FOREWORD

This volume of the REU Technical Series (RTS 63) is the fourth on organic agriculture research in Europe. The first in this series are the proceedings of the expert consultation on Biological Farming in Europe, held in Basel from 30 September to 1 October 1990 (RTS 12), followed by a review of the status of Organic Farming Research in Europe in 1997 (RTS 54). The third volume on this topic (RTS 58) was the proceedings of the first workshop of the new Working Group on Organic Farming Research of the FAO Sustainable Rural Environment and Energy Network (SREN) held at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Frick, Switzerland, 30 September to 3 October 1998.

SREN is part of the European System of Cooperative Research Networks in Agriculture (ESCORENA), a voluntary collaboration effort promoted by the FAO Regional Office for Europe since 1974 (http://www.fao.org/regional/europe/escorena/). All publications can be found at http://www.fao.org/regional/europe/Public-e.html.

The current volume of the REU Technical Series presents the proceedings of the second workshop of this SREN Working Group. The overall focus of the workshop was directed towards the application and development of participatory research approaches which give useful results for the holistic, integrative approach so significant for organic agriculture in general.

It is hoped that, as happened previously, the present activities of this Network spawn many new initiatives which bring the seeds planted during this Workshop to fruition.

The generous organizational and financial support from the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies Bari (IAMB) is greatly appreciated. It furthermore created an opportunity to bring together Mediterranean NGO representatives with the research members of the Network and further strengthened the resolve for organic agriculture networking in the Mediterranean under the guidance of IAMB.

Claude Forthomme
Regional Representative for Europe

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS OF THE WORKSHOP - RAINER KRELL

BACKGROUND

This Second Workshop of the Sustainable Rural Environment and Energy Network (SREN) Working Group on Research Methodologies in Organic Farming, was hosted by the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute, Bari (IAMB, http://www.iamb.it). The theme of the Workshop, On-Farm and Participatory Research in Organic Farming, had been decided according to those thematic groups which had been most active since the first workshop of the Working Group in 1998 in Frick, Switzerland (for proceedings of the Workshop held in Frick see REU Technical Series 58, http://www.fao.org/regional/europe/pub/rts58.pdf or //../rts58.doc). The hosting institution and co-sponsor is actively promoting collaboration and development of organic agriculture in the Mediterranean basin and collaborated in a very successful regional EU-sponsored organic agriculture development project (Biopuglia, http://www.biopuglia.iamb.it/). The Workshop date was chosen to coincide with IAMB’s sponsored Workshop of the Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network, facilitating also the members of that Network who were not all researchers, to participate in the SREN Workshop. The Workshop started on Sunday, 5 September 1999 in order to reduce travel costs.

DESCRIPTION

A total of 51 participants from 20 countries^[1] joined the plenary sessions and group discussions. A banquet with regional specialities and live entertainment supported the group spirit and facilitated integration of new members for improved participation and interaction. In addition, a local tour was organized impromptu for those participants not leaving before late Tuesday, 7 September. A list of participants can be found at the end of this publication.

The first morning of the Workshop entailed presentations reviewing the Mediterranean situation and general themes related to on-farm participatory research. Mrs Scialabba’s (SDRR) presentation of related FAO activities was well-received leading to more global contacts and evidenced the global involvement of many of the Network members.

The following three half-days involved parallel discussion groups on:

• improving organic farming techniques to reduce the environmental impact;
• networking and organic pilot farms;
• strategies for higher producer value in organic farming systems.

These discussions were briefly interrupted by a tour of the excellent IAMB training and research facilities. Presentations of conclusions were completed on the Tuesday morning. Detailed reports will be published in the proceedings to be jointly produced with IAMB as a REU Technical Series.

A common thread throughout many of the discussions, was the recognition that not enough research is oriented to benefit the farmer; this is not necessarily due to the classical division of basic and applied research, but more so due to the research topic selection and the lack of proper integration of farmer knowledge and participation. Some of the major research benefits to the farmer were seen as:

• analysis of data (observations);
• ability to monitor changes;
• comparison with similar farms;
• training of farmers to assess themselves.

Since one of the problems of on-farm research in general and organic farming research in particular is its limited “geographical” applicability of results, the joint and in-depth elaboration of methodologies at least permits linking the different regions. Another limitation is the almost automatic selection of only or predominantly good farmers as research partners.

The pilot farm group discussed the benefit of a survey/review of different farm types and produced checklists of issues and criteria to consider in the development of each farm type: Demonstration Farms, Development Farms, Evaluation/Performance Farms. Research priorities will be different for specific crops and eco-conditions, but also for preferences according to each countries, e.g. focussing on animal welfare criteria development in Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and long-term economic monitoring in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Possible project and/or SREN activities in this context could refer to training people on how to set up pilot farms. A project concept was developed for the Assessment of Organic Farming in Mediterranean Countries.

The strategy discussion group gave most emphasis to the quality aspect of organically produced food in order to improve farm income, while farm production level and environmental impact were considered the next important aspects with major needs for knowledge improvement. The development of concepts and proper guidelines (incl. social and environmental quality aspects) perhaps through a research network and their enforcement and communication to the consumer were seen of prime importance. In this context it was suggested to build a research network on the communication between and behaviour of different market components/actors and the social value of organic products

The environment group pointed to the need of thorough environmental evaluation also for organic agricultural methods and discussed further details.

Several project ideas were outlined in the discussion groups. Together with IAMB a project proposal was discussed on the review of the stage of organic agriculture in Mediterranean countries with one of the outputs being a list of research priorities for different crops and eco-systems. Other discussions and recommendations are listed under point 3.

A preliminary offer was made by IAM Chania, Greece, to organize and host the Third SREN Workshop on Research Methodologies in Organic Farming.

EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Criticism of the Workshop was very constructive. The major points were as follows:

• all participants highly appreciated the opportunity presented by this Workshop and expressed that very useful contacts had been established or reconfirmed. It was again highly apparent that benefit obtained from such a Workshop was that of better communication to more people; since there are less research conferences on organic agriculture, these exchange opportunities are not as frequent as in many other agriculture research areas;
• circulation of documents and other information prior to the Workshop would permit better preparation leading to more focussed discussions in the working group sessions. This would also enable new participants to become familiar with past activities (another point raised for improvement).

It was mentioned that the Workshop presented a welcome opportunity for several participants (> one third) to discuss in-depth, two research projects which were intended for presentation to the EU before mid-November 1999 (organic agriculture and food security and coordination and dissemination of organic agriculture research).

The Workshop participants suggested, while aware of the logistical difficulties, that group facilitators should have met one day prior to the Workshop to better organize and structure the discussions.

It was also suggested that SREN activities should/could include training workshops or courses (IAMB collaboration) but separate from technical workshops.

Some research interest in previous thematic groups was re-expressed, such as in plant breeding for organic agriculture, criteria development for permitted inputs, on-farm participatory research, etc.

A few priority research topics were mentioned which could also be given attention to by this Working Group:

• food quality assurances and measurement;
• environmental assessment methods;
• animal welfare methods;
• overall impact of organic agriculture on human development;
• short- and long-term organic farming management methods;
• input and output farm performance indicators.

It was decided at the time of the final discussions to leave the Working Group programme more open-ended than the last time. Members will determine working group activities and priorities during the coming months.

Close ties should be maintained between the SREN WG and the Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network by the Secretariat with IAMB and between coordinators.

Collaboration with IAMB and also IAM Chania can be widened for research collaboration as well as other organic agriculture topics.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The organization of the Workshop was made possible by the extraordinary and voluntary efforts of the working group coordinator and the staff of IAMB in Bari. FAO and IAMB jointly supported the Workshop financially to permit the participation of researchers who otherwise have no opportunity to participate in this collaboration. All other participants had contributed their own resources in the true sense of the ESCORENA cooperative spirit. To all of them the secretariat of ESCORENA expresses its gratitude for this successful collaboration.

FINAL PROGRAMME OF THE WORKSHOP