The Organic Farm Knowledge Platform provides practical information for organic farmers and advisors. Initially, the platform was set up to cover tools and information on organic arable farming, addressing current bottlenecks. In the past two years, materials on the feeding of monogastrics and seeds/breeding were added. Now the platform has been made fit to cover all themes of organic food & agriculture – from production, certification to environmental protection & beyond. Interested parties are welcome to contribute their practice-relevant materials to the platform, thus helping European agriculture to become more sustainable.
This expansion to cover all themes of organic agriculture marks a major milestone in the development of the multilingual Organic Farm Knowledge platform, which aspires to become the European reference hub for practical knowledge on organic farming, thus contributing significantly to the goal that 25% of the European Union’s farmland should be organic by 2030.
The platform’s original focus on arable crop production and animal husbandry was developed through the two European funded projects in the Horizon 2020 programme: OK-Net Arable and OK-Net Ecofeed. These projects founded and built this platform from its roots, synthesised existing knowledge and developed new tools adapted to the needs of farmers. The collection of knowledge within these two projects has resulted in approximately 400 tools available on the platform, with 330 relating to crop production and 150 to animal husbandry. The theme expansion was strategically planned by the Executive Board and Editorial board to make it attractive for end-users and hence sustainable in the long term.
The restructured platform features six main themes: Crop production, Animal husbandry, Soil, Food chain management, Environment and society and Farm management. Users can browse through the platform’s themes or search the toolbox directly according to tool type, language, keywords and more.
Call for further collaborations
Several research projects collaborate with the Organic Farm Knowledge platform, utilising the platform to disseminate their practice-oriented results. The knowledge platform is open to further collaborations, which enable the continued growth of knowledge provision by increasing its range of available tools. Partnerships are a win-win: projects can promote and further disseminate knowledge created in their research direct to end-users, therefore increasing their impacts while facilitating the growth and successful continuation of the platform. This platform will continue to thrive only through strengthening and furthering alliances.
It is possible to contact the platform managers for more information on how your project or organisation can collaborate or contribute to Organic Farm Knowledge at this LINK
Source: Organic Farm Knowledge