Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 15.2
Estimated national financial input into organic farming research in 11 European Union
countries (ERANET)
The estimate is a minimum based on targeted organic research programs that does not include, for example,
professorial appointments in organic agriculture.
Current
A
Future
B
Austria
0.7
1.5
Denmark
8
7
Finland
2
2
France
5.7
5.7
Germany
10
7
Italy
1.5
2
Netherlands
8
8
Norway
3
2
Sweden
5.7
5.9
Switzerland
10
15
United Kingdom
3.2
3.9
Total
57.8
60
A
Average 2000-04,
B
2005-10.
change and ecosystems' and 'Strategies for sustainable land management' (Commission of the
European Communities 2004). Amounts of funding available in several EU member states are
given in Table 15.2. Each member state of the EU also has its own Action Plan, containing
guidance on research to be funded at national level. Within the UK, funds have been set aside
to encourage industry funding of organic research through the LINK scheme, where govern-
ment matches industry funding. There is some concern among the UK research community
that this may not be an appropriate funding route, given the incompatibility between the need
for a systems focus in research on organic farming and the limited availability of industrial
funding bodies with an interest in farming systems (Elm Farm Research Centre 2003). The
LINK scheme works well where agriculture is driven by inputs rather than ecological systems.
There is a similar scheme operating in Canada where companies can become research partners
and their funding will be matched by government. Five categories of partner are recognised on
the basis of the level of contribution made OACC (2005).
Cropping aspects of organic production have received more attention than livestock aspects
until recently; this is ref lected in the number of refereed publications (Watson and Atkinson
2002). Lund and Algers (2003) relate the later development of research on animal husbandry
to the situation in Europe where the regulations for organic animal husbandry were estab-
lished only in 1999, eight years after the regulations on crop husbandry (Council Regulations
2092/91 and 1804/99). Biodynamic agriculture has received little funding from public sources,
although considerable work has been carried out in some private research institutes. A short
description of the development of biodynamic research and institutions in Europe and the
USA is given in Koepf (1993). Reports of biodynamic systems in mainstream journals are rela-
tively rare, although there are some notable exceptions such as Reganold
et
al
. (1993) and Car-
penter-Boggs
et
al
. (2000).
Researching organic systems
According to Lockeretz and Anderson (1993), there is a need for rethinking the approaches,
processes and institutional structures of agricultural research, because of the range and scale of
consequences that agricultural research is expected to address today. There are high political
