ISOFAR - News
2nd IFOAM International Conference on Organic Animal Husbandry "‘Tackling the Future Challenges of Organic Animal Husbandry" , September 12-14, 2012 Hamburg, Germany
This conference will concentrate on health and food safety in organic livestock production systems, marketing trends, innovation in organic livestock production systems and livestock breeding strategies. Key figures from around the world will present the diversity of organic livestock systems, including opportunities and challenges on the horizon. Topics will relate to a wide range of livestock species: cattle, poultry, pigs, small ruminants, fish, bees, rabbits, horses and others..... FLYER and Conference Website
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
More than 800 people from over 70 countries have participated in the IFOAM Organic World Congress in Korea (http://www.kowc2011.org),which included the Third Scientific Conference of ISOFAR. The proceedings of the ISOFAR Conference will be available in PDF form on the internal website for ISOFAR members in due time. During the event the General Assembly of ISOFAR came together and elected a new Board (http://www.isofar.org/about/board-e-board.html). The minutes of the GA will be available in due time on the internal website for ISOFAR members.
Research Media Portal: Interview with Prof. U. Köpke
Interview on Research Media - Portal for Scientific Dissemination with, Dr Ulrich Köpke, President of ISOFAR, presents a fascinating insight into the Society’s activities supporting researchers working in the field of Organic Agriculture and looks ahead to future challenges.
Advanced CEO Course for Organic Agriculture in Dankook University /Korea
Since March 2004, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (RIOA) of Dankook University offers an Advanced CEO course of Organic Agriculture in cooperation with ISOFAR. It is designed to teach farmers, extension workers, inspectors and consultants about Organic Agriculture from the principles to updated techniques including crop production, animal production, food processing, certification, eco-tourism and biogas.
Contact:
Sohn, Prof. Dr. Sang Mok
Dankook UniversityResearch Institute of Organic Agriculture
29 Anseo-dong
330-714 Cheonan, Republic of Korea
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Advanced Organic CEO Course of Organic Agriculture was offered by RIOA in Dankook University / Korea in cooper-ation with ISOFAR since March 2004 |
Abroad excursion for Organic Agriculture was carried out by RIOA / Dankook University regulary to visit European organic institutions and industry |
International Symposium on Organic Aquaculture was held in Korea in November 2010
In cooperation with ISOFAR, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (RIOA) of Dankook University hosted an International Symposium on Organic Aquaculture on November 15, 2010 in Cheonan / Korea. Over 240 participants attended to the lectures of four invited speakers from Israel, India, Thailand & Korea. The feedback of the participants from the Korean fish industry was very positive since they expect the event to contribute to the establishment of Korean organic aquaculture. Korea has not yet implemented organic aquaculture, but after the symposium fish producers intend to pay more attention to new opportunities on organic shrimps, salmon, trout and algae especially.
Organic Research Centres Alliance (ORCA)
The Organic Research Centres Alliance (ORCA) intends to internationally network and strengthen existing institutions with scientific credentials and empower them to become centers of excellence in transdisciplinary organic agriculture research. The objective is to ensure that environmental, economic, and social benefits accruing from organic research are shared worldwide. ...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.
New book on Organic Agriculture in English and Russian language
'Organic agriculture' edited by Bořivoj Šarapatka, Jiří Urban et al. ... Info in English or Russian
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
1st International Workshop GRAB-IT 2012, ANCONA, 10-11 May 2012
The general theme of the 1st International workshop GRAB-IT is “Organic farming: a sustainable model for the transition in the Mediterranean”. The Mediterranean region is living an epochal transition, not only in political and civil rights fields but also from the environmental point of view, with deep implications for main themes like climate change and energy balance. .....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
