Horizontal activites. QLIF subproject 7: Horizontal activities

Summary

QLIF subproject 7 represents four horizontal activities common to the project, namely: • Environmental and sustainability audits • Cost-benefit analyses and socio-economic impact assessments • Dissemination and technology transfer • Training of graduate and postgraduate researchers Activities in the horizontal research have shown that organic crop production systems generally are more energy-efficient and have lower greenhouse gas emissions than the conventional production. In terms of dissemination the QLIF website has been central and the QLIF newsletter has attracted more than 1000 subscribers. Coupling of the website with the open access database Organic Eprints provides a prospective source of project information that can be accessed also by future stakeholders in organic and low-input systems. Training events arranged annually for students have contributed to proliferation of skills and knowledge gained in QLIF. Also, these events have served to mediate the attitude needed for research in organic and low-input farming.