Dissemination Plan of the Core Organic project MIX-ENABLE

Dissemination plan description of the Mix-Enable project

Assessment and comparisons of the environmental, economic and social performances of organic and conventional cattle systems

The main objective of "CedABio" was to estimate the environmental and socioeconomic benefits anticipated in the bovine farming systems adopting an organic production mode. Beyond some obvious advantages, the goal was to measure and ascertain the real contributions of a change to organic farming for the dairy and beef farms. To lead this assessment, strong and technically accessible indicators were selected, tested, and then looked for in 144 livestock farms, located in varied contexts to take into account territorial diversity. Half of the farms were in organic mode. Their results are compared with the other half producing in conventional mode, situated in the same zones, with similar structures. The results and the observations performed in this network of commercial farms are completed by additional measures on two experimental farms in organic production in the INRA station of Mirecourt in J. Pavie et al. 28 Innovations Agronomiques 30 (2013), 27-40 dairy production and in Thorigné d’Anjou in beef production. The observations and studies took into account three axes of the sustainability: environmental, economic and social. The environmental axis includes the analysis of mineral balances, energy consumptions, biodiversity, gas emissions, consumptions of sanitary and phytosanitary products as well as management of waste. The social axis took into account workload and animal welfare. If some outputs confirmed results of previous works and the anticipated profit of a conversion to organic farming, all do not show the same degree of interest for a conversion to organic farming. Some elements of context, localization, quality of the surroundings, levels of technical control observed in some conventional farms, reduce the interest expected from a conversion to organic farming

Creation of innovative tools for the development of organic dairy production in mountain areas

In the dairy mountain areas, natural constraints and the end of the quota system are sources of difficulties and challenges for the dairy production. High added value schemes, such as organic farming could help farmers and processors to face these challenges. The “Montagne Bio project”, funded by the French Ministry of Agriculture studied and defined the conditions for the success of this development. We studied dairy farmers’ views on organic production, described farm trajectories before and after conversion, and identified factors that contribute to the success or the failure of a conversion or of a collective development project. We tested and assessed a method to carry out projects for the development of organic farming in rural areas and built tools to support local stakeholders and extensionnists to manage such projects. The collective work in the project team made it possible to use new references by each partner and led to building a common view of farm trajectories and the development of organic food chains

Deliverable No 5.2: Handbook: RELACS-AHWP protocol

The indication “mastitis” is still one of the most important reasons for the antimicrobial input in European organic dairy herds. Animal health plans exist in several European countries. They are mainly based on checklists ending up in a written plan. However, such health plans don’t necessary lead to an improvement in the animal health situation on farms. Based on the knowledge and experience of former projects, in particular the Core Organic ANIPLAN-Project, and based on the principles of health planning processes, a team of farming advisors as well as veterinary practitioners and on-farm researchers in preventive veterinary medicine developed an improved RELACS-Animal Health and Welfare protocol. The protocol will be useful for less experienced advisors in the organic dairy sector, as well. Data about health and welfare of dairy cows play different but highly important roles within the advisory as well as the scientific part of the RELACS-AHWP Protocol. Data are needed for (self-)reflection of farmers, benchmarking between farms, for further advisory reasons, but also for the scientific (a) analysis of the development within each farm and (b) comparison between farms participating in the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach and non-participating control farms. Data collection has to be carried out in a highly precise manner and following the same protocol on each farm and at each point in time. The Dataset comprises five parts: (1) Overall data of farm structure, (II) Milk recording data, fertility data, (III) Health and Treatment data, (IV) Health and Welfare data and (V) Farmer Field School outcome data. The complete dataset will be collected three times during the project – (a) immediately prior to the first FFS, (b) one year after the first and (c) one year after the second FFS. The activities planned in WP5 resulting in DEL 5.2 fall under the Ethics Review requirements related to «Collection of data from humans» for the project and «Protection of personal data». The appropriate procedures to comply with the ethical requirements are described. The advisory action within the RELACS AHWP protocol will be FFS, a specific form of facilitated farmer inter-collegial advisory. The ideal group size consist of 5 to 7 farmers including one host, 4-6 advising guest farmers and a facilitator per meeting. The facilitator will not give any advice, but is responsible of the preparation and organization of the meeting, the moderation during the meeting as well as the writing up and distribution of the minutes to all participants after the meeting. A meeting comprises a farm walk (including a demonstration of at least one “success case”) and a structured indoor discussion tackling two problems presented by the host farmer and subsequent inputs from all participants. Each problem topic is closed by a conclusive statement by the host farmer. Two farmer field schools per farm will be held during the project at a one-year interval

Deliverable No 5.2: Handbook: RELACS-AHWP protocol

The indication “mastitis” is still one of the most important reasons for the antimicrobial input in European organic dairy herds. Animal health plans exist in several European countries. They are mainly based on checklists ending up in a written plan. However, such health plans don’t necessary lead to an improvement in the animal health situation on farms. Based on the knowledge and experience of former projects, in particular the Core Organic ANIPLAN-Project, and based on the principles of health planning processes, a team of farming advisors as well as veterinary practitioners and on-farm researchers in preventive veterinary medicine developed an improved RELACS-Animal Health and Welfare protocol. The protocol will be useful for less experienced advisors in the organic dairy sector, as well. Data about health and welfare of dairy cows play different but highly important roles within the advisory as well as the scientific part of the RELACS-AHWP Protocol. Data are needed for (self-)reflection of farmers, benchmarking between farms, for further advisory reasons, but also for the scientific (a) analysis of the development within each farm and (b) comparison between farms participating in the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach and non-participating control farms. Data collection has to be carried out in a highly precise manner and following the same protocol on each farm and at each point in time. The Dataset comprises five parts: (1) Overall data of farm structure, (II) Milk recording data, fertility data, (III) Health and Treatment data, (IV) Health and Welfare data and (V) Farmer Field School outcome data. The complete dataset will be collected three times during the project – (a) immediately prior to the first FFS, (b) one year after the first and (c) one year after the second FFS. The activities planned in WP5 resulting in DEL 5.2 fall under the Ethics Review requirements related to «Collection of data from humans» for the project and «Protection of personal data». The appropriate procedures to comply with the ethical requirements are described. The advisory action within the RELACS AHWP protocol will be FFS, a specific form of facilitated farmer inter-collegial advisory. The ideal group size consist of 5 to 7 farmers including one host, 4-6 advising guest farmers and a facilitator per meeting. The facilitator will not give any advice, but is responsible of the preparation and organization of the meeting, the moderation during the meeting as well as the writing up and distribution of the minutes to all participants after the meeting. A meeting comprises a farm walk (including a demonstration of at least one “success case”) and a structured indoor discussion tackling two problems presented by the host farmer and subsequent inputs from all participants. Each problem topic is closed by a conclusive statement by the host farmer. Two farmer field schools per farm will be held during the project at a one-year interval

Co-Designing an organic framework: the ”REF’AB” Project in France

To help the development of Organic Food and Farming (OFF) systems, there is the need to consolidate conversions to OF, to support entry into organic farming, and to develop existing organic farms. Therefore a group of extensionists, researchers and educators has being working 2 years long to co-design a framework for OFF, taking into account the need to (i) embrace all forms of OFF, and at the same time to (ii) address the specificities of OFF. This project, called REF’AB (REFerentiel de l’Agriculture Biologique, 2010-2012) aims at designing the organization of set of references produced on shared methodological bases. The approach consisted in identifying key-issues of OFF systems, defining indicators, identifying relevant databases and references to feed the framework, and providing recommendations for governance to optimise the establishment and circulation of references. The outcomes of this project is that first it was not necessarily clear what a framework for OFF should be, and therefore a conference of consensus was used as a methodological tool to share views by multi-stakeholders. Second, we used sustainability assessment as an integrative process of the three levels (technical-economic, environmental, and social) and third, to manage to share a more transversal approach, we proposed a framework with 3 levels of key-proprieties: 1) security and efficiency, 2) durability through the protection of resources, and 3) autonomy and resilience

RELACS: a new EU-project on the Replacement of Contentious Inputs in Organic Farming Systems

Organic farmers adhere to high standards in producing quality food while protecting the environment. However, organic farming needs to improve continuously to keep meeting its ambitious objectives. The project ‘Replacement of Contentious Inputs in Organic Farming Systems’ (RELACS) will foster the development and adoption of cost-efficient and environmentally safe tools and technologies to: - Reduce the use of copper and mineral oil in plant protection, - Identify sustainable sources for plant nutrition, and - Provide solutions to support livestock health and welfare

Use of Copper-Based Fungicides in Organic Agriculture in Twelve European Countries

The reduction of copper-based plant-protection products with the final aim of phasing out has a high priority in European policy, as well as in organic agriculture. The aim of this survey was to provide an overview of the current use of these products in European organic agriculture and the need for alternatives to allow policymakers to develop strategies for a complete phasing out. Since there is a lack of centralized databases on pesticide use, we combined expert knowledge on permitted and real copper use per crop and country, with statistics on organic area in 12 European countries covering 83% of the organically managed horticultural area. We calculated that approximately 3258 t copper metal per year is used by organic agriculture in these countries, equalling to 53% of the permitted annual dosage. This amount is split between olives (1263 t y−1, 39%), grapevine (990t y−1, 30%), and almonds (317 t y−1, 10%), followed by other crops with much smaller annual uses (< 80 t y−1). In 56% of the allowed cases (countries × crops), farmers use less than half of the allowed amount, and in 27%, they use less than a quarter. At the time being, completely abandoning copper fungicides would lead to high yield losses in many crops. To successfully reduce or avoid copper use, all preventive strategies have to be fully implemented, breeding programs need to be intensified, and several affordable alternative products need to be brought to the market

Use of Copper-Based Fungicides in Organic Agriculture in Twelve European Countries

The reduction of copper-based plant-protection products with the final aim of phasing out has a high priority in European policy, as well as in organic agriculture. Our survey aims at providing an overview of the current use of these products in European organic agriculture and the need for alternatives to allow policymakers to develop strategies for a complete phasing out. Due to a lack of centralized databases on pesticide use, our survey combines expert knowledge on permitted and real copper use per crop and country, with statistics on organic area. In the 12 surveyed countries (Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK), we calculated that approximately 3258 t copper metal per year is consumed by organic agriculture, equaling to 52% of the permitted annual dosage. This amount is split between olives (1263 t y−1, 39%), grapevine (990 t y−1, 30%), and almonds (317 t y−1, 10%), followed by other crops with much smaller annual uses (<80 t y−1). In 56% of the allowed cases (countries × crops), farmers use less than half of the allowed amount, and in 27%, they use less than a quarter. At the time being, completely abandoning copper fungicides would lead to high yield losses in many crops. To successfully reduce or avoid copper use, all preventive strategies have to be fully implemented, breeding programs need to be intensified, and several affordable alternative products need to be brought to the market

Ostral : Un outil de simulation et d’aide à la décision (Productions ovin viande et lait) (Session "expériences et innovations de terrain")

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