Impact

OK-Net Arable will meet the expected results highlighted in the call ISIB2-2014 ‘Closing the research and innovation divide: the crucial role of innovation support services and knowledge exchange as follows:

1. Improved flow of information and knowledge between academia and practitioners in particular on agricultural practices and innovations. The overall aim of the thematic network ‘OK-Net Arable’ is to increase productivity and quality in organic arable cropping all over Europe by improving the exchange of innovative and traditional knowledge among farmers, farm advisers and scientists.
   To secure an optimal flow of information and knowledge between academia and practitioners the consortium consists of 17 partners of which 9 are well-established farmer innovation groups, 3 are organic research institutes and 5 are organisations engaged in advisory service, training and/ordissemination of research results .
   
   
2. Increased exchanges between European regions on innovative matters. The whole consortium covers in total 13 countries, of which the involved farmer innovation groups cover 9 countries situated in the North, East, West, central and South of Europe. This results in a well-balanced representation of different climatic, geographical and socioeconomic conditions and gives optimal possibilities for exchange of information and learning between different European regions.

3. Successful deployment of the vast reservoir of existing scientific and practical knowledge. The project (WP3) will screen, synthesize and combine research results from EU, CORE Organic and national research projects as well as other international research, and practical knowledge in the form of technical solutions and best practices concerning nutrient supply, soil fertility management, weed management, pest and disease management and crop variety choice. These areas are seen as the key areas for increasing the productivity and sustainability of organic arable cropping in Europe by the EIP AGRI Focus Group on Organic Farming – Optimising Arable Yields.

4. Focused collection of innovative knowledge on specific themes, a greater user acceptance and intense dissemination of solutions for a more competitive and sustainable agriculture to farmers and other actors in the agricultural innovation chain. The active involvement of the farmer innovation groups will ensure a focused collection of relevant innovative knowledge on the themes mentioned under 2.1.2.5. above. Further, to increase the user acceptance and take up of the innovative solutions the project (WP3) will identify the best methods for learning and knowledge exchange among farmers, advisors and researchers and adapt these to ensure the best learning. The 9 farmer innovation groups will be involved in the selection and testing of the end-user and education material to secure and understand the reasons for user acceptance and successful implementation. The project will strongly enhance the knowledge flow between famer groups in different European countries, and so contribute to closing the yield gap between conventional and organic arable farming. Many of the end-user material will also be relevant to improve sustainability in arable farming in general, e.g. tools for improvement of soil fertility management and water holding capacity.

5. Thematic networks delivering accessible and long-term available end-user material on the themes which should also generate a better targeted and shared research agenda for innovation-driven research and multi-actor projects. The project (WP4) will develop a long-term available knowledge platform, which will be closely linked with Organic Eprints (www.orgprints.org), an open access database established by AU/ICROFS in 2002 and the website of the European Technology Platform (ETP) TP Organics (www.tporganics.eu), hosted by IFOAM EU as well as the respective websites of al
   partner organisations. This knowledge platform will make available all the end-user material developed during the project. The platform will be linked with already existing farmer and advisory service websites as well as the EIP-AGRI website to ensure the broadest possible access to the end-user and education material. After the end of the project the knowledge platform will be maintained for at least 5 years. The following project partners have committed to put their own resources in the maintenance and further development of the knowledge platform after the end of the project: IFOAM EU, AU/ICROFS, FiBL, PFT Ltd/ORC, Bioland, AIAB and IAMB. A specific task is foreseen in WP2 to make recommendations for a better targeted and shared research agenda based on the exchange and the experience with testing materials of the farmer innovation groups.

6. Improved skills and education material on innovation approaches and on specific thematic areas. End-user and education material developed and made available at the knowledge platform will be selected and tested by the involved farmer innovation groups to ensure that the different end-user materials are easy to understand and addressing the needs of farmers. The exchanges and workshops with the farmer innovation groups will be supplemented with a discussion forum at the knowledge platform where all stakeholders may comment on the relevance and usability of the end-user and education material. Finally, online training courses for farm advisers will be developed to teach them how to use specific, technical end-user material (e.g. nutrient budgeting tools or, tools that forecast likely disease incidents). The themes covered by the end-user and education material are the five themes mentioned
   under expected impact 3.

7. Support to implementation of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) 'Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability'. The project supports the implementation of the EIP ‘Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability’ and in particular the recommendations of the EIP-AGRI Focus Group on Organic Farming. Although the thematic network will only develop end-user material based on already available research results and practical experiences, the following of the research recommendations of the Focus Group will be addressed in some way: 

• Analysis of contribution of organic management practices on carbon sequestration,
  water holding capacity and erosion reduction.Selection of varieties with increased resistance to abiotic stress.

• Selection of varieties with increased resistance to abiotic stress
• Adaptation of conservation agriculture techniques to organic systems
• Improvement of the knowledge on crop rotation multi-performance
• Development of locally adapted implementation monitored by multi-criteria tools
• Development of improved inter-sowing and under-sowing systems
• Development of more precise and easy-for-use forecasting tools
• Development of highly diverse systems to prevent soil pathogens

The project also addresses some of the recommendations of the Focus Group concerning training and education:

• Development of new tools for knowledge sharing based on ICT and social media or other on-line tools.
• Use of information and decision support systems
• Tillage optimisation
• Functional biodiversity