VET Demonstration Partnership for Pistachio Farm in Armenia: Geospatial Approach (VETfarm)

partners

1. Armenian National Agrarian University
2. “Under Sun” LLC

According to the European Commission (2021), 90% of jobs in all sectors require some level of digital skills. The main objective of this 2-year project is to tackle the digital skills gap in the horticultural sector of Armenia by improving the level of integrated use of digital technologies (such as the IoT, ICT, and Geospatial Technology) through capacity-building development for agricultural VET.

For this project, a consortium consisting of 2 Armenian partners and 2 EU partners was formed, of which 3 partners are companies/research
organisations and 1 partner is an agricultural VET provider. In this project, we aim to develop skilled human resources and academic infrastructure for teaching and using the geospatial approach for precision farming in Armenia, based on the needs of local partners and the experience of the project team.

In recent years, a good investment has been made by the private sector in Armenia to develop and grow large pistachio farms. It is clear that the
existence of (specialised) human resources for continuous monitoring and management of pistachio orchards and the use of modern technologies will
play an important role in the success of this investment. For this purpose, there is a need to train future VET students in pistachio farming management.

In this regard, we will design and develop 6 new curricula (open access and translation into the Armenian language) and digital tools with the prerequisite of developing a specialised Geo-ICT lab and a Pistachio Demo Farm for the execution of these courses. Also, 115 teachers /instructors/students/interns will be trained (mostly female) during the project. The Pistachio Demo Farm will be located, equipped, maintained, and used by the industry partner in Armenia in collaboration with the VETfarm partners. The Demo Farm will also serve as a part of the VETfarm project to demonstrate various Precision Agriculture techniques (20 demo projects in the short-term and many in the medium and long-term).