Plant Research International researchers have identified bottlenecks at various levels that inhibit the availability of sufficiently healthy and vital starting material for the organic farming sector. The research has been carried out in partnership with Applied Plant Research B.V. and the Louis Bolk Institute.
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| Effective organic treatments of seeds, like Fusarium contaminated wheat seeds, are limiting in the availability of healthy and affordable organic seeds. (click on the image for a larger version) |
One of these bottlenecks is the fact that, for most crops, insufficient methods are available to prevent certain diseases being transferred from the starting material to the soil. This involves methods that make use of natural substances. A second impediment is the high costs involved in the approval procedure for new crop protection compounds, resulting in too few alternatives becoming available. The Wageningen (NL) based researchers also found a third obstacle, being the need for the development of a rooting powder that can be used for organic tree cultivation and organic cultivation of ornamental crops.
The quality of the starting material, seeds, bulbs, tubers or cuttings has a significant impact on the success of a crops cultivation. The supply companies invest enormous time and energy in providing high quality starting material. Due to the fact that the organic farming sector has certain restrictions in place with respect to the application of methods and substances, these suppliers have less flexibility when it comes to quality. This applies especially in the short to medium term, as organic farmers are still dependent upon varieties that have been selected for conventional farming. This factor will certainly create serious bottlenecks for organic farming in the coming years.
These bottlenecks stand in the way of an economically healthy organic farming sector, and must be circumvented if the governmental target of 10% organic by 2010 is to be attained.
These findings are the result of a research programme carried out on assignment from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Fisheries, delivered in a report on 19 March 2002.
List of press releases for 2002