Improving understanding of the contribution of the organic farming sector to sustainability

Apie kvietimą

Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes: improved and increased data collection on the environmental, economic and social impacts of the EU organic sector, from farm to consumer levels, leading to improved understanding of the overall impact of the organic sector on sustainability (including climate change mitigation and biodiversity); improved capacities of organic supply chains and organic value chain actors, including farmers, to collect and provide data on organic production to fulfil reporting requirements; increased cooperation between public and private data providers in the organic sector across the EU. Scope: The Vision for Agriculture and Food recognises organic farming as an approach with potential to ensure an attractive and predictable agri-food sector, while at the same time delivering several ecosystem services beneficial for the environment, climate and biodiversity. There is a dual need to, on one hand, better understand the contribution of organic farming and of the organic sector as a whole to the three dimensions of sustainability, and on the other, to improve methods for data collection in the organic sector, in a way that reduces administrative burden on farmers and on other operators. There is potential for both needs to be addressed in combination, and a role for research and innovation to support in achieving this objective. Proposals should address all the following activities: undertake an exhaustive mapping of existing tools, platforms and methods at EU, national and local levels, that allow for the collection of relevant data on organic production to comply with the various reporting requirements of the sector, including under the Common Agricultural Policy and under the EU organic certification. This exercise should include a mapping of the actors involved in the collection of data, as well as an analysis of cost-effectiveness, best practices and challenges faced. It should also include an assessment of the potential of existing tools to reduce administrative burden on organic farmers and on other operators of the organic value chain, as well as to streamline data exchange with relevant actors, including certification bodies and supply chain actors; facilitate the exchange of experiences and best practices on data collection and reporting on organic production across the EU. Identify concrete opportunities for the cross-fertilisation and transfer of solutions among countries/regions; assess the need, feasibility and cost-effectiveness of leveraging existing data collected by organic certification bodies in a way that it can simultaneously be used to assess the contribution of organic production to the three axes of sustainability (economic, environmental, social). This should include an analysis of existing standards for the interoperability of agricultural digital systems, and identification of opportunities and challenges; develop recommendations…