Euromontana kicks off the year with the publication of its annual booklet of good practices for sustainable mountain development. This publication showcases 10 inspiring initiatives from across Europe (EU and non-EU) collected by Euromontana throughout 2023 to promote initiatives that drive sustainable change in mountain areas. The booklet covers key issues for...

Enthusiastic fans see hemp as a crop that can meet current challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity. But can hemp really fulfill this expectation and what potential does the plant offer organic farms in Switzerland? A new fact sheet provides essential information on organic hemp cultivation for interested...

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) seeks to address injustices in the food system by supporting small-scale farmers applying agroecological practices through a long-term partnership: a community of members covers the cost of production and receives a share of the harvest throughout the season in return. Despite an orientation towards a more...

Listen to what German farmers have to say about their experience with Agroforestry in this video about the AGROMIX German pilot project field visit. The field visit was coordinated by IfaS which took place on the 9th of February 2023 in Palatinate, Germany. The field visit took participants around three...

Germany’s agriculture ministry is pushing for more organic food in canteens and restaurants in a first step towards achieving the coalition’s 2030 goal of ensuring 30% of arable land is dedicated to organic farming. At the end of 2021, Germany’s government coalition agreed that organic farming should account for 30% of arable land...

Fruit grower Clemens Köster and consultant Bastian Benduhn (Öko-Obstbau Norddeutschland) present measures to increase biodiversity in organic orchards. 00:00 Introduction 00:22 Flowering strips 01:38 Hedges 02:27 Anchor plants

In the last years, Agroecology Europe started to map agroecological initiatives in different countries or regions of Europe with the aim to support the development of agroecology in Europe, raise awareness for it and thereby strengthen agroecology in Europe. This work, namely the mapping of initiatives, writing of reports and coordination...

The programme EUR-Organic follows a holistic approach involving all aspects of organic food systems. The students profit from the distinct research foci of the partner universities, which in turn are reflected in the diverse specialisations available for students participating in the programme. None of the partner universities alone can offer such a wide...

Agroecology holds that agricultures that are part of sustainable food systems are closely interwoven with local contexts and communities. These agricultures are embedded into farmers’ local and practice knowledge which is articulated in constructive ways with scientific knowledge. They combine producers’ concerns with concerns of consumers and environmental protection and...

Agricultural journalists are actors in the ecosystem of agricultural innovation communication and therefore important for EU-FarmBook. EU-FarmBook supports the activities of the European Network of Agricultural Journalists (ENAJ), because journalists play an important role in the most relevant target groups of EU-FarmBook, such as farmers, advisors and decision makers. ENAJ is...

Documenting and analyzing the development of agroecology in different countries and context is important to enhance up and out-scaling of agroecology at the European level. Based on the AE4EU project (Agroecology for Europe https://www.ae4eu.eu), a mapping of agroecology in Austria and Germany in its different dimensions was achieved to provide...

Documenting and analyzing the development of agroecology in different countries and context is important to enhance and out-scaling of agroecology at the European level. Based on the AE4EU project (Agroecology for Europe https://www.ae4eu.eu), a mapping of agroecology in Austria and Germany in its different dimensions was achieved to provide an...

Agriculture needs to adapt to climate change to ensure food security. Agroforestry systems could help make farms more resilient, but they only constitute a fraction of farming in Europe. Is it time for change?

Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL October 2022 Newsletter News highlighting FiBL’s research, training and advisory services

  Agriculture is a major threat to global biodiversity. A common claim is that large-scale agro-industrial farming is mainly responsible for the biodiversity decline, while smaller family farms are more wildlife friendly. Here we leverage a natural experiment along the former inner German border to estimate the causal impact of farm...

The Operational Group Biogemüse in Northern Hesse (Germany) identified a growing demand for fresh organic vegetables, but there was a lack of local produce available. At the same time the rural population was falling steadily and there was a low number of jobs which affected vulnerable population groups in particular....

The Federal Republic of Germany, through the German Development Bank (Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau - KfW) has contributed EUR 17,950,000 to support work by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to rehabilitate key irrigation and agricultural infrastructure in Yemen and communities training. The three-year resilience programme (2021–2023) in...

White-flowering, light-hulled peas can be included up to 30 % in poultry feed. Growers of field pea can sell their crops to compound feed producers. However, trading pea is not always straightforward and on-farm or local use generally increases the profitability of growing pea. For this on-farm use to be...

Maria Tekülve, the Deputy Head of Division and Focal Point for Rural Development and Agroecology at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) reflects on the role of agroecological approaches in international cooperation in an interview with Silvia Richter for the International Journal for Rural Development. The material reflects Maria Tekülve's personal opinion. ''A significantly...

Tackling biodiversity loss is a growing priority for human survival. Introducing incentives for positive actions could play a key role in helping to reverse this loss. This paper explores the potential of using a novel approach to promote biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity credits or ‘biocredits’ are coherent units of measurement that track...