Organic Agriculture and Development Support: Overview

Summary

There are a large number of international organizations, initiatives and projects supporting organic agriculture throughout the world. Local initiatives have been undertaken for more than 25 years. This chapter includes a not exhaustive list of private and public initiatives that render support to organic agriculture development. In addition, there are a large number of joint international projects, which are not mentioned in this article, but are also of great importance for the development of organic agriculture. Both private and public development initiatives contributed considerably in the last 25 years to the growth of the organic sector in many countries of the world, through:
• The development of national organic movements;
• Building capacities of different stakeholder groups of the organic sector;
• Developing research and advisory services as well as extension tools for organic agriculture;
• Developing domestic and international markets;
• Setting up local certification bodies;
• Developing local standards and legislations and policies.