Free and online best practices for organic farmers & trainers and multipliers
Organic farmers and those who want to transform their farm and farming system to more sustainable practices have more and more options for knowledge sharing. The organic movement has been a pioneer when it comes to innovation food and farming beyond technology. The following best practices are a testament to this.
Web-based education campaign: Naturland Academy
From climate change to species extinction, agriculture is facing major and diverse global challenges. Naturland Academy is a web-based education campaign to support farmers worldwide with opportunities for further training and knowledge exchange for ecological conversion.
Various formats for guided or independent learning offer target group-orientated content, from videos and seminars to complex multi-part courses on specific specialist topics. These are often supplemented by practical workshops, especially for more complex courses. Such field trips, for which participants can register via the platform, expand the e-learning into “blended learning”.
The platform covers specific questions ranging from pest management in individual crops to cultivation systems such as coffee production in agroforestry. In addition to the farmers themselves, trainers and multipliers will benefit from the platform. With the help of the “Training of Trainers” (ToT) model, new and less experienced trainers are coached by master trainers, thus multiplying the transfer of knowledge.
Best-practices, tools & resources in many languages: Organic Farm Knowledge
The Organic Farm Knowledge platform has been collecting best-practices, tools, and resources on aspects related to organic farming since 2015. They are easily searchable and available in multiple languages at www.organic-farmknowledge.org.
A video introducing the Organic Farm Knowledge platform, its offerings and wide range of tools are available in English, Italian, German, Estonian, Greek and Dutch. Subscribe to the newsletter to receive periodic updates via email, and do remember to follow the Organic Farm knowledge platform on Facebook and Twitter for news and events. For more info please contact [email protected].
Organic Farm Knowledge was set up by ICROFS (International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems) in the framework of OK-Net Arable and OK-Net EcoFeed developed it further. Both projects were coordinated by IFOAM Organics Europe and are funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The third core partner of the Organic Farm Knowledge platform is FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture).
Knowledge from research and innovation projects: EU-Farmbook
Too much of the knowledge coming from research and innovation projects does not reach the practitioners who could ultimately use and apply it. The EU-FarmBook project and platform aims to help change this by becoming the main knowledge repository and go-to source for practice-oriented information on all topics related to agriculture and forestry. As members of the organic movement, you can help us “make the EU-FarmBook more organic” by submitting your best practice! Read more about in our dedicated article.
The EU-FarmBook project is the third and final project in a series that started in January 2019 with the EURAKNOS project and continued through the pandemic into 2022 with EUREKA. It will run from August 2022 through July 2029. Follow the project’s website, LinkedIn and X for developments.