Conference „New trends in management and production engineering – regional, cross-border and global perspectives”

On June 6-7 2019 assoc. prof. Jolita Greblikaite and lecturer Rolandas Rakstys (VMU Agriculture Academy, Faculty of Bioeconomy) were participating at 8th International Scientific conference „New trends in management and production engineering – regional, cross-border and global perspectives” at Brenna, Poland. Researchers presented were results in scientific research. They participated also in the meeting with the editors of sscietific journals cited in WoS Claritive Analytics and Scopus Databases.

Participation in Final Farm Demo Conference

Assoc. prof. dr. Anastasija Novikova from the Research Institute for Bioeconomy participated in Final Farm Demo Conference, which was held in Brussels on 21th of May, 2019. The conference was dedicated to present the result from three European projects funded under Horizon 2020: AgriDemo-F2F, PLAID and NEFERTITI. AgriDemo-F2F and PLAID focus on understanding the role of European commercial demonstration farms and prepare for more connectivity between actors involved in on-farm demonstrations. These projects develop a geo-referenced online inventory of demonstration farms and build an online FarmDemo-Hub community. The group of researchers from the Research Institute for Bioeconomy (prof. dr. Astrida Miceikiene, assoc. prof. dr. Anastasija Novikova and assoc. prof. dr. Bernardas Vaznonis) participated in PLAID projects’ activities making the national inventories of demonstration farms in Lithuania. NEFERTITI focuses on the establishment of 10 interactive thematic networks covering the 3 main agricultural sectors: animal production, arable farming and horticultural production. They bring together 45 regional hubs of demo-farmers and innovation actors – advisors, cooperatives, NGOs, industry, education, researchers and policy makers. The projects’ implementers hope that the output of AgriDemo-F2F and PLAID will be used as input to set up 3 annual campaigns of on-farm demonstrations. For more information about the projects, please visit https://farmdemo.eu/

COST ACTION SACURIMA meeting

The Agriculture Academy Faculty of Bioeconomy Development at Vytautas Magnus University held a meeting of Working Group 3 under the COST action CA16123 “Safety Culture and Risk Management in Agriculture“ (SACURIMA) and workshop “How to improve safety culture and risk management in vulnerable populations in agriculture?” on 25-26 April 2019.

Researchers and experts from Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Turkey, Serbia, Estonia, Slovenia, Latvia, the U.S. attended the meeting and shared their experience and knowledge in the field of risk management and safety improvement in agriculture.

H. Birk Domino (SEGES, Denmark) presented the SACURIMA action and main dissemination activities performed until that day and presented the promotion videos made so far by the SACURIMA.

Dr. L. Girdziute and E Besuspariene (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) presented detailed analysis of the pilot survey results on training and integration of vulnerable populations into the agricultural workforce to identify main issues in agricultural workforce and the effective models for training and integration of vulnerable populations into the agricultural workforce.

V. Kargytė (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) presented the results of the study with the insights of student entrepreneurship from more than 50 countries. This was also related to graduates’ entrepreneurship in relation to agricultural activities. Health and safety issues are especially important for this vulnerable population which starts farming activities.

Dr. A. Ramos (Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha) made the presentation “Training and integrating vulnerable workers”. A global migration phenomenon was presented as well as seasonal and contracted agricultural workers in Europe. Main factors such as culture, language, fear and other factors, inadequate knowledge of labour rights and other factors were discussed. She also emphasized why H&S training does not usually work on farms, i.e. it sometimes does not meet the farmers’ needs, there is no leadership, or training methodology in not appropriate for the stakeholders (workers). She introduced the good practice examples partnering with a local farm to reduce worker back pain and injury and demonstrated the brochures how H&S information could be presented to workers by the means of picture dictionary for agriculture. Good practices for the promotion of OHS are: vocabularies for foreign speakers in the country they work, animated magazines, innovative training opportunities including radionovela, fotonovela, storytelling and others. Special focus should be on the vulnerable workers which change their lifestyle from urban to countryside and are not familiar with the risks, long working hrs. Effective models for teaching such as use of own data and communication in native language were also identified as very effective.

Representative of the consultation company SDG (Safe work guarantee) E. Garnytė presented Health and Safety legislation in Lithuania and main hazards in Agriculture (electrical, chemical, ergonomic, dusts, biological factors, weather conditions etc). She emphasized the specifics of agricultural activities, compared to other sectors and pointed the importance of H&S teaching in farms, especially for young workers, as their accident incidence rates are much higher than for other experienced workers.

Dr. E. Merisalu (The Institute of Technology, Estonia) presented the trends in the work related to accidents during previous decade in the EU. The results were presented together with the state of the art of agricultural production. The data was related to occupational accidents in the EU countries. She emphasized the importance of vulnerable workers who are usually not included to the statistical data. Therefore, collection of such information could help analyse deeper the situation. This is especially important in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, where incidence trends are increasing.

Dr. Achutan Chandran (Nebraska Medical Center) presented main results and the survey on the habits of use of personal protective equipment for the participants. The questionnaires were distributed in 4 countries and feedback received from the U.S., Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Dr. J. Leppala (Natural Resources Institute Finland, Finland) presented the worker management and orientation studies in Finland. Farmers’ perceptions of the required management skills were introduced, and farm safety and security management instruments as well as farm worker management and welfare at work in agriculture were presented. Key aspect of the presentation was to describe the definition “vulnerable population”.

Dr. G. Vasiliauskas (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania) presented the Lithuanian data related to prevalence of occupational diseases and accidents in agriculture. Statistical data were presented to show that incidence rate of fatal incidents is almost 6 times higher in agriculture than in other sectors of economic activity.

More discussions about vulnerably populations in agriculture and their safety issues were conducted at the Public Institution Practical Training and Trial Centre of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (Center). SACURIMA members visited Center’s farm where milk production process safety regulations to ensure workers’ welfare were presented. During the farm visit, company’s “Pieno žvaigždės“ product range and their global supply routes were presented.

The main goal of this COST Action is to reduce the burden of work-related deaths, injuries and illnesses in agriculture.

This COST Action will produce benchmarked and evidence-based recommendations to inform and guide national initiatives and efforts. The results will be made available to the scientific community, policy makers, vocational training, administrative and insurance personnel, farmers and practitioners working towards better social sustainability and safety culture in agriculture.

Secondment to Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies

In May 1-3, associate professor of the Department of Agriculture and Food Sciences Jurgita Kulaitienė, lecturer Nijole Vaitkevičienė and Dovilė Levickienė, pHd students Dalė Televičiūtė and Aloyzas Velička from Vytautas Magnus University (VDU) Agriculture Academy, Faculty of Agronomy, visited Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies.

During the visit the International Baltic Conference “FoodBalt 2019 and NEEFood 2019” was attended. The aim of the Conference: to bring together scientists interested in food, quality and innovation in this area. It was possible to meet with scientists from different countries (Turkey, Portugal, Russia, Estonia, etc.) and to discuss various issues about food science opportunities, visions, and carried out studies. It was also a unique event in which leading food scientists and young scientists such as doctoral students or MSc students was able to exchange the latest research results in their areas of the research, and acquire additional knowledge in other research areas.

In the conference we presented 2 posters (The changes of bioactive compounds in different genotypes of rosehips flesh; Total phenols, phenolic acids and flavonoids content of different mint species) and one oral presentation (The effect of plant extracts on the synthesis of biologically active compounds in germinated leguminous). An award for the best oral presentation was given to PhD student – Dalė Televičiūtė.

Teaching visit to University of Zagreb (Croatia) and attendance in international conference

In March 04-08, 2019 professors PhD Algirdas Jasinskas (Vytautas Magnus University, Agriculture Academy, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering) and Kęstutis Romaneckas (Vytautas Magnus University, Agriculture Academy, Faculty of Agronomy) visited University of Zagreb according to the programme ERASMUS+.

The main objectives of the mobility was to increase the professional oral and objective skills while presentations for foreign students; to increase skills in English; to grow up the competencies exchange; to grow up the relations with teachers and students in University of Zagreb. Also to attend to the international scientific conference “Actual tasks on agricultural engineering” with presentations and articles. During visit, professors presented lectures on the topics: Soil tillage and sowing systems for sustainability; Weed management. Theory and practice in Lithuania; Evaluation of agricultural technologies. During the lectures professors discussed with students and colleagues about the differences of Lithuanian and Croatia economic, climate and environment situation, technical approaches and technologies in agriculture. In scientific conference, they presented 3 oral presentations. Two articles were published in materials of conference (CA WOS Conference Proceedings). In free time, professors made sightseeing in wonderful places of Zagreb and Opatia.

Meeting in Copenhagen

VMU Academy of Agriculture assoc proc. dr. Jolita Greblikaite was participating at BSR Counsil Workshop on Bioeconomy organised on 9-10 May in Mm Denmark. At the meeting representatives from The Ministry of Agiculture were participating as well. It just emphasizes the importance of bioeconomy in Lithuania development. At the event the discussion about future of bioeconomy research and projects was held. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jolita GReblikaite invited to participate in the 19th International Sceintific Conference „Rural Development 2019: Bioeconomy Challenges“, organised at September 26-28 at VDU Academy of Agriculture.

Participation in BBI JU Info Day 2019 in Brussels

Vice-dean of the Faculty of Bioeconomy Development assoc. prof. dr. Anastasija Novikova and Commertialization Manager of the Communication and Technology Transfer Center (CTTC) Asta Bendoraitytė participated at the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI JU) Info Day in Brussels, 12 April 2019. The event covered more than 500 participants. Into info day the special networking event for searching partners was included as well. The first part of the event was dedicated to present the Bio-based industries role in the global development of bioeconomy and to acquaint the participants with BBI JU’s Call priorities and novelties and shared the experience in writing a good BBI JU proposal. The next session was dedicated to build the network and find potential partners for the BBI JU Call for proposals. Networking meetings (15 minutes each) were organised in advance through the BBI JU Partnering Platform, meeting of interested participants following a meeting map with the designated meeting point were done. During B2B meetings VMU representatives presented scientific services and ongoing research projects for representatives of academy, consulting and business companies. The new possibilities to collaborate were discussed.

Intensive BOVA course for master students „Sustainable agriculture for rural development“

The Intensive BOVA course for master students „Sustainable agriculture for rural development“ is being organised by the Faculty of Bioeconomy Development for the fifth time. The aim of the course – to deepen and to expand students’ highly specialised knowledge in the field of sustainable agriculture and to develop students’ competencies required for solution of complex problems of rural development through agricultural multifunctionality. This year students from Latvian, Estonian, Finland and Norway universities were participating. Our university was represented by students from Nepal, Moldova and Nigeria.

Students had lectures with qualified teachers from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia on the different issues of agricultural sustainability and rural development for three days, one day was given for the study tour. Students have presented the whole week works during the last day of the course.

Anastasija Novikova

International Week

We invite all students, lecturers and other university staff members to participate in the ,,International Week” in Business and Rural Development Research Institute, Faculty of Bioeconomy Development. Lectures take time on 4-8 th of March, during them foreign university lecturers will give lectures for students in English.

Also, on 6 th of March, from 14:30 o’clock (third building, room 610) we welcome you to attend international seminar ,,Possibilities and Perspectives for Common Research Project and Science”, presentations and posters themes are written in agenda below.

There is no pre-registration for lectures / seminars.

We kindly invite you to participate.

More information

Visit in the University of Perugia

Assoc. prof. dr. Anastasija Novikova from the Research Institute for Bioeconomy visited the University of Perugia during the 11-15 of February. She met main researchers from the Environmental Laboratory of university of Perugia and discussed the possibilities of future scientific collaboration, worked together on the framework of ongoing research on valuation of agricultural landscape. The colleagues from university of Perugia kindly shared their experience in preparation of research projects and gave advices in paper preparation. The visit and stay in the Environmental laboratory of University of Perugia will serve as the continuation of cooperation between the faculties and Departments of the host and home universities.