ZEMNIEKU SAEIMA

Their core work

Zemnieku Saeima (Farmers' Parliament) is Latvia's national farmers' union, representing agricultural producers' interests and advocating for rural development policy. In EU research projects, they serve as the voice of farming communities — providing real-world farmer perspectives on digital agriculture adoption, agri-environmental contract design, and rural digitisation impacts. Their role bridges the gap between research concepts and what actually works on Latvian and Baltic farms, ensuring project outputs reflect practitioners' needs rather than theoretical models alone.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

ZSA's initial projects (2018) focused on the opportunity side of digital agriculture — smart farming, digital innovation hubs, and connecting farmers to new technologies through SmartAgriHubs and LIVERUR. Their later projects (2019) shifted toward governance and sustainability concerns: agri-environmental contracts, result-based payments, ethical codes for digitisation, and responsible research practices. This trajectory shows a maturing engagement — from exploring what digital tools can do for farmers, to questioning how agricultural transitions should be governed fairly.

ZSA is moving from technology adoption questions toward policy design and farmer-centered governance of agricultural transitions, making them increasingly relevant for projects needing practitioner input on CAP reform and green deal implementation.

How they like to work

ZSA operates exclusively as a participant in large multi-partner consortia — their 4 projects involve 177 unique partners across 27 countries, averaging over 40 partners per consortium. They never coordinate but consistently join ambitious pan-European research and innovation actions. This pattern is typical of national farmer associations: they bring legitimacy, farmer networks, and practitioner access rather than research infrastructure, making them a reliable end-user representative in large collaborative projects.

With 177 unique consortium partners spanning 27 countries, ZSA has an extensive European network built through large-scale agricultural research and innovation projects. Their connections are strongest in the agri-food and rural development research community across the EU.

What sets them apart

As Latvia's main farmers' union, ZSA offers something research institutes and universities cannot: direct access to real farming communities and authentic practitioner feedback from the Baltic agricultural sector. For consortium builders, they fill the critical "farmer voice" role that EU evaluators specifically look for in food and agriculture proposals. Their dual experience in both digital agriculture and agri-environmental policy makes them particularly valuable for projects spanning the green and digital transitions in farming.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SmartAgriHubs
  Largest funding (EUR 185,000) and the flagship EU project connecting Digital Innovation Hubs across European agriculture — massive consortium with wide visibility.
• CONSOLE
  Directly addresses CAP-relevant agri-environmental contract design — high policy impact potential with practical implications for how farmers get paid for environmental services.
• DESIRA
  Tackles the ethical and social dimensions of rural digitisation, including responsible research frameworks — positions ZSA at the intersection of technology and rural governance.