http://orgprints.org/7399/ BIOM, Organic farmers network for Research, Development and Innovation Sukkel, ir Wijnand van Leeuwen Haagsma, ing Wiepie van der Wel, ing Cees Systems research and participatory research Farming Systems Farmers networks are a valuable instrument for research, development and innovation in organic agriculture. The last 15 years networks of pilot farms have been used in the Netherlands to improve farm performance for integrated and organic farming. For organic agriculture the BIOM network was set up in 1998. Participating farmers improved their farm performance amongst others by a decrease of the hand labour for weed control and a reduction of the nutrient surpluses. The network also functioned as a facility for on-farm research on various topics. Additional effects of the close contacts between par-ticipants were a closer cooperation between farmers and an incentive for innovation 2006 Conference paper, poster, etc. NonPeerReviewed source http://orgprints.org/7399/1/BIOM_odense.doc Sukkel, ir Wijnand; van Leeuwen Haagsma, ing Wiepie and van der Wel, ing Cees (2006) BIOM, Organic farmers network for Research, Development and Innovation. Joint Organic Congress, Odense, Denmark, May 30-31, 2006. http://orgprints.org/7399/http://orgprints.org/7399/1/