Development of Educational Activities and Counseling in Social Agriculture in Slovakia: Initial Experience and Future Prospects

Abstract Slovakia has significantly changed the structure of its economy by switching to a market management system. There has been a shift away from agriculture, traditional farming methods and careful land management. The result is unused lands and labor force, a broken relationship of society towards the environment, the agricultural land and due to the low social status of agriculture, towards the education in this area too. There is no information on the potential of social agriculture. Educational initiatives in this area are unique and fragmented. The importance of educational activities and counseling lies mainly in education in an effort to help implementers or those interested in the implementation of social farming projects to obtain basic information about the concept of social agriculture, avoid mistakes and get the most comprehensive picture of current conditions in this area. The article outlines a view of the development of social agriculture in the area of the social economy in the conditions of the Slovak Republic, which corresponds to the changing needs of society. It draws attention to the initial steps in the development of educational activities and counseling in social agriculture. We reflect on the potential and pitfalls of education as part of a broader understanding of social agriculture. The elimination of the shortcomings would have significant effects on rural development and less developed regions. The benefits would be reflected in inclusive development and in more sustainable agriculture by influencing other sectors. Our article is based on desk review and qualitative research. We conducted 6 in-depth expert interviews. We focused on experts who were able to provide us with a specialized insight into our research.