Local financing for sustainable agriculture: how IBLA gives farm businesses important impetus for change

Sustainability has long been more than just an ecological buzzword - it affects entire agricultural enterprises, from economic stability to social aspects and daily work processes. With the "SMART-Farm Tool", the Institut fir Biologesch Landwirtschaft an Agrarökologie Luxemburg (IBLA) offers farmers the opportunity to take a close look at their farm and optimise it for the future. We spoke to Evelyne Stoll, Project Manager at IBLA, about the latest project, which was launched with the help of the Fondation pour le Climat under the auspices of the Fondation de Luxembourg and thanks to Spuerkeess.

Our aim is to create solutions that won’t just be shelved but will be applied directly in daily farm operations.
Evelyne Stoll, Project Manager - Research and Development, IBLA

IBLA is a non-profit organisation that was founded in Luxembourg in 2007 by farmers and farmers' organisations out of the need to promote research and independent advice in the field of organic farming.

What began as a small initiative is now a team of 24 experts.

Learn more about IBLA

In the "SMARTRegio" project, we are focussing on farms that market their products directly to consumers, e.g. via farm shops. These direct marketing businesses often have a particular interest in operating sustainably in order to retain customers and build long-term relationships.

We want to find out how sustainable these companies actually are and how their performance has developed since 2017, particularly in the context of crises such as the coronavirus pandemic or the war in Ukraine. To do this, we use the "SMART-Farm Tool", with which we record new data and compare it with previous results and with farms without direct marketing.

The aim is to understand whether and to what extent direct contact with customers is an incentive for sustainable behaviour and how this approach affects the long-term viability of farms.

A total of 15 farms are being analysed as part of "SMARTRegio". A call is currently underway for interested direct marketing businesses to register voluntarily. In the coming months, we will then approach the selected companies in order to carry out the analysis on site.

Participating in such projects is very valuable for farm businesses. They should seize the opportunity to receive a free assessment of their operations, as the daily hustle and bustle often leaves too little time for reflection.
Evelyne Stoll, Project Manager - Research and Development, IBLA

The project started in mid-February 2025 and will run until August 2026. It provides a snapshot of the farm that farmers can use to better understand and communicate their sustainability performance. The individual results help the agricultural enterprises to visualise their successes and to further develop their operational management in a targeted manner. At the same time, we receive valuable data that flows into our research.

Our aim is to provide important impetus so that farmers and their farms are optimally positioned for future challenges.
Evelyne Stoll, Project Manager - Research and Development, IBLA

Additional information events are planned at the end of the project, at which the results will be presented to a wider audience.

This is precisely where two important partners join us: on the one hand, the Fondation pour le Climat under the auspices of the Fondation de Luxembourg, and on the other, Spuerkeess. The former is dedicated to promoting sustainable development. It brings projects and financing together. Without this contact, "SMARTRegio" would not (yet) have materialised. And we are also very pleased that a bank like Spuerkeess recognises the value of such initiatives and supports them financially. At a time when agriculture is often portrayed negatively, we want to show how important the work of farmers is for us all.

Spuerkeess is actively involved in promoting sustainable financing projects and, in its role as a "Transition Enabler", has committed to supporting the Fondation pour le Climat with an amount of EUR 50.000 over the next few years.

We chose to support the IBLA project because we hope it will deliver concrete results for local agriculture, allowing us to support this vital sector, which plays an important role in preserving biodiversity.
Françoise Thoma, CEO Spuerkeess