Sady sv. Prokopa

IDENTIFICATION OF THE CASE STUDY

Case study number: CZ-03

Name of the farm/organization:

Sady sv. Prokopa / St. Procopius Orchards

Title of the case study:  

With the heart on the tip

MAIN DATA 

Country

Czech Republic                 

Year of establishment

2017

Target groups

• People with disabilities (mental illness, health limitations, people after cancer…)
• Socially excluded
• Long-term unemployed
• Roma people

Type of farm

Limited liability company (s.r.o.), social bio farm, fruit growing and processing, demonstration farm of Ministry of Agriculture

Size (in hectares)

35 ha

Numbers of employees from target groups

17 persons steadily, in the season this number rises

Number of members from target groups using services without employment

• 500 farmers trained in 2023
• Hundreds of visitors per year

Sources they live from

• State allowance for people with disabilities
• Sale of fruit and fruit products, direct sale from the farm
• Pre-sales from nearby organic farmers
• Agricultural subsidies for the area under the organic regime

Innovative / not innovative

Innovative

Websites:

www.sady-prokopa.cz

www.2343ec78a04c6ea9d80806345d31fd78-gdprlock/sadysvprokopa

www.8dc6460bbbb088757ed67ed8fb316b1b-gdprlock/sady.sv.prokopa
 

DESCRIPTION

The founders of Sady sv. Prokopa has extensive experience in employing disadvantaged people. It is an organization that employs a large number of people, handles everything on a very professional level, and yet remains supremely human, humble, and open to new experiences. What makes them unique is their ability to combine both social and organic farming, which in their interpretation takes on a very innovative character.

Agriculturally, Sady focuses mainly on the production and processing of fruit (apples, strawberries) and the sale of potato products, all with their own storage and processing plant. They emphasize the care of the countryside and landscape.

They are very media-savvy and actively participate in various competitions and challenges, which among other things, is very helpful in spreading the idea of the whole social farming with an ecological agricultural dimension. They are not afraid to share their experience, even in situations that are quite difficult or unpleasant.

We interviewed Václav Běťák and Zdenka Burešová. Václav has been through both the management of the sheltered workshop and the business department of the organization and knows the role of an agronomist well and his imprint on the entire organization is indelible. Zdenka has great communication skills and a talent for sensing, describing, and naming things, with her authenticity and passion for the cause, she gives the Orchards a strong background, and not only in terms of presentation.

POSITIVE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

The motivation for the creation of the organization was and is the desire for sustainability, working with the land, the environment, biodiversity, and the will to help people with disadvantages. They perceive work as one of the basic human freedoms, with the addition of a therapeutic element in agriculture. Work is one of the things that belongs to a person, the essence of having the opportunity to work, to develop one's skills and social ties. In hand with rural sustainability.

The motivation is to grow and gain skills. They want to have work for people all year round, not just seasonally. Practically, continuous improvement of working conditions for their employees and competitiveness are important to them. And at the same time having something to offer customers. They are motivated by how the farm is perceived by people in the area: "People don't ask us the same questions as they did years ago - why the price is a bit higher. Customers see the benefit and see what our fields look like. We don't have to explain it anymore, the mentality of people's perception of organic and social farming has changed."

Education is important for them, they are able to show visitors, how their system works and what the value of food is.
They consider the linking of organic farming, social farming, education, and the combination of cultivation and processing to be innovative. For innovations, they have received awards, which they especially value.

OBSTACLES AND HOW TO OVERCOME

It was difficult to master agronomic technologies. Because they work in organic farming, they need to handle the harvested fruit differently. All the agronomic knowledge related to this they got by learning, they tried a lot of the steps on themselves.

Currently one of the challenges is the salary level of the employees, they would like higher salaries for them. This is not possible in the current setup, they don't have that kind of support from the state and it is unpredictable how conditions will continue to change.

An important theme for Sady is the individuality of employees. This is significant, and it is important that every employee can do his or her job and also enjoy it to grow. “We need to look not only at aptitude but also at health limitations. The challenge is to find a job for everyone. There is a high level of stress in the sector during the season, it is challenging and for people with mental illness, it is even more so. The lesson is that there has to be a barrier between the economic operation, where the stress hits hardest, and that stress must not get to the employees. They should go home with a clear head. Which is an area that the Orchards continue to work on.”

The current challenge is also to expand into vegetables. They want to invest in technology, in energy self-sufficiency. This entails further devising technological solutions to facilitate the work, because of the advancing drought. They see the changing climate as an issue in itself.

RECOMMENDATIONS, ADVICE

Their advice to other farmers would be, "Get an education in agriculture first. Every mistake is money wasted, or even more strongly - that "mistakes = money" applies everywhere in business, but in agriculture it means a lost season or a loss of ten thousand. In other fields, simply spoiled material etc. replaced and started again, in agriculture, in the worst case scenario, one waits for another year or even several years (e.g. in the event that an unsuitable substrate is used, etc.). All the information is available and you need to learn it. You need to go in with your heart but learn proper farming practices. It's very demotivating when something goes wrong in farming and it can take years to fix it. But at the same time, don't worry, farming is natural, it's nature. And you have to remember that organic farming can be modern, so don't be afraid of modernization or innovation."

PROMO

They concentrate on sales in their region. According to Václav, it is important to contact places directly in the region (kindergartens, schools, hospitals), to address customers directly and not to forget about yard sales. From online sources, they use the web, Facebook, and social networks for promotion.

They also benefit from cooperation with universities and collaboration on research projects. It also allows them to test new things. It also makes them better known in the farming community. And education is important for them, they are not afraid to write to the media, to cooperate with television.

According to Václav and Zdenka, the impact is quite big. They also recommend taking part in competitions, through which there is an opportunity to promote themselves. This is one of the reasons why Sady sv. Prokopa competes (and wins).

FINAL SENTENCES

In the coming years, they plan to expand their premises, farmland, and work team, especially through another cooperating organization. They are training people so that they will be able to find work in the Orchards. In the longer term, they are planning to transfer more land to ecological agriculture. In the agricultural area they want to try new crops and at the same time move towards product diversification. They will be building folios and preparing their seedlings, as buying Organic agriculture seedlings is expensive.

As far as employees are concerned, they currently have 17 people, and in five years they would like to have 50 people and feed them all year round. They plan to build a training center within five years as they currently do not have good facilities for training. Along with this, they are planning to build accommodation on the farm.

They're proud of themselves for making it to where it is today. In their words, "We are proud of our employees! It's stressful for them to work in agriculture and yet they stick with us and enjoy it. We're proud of what we've built here agriculturally, how we've changed the landscape, and we're proud of the fact that we can give advice."