Operational Group Further Development of Organic Winter Vegetables

Short description

The aim of the Operational Group is to solve questions and problems concerning the production, quality requirements, packaging, crop rotation, profitability etc. of organic winter vegetables by testing on farms.

Point of departure

Presently the most part of salads and herbs available in Austria in winter is imported, which causes, no matter whether they are organic-certified or conventional goods, high fossil energy consumption. By means of growing domestic organic winter vegetables the range of vegetable varieties and rarities offered can be extended in a resource-saving way. This constitutes for the participating farms - also due to the rising demand for such products on the part of the consumers - an interesting market niche. The value-added of the farm can be increased by means of using the winter months, which are otherwise not used for production and the presently necessary imports can be substituted with domestic production. As there are numerous rarities among the varieties grown there is also the opportunity to re-establish these varieties and thus to revitalize "old knowledge" in the field of vegetable growing. The operational group consists of representatives from the fields of practice, consulting, and research. BIO AUSTRIA takes over the role of the lead partner. The operational group is supported by the food cluster Lower Austria (Lebensmittelcluster Niederösterreich) as external partner.

Targets and target groups

The target of the further development of organic winter vegetables is to provide potentially participating farms opting for this form of cultivation the greatest possible support on the basis of scientifically sound knowledge. The long-term goal must be to establish this energy-extensive way of production in a way covering the whole territory and to reduce on the one hand the imports of organic vegetables during the winter months and to demonstrate on the other hand alternatives to domestic production in heated greenhouses. The main target groups of the project are on the one hand organic vegetable farms, and on the other hand final consumers.

Project implementation and measures

Important steps in the course of the project of the operational group “Further development organic winter vegetables” (Operationelle Gruppe “Weiternentwicklung Bio-Wintergemüse”) are:

• Implementation of experiments on the participating farms and experimental stations with respect to the selection of species and varieties, ideal growing dates and crop rotations, etc.
• Measurements to identify data on the ecological footprint - calculation of the economic efficiency on the basis of the results of the experiments on the participating farms.
• Research on alternative forms of packaging for the most different types of marketing (direct marketing, farm shops, organic box, etc.), spreading of the results at expert meetings and events

Results and effects

The expected result of the operational group “Further development organic vegetables" (Operationelle Gruppe “Weiterentwicklung Bio-Wintergemüse”) is that new insights on the growing of domestic winter vegetables are gained, aiming in this way at an increase of the value-added of the farm, a reduction of the presently necessary imports, as well as at the saving of resources by means of a low-input vegetable production.