ISFN Online Meetings: An Agenda That Follows the Seasons
The project contract describes the International Sustainable Farming Network (ISFN) as a platform for cooperation between civil society organisations, businesses and chambers of agriculture in Türkiye and Greece in line with the goals of the Green Deal. Under the contract, the network is to meet online every two months, work in both Turkish and English, and reach at least 30 CSOs from the five provinces.
According to the announcements on the platform, the 2nd online meeting on 3 May 2024 announced that ISFN had been formally founded and introduced the digital platform. Meetings were announced on Zoom at 21:00, free of charge and open to ISFN members. Up to the 14th meeting on 3 August 2026, the agendas of 13 meetings were published on the platform.
An agenda shaped by the field
The announced agendas follow the farming calendar and the problems in the field: on 12 July 2024, the basics of precision farming and a comparison of the five pilot provinces; on 18 September 2024, irrigation water management and water shortages; on 26 November 2024, the European Green Deal and findings from a field visit to Nallıhan, Ankara, on 21 November 2024; on 3 February 2025, planning before the growing season; on 11 April 2025, frost damage and winter irrigation; on 19 June 2025, summer heat and the impact of the climate crisis on crops; and on 26 August 2025, at participants' request, problems at harvest time.
From late 2025 the agenda also turned to digital tools and policy: on 3 November 2025, digital tools in farming and the project's mobile app; on 9 January 2026, investment costs, support and grants for precision farming technology; on 9 March 2026, sharing the project's results; on 27 May 2026, how to read soil and water analyses, prompted by a pH reading of around 8 in irrigation water at a farm in Kozan, Adana; and on 3 August 2026, the results of the technical visit to Greece.
From meetings to a report
According to the article announcing the project's Agricultural Policy Monitoring Report for the 2025 production year, its findings were assessed together with the needs raised by members in ISFN's online meetings, and they now underpin the network's advocacy work. The contract foresees ISFN continuing after the project as an operational branch of TARIMKON.