298 Governance and Education
- Have knowledge of farming and food systems.
- Be able to handle complexity and change.
- Be able to link theory to real life situations.
- Be good communicators and facilitators.
- Be autonomous learners.
These competencies are not only vital for dealing with agroecological issues. They
are key qualifications (Kämäräinen et al, 2002), which implies that they are trans-
ferable; the achieved skills are not limited to an agroecological context, but can be
practiced in other parts of life. Agroecology and sustainable agriculture are good
places for training these skills. Such skills will be vital to proactively deal with the
chal lenges of specialization, high technology and use of non-renewable resources
in modern society in the quest for a sustainable development.
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