A great deal of knowledge about organic farming is already available throughout Europe, and it is constantly increasing. However, sometimes it is not easy to acquire this knowledge and to use it. Organic Farm Knowledge addresses this deficiency by providing an easy-to-use platform that offers a search function with numerous filter options.
The toolbox - the core of the platform
The core of the platform is the "toolbox". Available tools include, for instance, practical tips, factsheets, guides, online calculation tools and videos. The online platform offers the possibility for comments, discussions and questions on topics and resources. By promoting the exchange of good practices, it supports farmers and advisors in putting innovations into practice.
The collection of knowledge emerged from the Organic Knowledge Network Arable (OK-Net Arable), a three-year project with 17 partner organisations in twelve European countries. The project started in 2015 and aimed to improve productivity and quality in organic farming. The platform was then enriched with content from the follow-up project, the Organic Knowledge Network on Monogastric Animal Feed (OK-Net EcoFeed). Since 2018, strategies and possibilities have been collected and tested to realise a completely regional and organic feeding of pigs and poultry. The project combines feed cultivation and processing and animal production.
Every tool is described by metadata that helps users to find the most relevant tool addressing their needs. Metadata include the problem the tool addresses, the solution(s) it offers, a description of the tool, the theme(s) covered, the language(s) it can be found in, the year it was released, the country of origin and information about the issuing organisation. New themes will be added soon.
Growing range of topics
Topics covered on the platform cover a wide range of knowledge about organic farming, from arable crops, soil quality and fertility, nutrient management, pest and disease control to pigs, broilers, laying hens, feeding and ration planning and the handling of harvested feed. This facilitates access to practical tools developed within the framework of research projects with farmers playing a central role in building the Organic Farm Knowledge platform from its roots.
Several EU research projects and CORE Organic projects (coordination of European transnational research on organic food and farming systems) have joined the Organic Farm Knowledge platform and intend to use it to disseminate their practice-oriented results. This includes the projects LIVESEED, RELACS, ReMIX and all recent CORE Organic projects. One aim is that the platform can also be searched according to the project.
The knowledge platform is open to further collaborations which enable the continued growth of knowledge provision by increasing its range of available instruments and topics. Several European projects have expressed interest or are already committed to supplying tools on themes such as seeds, plant breeding, fruit production, inputs used for organic plant protection, animal production and fertilisation. These tools are expected to be available soon.
Website: Helga Willer
Links
- fibl.org: OK Net EcoFeed – Knowledge network for organic feeding of monogastric animals (Project description)
- fibl.org: Knowledge network for organic arable farming (Project description)
- fibl.org: LIVESEED - Improving the performance of organic farming through the targeted promotion of organic seeds and plant breeding throughout Europe (Project description)
- fibl.org: RELACS - Improvement of inputs in organic farming (Project descriptiong)
- fibl.org: ReMIX - Mixed-culture based redesign of European cultivation systems (Project description)