A new school will open in Prague’s Ruzyna in September. And it will be different from most existing ones. The higher vocational school focused on organic agriculture is being created according to a model that has been operating abroad for decades. “Future farmers in the Czech Republic lack a comprehensive educational program that offers them a sufficient amount of practice and at the same time prepares them theoretically,” says Director Jiří Prachař.
While most university students will sit in large halls and listen to lectures at the beginning of the next academic year, something different awaits the students of the Farm School. They will spend roughly four fifths of their education at farms that they choose themselves. They currently have forty to choose from. “We were afraid that we wouldn’t find many farmers who would want to pass on their experience. In the end, they report to us on their own, even though we are no longer specifically looking for them,” explains the director of the Prachař school.
Each pupil should visit three farms during the three-year course, at the end of which they can obtain the title of Diploma Specialist, to try out different practices and fields. Once a month, everyone meets in four-day blocks for theoretical lessons.
However, the school will mainly focus on explaining the necessary knowledge during the off-season, i.e. from December to February. “Over the winter, we will move from the farms to the Plant Production Research Institute, which has provided us with its premises. During this period, theory will dominate,” explains Prachař. A similar educational model already works in German-speaking countries, Scandinavia, England and France.
It was his own experience abroad that led Prachar to found a higher professional school of organic agriculture. Shortly after entering the university, he went to Germany for education. After three years, he tried a second role when he started teaching biodynamics. Thanks to this, he realized that exactly this form of teaching is missing in the Czech Republic.
“I basically had no choice but to leave. I couldn’t find an adequate school here,” he describes the main reason. Another impulse for him was the increase in the number of ecological farmers, and thus also the sustainable areas, of which there are currently less than 16 percent in the Czech Republic.
Minister of Agriculture Zdeněk Nekula (KDU-ČSL) is convinced that the potential of ecological agriculture is not sufficiently utilized in the country. At the same time, public interest in this field is growing. More and more people, mainly because of the state of nature, are buying organic food. Their market has more than doubled over the past five years, according to ministry data.
The number of organic farmers is also gradually increasing, currently there are less than 5,200 of them. However, working on farms does not attract a sufficient number of young people. “Farmers are getting older. By 2030, according to estimates, a third of them will retire or leave the field,” said the chairman of the Agricultural Union, Martin Pýcha, earlier. According to the Agrarian Chamber, agriculture lacks about 14,000 seasonal workers. Pride also sees a problem in the fact that a large proportion of agricultural graduates end up in other sectors.
Organic agriculture as such can be studied at the Czech University of Agriculture in Prague and at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. At the subject level, students of the Mendel University in Brno will also meet him. However, according to Prachara, teaching at universities is unnecessarily theoretical. “At our school, we will not go into details or focus on science, a farmer does not need that in practice. Farmer know-how is enough for him,” he says, although he highlights the quality of Czech docents and professors in the field. After all, some of them will occasionally teach at the Farm School.
Applicants can apply until the end of May. For the first year, Prachař envisions an ideal group of 25 pupils. With a higher number, the possibility of interactive teaching decreases. It is also more challenging to travel together on foreign excursions, which will be an integral part of the studies. Students should also spend their last year on farms abroad. To successfully complete and obtain the DiS degree. they will have to complete a certain number of hours of practice, complete compulsory subjects and pass a discharge exam including course work and an exam.
The Farm School project has been in preparation since 2019. The student’s daily studies will not cost anything. Those interested in the combined form pay 12,000 crowns per year, then twice as much for the long-distance one.
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