Innovation in Organic and Low-Input Agriculture in Anamarija Slabe Steering Group, TP Organics

Transcription

1 Innovation in Organic and Low-Input Agriculture in 2020 Anamarija Slabe Steering Group, TP Organics

2 Contents TP Organics Innovation in organic farming Organic farming & Horizon 2020

3 TP Organics Technology Platform for organic/agroecological food and farming research Only platform that takes system approach to agriculture and food chains First platform that strongly engages civil society organisations

4 IFOAM EU is the umbrella organisation for OFF sector. It brings together more than 300 organizations, associations and enterprises from all EU-27, EFTA and candidate countries. Partners of TP Organics: Euro Coop is the European community of consumer cooperatives. It represents EU partner over 3,200 local organisations regional cooperatives (NGOs SME s associations) and 25 million consumer members. Network of scientists Actively contributing companies ISOFAR promotes and supports research in all areas of Organic Agriculture by facilitating global co-operation in research, methodological development, education and knowledge exchange Cooperation with national TPs in CZ/IT/HU and national partner in several EU and EFTA countries Involvment in ERA Net CORE ORGANIC individuals/households. II FACCE JPI ERA Net SUS FOOD Involvment of civil society organisations The EEB represents more than 140 member organisations from 31 countries with a membership base of more than 15 million EOCC Cooperation with the Agri Food sector group of the Enterprises Europe Network in terms of knowledge management and technology transfer.

5 Research Areas: Food production and ecosystems Socio-economic development Food quality, quality of life and health Climate change Water management Biodiversity Knowledge Transfer Cross-Cutting Issues

6 Broad understanding of innovation Technology innovation: lab-based science transferred to users Know-how innovation: knowledge related to methods and practices Organisational innovation: changes in management Social innovation: change of behaviour of groups in wider society

7 Technological innovations At the farm level developing new varieties or populations of crop and livestock which deliver high value to the consumer and are suited to organic systems Pest control New machinery

8 Wheat Populations: An Intelligent Crop Using high genetic diversity can increase the reliability and stability of crop performance for a variety of conditions Tested with winter wheat across a large range of environments in the UK

9 Examples of technological innovation topics in the SRA Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from organic and low external input livestock Develop alternatives to the use of critical inputs in organic farming systems Aquaculture feeding with protein crops Methods to assess the quality &authenticity of organic food Careful food processing methods & functional ingredients instead of additives

10 Know-how innovations Know-how at centre of the innovation Improved grazing regimes for the prevention of parasitic infections Agro-ecological control of pests or dieases New crop mixtures? Digital media are likely to play an important role in communicating this know-how

11 Social and organisational innovations Find new ways of meeting social needs which are not adequately met by the market or the public sector or to bring about the behavioural changes which are needed to tackle the major societal challenges, such as climate change Or different ways to do business

12 Social/organisational innovations: Topic examples in SRA Experimental, assessing alternatives, collaborative and able to engage the citizen (BEPA, 2009) Social sustainablity impact of organic farming and low-input supply chains Innovative ways of implementing values through certification Organic farming policies and climate change in the light of the challenge of climate change

13 Generating and using knowledge in participatory way The linear model The collaborative model The feedback model Knowledge Producer The joint production model Knowledge User After RELU (2007)

14 The potential of participation Capture innovative potential and expertise of farmers and small businesses Ensure stakeholder relevance & contribute to dissemination Key goal: Research in organic food and farming systems is relevant and useful to the users organic farmers, businesses, concerned stakeholders, society, policy makers

15 What are the gaps and deficits in Horizon 2020 view of TP Organics Too much emphasis on technological innovation (from technical experts) for the benefit of only few large businesses Assumption: only new knowledge creates innovation and not traditional knowledge or the combination of new & existing. Still a top down approach regarding knowledge generation (Knowledge based but not knowledge-shared!) insufficient inclusion of civil society, e.g. when assessing suitability and desirability of technologies Too much emphasis on resource efficiency and not resourceconservation/saving (not taking re-bound effect into account) Socio-economic research mentioned but not fully integrated Linked to a very much biotech industry influenced concept of the so called Bio-economy SMEs important help to make them bigger??

16 Six potential themes of TP Organics for the 8 th Horizon 2020 framework research programme how is it taken up in first EU Commission outline 1. Eco-functional intensification: A novel approach to global food stability and security => ecological intensification is mentioned, but not clarifing if this relies on natur processes 2. The economics of output/low external input farming and more resource efficiency and resource conservation/saving => low external input/high output is not mentioned, however strong emphasis on resource efficiency 3. Health care schemes for livestock => preventive animal health care schemes and animal welfare is hardly mentioned.

17 Six potential themes of TP Organics for the 8 th Horizon 2020 framework research programme how is it taken up in first EU Commission outline 4. Resilience and sustainagility as the predominant approach to secure farm productivity and economy in times of change => The need for adaptaptive capacities of farms as condition for better resilience and less vulnerabilty to climate change, to scarcities and to other (financial, social and ecological risks) are not mentioned 5. From farm diversity to food diversity to the health and wellbeing of citizens => biodiversity is mentioned but not the need for a diversity of authentic food and sustainable consumption. Also a need for a diversity of research approaches not just modern biotech, nano 6. Create centers for innovation in farming communities => Innovation partnerships often mentioned, however in a very technical orientation and not specifically linked to framing communities

18 Main messages to policy makers More emphasis should be given in Horizon 2020: Importance of broad and institutional knowledge base through participatory research approaches involving stakeholders based on the combination of new and traditional/existing knowledge Not just technological leadership but also social leadership for a fair economy Resource saving and better adaptability to climate change through eco-functional intensification and high output/ low external input farming.

19 Thank you for your attention! Presentation acknowledgement : S. Padel, O. Schmid, E. Cuoco and B. Moeskops.