AKIS in Finland
The Finnish AKIS (Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System) has various actors. We have approximately 40 000 farmers, nearly 30 agricultural vocational schools, seven Universities of Applied Sciences with agriculture and/or horticulture Bachelor degrees, one university with Master degree. Additionally our advising sector has history from 18th century. Nowdays our major advisory organisation is ProAgria which has locations in every major region in Finland.
Farmers
There is a bit over 40,000 farmers in Finland, from southern parts of Åland to the northern Utsjoki. Finland is the northernmost agricultural country, where geographical and climate conditions vary greatly.
AKIS actors in Finland
Research institutes
Agricultural research has great amount of actors in Finland. Natural Research Institute Finland and University of Helsinki are largest actors complemented with smalled and more focused research organisations. More detailed information will be provided later on on this page.
Advisory organisations
Advisory services in agriculture have a long history in Finland and even now we have strong actors within this field. ProAgria and Faba are the main actors on the sector where also production branches and food industry operators have also their own advisory services. Furthermore, new, emerging advisory service organizations have emerged to provide servises for farmers and horticulture entrepreneurs.
Education
In Finland, agriculture and horticulture degrees can be studied in vocational schools (27 organisations), universities of applied sciences (7), as well as in science university (1). Education is provided both in Finnish and in Swedish, in tertiary education also English degrees are an option. More detailed information of these organisations will be provided on 2024.
Administration
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Finnish Food Authority, and regional administration all take part in the administration in the agriculture and horticulture sectors. More information will be provided later on.
Farmers' unions and associations
In Finland, there are multiple farmers’ unions; largest ones are MTK (Finnish speaking), SLC (Swedish speaking), and Puutarhaliitto (horticulture and gardening). Additionally, smaller farmers’ unions and/or associations are formed around different production branches. Farmers’ unions have an important role in maintaining and promoting farmers’ interests, supporting farmers’ welfare, and developing their competencies.’
Industrial actors
Food production, inputs’ production and sales, as well as plant and animal breeding industrial actors play an important role. They buy the agricultural and horticultural products for processing, but they can also operate in various R&D&I actions.
AKIS coordination
AKIS coordination is carried out by AgriHubi, the Farmers' Competence Network and by the CAP Network Finland (Maaseutuverkosto). AgriHubi focuses on agriculture and horticulture, whereas the CAP Network Finland focuses on other rural businesses and innovations. The Managing Authority is the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
AKIS related projects in Finland
modernAKIS
modernAKIS, modernisation of Agriculture through more efficient and effective Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS), aims to improve AKIS actors’ capacities to leverage individual, organizational and systemic resources needed for the transformation towards more coherent, effective, and efficient AKIS systems and the transition to a more sustainable management and use of natural resources in farming and forestry.
ATTRACTISS
ATTRACTISS – AcTivate and TRigger ACTors to deepen the function of Innovation Support Services – is a 6-year Horizon Europe funded project, which aims to improve & embed competencies, approaches, instruments & governance models for Member States (MS) AKIS and specifically for Innovation Support Services (ISS) as a crucial AKIS actor. The ISS enables the acceleration of individual grassroots innovative ideas to come to fruition & generate solutions for the transition process to a more sustainable agriculture & forestry sector.
i2connect
i2connect project team is working to fuel the competencies of advisors and their organisations to engage and support farmers and foresters in interactive innovation processes. Innovation is a key factor in continual adaptation to the various and sometimes contradictory challenges and in taking advantage of new opportunities. In i2connect we are creating a support network and a networking culture among advisors facilitating innovation processes in European agriculture and forestry