Organic Knowledge Network on Monogastric Animal Feed. (OK-Net EcoFeed)
OK-Net EcoFeed is funded within the EU Horizon 2020 program, started in January 2018 and runs for 3 years until December 2020. The project has 19 partners covering 11 European countries. The consortium includes multiple actors including feed processors and mills, farmers and farmer's organizations, research institutes, universities and advisory agencies.
The overall aim of OK-Net EcoFeed is to help farmers, breeders and the organic feed processing industry in achieving the goal of 100% use of organic and regional feed for monogastrics, in particular pigs, broilers, laying hens and parents of broilers and laying hens.
Organic farming has a long tradition in Europe. In the last two decades, the market for organic food has shown steady vigorous growth in most parts of Europe and this growth is still accelerating. A key objective of organic farming is the closing of nutrient cycles. Nevertheless, recycling of nutrients -on-farm or at regional level- is difficult to achieve in large parts of the EU. To a large extent, feed and livestock production, in particular of pigs and poultry, are concentrated in different regions, and animal feed (especially proteins) has to be imported from regions far away from where the animals are raised. In addition, organic pig and poultry farmers have difficulties in sourcing protein feed of organic quality. The lack of organic and regional feed threatens both the sustainability of organic agriculture as well as consumers' confidence.
- The project will synthesize the scientific and practical knowledge available about organic and regional feed production for monogastrics.
- It will create a European network of innovation groups to facilitate exchange and co-creation of knowledge among farmers, business actors, researchers and advisors.
- It will collect end-user material and develop new tools adapted to the needs of farmers and business actors. All material and tools will be summarized in the EIP common format for practice abstracts.
- Finally, the project will extend the OK-Net knowledge platform (farmknowledge.org) to include the topic of monogastric animal feed.
WP3:
- Co-ordinate and facilitate the interaction and exchange between the national and regional practitioner's innovation groups (IG) and international thematic groups (TG).
- Develop a framework that facilitates structured data collection and comparison on the experiences around organic feed for monogastrics based on practitioner's tacit knowledge.
- Test innovative end-user material, tools and innovations; and understand reasons for acceptance and successful implementation.
- Promote the project and its outcomes via the innovation groups at regional and national levels.
D3.1. Descriptions of innovation groups
D3.2. Report of testing activities
- Successful deployment of the vast reservoir of existing scientific and practical knowledge related to 100% organic and regional feeding of monogastrics.
- Improved knowledge exchange between scientists and practitioners.
- Collection and provision of easily accessible practice-oriented knowledge, so that the material remains available in the long term, beyond the project period.
- Greater user acceptance of collected solutions and more intensive dissemination to end-users.
- Increased flow of practical information between geographical areas in Europe (also taking account of the differences between the territories).
- Support for the implementation of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) 'Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability', through interaction with Operational Groups, and in particular through the delivery of a substantial number of "practice abstracts" in the common EIP-AGRI format, including audio-visual material wherever possible.
Producción Animal
Code PAIDI: AGR-195
Vicente Rodríguez Estévez . Partner.
Universidad de Córdoba
Budget of Andalusian group: € 29,250.00
