Workshop on how to improve global data collection on organic farming

Summary

The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements IFOAM, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture FiBL, Frick, and Foundation Ecology and Agriculture SOEL have been providing global organic farming statistics annually since 2000. In the framework of the survey the current number of farms and organic agricultural land is collected, and since the 2006 edition land use details have been included. It is planned to expand the data collection to other variables. The data are published annually in the yearbook ‘The World of organic Agriculture’ of which both IFOAM and FiBL are the publishers. The 2008 edition is also published by Earthscan, London, as a hardcover book.
Even though in many countries the data availability has improved considerably since 2000, when the data collection was started, there are still major problems associated to data collection in many countries, particularly in countries which do not have a legislation on organic farming and where there is little public interest in such data. In these countries, data collection is carried out by the private sector who does not always have access to the full data and not always the resources to process the data.
This workshop aims to
- Present existing models of data collection based on activities of the private sector
- A) Data based on information inspection bodies: Opportunities and problems
- B) Data based in information of the operators (exporters): Opportunities and problems
- Data classification: Land use data, production data, market data
- Outlook
The data collectors who support the global organic survey will be invited to this workshop, but it will be open to all participants of the IFOAM Organic World Congress.
Speakers will be invited from a) inspection bodies and b) private sector representatives who collate data either from inspection bodies or operators. The workshop organisers will present their experiences with global data collection and processing.