The activity “Exotic plant cultivation to help fight climate issues” refers to the organization of the fair and two educational workshops within the fair. The fair was held on August 19 and 20, 2022 in the municipality of Vrsi. At the “Exotic cultivation to help fight climate issues” fair, we invited local ecological producers to present their products to encourage them to join the workshop and see the possibilities of growing plants atypical for our local area that can be grown in our climate, plants resistant to insects which directly reduces the use of insecticides and pesticides. In addition to the promotion of local ecological producers, this manifestation also attracted great interest from the public, who probably had never even heard of the possibility of growing exotic plants in our rural area. The fair gave us the opportunity to raise awareness of the ecological principle of carbon-neutral Europe and to encourage women entrepreneurs in ecological carbon-neutral agriculture. Networking is an ideal approach to help small producers gain access to new approaches to farming and marketing products on the domestic market.
By organizing a fair that promotes local producers, we encourage visitors and interested stakeholders to buy local foods. By buying local food, our carbon footprint is reduced. The carbon footprint measures the environmental impacts associated with growing, producing, transporting and storing our food – from consumed natural resources to pollution to emitted greenhouse gases. As it is possible to plant miscanthus in Indian banana plantations, it is possible to achieve a negative CO2 footprint in cultivation. In addition to pulling huge amounts of CO2 from the air, miscantus turns barren land into fertile land and supplies the land with oxygen. We emphasize exotic cultivation, since in the vicinity of Zadar we have an example of Indian banana (Asimina triloba) cultivation by OPG Dragan Marinović in Poličnik. At OPG Dragan Marinović you can find the fruits of Indian banana, Mongolian blueberry, mini kiwi, aloe vera, yuzu orange, etc., which prompted us to present the cultivation of exotic ecological products that can be grown in the area of LAG “Bura”. The workshop on “Exotic cultivation against climate change” was held by Ivan Šulog, OPG Ivan Šulog live, and the workshop by Prof. Bojan Stipešević, Ph.D., from the Faculty of Agriculture in Osijek, an expert in climatology, tropical crops and the basics of organic plant production via Zoom- and on the topic “Alternative crops for changed climatic (un)opportunities”. Facilitator of the workshop and the panel was Ana Mamić, manager of LAG Bura.
The program is in accordance with the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU 2023-2027 (CAP), especially with the contribution to the mitigation of climate change (cultivation without the use of insecticides and pesticides), the favorable effect on CO2 (Miscantus Indian bananas), the protection of biodiversity and the provision of high-quality food. The main objectives of ZPP are the fight against climate change, the protection of natural resources and the increase of biodiversity, which this project directly contributes to.
The topic of the activity is from an area of special interest related to climate change and contributes to achieving the goal of a climate-neutral society by 2050. By encouraging the cultivation of exotic plants, we reduce the use of pesticides and insecticides and encourage the planting of miscanthus, which serves as a means of absorbing CO2 from the environment. A clean and healthy environment is crucial for long-term support of economic activity and well-being. Practically every economic and leisure activity – like life itself – has a broadly defined environment as a key input and could not exist without it. The goal of sustainable agriculture is to meet social needs for food in the present without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, which we will present to the general public with this project.
We were encouraged to hold a workshop on the position of women in agriculture by the report of the European Parliament, in which it was pointed out that women often face many obstacles when starting a business, even though they are as successful as men. Through the workshop, we would like to show women that it is not unachievable to venture into entrepreneurial waters and that we need to develop entrepreneurial self-awareness, especially in ecological and innovative production that does not have a harmful effect on our environment and contributes to the goal of achieving a climate-neutral society by 2050.