TUI Field to Fork Portugal
The Portuguese region of Alentejo is known for its cork trees and semi-arid landscapes. Bordering the popular holiday destination of the Algarve, this drought and desertification-prone area is quickly losing its resident population.
Finding solutions to preserve soil health while providing economic opportunities for local inland communities are therefore fundamental to preserving regional stability.
TUI Field to Fork Portugal offers training programmes to local farmers on regenerative agriculture processes and how to implement them. The programme also creates a local tourism experience as well as a regenerative food hub to engage visitors with a restaurant space where they can buy sustainable food products. The formation of a farmer’s community of practice and demonstration farms enables knowledge sharing around regenerative agriculture and ensures the long-lasting, positive impact of the programme.
The south of Portugal has been particularly affected by climate change, and the degradation of natural resources is increasing, with soil and climate conditions, aggravated by constant and extreme droughts, leading to desertification. This discourages agricultural production and creates precarious economic conditions in the region, which has no significant industrial output.
TUI Field to Fork Portugal covers 4,000 hectares of land around the Mértola area. The programme offers training on regenerative agriculture practices to 140 people. These participants are also part of a regenerative farmers’ community of practice, through which farmers new to the concept can learn from more expert implementors. Several demonstration farms from role model practitioners serve as inspiration and learning spaces for new participants.
The project also establishes important links to the local tourism ecosystem, with a regenerative food hub, which is a combined retail and restaurant space, offering visitors a place to engage with the concept of regenerative agriculture. Additionally, the programme creates a tourism product for 15,000 international as well as domestic tourists.
A 5-workshop incubator on regenerative business practices enables 60 entrepreneurs to grow their functional business knowledge and explore further income opportunities around regenerative agriculture.
Project Partner
Terra Sintrópica Association is a non-profit organisation aiming to be a thriving and abundant community. It is inspired by the cycles of nature, that creatively care and cooperate towards an agro-ecological transition. The association practices and spreads the concept of ‘regeneration through use’, which is the idea that we need to reconnect with the Earth, relating its use and enjoyment with long-term sustainability goals, preservation, and the recovery of ecosystems and biodiversity. Terra Sintrópica sees the food system as intrinsically interconnected with issues of desertification, climate change, and depopulation affecting Mértola, on which it focuses its attention.
