No 50215
Study tour
Study tour Group Latvia

Crop Farming Tour

4 days

Participants in this tour will learn about Latvia’s most modern crop farms that are typical in Zemgale.  During the first day, participants will meet with specialists from the Latvian Agriculture Ministry and agricultural NGOs.  They will also tour Rīga, which is part of the UNESCO List of World Heritage, and the Rīga Central Market, which is one of the largest closed markets of its type in Europe.  Participants will visit a health food store and have dinner to enjoy traditional Latvian foods and beers.  The next day we will go to Jelgava, where the 18th-century castle of the Duchy of Courland and Zemgale will host a meeting with faculty members from the Latvian Agricultural University, which is housed in the palace.  We will visit a biologic bakery, as well as a farm that engages in crop farming, livestock breeding and manufacturing of biogas.  An artificial wetland is used to purify runoff water.  Dinner will be served at a modern leisure complex.  On the third day, we will visit one of the largest multi-sectoral farms in Zemgale.  It specialises in plant farming, livestock breeding, horse breeding, biogas manufacturing and beer brewing.  During the afternoon, we will visit the largest and technologically most modern grain farm in the region, after which we will tour the most outstanding castle in the Baltic States – the Rundāle Castle.  Built as a summer residence for Duke Ernst Johann Bieron, the castle was designed by the distinguished Italian architect Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli.  Dinner will be served at a venue that has an historical windmill and an exhibition related to grain farming.  On the morning of the fourth day, we will visit a farm that grows grains for seed, and then a biological farm that produces wheat, barley, peas, beans, rapeseed, herbs and herbal teas.  Lunch will be served at a farm that will offer dishes made of home-grown grains and rough-milled flour.  Then we will return to Rīga.