Organic-farming research network is announced

IGORN - to be launched in 2013 - will showcase organic science and farming practices as it seeks funding for research centres in the developing world and mainstreaming organic research and farming.

Hans Herren, president of the Washington DC based Millennium Institute, said that although Europe has increased funding for organic research -becoming a global sector leader over the past ten years,- Australia, Canada and the United States have been "very sceptical of supporting organic research", because they believe "organic [agriculture] is not opening the way for new technologies."

According to SciDev, Frank Rijsberman, CEO of the Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centres (CGIAR) said that agricultural plans must balance food production for hundreds of millions of people, with the need to be environmentally-responsible. CGIAR director Bruce Campbell agreed, saying that organic agriculture is not ideal on places "where more inorganic fertilisers are required - for example, land with poor soil quality in Africa," Campbell said, "if you remove inorganic fertilisers from these farmers, you are committing them to poverty."

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