The complexity of organic farming requires farmers to have a very high level of knowledge and skills. But exchange on organic farming techniques remains limited. Coordinated by IFOAM EU, the OK-Net Arable project promotes exchange of knowledge among farmers, farm advisers and scientists with the aim to increase productivity and quality in organic arable cropping all over Europe. OK-Net Arable involves 17 partners from countries all over Europe and is funded by Horizon 2020, the EU’s framework program for Research and Innovation.

Scientific analysis of constraints in organic arable cropping

Based on most recent scientific literature, OK-Net Arable identified the barriers for increasing productivity in organic arable cropping and made recommendations in the areas of soil fertility and nutrient management, weed control and pest and disease control. Flanders and Denmark belong to the countries with top production levels.

Knowledge exchange for better farming

OK Net Arable brings together 14 farmers’ innovation groups located in 10 countries across Europe. These are groups of organic farmers who cooperate in research and innovation. OK Net Arable gathered the common challenges cited by these groups into a report. The main challenges are weed control, soil fertility and control of pests and diseases. The data from the farmers’innovation groups clearly show a wide range of crop yields. This indicates certain needs as well as an opportunity to improve the yields. The report gives a good overview of the challenges for organic farmers in Europe and gives a clear view of already working solutions in practice.

Best methods for learning and knowledge exchange

OK-Net Arable has analyzed how farmers and farm advisers access information. The findings show that the use of printed media is still widespread and that physical meetings (e.g. field days) are preferred to anonymous online courses. Nevertheless, it was also found that social media is changing the way information is spread and highlights the importance of online videos in the exchange of knowledge across borders.

Farmers Knowledge platform

OK-Net Arable has launched a knowledge platform aimed at filling the gap in the exchange of information between farmers, farm advisors and scientists across Europe. The platform can be used to find practical organic solutions, and at the same time discuss how it works on the field, in our geographical and climatic conditions. Farmer’s needs were taken into account at every stage of development in order to make it easy to use. The platform is available in 10 languages (English, Bulgarian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian) and the solutions are divided according to the most relevant topics in organic arable farming: soil quality and fertility, nutrient management, pest and disease control, weed management and solutions for specific crops.