conference on organic production, research and … innovation partnership for agri-cultural...

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT Directorate B. Multilateral relations, quality policy B.4. Organics

Brussels, September 2015

Conference on Organic production, Research and Innovation: setting priorities for the future" (Milano, 28-29/05/2015)

This paper presents the outcomes of the conference on Organics and Research and Inno-vation.

Introduction "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life": the theme of the EXPO (Universal Exhi-bition) could hardly leave anyone indif-ferent. While agriculture plays a central role in feeding the world, organic farm-ing goes a step further ensuring that the agricultural system operates as naturally as possible since it is based on practices designed to minimize the human impact on the environment.

Implementing a concrete action of the Action Plan for organic farming1 adopt-ed in March 2014, the European Com-mission in the context of EXPO, organ-ised a conference which succeeded in bringing together more than 180 partici-pants from over 30 countries.

All actors of the Research and Innova-tion chain were involved: farmers, farm advisors, researchers, and members of the Standing Committee on Agricultural Research, members of the Expert Group for Technical Advice on Organic Pro-duction and representatives of industries. The full list of participants is attached in annex.

1 Action 6: The Commission will organise a

conference in 2015 to identify research and innovation priorities for producers in relation to the challenges that may result from the fu-ture organic production rules. http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/organic/documents/eu-policy/european-action-plan/act_en.pdf

The aim of the conference was twofold:

• To bring together researchers, farmers, farm advisors and other actors; to engage them in dis-cussing and sharing ideas and knowledge on research and inno-vation in the organic production sector;

• To gather the research needs di-rectly linked to the production of organic inputs, organic raw ma-terials and organic products.

The outcomes of the discussions will serve to identify the research needs and priorities of the organic sector in the short (1-2 years), medium (2-5 years) and long term (> 5 years). They will be taken into consideration in the forth-coming H2020 Work Programmes, as well as in other European research and innovation instruments, such as the Eu-ropean Innovation Partnership for Agri-cultural Productivity and Sustainability defined at European and/or nation-al/regional levels. The approach taken for the design of the conference was a bottom up approach: ideas and input were generated from the practitioners themselves. The world café methodology used at the workshops is a format for hosting group dialogue that facilitates collaborative dialogue and aims at exploring concrete action possi-bilities. Participants of each workshop moved between a series of tables where

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different topics were discussed. At the end of the process, the rapporteur of each workshop with the help of table

hosts summarised the main ideas and presented them in a plenary session the following day.

Thursday 28 May 2015

Plenary session

The welcome and opening speeches giv-en by Emilio GATTO, General Director for Food, Quality and Promotion from the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, and by Linda MAUPERON and João ON-OFRE from DG Agriculture and Rural Development on behalf of Commission-er HOGAN, were followed by several presentations of EU research and inno-vation policies and organic research pro-jects and experiments. In the afternoon, workshops organised by themes (plant production, seeds, animal production, processing, means of stimulating the exchange of knowledge) took place to identify short, medium and long term research priorities for organic produc-tion. At the end of this first day, there was an award ceremony organised by TP Organics2 to reward “Organic Best Prac-tices”.

Presentations

The morning presentations were de-signed to update all participants on the research and innovation tools available at EU level as well as giving an example of a successful research project relevant for each of the afternoon workshops (except for processing).

2 Technology Platform Organics – TP Organ-

ics: European Technology Platform (ETP) for organic food and farming. TP Organics' role is to highlight where the focus of re-search and development funding should be placed.

Iman BOOT, Deputy Head of Unit Re-search and Innovation from the Direc-torate General for Agriculture & Rural Development gave a presentation under the title Policy frames and formats in which Horizon 2020 and Rural Devel-opment policy instruments were ex-plained. He also described the function-ing and objectives of the agricultural EIP network and Operational Groups.

Heikki HOKKANEN, professor of agri-cultural zoology at the University of Helsinki, presented the BICOPOLL pro-ject, on targeted precision, biocontrol and pollination enhancement in organic

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cropping systems. The innovative solu-tion used was based on pollinating in-sects that like to visit flowers, and are designed to transport small particles attached to their body hairs which can also distribute biological control agents. The BICOPOLL project consisted in joint field experiments in five countries in Europe, on strawberry.

Véronique CHABLE, senior scientist at INRA depicted how the SOLIBAM -FP7 project (2010-2014) which she co-ordinated, covered diversity strategies to participatory innovations for organic and low input food systems. The overall ob-jective of SOLIBAM was to develop specific and novel breeding approaches integrated with management practices to improve the performance, quality, sus-tainability and stability of crops adapted to organic and low-input systems.

Christine LEEB, coordinator of CoreOr-ganic II “ProPIG” which explored farm specific strategies to reduce environmen-tal impact by improving health, welfare and nutrition of organic pigs. This pro-ject includes data recording on organic pig farms, calculations of nutrient bal-ances and Life Cycle Assessment for several contrasting scenarios and the

development and evaluation of farm specific improvement strategies.

Bram MOESKOPS, coordinator of the OK-Net Arable thematic network, pre-sented this Horizon 2020 project, which involves 17 partners from 13 European countries, consisting of a core group of 6 institutions, 9 farmer innovation groups and another 2 organisations engaged in advice / dissemination. Its objective is to improve the exchange of knowledge among farmers, farm advisers and scien-tists to increase productivity and quality in organic arable cropping all over Eu-rope. OK-Net Arable, which is still at an initial phase, builds on the work of the Focus Group on organic arable cropping and will connect with upcoming Opera-tional Groups.

In a nutshell The four research projects represented different set-ups and funding sources while having common features including a multi-actor approach where in particu-lar farmers and farmer representatives have found their place. This has led (or is expected to lead, in the case of OK-Net arable) to innovation happening on the ground.

The presentations are available here: http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/expo-milano-2015/cap-events/organic-farming_en.htm

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The Workshops (World café ses-sions)

In the afternoon of the first day of the Conference, based on the choice made during the registration, participants at-tended one of the 5 Workshops which ran in parallel:

1. Plant Production

2. Seeds

3. Animal production

4. Processing

5. Means of stimulating the ex-change of knowledge

The large choice of thematic discussion groups represents the different back-grounds to which the participants be-long.

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Conclusions and next steps

How will the outcome of the conference feed into further discussions?

In her concluding remarks, Mrs Monique PARIAT, Deputy Director General for Directorates A and B at DG Agriculture and Rural Development, stressed the role of research in the or-ganic sector. More concretely, in addition to address-ing the supply and demand issues, there are some obvious examples of areas where research is still needed such as on improving productivity, on developing breeds suitable for organic agriculture and novel and innovative non-chemical treatments for certain diseases and pests.

The conference has served to identify research needs and priorities of the or-ganic sector. These will feed into the discussions on the next H2020 research and innovation programmes.

In addition, during the coming months, work will be undertaken to elaborate a long term vision for research and inno-vation in agriculture in the EU, includ-ing organic production. The plan is to have this vision finalised towards the beginning of 2016. The outcome of this conference will be taken up in this pro-cess.

ANNEX I: SUMMARY OF WORKSHOP DISCUSSIONS

ANNEX II: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS OF WORKSHOP DISCUSSIONS

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Structure of the discussions in the workshops

Three identical questions were examined in workshops 1 to 4, adapted so as to respond appropriately to each topic.

Question 1:

What are key problems to be addressed by Research & Innovation regarding the topic of the workshop?

Question 2:

For the key problems identified per sec-tor, what are the priorities for research in the short (1-2 years), medium (2-5 years) and long term (> 5 years)?

Question 3:

What cross-cutting and horizontal issues (e.g. social, economic, environment) as

well as links with the other workshops should be taken into account when dis-cussing research and innovation priori-ties?

Workshop 5 "Means of stimulating the exchange of knowledge", being of a more horizontal nature, addressed a dif-ferent set of questions, as follows:

Question 1:

1. How to involve effectively farmers and stakeholders in research and innova-tion actions?

Question 2:

2. How to ensure an appropriate dissem-ination of material and to develop ap-propriate channels of dissemination?

Friday 29 May 2015

Outcome of workshop discussions

The main points of the discussions by workshop are presented at the plenary session and a fruitful session of questions and answers was followed.

The results by workshop are listed in detail below in ANNEX I.

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ANNEX I: SUMMARY OF WORKSHOP DISCUSSIONS

Workshop 1 - Plant Production

Moderator: Beatriz GUIMAREY, European Innovation Partnership for Agriculture Service Point Rapporteur: Antonella ZONA, European Commission, Directorate General for Agri-culture and Rural Development, European Network for Rural Development and Monitor-ing of Rural Development

This workshop aimed at identifying in what direction research and innovation in plant production should go taking into account short, medium and long term objectives. A fo-cus was put on four specific sectors (cereals, protein crops, permanent crops and horticul-ture). However, cross-cutting and horizontal issues and research priorities were also iden-tified.

CEREALS: Weed control

− Short term

• Cover crop + direct sowing « no-till » methods

• Investigate problematic invasion of Ambrosia

• Developing new machinery for weed control

• Relationship between weed burden/cover and soil fertility

PROTEIN CROPS: Disease control

− Short term

• Mixed crops

− Short and medium term

• Use of compost

• Seed coating

− Long term

• Breeding

• Crop rotation design and phytosanitary interaction of different legumes

PERMANENT CROPS: Managing low fertility of soil

− Short term

• Methodologies to minimize the impact of agronomic practices (good prac-tices)

− Medium term

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• Impact of compost quality on perennials

• Use of pruning residues (incorporation in soil)

• Intercropping/combination of species

− Long term

• Holistic approach considering local conditions (soil, climate, etc.)

HORTICULTURE: Greenhouse production

− Short term

• Strawberries: root formation

• Role of grafting

− Medium term

• Pest and disease control (aphids)

• Climate-neutral energy (avoid fossil fuels)

• Recycling of plastic and other coverings

• Design of greenhouse adapted to climate/soil and local conditions includ-ing economic aspects

− Long term

• Soil diseases: natural strategies (green manure compost)

• Additional research is needed to help organic farmers move to using more local resources and inputs.

CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES

Priority: Understanding agro-ecosystems diversity and complexity in order to de-velop farmers’ autonomy from external inputs and maintain productivity and fertil-ity

− Short term

• Study of existing complex agricultural ecosystems in order to better un-derstand how they produce benefits to improve farming practices

• Explore trade-offs and synergies between multiple objectives of complex agricultural systems

− Medium term

• Study on complexity at different levels: farm, landscape, region

• Study on interactions between farms including social/economic complexi-ty

• Role of new technologies to help mechanize complex systems

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• Closing cycles to be addressed at regional level (including soil fertility, movement of nutrients between farming regions via livestock feed and straw)

− Long term

• If possible, testing of new improved models of complex farming systems (10 years+ projects)

HORIZONTAL ISSUES (linked to all workshops)

• Quality of organic products and the link to local traditions

• Consumer demands and awareness

• Better management of natural resources

• Breeding

• Co-existence of organic and conventional production

• Economic aspects, prices and market access

• External dimension and developing countries

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Workshop 2 – Seeds

Moderator: Iman BOOT, European Commission, Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Research and Innovation Rapporteur: Alina UJUPAN, European Commission, Directorate General for Agricul-ture and Rural Development, Organics

The objective of the workshop was to identify research questions that will, when an-swered, contribute to achieving the objective of 100% organic seeds. The outcome need-ed from the workshop was a list of research priorities for short, medium and long term.

The participants identified three key research themes, as follows:

1. The availability of varieties is essential for reaching the objective of 100% organ-ic seeds; however, currently there are insufficient varieties for organic farming (including local varieties).

2. Organic production requires higher standards with regards to use of substances and treatments that increase resistance or improve plant characteristics. This is the reason for which the development of adequate traits for organic farming is also an essential step in reaching the objective of 100% supply of organic seeds.

3. Similarly, not all breeding technologies and processes that are used in conven-tional agriculture would be suitable with the principles of organic farming. This leaves organic farming with fewer options when it comes to organic specific breeding. Research must be done for developing organic specific breeding tech-nologies and processes.

Outcomes per research theme:

VARIETIES

− Short term: Data collection

− Medium term: Specific crops (proteins and maize):

• Alternatives

• Make use of local varieties

− Long term: Specific crops (proteins and climatic areas)

TRAITS

− Short term: Networks and participatory research

− Medium term: Specific traits

• Taste

• Enrich soil and combat weeds

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• Combination of traits for quality

• Resistance (soils) and storage pathogens

• Synergies and complementarities between crops

− Long term: Specific traits and sustainability

• No gluten

• Tolerance to climate changes (drought, rainfall, salinity)

BREEDING TECHNOLOGIES AND PROCESSES

− Short term: Improving understanding of what organic breeding means

− Medium term: Specific techniques

• Improving selection

• Grafting

• Making use of local varieties

• Multidisciplinary approach (including for local varieties)

− Long term: Sustainability, efficiency and understanding interaction between ge-netics of plants and other organisms


− Traceability to maintain consumer confidence

− Sustainability – the key:

• Biodiversity for resilience

• Nutrients efficiency

• (Economic) sustainability – a precondition for developing the sector

• Externalities

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Workshop 3 – Animal production

Moderator: Willemine BRINKMAN, European Innovation Partnership for Agriculture Service Point Rapporteur: David LAMB, European Network for Rural Development Contact Point

Participants ranked the following issues according to the importance attached to each topic:

1. Animal health & welfare

2. Are antibiotics needed in organic production?

3. Breeds – breeds & breeding systems

4. Environmental impact from confinement – cross cutting

5. Bees – conservation areas for pure breeding

6. Concentrate reduction as a strategy for better climate and health

7. Pan-european breeding approach

8. Protein supply

9. Bee health in organic beekeeping

10. Research on genetics while keeping biodiversity

11. Marketing – quality recognition

12. Heat treatment for feed efficiency

13. Implementation of regulation at a national level

14. Fish welfare

15. Feed / roughage

16. Reduce use of chemicals

17. Self-sustaining production

18. Biodiversity

19. Feed trials – use of pasture

20. Recycling of waste from agriculture

Issues and research priorities for specific sectors (dairy, beef & sheep; pigs & poultry; bees & feed), for the whole animal production sector (common issues), as well as in relation to other themes (cross-cutting issues were also identified).

DAIRY, BEEF & SHEEP

Issues

• Reduction of antibiotics needed in organic production

• Alternatives to Antibiotics

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• Natural, sustainable

• Concentrate reduction as a strategy for better climate and health

Solutions

Short Term objectives

• Knowledge Transfer vital on research conducted, including external re-search e.g. USA

• Model/ Demonstration Farms

Antibiotics

• Most important – prevention of use through animal breeding, management and feed

• Research required on alternatives

• None at all long term

Concentrates

• Balancing ratios to reduce grain

• Regional research on ease of feed production and matching to

PIGS & POULTRY

Issues

• Animal health & welfare

• Herd size

• Labelling

• Environmental impact from confinement – cross cutting

Solutions

Animal Health & Welfare

• Exchange of knowledge on breeds including being a good mother (Short term)

• Laying hens – feather score in rearing in different systems (Medium term)

• Impact of herd size and extensification – some existing data (Medium term)

• Feasibility on animal outcomes on impacts of organic regulation imple-mentation (Long term)

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Environmental Impact

• Manure management including roughage (Medium Term)

• Management, including yard area, stocking and feed (Medium term)

• General techniques to reduce GHGs and connections with other EU re-search (Long term)

• On-farm data of environmental impact (Long term)

BEES & FEED

Issues

• Bee health in organic beekeeping

• Varroa free systems

• Bees – conservation areas for pure breeding

• Feed – roughage and forage

Solutions

Bees

• Disease prevention across regions (Short term)

• Dissemination of bee health initiatives and collaboration

• Use of microorganisms to improve health (Medium term)

• Varroa free bees and national protection areas (Long Term)

Feed

• Sources of Protein and finding alternatives (not meat/bonemeal) (short term)

• Monogastric systems - use of insects

• Impact on food chain of forage quality – micronutrient and mineral con-tent – organic specific (Medium Term)

• Diversity of food & forage for livestock- further work and dissemination of existing work (Long Term)

COMMON ISSUES (to the whole animal production sector)

Issues

• Work on genetics & systems

• Breeds – Breeds & breeding systems

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• Conservation areas for pure breeding

• Robustness through breeding resilience

Common

Solutions

• Need for organic specific research

• Better dissemination of research results

• Improved co-ordination of research results

• What are the sustainable traits or characteristics of regional breeds

• Need for a common EU breeding strategy on organics – main priority


• Promotion of organic agriculture - communication to policy makers, farm-ers, processors and consumers

• Knowledge Transfer

• Pan European approach

• Farmer-to- farmer exchanges

• Model or demonstration farms

• Harmonisation of legislation

• Preservation and certification of natural areas

• Grow to feed: growing plants based on feed requirements: regional ap-proach including soil and climate

• We need to take an inclusive view in research priorities – a holistic whole system approach

• Linking the discrete sectors including processing and agroforestry

• Understanding the social benefits of local food chains and systems

• Reduce waste from human consumption

• Comprehensive approach to the assessment on the impact of climate change

• Taking an approach across the EU – international exchange

Cross-

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Workshop 4 - Processing

Moderator: Pille KOORBERG, European Innovation Partnership for Agriculture Ser-vice Point Rapporteur: Willi SCHULZ-GREVE, European Commission, Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Analysis of trade and international policies

This workshop discussed a wide range of issues relating to food, feed, wine and common issues, from farming practices to consumer expectations.

FOOD

Priority problem: Small scale farmers: availability of technology, complex legislation, knowledge, information

Research questions, priority:

• Find out core problems with legislation (most complicated legislation) and work with advisory system – provide ready-made tools (e.g. Excel sheets) (Short-term)

• Benchmark best practices (Short term)

• How to make cooperation between different actors possible? How to sup-port/create knowledge transfer between science and farmers? How to help farmers to establish cooperation along the food supply chain?

Priority problem: Processing technologies compatible with organic requirements – e.g. ultrafiltration, ion exchange, polymer absorption


• Find new processing technologies for organic food

• Develop quick laboratory methods which can be done in the production unit (species differentiation)

• Research not only in relation with universities or scientists but as a memory, culture, tradition (biodiversity)

• How to make use of old, traditional technology in organic?

WINE

Priority problem: Technological research to reduce the use of sulphites in organic wine


• Promote information on the reduced risks for human health if sulphites are at proper level (Short term)

• Stimulate research on alternative anti-oxidants in order to reduce sulphites without "killing the wine" (Medium term)

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Priority problem: Alternative research to copper


• Support the purchase of spray machines that recover products in excess (Short term)

• Develop research about microorganism/animal antagonist of Plasmopora viticola (Medium term)

COMMON ISSUES

On Traceability

• Where, why and how traceability works in countries, who benefits from it? (Short term)

• Research for fast working traceability systems (should be electronic, fol-lowing the product) – low cost systems needed (long term for consumers, short term for processors)

• Create transparent system to identify organic products / production (short term)

• Create IT-system based on reading barcodes that provides information on the origin of the product (Long term)

• How can we improve communication between the food chain actors (pro-ducers, certification authorities, processing industry, consumers)? (Long term)

• Research on tests on food prints (showing differences between organic and conventional) (Medium term)

• Considering the previous points, how can the EU reduce bureaucracy and red-tape? (Short term)

On marketing and education

• Develop measuring methods (Short term)

• What are the specific benefits of organic food products (differences in nu-trients, less residues, less contamination, less pesticide)? (Medium term)

• Research on costs of organic raw material compared to conventional prod-ucts (environmental impacts to be included) (Medium term)

• Could we create a database of EU countries which have already carried out awareness activities for consumers? (Short term)

• How can we better inform consumers about the food supply chain? (Short term)

• Could we provide better market information to actors along the food sup-ply chain (including farmers)? (Short term)

• What are the consumer errors, how to educate consumer with the truth? (Long term)

• How can consumers retrieve information on organic production? (Long term)

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Workshop 5 - Means of stimulating the exchange of knowledge

Moderator: Gaetan DUBOIS, European Commission, Directorate General for Agricul-ture and Rural Development, Research and Innovation Rapporteur: Eduardo CUOCO, TPOrganics

The fifth workshop was somehow different from the others, in the sense that it examined processes of transferring knowledge which are common in all areas of organics and common to all workshops.

The objective of this workshop was twofold:

• To provide recommendations for the effective involvement of farmers and stake-holders in actions related to Research and Innovation (R&I) in the organic sector; and

• To provide recommendations for appropriate dissemination material and chan-nels.

The workshop was structured in 2 sessions:

Session I: Involvement of farmers and other stakeholders in R&I actions

Session II: Effective dissemination material and channels for farmers and other stakeholders

SESSION I

The following questions were addressed:

Why would stakeholders not participate in a research and innovation action?

• Time consuming

• No balanced distribution of funds

• No practical feedback

• Not involved from the start

• Project not relevant for farming issues

• Intellectual property of results

• Openness for innovation / risk management

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Why would stakeholders participate in a R&I action?

• From stakeholders involvement to multi-actor approach.

• R&I actions should stimulate cross-fertilisation among actors (exchange of idea/practices/solutions), including recognition of existing knowledge and local experiences.

• R&I priorities should be defined by “multi-actors” looking at problems from different perspectives (e.g. bringing researchers to the field)

• Actors co-define project question/methodology and project objectives in order to identify adequate level/moment of involvement and to develop re-sults that help solve concrete problems

• Actors should participate in designing dissemination strategies.

• Actors feel co-owners of agenda setting and project results.

• Actors should be rewarded for the time spent in project/development (fair distribution of resources)

Which tools/mechanisms do you prefer/propose to improve involvement of stake-holders in R&I actions?

• Enhancing discussion platform/network to build trust and confidence among multi-actors including civil society -> common understanding to-wards win-win situations

• R&I actions should be written in a “simple language” and with less bu-reaucratic burdens

• Multi-actors approach should be also applied in project proposal evalua-tions and along the project life-cycle

• Appropriate funding conditions should be considered (e.g. smaller grants) to allow better engagement of all the actors (e.g. SME, farmers)

SESSION II

What kind of dissemination material and channels do you use and not use?

• From dissemination to “co-creation”

• Co-creation imbedded along the project life-cycle (e.g. having a scientific coordinator and an “overall” coordinator dealing with communication)

• Sharing not only the project results but also experiences and methodolo-gies.

• Sharing outcomes both in the organic and conventional sector.

• Engaging actors broadly; cross- /transdisciplinary collaboration.

• Each project should have “national contact point” to reach actors not di-rectly involved in the project

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Which recommendations do you propose to improve dissemination?

• People and tools

• Role of advisors crucial to bring outcomes further to the field and facilitat-ing co-creation and knowledge exchange.

• Promoting farmer to farmer methods (e.g. farm visits, field days, demon-stration farms, etc).

• Informal events to exchange experiences (parties!!!).

• No big reports - Use of simple, local and adapted language.

• One size does not fit all: need for efficient combination of tools (e.g. farmer to farmer exchanges, videos, handbooks, audio, internet, online courses, magazines, etc).

• Making learning funnier, e.g. gamification

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ANNEX II: LIST OF PARTICIPANTS OF WORKSHOP DISCUSSIONS

conference on organic production, research and … innovation partnership for agri-cultural...

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