ENRD Main Stories Archives

Highlight of the month:
YOURuralNET: Reaching out to a young rural development community

YOURuralNET is a vibrant web community that shares experience, knowledge and best practice amongst young farmers in Italy. Created by the Italian National Rural Network, YOURuralNET - which is profiled on the ENRD’s Communicating Rural Development (CRD) Gateway alongside other inspiring examples of rural development communication – now has more than a thousand active members!

The new platform was developed two years ago in response to research into the needs of young rural people and those involved in the agriculture sector. The survey findings revealed the existence of an information gap that was not being filled by traditional communications channels, such as newspapers and magazines. Looking to address this gap the Italian NRN adapted its communications planning and identified social media as the optimal way to reach the target group.

The interactive website and forum, YOURuralNET, was then specifically created to meet the needs of the young farmers’ community. This community now has access to a range of interactive tools that allow them to discuss farming activities, find practical solutions to concrete problems and share training opportunities.

The design of YOURuralNET is impactful, friendly and animated and it is successfully encouraging interaction. “YOURuralNET is an excellent initiative and I use their information on my blog,” says agronomist Silvio Fritegotto. The forum is frequently updated with new questions and current topics. In the members section, affiliates can add their photo and write a small paragraph about themselves and their interests, making the website more personal.

The growing success of this platform is due to the continuous effort of the website team. “We are always looking to improve our work by regularly assessing what we are doing,” explained Elisabetta Savarese, who is part of the editorial team. “YOURuralNET is accessible to all, from young farmers to experts and researchers. We try to diversify the information we post,” she added.

For more information:

To check out YOURuralNET, click here.

To view the Facebook Page, click here .

Visit the ENRD’s CRD Gateway to inspire and broaden your communication activities.