Results of Surveys on Organic Market Data Collectors and End Users in Europe

Despite the continuous growth of the organic market in Europe, in most countries only very basic statistics about this sector exist. There are a number of reasons for the need for reliable data on European organic production, retail sales and trade. Above all, data and market information are needed by private and public actors to make correct decisions; by farmers and other members of the organic supply-chain to make investment decisions; and by policy makers to calibrate measures targeted to the organic sector. To understand the availability of data on the organic market, and to assist in improving data quality and availability, it is first necessary to be aware of the organisations that currently collect, analyse, and/or disseminate such data across Europe and the methods that they use. Furthermore, it is necessary to identify the needs and demands of end users of organic market data, and to find areas of information asymmetry. The results of two surveys carried out in Europe: one of data collectors and one of end-users of organic market data are presented. The purpose of these surveys was to produce an overview of collectors of organic market data in Europe and its neighbouring countries and a description of the needs of end users of such data. The results have delivered a good picture of the situation in Europe and have shown that the recent claims, coming from various sources, regarding a lack of organic market data are justified. There was an almost universal expression by end users of feeling at a competitive disadvantage because of lack of available data for all data types. This is problematic, as without good quality, accurate and timely information it is difficult for stakeholders to make decisions about the risks and benefits of investment

Adequacy of the production rules

Adequacy of the production rules

Service-Learning im Lehramt. Das Konzept der Teaching Clinic und Fallbeispiele aus Universität und Hochschule

Der Beitrag präsentiert das Konzept der „Teaching Clinic“ und illustriert anhand von Fallbeispielen, wie Service-Learning hier umgesetzt wird. Lehrkräfte können in der Teaching Clinic Fragestellungen zu beruflichen Herausforderungen aus ihrer Praxis einreichen. Diese Fragen werden dann als Forschungsfragen von Lehramtsstudierenden in Projekten bearbeitet. Ziel ist es, für die Lehrkräften Lösungsansätze zu erarbeiten. (DIPF/Orig.

Do organic farming initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa improve the sustainability of smallholder farmers? Evidence from five case studies in Ghana and Kenya

Organic agriculture (OA) is often regarded as a sustainable agricultural pathway for smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, and an increasing number of initiatives promoting OA were initiated over the last decades. However, holistic empirical evidence on the effects of such initiatives on the sustainability of smallholder farmers is still scanty. We analyzed the effects of five initiatives promoting OA on farm-level sustainability. We selected farmers exposed to the initiatives (n = 678) and control farms (n = 957) in five different case studies, two implemented in Ghana and three in Kenya. We used a farm-level multi-criteria assessment tool that evaluates to what extent the environmental, social, economic, and governance sustainability goals formulated in the FAO-SAFA Guidelines are addressed by farmers. We found that the initiatives had limited effects on reducing farmers reliance on chemical inputs use (pesticides and synthetic fertilizers) and uptake of organic or agro-ecological practices. Nevertheless, the results show that the initiatives were able to trigger significant (p-value < 0.05) positive effects mainly for the environmental sustainability goals. In contrast, the goals within the economic, social and good governance sustainability dimensions were rarely affected. Moreover, certified initiatives had more frequently a positive sustainability effect compared to uncertified initiatives

Etiology and Outcome of Adult and Pediatric Acute Liver Failure in Europe

Acute liver failure (ALF) is rare but life-threatening. Common causes include intoxications, infections, and metabolic disorders. Indeterminate etiology is still frequent. No systematic data on incidence, causes, and outcome of ALF across Europe are available. Via an online survey we reached out to European Reference Network Centers on rare liver diseases. Numbers and etiology of ALF cases during 2020 were retrieved and diagnostic and treatment availabilities assessed. In total, 455 cases (306 adult, 149 pediatric) were reported from 36 centers from 20 countries. Intoxication was the most common cause in adult and pediatric care. The number of cases with indeterminate etiology is low. Diagnostic tools and specific treatment options are broadly available within this network. This is the first approach to report on etiology and outcome of ALF in the pediatric and adult population in Europe. High diagnostic yield and standard of care reflects the expert status of involved centers.</p

A spatially explicit framework to assess the environmental impacts of agricultural production on landscape level

Global agriculture is facing immense challenges due to the necessity to provide a growing population with sufficient and nutritious food while at the same time decreasing its pressure on many biophysical earth systems at the local and global scale

A spatially explicit framework to assess the environmental impacts of agricultural production on landscape level

Problem & Aim Global agriculture is facing immense challenges due to an increasing demand by a growing population that is more (over)consuming and wasting a substantial proportion of the food produced [1] while environmental impacts at local and global scales increase [2-4]. Life cycle assessments (LCA) are widely used to evaluate the environmental impacts of agricultural production, addressing energy as well as material flows and their environmental impacts [5-6]. Despite of recent advancements [7-11], LCA approaches generally measure eco-efficiency without taking into account local ecosystem boundaries or cross-scale interactions and therefore do not allow for a final conclusion on the sustainability of an agricultural production system within its specific local context. Furthermore, LCA neglect the inherent linkages between farming systems (e.g. whey in pig production), which only emerge once analyses cover the entire food system. We address those needs with the development of a spatially explicit toolbox for assessing nutrient flows and environmental impacts of agricultural production at landscape level. Proposed methodological framework The toolbox will be based on a gridded representation of agricultural production (Fig.1 - 1) with a LCA-based farm model applied to each grid cell (2). This model captures within-cell flows of agricultural products, quantifies N/P flows through plant as well as feed and livestock production and considers, through a cradle to farm-gate approach, upstream processes, and external inputs. Hence, it allows for a quantitative environmental evaluation of farms, both per hectare and per kg of outputs. The application of this farm model to each grid cell will facilitate a high degree of spatially resolved farming activity data. A data processing method (3) will centrally manage each grid cell with regard to all physical exchanges with other cells. The biodiversity depletion potential [12] will be calculated for each cell based on agricultural land use intensity and landscape structure parameters, such as presence of semi-natural habitats (4). Additionally, maps indicating water quality as well as other landscape functions and ecosystem services will be integrated (4). Through the combination of this model with a global mass-flow model [13-14], we will quantify off-site effects as well as trade-offs and synergies across different scales (5). Expected results The above presented framework will provide a reproducible and innovative modelling approach to assess and optimize agricultural activities in their surrounding landscape. Latter will be firmly linked to their location in ecosystems and consistently embedded in regional to global food system dynamics. The framework will thus allow to explore the regional option space of impact mitigation, including trade-offs and synergies between agricultural land use, ecosystem services, and biodiversity conservation at landscape level. Thus, the approach optimally contributes to regionalised systemically consistent policy making

Hydrogeochemical and multi-tracer investigations of arsenic-affected aquifers in semi-arid West Africa

The semi-arid Sahel regions of West Africa rely heavily on groundwater from shallow to moderately deep (10 μg/L) stemming from the oxidation of sulphide minerals (pyrite, arsenopyrite) in mineralised zones. These aquifers are still little investigated, especially concerning groundwater residence times and the influence of the annual monsoon season on groundwater chemistry. To gain insights on the temporal aspects of As contamination, we have used isotope tracers (noble gases, 3H, stable water isotopes (2H, 18O)) and performed hydrochemical analyses on groundwater abstracted from tube wells and dug wells in a small study area in southwestern Burkina Faso. Results revealed a great variability in groundwater properties (e.g. redox conditions, As concentrations, water level, residence time) over spatial scales of only a few hundred metres, characteristic of the highly heterogeneous fractured underground. Elevated As levels are found in oxic groundwater of circum-neutral pH and show little relation with any of the measured parameters. Arsenic concentrations are relatively stable over the course of the year, with little effect seen by the monsoon. Groundwater residence time does not seem to have an influence on As concentrations, as elevated As can be found both in groundwater with short (103 a) residence times as indicated by 3He/4He ratios spanning three orders of magnitude. These results support the hypothesis that the proximity to mineralised zones is the most crucial factor controlling As concentrations in the observed redox/pH conditions. The existence of very old water portions with residence times >103 years already at depths of <50 m b.g.l. is a new finding for the shallow fractured bedrock aquifers of Burkina Faso, suggesting that overexploitation of these relatively low-yielding aquifers may be an issue in the future

Accounting for uncertainty in multi-criteria sustainability assessments at the farm level: Improving the robustness of the SMART-Farm Tool

Many farm sustainability assessments use multi-criteria methods for aggregating indicators based on performance scores and importance weights. One of these is the SMART-Farm Tool, which measures the degree of goal achievement of farms across 327 indicators nested within 4 sustainability dimensions, 21 themes and 58 sub-themes of the FAO-SAFA Guidelines (Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture). This study aims to improve the empirical foundation of the SMART-Farm Tool by (i) evaluating the uncertainty of indicator weights obtained via expert opinion and (ii) integrating this uncertainty into SMART assessment results. An adapted Delphi process was implemented, involving a group of 67 experts from 21 countries divided into thematic and regional sub-groups. Experts within each sub-group rated the importance of indicators of all 58 SAFA sub-themes, and self-assessed their own competence. Contrary to expectations, the uncertainty in expert opinions was relatively high for environmental indicator weights (although lowest for animal welfare), being comparable to social and governance indicators. Considerable uncertainty remained in indicator weights, even after two rounds of discussion and exchange of views. This is attributed to regional variation and inherent system complexity (i.e. experts having legitimate but diverging viewpoints based on contradictory evidence) rather than scientific ignorance (i.e. a lack of research evidence). Nevertheless, it is expected that the levels of uncertainty could be reduced by limiting the number of indicators to be evaluated and thus by allowing for more in-depth discussions among the experts. Monte Carlo Simulations were used to translate residual indicator weight uncertainty into SMART assessment results at the farm level for four example farms from both developed and developing countries. The resulting comparisons revealed several cases where substantial apparent differences between farms in sustainability scores for a specific sub-theme (up to 23%) were not statistically significant, while in other cases differences of 5% were significant. This emphasizes the general importance of considering uncertainty in multi-criteria assessment tools, with clear implications real-world applications, such as product certification, labelling and marketing. Finally, this study provides important methodological suggestions for implementing expert-based assessments in multi-criteria assessments efficiently

Sustainable intensification pathways in Sub-Saharan Africa: Assessing eco-efficiency of smallholder perennial cash crop production

CONTEXT Eco-efficiency offers a promising approach for the sustainable intensification of production systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which is widely used for eco-efficiency analyses, is however sensitive to outliers and the analysis of the influence of external factors in the second stage requires the separability assumption to hold. Order-m estimators are proposed to overcome those disadvantages, but have been rarely applied in eco-efficiency analysis. OBJECTIVE This paper assesses the eco-efficiency of smallholder perennial cash crop production in Ghana and Kenya. It examines factors influencing eco-efficiency scores and in doing so, tests the application of order-m frontiers as a promising method for eco-efficiency analysis in the agricultural context. METHODS The analysis is performed for four selected perennial crop cases, namely cocoa, coffee, macadamia, and mango, applying DEA as well as the order-m approach to a comprehensive empirical dataset. Seven relevant environmental pressures as well as determining factors around capacity development, farm and farmer features, and crop production environment are considered. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The distribution of eco-efficiency estimates among coffee farms showed the widest spread, which indicates the greatest potential to increase eco-efficiency. However, also the dispersion of scores within the other crop cases suggests room for improvements of eco-efficiency within the current production context. The subsequent analysis of determinants based on the order-m scores revealed that eco-efficiency scores were strongly influenced by variables, which measure capacity development, and resource endowments, such as labor and land, whereas the crop production environment had some influence, but results were unspecific. Generally, a positive effect is highly context-specific. The results underline the importance of designing effective training modalities and policies that allow knowledge to be put into practice, which involves the creation of marketing opportunities, the provision of targeted and regular advisory services, as well as region-wide measures to build and maintain soil fertility in a sustainable manner. SIGNIFICANCE To our knowledge, this study presents the first attempt to apply inputoriented order-m frontiers to assess eco-efficiency in the agricultural context, comparing its eco-efficiency rankings to those estimated with the widely applied DEA approach. This can inform the discussion on robust eco-efficiency assessments