CHANNEL

Opening Channels ofCommunication between theAssociated Candidate Countries and the EU in Ecological farmingThere are huge differences in the historical background and the level of develop-ment among the Associated Candidate Countries (ACC). Organic agriculture is anarea that reached different stages of development in the different countries. Thedifferent forms of organization, the legislative and economic framework and thecultural background impose different tasks on the AC countries in this area. Inaccordance with the described situation the main objectives of this project are toassess and analyse which development stages have these countries achieved inorganic agriculture; and to open communication channels on different levelsnecessary for starting the harmonization and equalization process in organic agriculture.

The central instrument for the fulfilment of these objectives will be a complexdata base with homogeneous information organized around the following sixthematic units relevant to organic agriculture: plant protection, organic seed andpropagation material, animal husbandry, agro-technology, weed managementand soil fertility.

Since the characteristics of organic agricultureare very different in the participating countries,existing at different stages of development, withdifferent forms of organization, legislative system,economic frameworks and various cultural back-grounds, we choose the following objectives:

� To assess and analyse the development stagesthat the participating countries have achievedin organic agriculture.

� To open communication channels at differentlevels in order to start the harmonization andequalization processes in organic agriculture.

� To monitor the current situation of organicfarming in the participating countries.

� To create links between the stakeholders ofthe participating countries, which is necessaryfor the future harmonization in organicfarming.

� To create communication channels betweenthe new accession countries and the potentialcandidate countries and between thesecountries and the European Union.

� Dissemination of our common knowledge inorganic agriculture.

� To create an interactive central data bankwith all kind of information collected withthe help of our working groups.

� To create a common website and discussionforum of the project for the communicationand the dissemination of our knowledge.

Specific objectives of The Channel project

Potential impacts

The potential impacts of the CHANNELproject are:

• European Union gets a clear ideaabout the situation of organic farmingin the new accession candidate coun-tries and in potential candidate coun-tries.

• The participating countries get a clearidea about the situation of organic far-ming in each other’s countries.

• Harmonizing/equalizing the level ofknowledge about organic agriculturein the member states.

• Familiarising organic agriculture inthe widest possible scope of stakehol-ders and those interested.

Themes and work groups

The central instrument for the fulfilment of pro-ject objectives is a complex database organisedaround six thematic units.These units are identi-cal with our work groups:

Plant protectionSince ecological farming refuses the use of GMOand chemical treatments, so the questions ofplant protection are essential for its success.There are many unsolved questions requiringfurther scientific investigation on this field.

Organic seed and propagation materialIn ecological farming the question of seeds andvarieties has not yet developed to a sufficientlevel.The varieties suitable for organic produc-tion are not determined. Specific measures in theseed production technology should be developedfor each species,because there are huge differencesbetween these and the conventional methods.

Animal husbandry The herd is an important part of the farms’production circle and it helps to overcome theimbalance between labour and income that istypical for agriculture. One more important factis that organic animal husbandry contributesmuch to the gene preservation, since it mainlyworks (or should work) with indigenous breeds.

Agro-technologyTechnology gains a special importance in ecolo-gical farming.All activities should be carried outto fit the best to the cultivated plant. In order toachieve this, all activities should be carried out inaccordance to the most recent developments ofscience and technology.

Weed managementThere is not one single control tool in organicweed management, but many different strategiesto reduce weeds to a level where they do notimpact yield essentially.Weed management inorganic farming depends primarily onunderstanding the interactions between weeds,crops and environmental conditions.

Soil fertility Improvement of soil fertility is also very impor-tant, as organic farming manages without synthe-tic fertilizers, so sustaining and enhancing naturalsoil fertility is of much greater importance inorganic than in conventional farming.

Our work in practice

There are six workgroup leaders, who had thetask to create questionnaires for collecting dataon the fields of all the thematic units and wecreated also one general for getting informationabout the overall situation of organic farming inthe participating countries. Data collection iscarried out by the active involvement of thenational representatives and under the control ofthe workgroup leaders.The national representativessend out the questionnaires to the targetpersons, who send them back after filling thedata in.Then the data are supervised and put intothe online form of the questionnaires on ourwebpage by the national representatives, whohave the right to access the database. Nationalrepresentatives are responsible for the validityand correctness of the collected data.

There are three target groups for the surveys:

1. The first level is made up of public authoritiesand decision makers responsible for legal andadministrative affairs in agriculture andorganic farming.They provide the legal frame-work for organic agriculture.

2. The second level consists of farmers’associations and advisors.They are experts on the practical situation of the farms, theyhave direct contact with practice, so they arefamiliar with practical problems.

3. The third level consists of researchersworking in the field of agriculture and organicfarming.They have a scientific point of viewto organic farming, either friendly or critical.

Data collection is carried out in two waves in allof the participating countries.The first wave wascarried out from January to March 2005, and thesecond wave lasts from the middle of May to theend of July 2005.

Project partnersHungary CORVINUS University of Budapest

Central Service for Plant Protectionand Soil Conservation, BudapestNational Institute for AgriculturalQuality Control, BudapestInstitute for Small Animal Research,GödöllóBiokontroll Hungária KHT, BudapestAssociation of Hungarian Small AnimalBreeders for Gene Conservation,Gödölló

Germany University of Kassel, Department ofOrganic Farming & Cropping SystemsCenter for Agricultural Landscape andLand Use Research, MünchebergFederal Agricultural Research Centre,Braunschweig

Austria Ludwig Boltzmann Institute forOrganic Farming and Applied Ecology,Vienna

Bulgaria Nikola Poushkarov Institute of SoilScience, Sofia

Czech Faculty of Agriculture, University of Republic South Bohemia, Ceské BudejovicePoland Agricultural University of WroclawRomania Institute of Agricultural Research-

Development, Fundulea, CalarasiSlovakia University of Veterinary Medicine,

KosiceSlovak Agricultural University, Nitra

Slovenia University of Maribor, Faculty ofAgriculture

Estonia Estonian Organic Farming Foundation,Tartu

Lithuania Institute of Botany,VilniusLithuanian Institute of Agriculture,Kedainiai

Italy Mediterranean Agronomic Institute ofBari,ValenzanoUniversity of Lecce

Cyprus Agricultural Research Institute ofCyprus, Nicosia

Malta The Genista Foundation, KalkaraLatvia Priekuli Plant Breeding Station,

PriekuliTurkey Ege University, Izmir

Uludag University, Gorukle-Bursa

Project coordinatorLászló Radics, Corvinus University of Budapest,Hungary

Facts about CHANNEL

How to follow the project

The project has a website and we operate a data bank about the organic farming of the 16 participating countries. Please visit our website: www.channel.uni-corvinus.hu. On the website our discussion forum, our new results and the summaries of our meetings can befound. Organization of 4 meetings, one of them is the final dissemination conference of the project held in Budapest, 5-7 April 2006. For information please contact Izóra Gál(izora.gal@uni-corvinus.hu). Information about our partners are also available as well as registration to our final conference held in Budapest in 2006.

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