Workshop on Organic Cooperation and Research in the Mediterranean: a summary.

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On October 14 and 15, 2009 an expert workshop took place at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (MAIB) within the framework of the INTERBIO Project ‘Promotion of domestic and international demand for organic products’, financed by the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies and coordinated by MAIB. The workshop, focusing on ‘Organic Cooperation and Research in the Mediterranean’, attended by 38 participants from 7 countries, was organised in collaboration with the Mediterranean Organic Agriculture Network (MOAN) and with the aim of strengthening international networks on organic agriculture and discussing priorities, needs and the future of applied organic research at Mediterranean level. This is the second opportunity for Mediterranean researchers to gather together, as the first was given during the ‘Organic Research under Mediterranean conditions’ meeting, that took place within the XV Technical Symposium of SEAE held in collaboration with IFOAM AgriBioMediterraneo in Mallorca in September 2009. The workshop started with different contributions to stimulate discussion: preliminary findings of a survey on organic research in the Mediterranean carried out by MAIB in collaboration with IFOAM AgriBioMediterraneo, “case-studies” about the situation of organic research in Tunisia and Turkey, information about recent coordination initiatives launched in Europe and in the Mediterranean. The debate was then stimulated with  specific questions to encourage the participants brainstorming: specificities and common interests in the research, strategic needs for the Mediterranean, international cooperation to meet such needs and synergies with the already existing initiatives. The participants agreed to focus on several problem areas and issues, starting from policy and governance, the research itself, institutional building and training/information, and going through quality of productions, inputs and agronomic practices, environment and natural resources, marketing of organic food. The need for a system, trans-disciplinary and holistic approach (socio-economic and agro-ecological) was considered by the workshop attendants  as a “must” for any research program in organic agriculture, while important research priorities were indicated in the sector of marketing, socio-economic aspects, agricultural practices (inputs, compost, propagation material, pest control, recycling of wastes, soil fertility), food quality.