ISOFAR - News
3rd ISOFAR Scientific Conference in the frame of the
17th IFOAM Organic World Congress in Gyeonggi Paldang, Republic of Korea
28 September - 1 October 2011
In September 2011 (28.9 - 1.10) the International Society of Organic Agriculture Research (ISOFAR) will carry out the 3rd Scientific Conference at the IFOAM Organic World Congress (OWC) in Korea.....More
Review of the ISOFAR /MOAN Symposium, March 23- 25, 2010 in Sousse (Tunisia)
Organic Agriculture has experienced a rapid expansion in recent years, with continued growth globally and in the Mediterranean region, where it offers sustainable development opportunities and initiatives. Organic Farming aims for closed nutrient cycles. Soil quality is a key indicator of sustainability in land management. Given the specific conditions of arid and semi-arid regions and the production of more than one crop per year, the management of soil fertility in Mediterranean countries is a critical issue in Organic Farming. ...REPORT
Here you can download selected oral presentations of the Symposium held in Sousse:
- J.Raupp, Agri-science.org; Scientific Services for Research and Education, Germany: "Long-term experiments can advise us of soil organic matter management, crop yield development and carbon sequestration"
- K. Azim, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Agadir, Morocco: "Fertilizing and nematicidal effect of argan, castor and neem cake on organic cucurbits (curcumber and melon) grown under greenhouse ion souss region (southwestern of Morocco)"
- El-Shokary, M., Mediterranean Agronomical Institute of Bari, Italy:"Evaluation of pre-crops and fertilization on soil properties and crop growth and productivity"
- K. Gargouria, Institut de l’olivier, Sfax,Tunisia: "Spatial distribution of soil organic matter content and organic matter mineralization in an olive orchard
The Book of abstracts is available here.
First African Organic Conference 2009 (May 19th-22nd,2009), Kampala, Uganda
More than 200 participants from all over the world have participated in the congress, which was focused on evaluating the opportunities for Organic Agriculture in Africa.
Selected presentation can be downloaded here:
- U.Köpke, Institute of Organic Agriculture: Research in Organic Agriculture:essential for successful system management and technological evolution
- M. K. Muwanga, National Organic Agricultural Movement of Uganda: Impact of PGS, Farm Adoption of ICS and Group Marketing on Household Income
- N. Halberg & L. Andreasen, International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems: Challenges in meeting European consumer demands for organic products from Africa
- G. Rahmann,
von Thünen-Institute, Trenthorst, Germany:Organic farming in Africa–between global food markets and food sovereignty–
- M. Schneider, FiBL: Long-term farming systems comparisons in the tropics:First results from Kenya
- Ssekyewa C. & Muwanga M. K.: Biotechnology in Organic Agriculture in Africa: a myth or an oversight?
- P. Van Damme: Indigenous biodiversity as a potential source of crops for future satisfaction of consumer demand
- D. Neuhoff, University of Bonn & M. Tadesse, Ambo Plant Protection ResearchCenter: Potential and research needs for home made bio-pesticides for African Organic Agriculture
- B. van Elzakker, Louis Bolk Institute: Post harvest handling and export market quality issues for organic products in Africa
- The Book of abstracts is available here.
Other events
28th International Horticultural Congress, August 22-27, 2010, Lisboa (Portugal)
Symposium: Organic Horticulture: Productivity and sustainability
The objetcive of the Symposium is to provide a forum among researchers, extension workers and horticulturists, to discuss worldwide innovations in the fields of science and technology, market trends and policies....More
European Conference on “IT-Enhanced Organic, Agro-Ecological and Environmental Education”, 16-17th September 2010,Budapest, Hungary
The European Conference on “IT-Enhanced Organic, Agro-Ecological and Environmental Education” which will be held on the 16th and 17th of September 2010 in Budapest, Hungary.
The Organic.Edunet project is working on methods and technologies for facilitating the education of organic and ecological agriculture topics. The project is at the point of sparkling and facilitating the dialogue around the challenges that organic, ecological and environmental education faces today, as well as around the ways in which Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) can support and enhance it. Therefore, the “IT-Enhanced Organic, Agro-Ecological and Environmental Education” Conference, the offspring of Organic.Edunet project, is focusing on Learning Methodologies in Agriculture and, more specifically, on Organic Agriculture and Ecology. During the conference, ICT innovations will be presented, through which learning methodologies can benefit the aforementioned stakeholders in various areas and activities.
The conference offers a great opportunity to bring together an audience that is working on relevant topics around Europe and the world. In order to discuss about the real challenges in Agriculture and Agroecology, and how current organizational, pedagogical, and technical solutions may address them, the Organizing Committee has invited plenary speakers, project leaders and experts in the field.
...More
First Meeting Research on Organic Greenhouse Horticulture
11-14 October 2010, Bleiswijk, The Netherlands
The Working Group “Organic Greenhouse Horticulture” will meet on the 11-14 October 2010, in Bleiswijk, The Netherlands. The meeting will feature 4 days of presentations and workshop discussions on organic greenhouse horticulture, and will include a tour to organic greenhouse farms, an organic distributor of vegetables as well as a visit of The Hortifair. Topics of this meeting will include among others soil management, energy use and management, crop health, crop management, nursery production, economics, social and ecological and environmental aspects, standards, product quality, etcetera......More
2nd International Symposium on Medicinal Plants, their Cultivation and Aspects of Uses
...,which will be held from 3-4 November 2010 in Petra south of Jordan....More
First International Conference on Organic Food Quality and Health Research 18 -20 May, 2011 in Prague (CZECH REPUBLIC)
The Conference will focus on the State of the Art in Research on Organic Food Quality and Health in the following areas:
- Quality and safety of organic plant and animal products
- Impact of processing on organic quality and safety
- Standardization of novel methods
- Organic food authenticity
- Impact of organic food on animals
- Impact of organic food on humans
- Health concepts
.....MORE
The 8th International Symposium on the Nutrition of Herbivores (ISNH8)‘Herbivores in a changing World’, 6th – 9th September 2011, Aberystwyth, Wales UK
Animal agriculture is at a crossroads; competing pressures for land with alternative
forms of land use, the need to both mitigate against and adapt to the effects
of climate change combined with the need to meet societies demand for safe
nutritious food produced at low costs. This symposium presents a unique
opportunity for scientists and other stakeholders to work together to shape
the future of herbivore production.....More
National Platform of Organic Farming in Hungary
A National Platform of Organic Farming has recently been established in Hungary.
QualityLowInputFood - The Integrated Project QualityLowInputFood ended in April 2009.
The project aims were to improve quality, ensure safety and reduce cost along the organic and "low input" food supply chains through research, dissemination and training activities.
New ISOFAR Board elected in Modena
(July 7, 2008) A new ISOFAR Board was elected June 21, 2008 at the ISOFAR general assembly in Modena, Italy. The Board consists of twelve members. The Executive Board has three members: Professor Dr. Ulrich Köpke (President), Dr. Niels Halberg (Vicepresident) and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hamm (Treasurer). More
Proceedings of the second ISOFAR Conference
(July 1, 2008) From 18 to 20 June 2008 the second conference of the International Society of Agriculture Research was held in Modena, Italy, in conjunction with the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress OWC . The proceedings, which are now available in the FiBL shop (PDF/hardcopy) contain 380 papers related to all aspects of organic farming.
The first volume deals mainly with various aspects of organic crop production, which traditionally represent the largest share of all papers submitted to conferences on organic agriculture.
The second volume gives insights into the increasing research activities on animal husbandry, socio-economics, interdisciplinary research projects. Furthermore it contains the papers for the five workshops of the Integrated project Quality Low Input Food which was held as part of the ISOFAR conference.
International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems
(June 10, 2008) The International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS) is a newly established centre without walls funded by the Danish Ministry of Food and Agriculture. ICROFS has the objective of supporting the production and use of organic food through research. The centre initiates, supports and coordinates research of high quality in Denmark, Europe and internationally by involving researchers from a large number of universities and research institutions. The centre builds on the 10 years of experience of DARCOF (www.darcof.dk) but will have an international mandate and board with members from Africa, Asia, America and Europe.
First Volume of the ISOFAR Scientific Series published: Long Term Field Experiments in Organic Farming
(May 18, 2006) The first volume of the ISOFAR Scientific Series has now been published. This book series presents the results of organic farming research carried out by members of the ISOFAR working group on long term field expperiments (LTE).
The volume "Long Term Field Experiments in Organic Farming" contains a selection of 12 long-term experiments conducted under different site conditions in Germany, the USA, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria and Israel. Each experiment has a unique concept and scientific approach. But their common objective is to investigate characteristics of Organic Agriculture regarding key parameters of soil fertility, crop yield and quality.
Proceedings of the first EUCARPIA symposium on Organic Plant Breeding now available
(February 8, 2008) The first EUCARPIA symposium on Organic Plant Breeding - Plant breeding for organic and sustainable, low-input agriculture: dealing with genotype-environment interactions - took place in Wageningen in November 2007. EUCARPIA is the European Association for Research on Plant Breeding. The event was organised in cooperation with Cost Action 860 (COST860 - Sustainable low-input cereal production: required varietal characteristics and crop diversity, SUSVAR), the European Consortium of Ecological Plant Breeding ECOPB, ISOFAR and the the Graduate School Production Ecology & Resource Conservation and Wageningen University.
The proceedings are now available at the Organic Eprints archive.
New book organic food safety and quality
(January 24, 2008) Due to increasing consumer demand for safe, high quality, ethical foods, the production and consumption of organic food and produce has increased rapidly over the past two decades. In recent years the safety and quality of organic foods has been questioned. If consumer confidence and demand in the industry is to remain high, the safety, quality and health benefits of organic foods must be assured. The new Handbook of organic food safety and quality provides a comprehensive review of the latest research in the area.
The Handbook of organic food safety and quality issued in 2007 provides a comprehensive review of the latest research in the area.
- Handbook of organic food safety and quality. Edited by J Cooper, C Leifert and U Niggli. Woodhead Publishing, Cambridge. More
