THE SEED SOURCES OF ORGANIC FARMERS IN ITALY

This paper presents the result of the survey done in 2010 by AIAB on the seed sources in Organic Agriculture (OA) in Italy. The aim of this work is to better understand and clarify the relationships between the formal and informal seed system (Almekinders and Louwaars, 2000) and quantify the role of the latter in OA. In a time where the choice of the varieties to grow will be in the hands of public institutions or seed industries (GRAIN, 2008), it is pivotal to check the needs of Organic farmers and the seed they are sowing. The questions addressed were: a. Are Organic farmers still self-producing seeds? b. Are they using only varieties listed in Official National Catalogue? c. What is the role of old varieties not listed anymore or local varieties in organic systems? d. What is the role of exchange amongst farmers in the supply of new varieties? e. What are their needs in term of variety characteristics? This survey was undertaken within the EU project SOLIBAM and in the framework of the Italian National Plan on Organic Seed

VISITA PRESSO I CAMPI SPERIMENTALI DEL PROGETTO InterVeg Benefici e la multifunzionalità delle colture di copertura consociate in orticoltura biologica

The document is the leaflet that announce the programme of the InterVeg project Field Day in December 2012

Eliciting the Double-edged Impact of Digitalisation: a Case Study in Rural Areas

Designing systems that account for sustainability concerns demands for a better understanding of the \textit{impact} that digital technology interventions can have on a certain socio-technical context. However, limited studies are available about the elicitation of impact-related information from stakeholders, and strategies are particularly needed to elicit possible long-term effects, including \textit{negative} ones, that go beyond the planned system goals. This paper reports a case study about the impact of digitalisation in remote mountain areas, in the context of a system for ordinary land management and hydro-geological risk control. The elicitation process was based on interviews and workshops. In the initial phase, past and present impacts were identified. In a second phase, future impacts were forecasted through the discussion of two alternative scenarios: a dystopic, technology-intensive one, and a technology-balanced one. The approach was particularly effective in identifying negative impacts. Among them, we highlight the higher stress due to the excess of connectivity, the partial reduction of decision-making abilities, and the risk of marginalisation for certain types of stakeholders. The study posits that before the elicitation of system goals, requirements engineers need to identify the socio-economic impacts of ICT technologies included in the system, as negative effects need to be properly mitigated. Our study contributes to the literature with: a set of impacts specific to the case, which can apply to similar contexts; an effective approach for impact elicitation; and a list of lessons learned from the experience.Comment: Accepted to IEEE RE 2023, International Conference on Requirements Engineering, 10 pages plus 2 pages of reference

Organic agriculture and sustainable practices: towards a typology of innovative farmers

This paper aims to identify the factors that influence the choice of organic farmers to innovate for more sustainable practices that go beyond the strict limits imposed by the certification. Using survey data collected from 352 Italian and Portuguese certified organic farmers, a probabilistic model was estimated. The results show that farmers, in particular women, longest engaged in organic farming are more likely to adopt sustainable practices. They also indicate that farm size, landownership, the existence of some types of complementary activities and the sources of information used by farmers affect the adoption of such practices

Identification of the best methods for learning and knowledge exchange. Organic Knowledge Network Arable Report D 3.2

The main goal of the report was to identify processes and tools that better facilitated learning and knowledge exchange among farmers and advisers as well as among farmers, advisers, researchers and the agriculture community as a whole. The main topics of the knowledge exchange were related to organic arable crops. The outcome will serve as a guide to use the knowledge gathered within the project but will also serve for a broader scope

Incrementare i benefici multifunzionali delle colture consociate (InterVeg)

The presentation has been used to illustrate the CORE Organic II project InterVeg structure to the Italian farmer during a public meeting held by the University of Sassari for the end of a national project on similar topic

Changes in Knowledge Management Strategies Can Support Emerging Innovative Actors in Organic Agriculture: The Case of Participatory Plant Breeding in Europe

The “transfer of technology”, typical of a top-down linear process of innovation cannot be used in the new contexts of sustainability, characterised by uncertainty and complexity. There is a need to redefine categories and concepts around which innovation and agricultural policies are built, as those currently in use provide only a partial representation of reality. Innovation paradigms underpinning technological development and public policies design will have a direct impact on decisions regarding which agricultural models will ultimately be supported. Looking at local learning capacity and systems of relations can help to understand the potential to develop innovation within a specific context. This work contributes to the definition of new actors who are developing innovation for sustainability in rural areas. The study focuses on the knowledge systems of farmers who are applying alternative breeding strategies: it uses a network approach to explore the knowledge system in which individual farmers are embedded in order to understand their specific relational features. Three main conclusions emerge from the study: for enhancing the agro-ecological innovation paradigm there is a need to define the ‘innovation broker’, to revise the evaluation system of public research and to integrate innovation and agricultural policies

Can new organic cropping systems produce vegetables with lower use of resources and losses of nitrate?

To secure a sustainable production of plant foods for the future, there is a need to develop new cropping systems. These systems should have reduced needs of external resources and reduced environmental impact, while product yields are maintained at high level. Therefore, field trials were performed in Italy, Slovenia, Germany and Denmark with the aim to study new organic cropping systems for production of vegetable crops; and the systems’ effect on labor and energy consumption and the risk of losing nitrate to the water environment. The cropping systems included an in-season living mulch to exploit ecosystem services by attracting beneficial insects, suppressing weeds, and taking up excess nitrogen during production of two high-value crops of leek and cauliflower. The first year results show that high yields and quality were maintained if the living mulches were properly managed e.g. by sowing date or root pruning to control plant competition. The systems including living mulches changed the costs from +22 to -2% and total energy consumption from +14 to -4% compared to sole cropping depending on the change of management techniques in each country. The proportion between human power and fossil fuel consumption was changed. The risk of nitrate leaching was affected to a minor degree depending on the spatial layout of living mulch and crop rows. The study indicates that new cropping systems can be developed based on in-season living mulches for organic production with high yields, weed suppression and reduction of the risk of nitrate leaching. However, the management of the living mulches in terms of machinery, agronomic techniques and timing needs to be developed to optimize outcomes for food security, energy use and environmental impact. The study is part of the INTERVEG project

Tools for the assessment of short food supply chains’ sustainability

The following represents a summary of tools applied in a working group (WP5) of the EU‐project SUPURBFOOD (“Towards sustainable modes of urban and peri‐urban food provisioning”, www.supurbfood.eu). Within WP5, three research partners, three SME’s of short food supply chains and one food consultancy from Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK commonly explored logistical strategies that aim to make regional food delivery systems more sustainable while remaining economically viable, including addressing issues of scale. For more detailed information on the tools applied and also practical examples, this summary might be used alongside the SUPURBFOOD Report (WP5) ‘Short chain delivery of food in urban and peri‐urban areas’ that is available for download at the SUPURBFOOD project website [www.supurbfood.eu]