Promoting sustainable production for small-scale farming communities

8 milk collection centres build up to EU standard in free-rent premises and equipped with relevant equipment (including milk testing equipment) in eight villages in Târnava Mare area: Laslea, Biertan, Apold, Danes, Albesti, Vanatori, Saschiz, Viscri.

The milk collection point provides shared quality control and cooling /collection facilities for local communities. By improved quality (training) and quantity (larger bulk tanks, more farmers participating) and direct negotiation with milk processor companies the local community felt the real outcomes of the project. ADEPT has offered training on how to use/maintain the machinery. By negotiating with milk processors and farmer associations being responsible, the milk price went up 20-30%. The result halt in falling cow numbers in the villages concerned. Hundreds of hectares of abandoned hay meadows have been brought back under good management.

• 100 farmers trained in organic farming certification, milk hygiene, product marketing
• certification and producer group organisation application files prepared in the benefit of at least 100 farmers
• 2 Farmers’ Markets established

The collapse of the milk market for small producers threatens the existence of farmers' communities, which by traditional management maintain the High Nature Value landscapes and cultural values ​​in Romania.

There is a direct link between agricultural activities for milk production and biodiversity conservation. If farmers give up traditional grassland management; (mowing and grazing), these meadows will be drastically affected. These meadows are protected and are of major importance at European level. Farmers who have created them for hundreds of years are the only ones who will be able to maintain their ecological quality in the future.

ADEPT supports milk producers in the Târnava Mare area to obtain a better price on the milk produced by improving quality.

One of the main drivers for this initiative was the need to increase milk prices to stop the fall of cow numbers in the area. Each cow lost = 1 ha of high biodiversity grassland abandoned/converted to sheep grazing. Precious High Nature Value meadows are being abandoned because fewer people available to scythe by hand, and fields are too inaccessible/too sloping for tractor use. In some area 30% of hay meadows are abandoned. ADEPT thought on how to bring these meadows back into use, with benefits to local economy and to biodiversity.