Report of the IXth Conference of the Organic Farmers from Romania

 

           Conference held in October 25-26, with 220 participants from Romania and another 8 European countries Cluj-Napoca, 25th – 26th October 2008.

 Conference Topic: „Quality of organic agricultural food stuff and their influence factors”

 

In the auditorium of the University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine were present more than 220 participants from eight countries, as follows:

 •         Romania;

•         Moldavia: Dr. Ing. Iurie Senic, Deputy Director of the Agrochemical, Organic and Plant Protection Direction; Vasile Ciobanu – ProRural Invest, Chişinău;

•         Hungary: Dr. Szabó József Andor, Attaché of the Hungarian Embassy in Bucharest, Dr. Solti Gábor, Dr. Bodnár György, Dr. Roszík Péter, Bánffy Brigitta – members of several agro-organic associations;

 •         Switzerland: Martin Schütz, Susanne Schütz, Alois Baumann – Christliche Ostmission
 •         Latvia: Livija Zarina, Janus Siim – Priekuli Plant Breeding Institute
 •         Turkey: Kilinc Gokhan – Association of Ecological Agriculture Organisation (ETO)
 •         Armenia: Vardkes Davtyan, GreenLane NGO
 •         Serbia: Nicoleta Oprea – Regional Center for Rural Development Vrsac
 •         Bulgaria: Andrey Kurtenkov – AGROLINK Association
 

The Romanian participants came from:

•         The Romanian Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development – Dr. Teodor Mihalcea, General Manager of the Direction for Implementing Agricultural Policies;

 •         Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Science Ion Ionescu Şişeşti, Prof. Dr. ing. Leon Muntean;

•         National Federation for Organic Agriculture – Dr. Ing. Ion Toncea, President, Prof. Dr. Avram Fiţiu, General Secretary;

•         National Agency for Agricultural Consultancy – Ştefan Mantea, Dr. Ing. Viorica Boboc

 •         University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine Cluj-Napoca: Prof. Dr. Ing. Ioan Rotar, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture; Professors, Deans, Department Chiefs, Bachelor, Master and Doctoral Students
 •         University of Agricultural Science and Veterinary Medicine Iaşi: Teaching staff and master students lead by Dr. Vasile Stoleru

•         Representatives of the Directions for Agriculture and Rural Development from 8 counties;

•         Representatives of the County Bureaus for Agricultural Consultancy from 26 counties;

•         Representatives from agricultural research institutes and establishments;

•         Representatives from inspection and certification bodies;

•         Managers of production, processing and trade companies;

 •         Farmers engaged in plant cultures, animal husbandry, beekeepers or snail breeders;
 •         Representatives of non-governmental organizations from the organic agriculture: Society for Organic Agriculture, BIOMOLD Association, Bioterra’s branches from Făgăraş and Bihor, Organic Club Transylvania, Bioclub Cluj-Napoca, EscarProd Braşov, PropPlanta Cluj, Beekeepers Federation;

•         Sympathizes of Bioterra;

 •         Mass media.
 

At the opening Ceremony the Conference was chaired by:

 Dr. Ing. Cristina Simion, Dr. Ing. Teodor Mihalcea, Dr. Ing. Ion Toncea, Dr. Ing. Ştefan Mantea, Prof. Dr. Ing. Ioan Rotaru, Willy Schuster and Prof. Dr. Cornel Man.

 Conference Topic:
            The quality of organic food stuff of agricultural origin and their influence factors was inspired by the topics that are been daily public discussed on radio or television, at conference or symposiums. Questions such as: “What are we laying on the table? Why do not we have Romanian products on the market? Food and health; Food between security and risk; Are organic products better than conventional ones?” are continuously being raised.
            In such debates there are also confusions, wrong or incomplete answers, controversy opinions or truth avoidance as well as the incapability of decision authorities to give coherent answers to such punctual questions.
             Numerous professional groups are dealing with the quality of food stuff – such as farmers, animal breeders, beekeepers, fish breeders, processors, traders, researchers, nutritionists, pathologists, legislative authorities, control bodies and last but not least consumers.  
            We think that through the conference topic, through the presented papers and articles, through the discussions and experience exchange between participants, but also by visiting and testing organic food stuff categorical answers to the question “is organic food qualitative superior to food obtained under intensive conditions?” could be given. We also think that through the Bioterra Conference all farmers could develop their experience and learn more one from another.
              Although in the initial project we predicted only 150 participants, due to intensive propaganda of the event under organic farmers we welcomed 220 persons: 156 members of the Bioterra Association, 64 guests, delegates and representatives of the Romanian Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development, but also of some local or national institutions or of partner organizations from Romanian and from abroad.
             Among the variety of the discussed conference topics was also our international project “Promotion of culture technologies with reduced impact on the environment and with increased economic efficiency for developed productions”. The project is implemented by Bioterra with the help of The World Bank and ofThe Romanian Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development from 2008 to 2010.
           The aim of our project is to adopt on a large scale some efficient production technologies in the organic agriculture and to apply them according to the demands of the EU Certification System, respectively of adopting the best methods in organizing the marketing activity and strategy for organic products. Together with all actors present in the organic field – both from Romania, as well as from abroad – we hope to succeed in reaching this very important scope.
            Representatives from several institutions held a plenum presentation:
  -          from the Romanian Ministry for Agriculture and Rural Development – Dr. Teodor Mihalcea: Message addressed to the participants of the ninth Conferecen;
  -          from the National Federation for Organic Agriculture – Dr. Ing. Ion Toncea: Organic agriculture – a source of live food;

-          from the Bioterra Association – Prof. Dr. Cornel Man: Technical support of the quality of organic animal food stuff;

 -          from the Biomold Association – Dr. Ing. Lucian Stoian: Quality of organic fruits and vegetables;

 -          from the The Ministry for Agriculture and Food Industry of Moldavian Republic – Dr. Ing. Iurie Senic: From the soils quality to that of agricultural food; 

 Workshops:
  1. Quality of organic plant products;
  2. Quality of organic animal products;
  3. Quality of organic food stuff and of snail products. Marketing aspects.
 

        The conclusions from all workshops were presented in plenum by each of the moderators of the sections.

  Workshop 1: Quality of organic plant products

 The 23 participants debated the following topics:

  –        knowing and accessing EU funds for the development of rural areas;
  –        possibility of carrying out some projects for the environment protection through EU funds:
  –        ensuring the stability of benefits given to organic farms from national resources.
 

Workshop 2: Quality of organic animal products (meat, milk, eggs).

  The 24 participants and representatives of some organic certified producers debated the following topics:
  –        Forms of assistance for Romanian organic farmers versus EU farmers;
  –        Legislative problems: sanitary – veterinarian norms applicable in organic animal husbandry farms and processing units for organic products, especially regarding the conditions of obtaining the sanitary veterinarian approval;
 –        Ensuring milk and processed products quality;
 –        Problems in the marketing of organic products – insufficient forms of assisting organic production; lack of assistance in the animal husbandry, etc.;
 –        Organic methods for prophylaxis of animal diseases in farms; information and experience exchange between farmers.
 All debates of the participants focused on the topics presented in the conference plenum:
 –        Quality of organic versus conventional animal products;
 –        Highlighting authentic farms that can ensure the best nutrition sources for mankind;

 –        Description of recently published scientific research studies which certify the nutritional value of organic products and the security of consumers health;

 –        Favourable arguments for the quality in organic food stuff with exemplifications on eggs, milk and dairy products;

 –        Highlighting the necessity of studies which focus on the quality aspects of organic products comparatively to conventional food stuff obtained mostly through super-intensive production technologies;

 –        Necessity of powerful campaigns for correct information of consumers regarding the risk they expose themselves and their health when eating food obtained through unsecured processing methods, such as: irradiation, use of chemical synthesis preserving agents, hormones, growth hormones etc

 –        Right of every consumer to be correct informed

  Workshop 3: Quality of organic food stuff and of snail products. Marketing aspects.

 The 18 participants from Cluj, Bihor, Harghita, Iaşi, Mureş, Bistriţa and Sălaj counties debated the following topics:

 –        Quality of organic food stuff – presented by Lorincz Piroska, Ecoinspect

–        Essential conditions that can influence the quality of organic beekeeping products (conversion period, location, nutrition, treatments, extraction conditions) – presented by Dorin Dogar, Apiprodex

 –        Quality of pollen and preparation mode - presented by Iosif Oros, beekeeper;
  –        Organic heliciculture: Chemical risk factors in the security of food, associated with the breeding of eatable snails – presented by Drd. Ing. Adrian Toader.
 

The participants also made some important suggestions:

 –        Consumers sensitization for identification of the quality of organic food stuff and their frequent use as an alternative for a healthy nutrition;
 –        Quality of organic products that is directly influenced by their preparation mode; Production technologies;

–        Importance of ingredients used in processing. 

 

Final conclusions of the workshop:

           It is necessary to have a strategy for the success of the organic agriculture. This could be achieved by:
  –        Developing better forms for financial support;
  –        Dissemination of know-how by specialist counselling;
  –        Reorganisation of the markets were organic food stuff is being sold.
 

         Within the framework of the international project some of the already undertaken activities, as well as the objectives that shall be realized in the future time were presented by the project team to all foreign delegates. A round table has also been organized. At the meeting took part all involved members of the project team, specialists, and representatives from the County Bureau for Agricultural Consultancy, from the Direction for Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as several guests from abroad. These guests also took part at the annual conference.

         Three reporters from local magazines and from two national newspapers, but also some representatives from the local Television and Radio were present at the Conference.
         Last but not least, we present one of the best appreciations regarding the ninth Bioterra Conference – Dr. Ing. Viorel Morarescu, General Manager of the National Agency for Agricultural Consultancy:
 

“The Bioterra Conference, a well known prestigious event on international level, has imposed itself year after year through the variety of the discussed and presented topics which are always linked both to the European and the World-Wide level. Nowadays the Bioterra Conference is attended by many specialists, researchers, scientists, but also by managers of production and processing plants, by traders and representatives of different associations and organizations, and especially of those of inspection and certification bodies or of people involved in the management and marketing of agriculture. Each time when we take part at the Bioterra Conference we witness very original confrontation of profound ideas regarding the best possible and efficient solutions to different problems of the organic farmers and actors of the sector – partners, associations, processors or traders”.

 

 
Category: Presentation - Last updated on  27-11-2008 at 11:15