Developing organic production in Northern Ireland

Kurzfassung

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. The area of land under organic management in Northern Ireland has increased from 215 ha in January 1998 to 5,000 ha in December 2001. The Minister for the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) has set a target for organic farming of 30,000 ha by 2006 and also commissioned an independent study of the strategic needs for developing the Northern Ireland organic sector in 2000. Greenmount College have taken the decision to establish an organic unit to support these DARD initiatives for organic farming and implement key recommendations from the strategy. The College has also initiated a project to gather and analyse data from 45 organic and in-conversion farms over a three-year period. This data will be used to benchmark organic production and assist with conversion and development of the sector.