Research:
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Organic farming
research is carried out
or coordinated by all four of Organic Centre Wales' partner
organizations:
ADAS
The Organic Research
Centre Elm Farm
Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (IGER)
Institute of Rural Sciences (UWA)
Also, many research institutions in
the UK and worldwide carry out research. This page provides information on organic farming research
projects in Wales and the rest of the UK, and to links to relevant organizations
and resources. |
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Research priorities
In 2004 and 2005, DEFRA conducted a review of research priorities
for organic farming in England and Wales. For a summary of results from
Wales, click
here
and to see the final report from DEFRA click
here
Organic E-prints
Organic E-prints is an international
open access archive for papers related to research in organic
agriculture. The archive contains full-text papers in electronic form
together with bibliographic information, abstracts and other
information. To search the database visit
http://www.orgprints.org
Conferences
The third
Colloquium of Organic Researchers (COR) Conference was held on
18-20 September 2006, in Edinburgh, attracting over 80
delegates from all over the world. Click
here
for an overview and
here to buy a
copy of the proceedings.
Centre partners
Other
organizations
UK
DEFRA
funds organic research projects and disseminates research results
HDRA,
the Henry Doubleday Research Association near Coventry, is active in commercial organic horticulture research
Nafferton
Ecological Farming Group, University of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is active in organic research
Scottish
Agricultural College (SAC) is active in organic
research
The Initiative on
Organic Research (IOR) was launched in January 2001 by HDRA
and Elm Farm
Research Centre (EFRC)
Soil
Association
Europe
FiBL
Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland
CUL
The Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Uppsala, Sweden
DARCOF
The Danish Research Centre for Organic Farming
Institute
for Biodynamic Research, Darmstadt, Germany
Arbeitsgemeinschaft
Oekologischer Landbau,
Berlin, Germany
Other overseas
organizations
IFOAM
the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements
FAO
the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's organic farming website
The Organic
Farming Research Foundation, California, funds on-farm
research and publishes the results
The Centre
for Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Vermont is
active in research and extension
ISOFAR,
the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research
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Websites and
resources
www.coreorganic.org
a 3-year coordination project to promote organic food and farming research
in the EU.
www.adas.co.uk/gatewaywales
is a database carrying information on all centres carrying out research
and development on agriculture and land use in Wales
www.organic-research.com
CABI's international website with news items, research reports, courses,
farm links, jobs and legislation worldwide
Database
of European Organic Farming Research:
This DEFRA-funded review provides a framework, from a UK
perspective, setting out European organic research programmes. The site
provides details on the project methodology and allows the visitor to
obtain information relating to projects in the database
Biological
Agriculture and Horticulture is a journal publishing
research papers on or relevant to organic farming.
Download research
reports (in German and English; PDF) from the Institute
of Biodynamic Research
'Sustainable Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Catalogue -
Research results 1998-2006.
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Research Topics
For subject specific
information, follow the links below
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Dairy
Organic Centre Wales has
recently published a report organic dairying, drawing heavily on
studies at carried out
at IGER’s organic dairy farm, Ty Gwyn. It also includes a a review of
the financial performance of dairy farming in Wales, based on several
DEFRA funded studies and includes 2 farmer case studies, which put many
of the issues discussed in parts 1 and 2 in the context of individual
farm businesses.
Click here to download a copy or
contact us for hard copies. New factsheets also summarise data on
the
financial performance
of the sector and the current status of the
organic diary market
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Livestock
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Animal health
SAFO
(Sustaining Animal Health and Food Safety in Organic Farming) is an EU
partnership project which developed a network to raise
standards of organic livestock production: workshop
reports and link (mae hwn ar gael yn Gymraeg yma)
The Network
for Animal Health and Welfare in Organic Agriculture (NAHWOA), brings together experts from 17 research institutes in
13 European countries on health and welfare issues
See Novel
forages in organic systems for sheep parasite control
for a report of work at Aberystwyth
The Compendium
of Animal Health and Welfare in Organic Farming, is a resource material
and training tool for farmers, advisers and others developed by the
Organic Livestock Research Group, VEERU,
Reading University.
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Economics
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Policy and rural development
Current and recent projects
For information on an
international marketing research project involving UWA, go to the website
of Organic
Marketing Initiatives and Rural Development (OMIaRD)
The project Further
Development of Organic Farming Policy in Europe with particular emphasis
on EU Enlargement involves the Institute of Rural Sciences,
Aberystwyth, with partners in Switzerland, Italy, Poland, Germany, the Czech
Republic and Slovenia.
The project European
Information System for Organic Markets (EISfOM)
is collecting data on organic production, consumption, trade and prices in
32 European countries. The Institute of Rural Sciences, Aberystwyth, is a
partner.
The
University of Wales at Bangor is researching sustainable development
across all sectors: see www.sustainableregions.net
See Effects
of the CAP-reform and possible further developments on organic farming in
the EU for information about a research programme
coordinated at Hohenheim, Germany, in which IRS was a partner.
See the IRS
webpage related to this project, with publication details
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Marketing
Organic
Monitor is a London-based company that provides
business research and consulting on the international organic food
industry.
Friends
of the Earth have some useful reports relating to local food on their
website. Click
here
Farm
planning
See Conversion
to organic production software (OrgPlan) for details of a
research project carried out at IRS
See www.adas.co.uk/manner
for details of MANNER, a PC-based decision support system which will
accurately predict the fertiliser nitrogen value of organic manures on a
field specific basis on CD-ROM or disk, available free from ADAS.
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Food
quality
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The Integrated Project QualityLowInputFood aims to
improve quality, ensure safety and reduce cost along the organic and
"low input" food supply chains through research,
dissemination and training activities. |
The FQH
Association coordinates and disseminates research on organic food and
health
The Soil Association's report Organic
Farming, Food Quality and Human Health (2001) gives a
comprehensive review of existing research. (88pp, £12.00). The
Louis
Bolk Institute, Netherlands, conducts research on organic
food quality
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Soils
Phosphate
Recovery is a website carrying information on the recovery
and recycling of phosphates from sewage and animal wastes. Soil
Fertility in Organically Managed Soils A special issue of
Soil Use and Management, published by CABI Publishing on behalf of the
British Society of Soil Science at £15.00
The Nutrients
in Organic Agriculture Group organizes meetings and publishes results on its
webpages.
See www.adas.co.uk/manner
for details of MANNER, a PC-based decision support system which
will accurately predict the fertiliser nitrogen value of organic manures
on a field specific basis on CD-ROM or disk, available free from ADAS.
See Sustainable
Nutrient Management in Agriculture and Organic Farming,
an advisory service at Wageningen
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Crop
production www.organicweeds.org.uk
is a weed
control research project involving farmers
Visit the Centre for Organic Seed
Information for latest information on organic issues, including
variety trial results, availability of organic seed and updates on
standards issues. For
details of horticulture research projects at HDRA see the HDRA
current research webpage The
European Weed
Research Society has a working group for Physical
and Cultural Weed Control, whose website lists many
references and links
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Plant
breeding and genetic modification The
Soil Association's report Seeds
of Doubt analyses the response of US and Canadian farmers
to GM crops The
European Consortium for Organic Plant Breeding coordinates
research and discussion See
Elm Farm's project Production
of organic seed for the organic farming sector Back
to top
Environment See
report An
assessment of the environmental impacts of organic farming, published
by DEFRA in May 2003.
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