About Our Roots
Our Roots
SCALE-it builds on a range of previously developed prototypes, pilots, and tests that contribute to refined ideas, tools and strategies. Several have been developed by consortium members within the H2020 projects RELACS and Organic-PLUS and are now ready to be upscaled and/or transferred to new commodities.
Info on RELACS
‘Replacement of Contentious Inputs in Organic Farming Systems’ (RELACS) will foster the development and facilitate the adoption of cost-efficient and environmentally safe tools and technologies, to phase out the dependency on and use of inputs considered contentious in organic farming systems.
As a system approach to sustainable agriculture, organic farming aims to effectively manage ecological processes whilst lowering dependence on off-farm inputs.
The RELACS project partners evaluated far advanced and new solutions to further reduce the use of external inputs and, if needed, develop and adopt cost-efficient and environmentally safe tools and technologies to:
- Reduce the use of copper and mineral oil in plant protection,
- Identify sustainable sources for plant nutrition, and
- Provide solutions to support livestock health and welfare.
The project was developed by involving actors from research, farming, advisory services and industry from the very start, hence implementing a truly multi-actor approach. RELACS has 29 partners from thirteen countries.
RELACS was coordinated by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) Switzerland. IFOAM Organics Europe is responsible for communication, dissemination and facilitation of the science-practice-policy dialogue. The project lasted from 1 May 2018-30 April 2022 and received 3,999,674.50 EUR from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Info on Organic-PLUS
The Organic-PLUS (O+) project had the overall aim of providing high quality, trans-disciplinary, scientifically informed decision support to help all actors in the organic sector, including national and regional policy makers, to reach the next level of the organic success story in Europe. By doing so, organic food systems can be more true to organic principles but equally to the EU Bio-economy agenda.
Organic-PLUS had four objectives: 1) to identify and evaluate contentious inputs currently used in European agriculture 2) to provide specific technical solutions to minimise or phase-out their use 3) to provide environmental, social and economic assessments of phase-out scenarios 4) to disseminate and broker knowledge, ideas and results to maximise impact.
Using a ‘multi-actor approach’, the consortium comprised 10 universities and 15 research organisations and NGOs from 9 EU and 3 associated countries. It included scientists from a wide range of academic disciplines and will involve advisors, farmers, and other stakeholders in a participatory research design.
