech Republic).

The 4th transnational meeting of the Rural Youth project was hold at the Department of Architecture and Design Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, in November, 2022. The meeting attended colleagues from Eskisehir Osmangazi University (Turkey), Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), Proeduca (Czech Republic), Eskisehir Metropolitan Municipality (Turkey), Slovak University of Technology (Slovakia), University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (Poland).

Empowering Rural Tourism through Entrepreneurship with Youth “RURALYOUTH” project has finalized with the International Rural Entrepreneurship Summit held in December, 2022, at Eskisehir Osmangazi University (Turkey). There Lithuanian RURALYOUTH team has presented rural tourism development project idea and took the second place of the International Rural Entrepreneurship Summit.

The project coordinator: Eskisehir Osmangazi University (Turkey), project partners: Vytautas Magnus University (Lithuania), Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava (Slovakia), University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn (Poland), Eskisehir Metropolitan Municipality (Turkey), ProEduca z.s. (Czech Republic).

The second transnational partners meeting of the Erasmus+ MARIPET project in Kaunas

Over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. However, today we are seeing 30 percent of the world’s fish stocks overexploited. FAO estimates that total fish production is 179 million tonnes in 2018 and about 88% of the mentioned amount was utilized for human consumption directly and the rest (12%) was described as used for “non-food purposes” and “waste”. Reducing by-catch and discard is an important issue for fishery management. Not only ecological impacts on biodiversity but also economical losses are enormously tragic problems worldwide. More than 40 fish species are caught per operation in bottom-trawl fishing, especially in Mediterranean waters because of its multi-species fishery characteristics. Among these, species that are discarded for various reasons besides those that are evaluated commercially have a significant amount in the total catch. A large proportion of fisheries production (35 percent of the global harvest) is either lost or wasted.

For this, it is aimed to provide training on the possibilities of using discarded fishery products as pet food by bringing them to shore. MARIPET Project intends to create an awareness to use discard products by captured-based fisheries into the pet food industry. Although fish meal and fish oil which are the most valuable feed ingredients in the fish feed industry have been produced by using discarded fishes, it needs still a huge amount of investment to create economically valuable products. By contrast, most of the discarded fishes can be used as “Biologically Appropriate Raw Food” (BARF). The barf diet is obtained by blending foods that are useful and nutritious for cats and dogs in certain proportions. It means biologically suitable raw foods which is a diet that has been formulated considering the diet of cats and dogs in their evolutionary process. The main theme of MARIPET includes more than one value chain step from the marine environment to pet food plant and any single step can create a difference itself. an innovative 5-module training programme, a virtual dedicated environment with an online education kit, platforms for discard fisheries and pet food trainers/experts and pet food manufacturers/experts, and an e-book/guidebook on European Discard Fisheries and Pet Food Production will be developed. The Training workshops and Multiplier events in five countries will finalise the project activities.

The project was launched on February 28, 2022; in 2023 January 10-11 the second international meeting of project partners was held at Vytautas Magnus University. Project implementation issues and the creation of training programme modules were covered during the meeting.

The meeting participants visited the Aquaculture Centre at the VMU Academy of Agriculture, where the centre’s director, A. Žibas, introduced the technologies used here, the scientific research being conducted, the fish species being cultivated, the daily challenges that arise, and expressed satisfaction with the centre’s accomplishments. The project’s achievements were reviewed with the chancellor of the Academy of Agriculture prof. Dr. Astrida Miceikienė and the dean of the Faculty of Forestry and Ecology prof. Dr. Vitas Marozas. The possibility of collaboration in arranging studies and performing scientific research was also addressed.

Tadas Laurinavičius, head of UAB Baltic Facility Management’s aquarium maintenance, introduced the project participants to the aquarium housed in PLC Mega. It is the largest and tallest aquarium in the Baltic countries, and it is ranked in the top ten in the world. The aquarium is 10 metres high and 4 metres wide, with a length of 11 metres and a water capacity of 170,000 gallons. With more than 10 tonnes of salt dissolved in it, the aquarium maintains an average water temperature of 25 degrees Celsius. Computer systems maintain water quality and temperature. The aquarium is home to around 170 tropical fish species from the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, as well as the Red, Mediterranean, and Caribbean seas. T. Laurinavičius got many questions about assuring fish viability, nutrition, well-being, cohabitation, and ecological functioning. The quarantine system built in the aquarium’s technical premises, which is used for the acclimation of new fish and the treatment of ill ones, as well as technological gadgets that maintain the life of the aquarium’s residents, piqued the curiosity of project participants.

The project is coordinated by Ege University (Turkey), project partners: University of Balikesir (Turkey), University of Dubrovnik (Croatia), Agricultural University of Iceland, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality (Turkey), Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and Vytautas Magnus University.

The project’s next meeting will be held at Dubrovnik University (Croatia) in June 2023.
The project will last until February 28, 2024.

Conference of Young Scientists „YOUNG SCIENTIST 2023“

The 20^th Conference of Young Scientists YOUNG SCIENTIST 2023 will be held on 29 March 2023 (remote). The conference is intended for first, second, and third-degree students. Its goal is to engage the students in research activities, cultivate the skills of public presentation of the research findings, present the research achievements, and hold discussions on the relevant issues of bioeconomy, Green Deal, climate change, ecosystem sustainability, rational use, and protection of natural resources. Participants of the conference will be awarded the participation certificates.

More details about Conference and Online Registration on the conference website: https://zua.vdu.lt/en/conference-young-scientist-2023/

Scientific papers online submission: Conference Proceedings YOUNG SCIENTIST 2023

Visit our website to read the full announcement.

________________________________________________________________________
Conference “Young Scientist 2022”

International Scientific-Methodical Conference BALTIC SURVEYING’23

Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy, Lithuania

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

Department of Land Use Planning and Geomatics

invites you to participate in International Scientific-Methodical Conference BALTIC SURVEYING’23

10^th-12^th of May, 2023, Kaunas, Lithuania

in collaboration with

Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Latvia

University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn

The purpose of this conference is to share the experience and knowledge in actual problems of land administration, land management, cadastre, land use, rural development, geodesy, cartography, remote sensing, etc. Problems of improvement of education in land management will be discussed as well.

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INVITATION

TEMPLATE FOR ARTICLES

TEMPLATE FOR ABSTRACT

CONFERENCE TOPICS

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

CONFERENCE OFFICE

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Greetings from VMU Agriculture Academy. Happy and hopeful holidays!

Dear community,

This period is a great time to give a thanks for the gift of friendship, to celebrate the dreams came true and the work done in cooperation. We wish everyone to cherish and grow what we have and light up a bright, peaceful and creative future!

Greetings from VMU Agriculture Academy. Happy and hopeful holidays!

Dear community,

Greetings from VMU Agriculture Academy. Happy and hopeful holidays!

Dear community,

Greetings from VMU Agriculture Academy. Happy and hopeful holidays!

“ERASMUS+” training courses at Europass Teacher Academy in Florence

On 05 – 10 December 2022, assoc. prof. dr. Jurgita Kulaitienė, assoc. prof. dr. Nijolė Vaitkevičienė and lecturer dr. Dovilė Levickienė of the Department of Plant Biology and Food Sciences from Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy (VMU AA), Faculty of Agronomy, were participating in the courses “There Is an App for That! Exploring the Best Apps for Teaching and Student Learning” that were held at Europass Teacher Academy in Florence (Italy).

In these courses, teaching staff from Croatia, Spain, Germany, Greece, and Lithuania were attended.

During the courses, teachers used different educational apps in class. These apps allow structure information, to better analyze, comprehend, synthesize, recall and generate new ideas. They acquainted with the most popular and practical educational apps for teaching and student learning across a wider range of subjects. Teachers learned how to properly integrate these apps in the classroom as a tool to support their learning.

As well as, the visit has given an opportunity to work on English language and to know their history, culture and people.

The European Green Deal is Affecting More and More Organizations. Changes in Customs

The action plan of European Green Deal is gaining momentum, more and more organizations have to rethink and review their operational processes, adapt to current and future changes. Associated professors of the Faculty of Bioeconomy Development of Vytautas Magnus university Agriculture Academy (VMU AA) were invited to discuss these changes at the 7th Conference of the Customs Practice Association.

Assoc. prof. dr. Erika Besusparienė on December 8 attended at the 7th conference of the Customs Practice Association, she made a presentation “The European Green Deal: Challenges and Opportunities”, which has been prepared together with colleague assoc. prof. dr. Milita Vienažindienė. The researchers presented several key actions of the European Green Deal, which will directly affect companies importing goods, logistics companies, customs brokers, customs and the consumer of imported goods.

Assoc. prof. dr. M. Viežindiene noted that logistics companies will face new challenges in the product supply chain due to the reduction of CO₂ emissions from new passenger cars and new vans, which by 2030 must be reduced to 50%, and in 2035 – 100%. “This progress can only be achieved by ensuring alternative fuels and evaluating the amount of CO₂ emitted by vehicles, so the European Commission by 2025 must develop a common European Union (EU) methodology for the evaluation of CO₂ emissions throughout the life cycle of passenger cars and vans”, – commented assoc. prof. dr. M. Vienažindienė. Assoc. prof. dr. E. Besusparienė noticed that supply costs are often “hidden costs” in the value of goods, so it is difficult to predict how much the value of goods would increase as a result of transporting goods using alternative fuels.

Assoc. prof. dr. E. Besusparienė singled out the new CO₂ tax, which is named as a carbon border adjustment mechanism in the European Green Course. “The first steps towards the introduction of the tax are already starting from January 1, 2023. The new CO₂ tax will initially affect imports of cement, steel and iron, aluminium, fertilizers and electricity. The CO₂ tax will be applied from 2026 and with the complete abandonment of pollution permits from 2030 only this tax would remain. According to the calculations of the European Commission, the EU budget would be replenished by about 1 billion euros on average every year (2026-2030) due to this tax. Thus, the costs to the business would increase in the same volume. Although the carbon border tax mechanism is designed to prevent that polluting goods would not enter the EU market; and thereby indirectly contribute to third countries’ transformation to more sustainable production. Unfortunately, the market often observes that “green” goods cost more”, – commented assoc. prof. dr. E. Besusprienė.

While participating in the discussion “Green economy, current issues of tariff classification”, assoc. prof. dr. E. Besusparienė noted that the successful development of a circular economy requires the involvement and cooperation of business, government and higher education and study institutions. Assoc. prof. dr. E. Besusparienė, together with the moderator of the discussion Milda Stravinske, discussed that exists false stereotype that the green economy is far from the customs area. To this day, it is being discussed about importing waste and its value, does it differ, if the waste will be utilized or processed. According to accounting theories, when pricing is determined by the cost-plus method, the value of the waste may be the same regardless of further use. However, when discussing the transaction method, which is based on negotiations, different values can be agreed, where the price (value) of the waste to be utilized will be lower (the seller tends to get rid of the waste faster) and the waste that can be used according to the principles of the circular economy will be more valuable and it is assumed that the price (value) will be higher. This is directly related to the customs assessment of goods (in this case, waste) and the calculation of taxes paid to customs. UAB “Muita” head of the customs compliance department Jurgita Stanienė, who participated in the discussion, noted that new challenge is how to classify such imported waste.

The 7th Customs Practice Association conference further revealed the intertwining of various fields and how important it is for representatives of different businesses to reorient themselves in new changes in order to achieve a more sustainable future.

Moments of the 7th Customs Practice Association conference: