Rural Development Programme for Umbria

Thanks to the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) of the EU, the Azienda Agrisola Sensi has obtained financing amounting to € 50,000.00 for the establishment of young farmers and has initiated since the beginning of its activity an ambitious project based on 3 pillars:

(1) Conversion of the land to organic farming

The owner Christian, who is passionate about agriculture and a great friend of the environment, has introduced new and innovative methods in working the soil and cultivating crops, used in the context of regenerative and biodynamic agriculture. For this reason, the following machinery was purchased with the funding:

• bio tiller - used instead of a plough, it works the soil at a shallow depth, to disturb the soil balance as little as possible
• cultivator - for soil decompaction 
• weeder - for the mechanical removal of weeds and grasses in fields
• dynamiser - used for the preparation of biodynamic preparations to strengthen crops 
• compost tea machine - for the production of compost tea
• biodynamic sprayer - for field application of the above-mentioned preparations

(2) Start-up of direct sales of the own agricultural products

In order to increase the farm's profitability, the direct sale of the extra virgin olive oil obtained from the harvesting of olives from its own olive groves was started, and later also of pulses and cereals. To this end a company logo, an own website with an online shop, as well as attractively styled packaging were created. 

(3) Enhancing Olive Production

The last investment financed was the afforestation of the farm's olive grove, planting 400 organic olive trees and thus increasing the total number of olive trees by 10 per cent.