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FiBL's core missions

In early 2019, FiBL published its 11core missions, which consolidate its diverse activities and, in some areas, chart new territory. Future challenges are to be addressed with the help of forward-looking ideas and methodologies.

The eleven core missions:

  • Core mission 1: Plant breeding for agroecological and organic cropping systems
  • Core mission 2: Use of digital technology in modern organic farming
  • Core mission 3: Organic crop protection for the entire farming sector
  • Core mission 4: Optimum nitrogen management for crops, livestock and the environment
  • Core mission 5: Animal welfare, productivity and sustainability – solving the conflicts
  • Core mission 6: Climate change and organic farming
  • Core mission 7: Improving the sustainability of agriculture and the value chain
  • Core mission 8: Making value chains transparent and securing the long-term trust of consumers
  • Core mission 9: Organic advisory services of the future – the digital advisor and the personal discussion
  • Core mission 10: Organic farming’s contribution to sustainable development in the countries of the global South
  • Core mission 11: FiBL campus – Agroecology and organic farming need interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education and training

Preface

In the middle of the 21st century, 500 million farmers will provide sufficient and healthy food for nine billion people. They will do so while using natural resources prudently and without resorting to fossil fuels. Their production will provide them with an economically viable livelihood. Their livestock will utilise the inexhaustible grassland areas and the by-products of the agri-food industry and will not be subjected to distress or suffering.

This is the form of modern organic farming to which FiBL with its numerous research projects, educational activities and consulting knowledge is committed. FiBL is a direct player in several European countries and in numerous collaborations with public and private institutions in practically every country of the world. FiBL’s staff want to make a difference. To this end they rely on knowledge gained in the course of hundreds of projects carried out with practitioners and other stakeholders – knowledge which is constantly being expanded through experimental research and thorough analysis. For 45 years now, FiBL staff have been reliable partners to the organic farming sector.

The ecological, economic and social transformation of global food systems is a topical issue and FiBL is doing its part in addressing it, consistently and with determination. To do so, the Institute draws on public funding, grants from foundations, and funding from innovative businesses. With its eleven newly formulated core missions, FiBL consolidates its diverse activities and, in some areas, charts new territory. Future challenges are to be addressed with the help of forward-looking ideas and methodologies.

The eleven core missions form a document that signals new departures. We would like to significantly increase our impact because we can see how many of our ideas have proven worthwhile and our partners are continuing to fill the pool of solutions. These new departures must also be financed and we are undertaking major efforts to at least double the five FiBL budgets of approximately CHF / EUR 30 million.

Our aim is to place organic farming, animal welfare and agroecology at the heart of the agri-food sector. The time is ripe for transformation. This calls for hearts, heads and hands.

Preface in the brochure "FiBL’s Eleven Core Missions 2018–2025" by Urs Niggli, Director FiBL Switzerland from 1990 to March 2020