Demand of Research and Development in Organic Farming in Europe. Paper prepared for the FAO-Workshop "Research Methodologies in Organic Farming" at the Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau (FiBL), October 1998

Summary

This paper gives an overview of the state of research and extension in the countries of the EU and EFTA and a more detailed view of the situation in the German language region, including information on the transfer of research results into agricultural practice, the transfer of the needs of agricultural practice to research and the state of applied research. The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and its regional groups in Europe and their activities; needs in organic farming research from an IFOAM regional perspective, as well as European research networks are described.
For this paper a number of sources were used: Input came from the IFOAM regional groups as well as from experts on organic agriculture in the countries of Europe. For the situation in the German language region a survey was conducted among organic advisers and inspectors.