The Inter-Bio cluster consortium organized in collaboration with the Bio Danubius Tulcea Cluster, on October 13 at the “Peninsula” Murighiol guesthouse, Tulcea county, the international conference “Bio Danubius Innovation Day” in the context of the celebration of the “National Day of Ecological Agriculture” in Romania.
The agenda of the event included topics of particular interest for the agroecological sector. The opening of the event was made by Mr. Viorel Morărescu, Director within the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, with the theme: “Action plan for organic agriculture in Romania” along with a presentation of the evolution of this sector in Romania. Next, of particular interest was the presentation “Development of the ecological system on a farm in Belgium, the transition to organic farming plus”, by Mr. Philippe Mattez, representative of the agroecology innovation center in Wallonia, Belgium. The presentation of a good practice model from Belgium by the Walloon farmer, manager of the company Walexport SCRL Agrium, was extremely useful in showing how to develop an organic system on a farm in Belgium and what are the stages of the transition to organic farming plus.
In the context of the presentation of the Belgian experience, there followed a presentation on the European projects “Agroecology-Transect” and “OrganicTargets4EU”, as well as the significant moments and the future strategy of the Bio Danubius Tulcea cluster. These were brought to the attention of Mr. Costin Lianu, Bio Danubius cluster facilitator. Given the role of the Bio Danubius Tulcea cluster in the two projects, possible indicators, how they can be monitored and measured, requirements and institutional aspects of a voluntary agroecology scheme were presented. It should be noted that Mr. Mattez’s invitation to the event was made in the context of international cooperation between the two innovation centers, Walloon and Romanian.
A special moment was the intervention of Professor Dr. Eng. Ion Toncea, President of “ARAD”, CSI INCDA Fundulea, regarding the identification of living agroecological laboratories (ALL-Organic) in the “South-East” Development Region, Romania.
Mr. Bogdan Alexandrescu from CEC Bank who presented different financing solutions for farmers and processors also spoke, Mrs. Laura Țicoiu, ELO Policy Officer who presented the perspective of European landowners within the “Farm to Fork” program, Mr. Fanel Iacobescu, president of RENAR, who presented several points of view regarding certification schemes and the mechanism of accreditation of scheme holders, and Mr. Liviu Ciulei, representative of Agro Danubius Trading SRL, who focused on the concept of an integrator in organic agriculture.
“In Tulcea, an important community of practice for organic products developed within the European project Organic Targets for Europe (https://organictargets.eu/) has evolved with the aim of achieving the expected results for the development of the organic sector. The history of this cluster is the fruit of over 8 years of active cooperation between farmers, processors, traders, researchers, consultants, authorities, during which a “living laboratory” was formed in the field of ecological products. During the event, which takes place in the context of the celebration of the National Day of Organic Agriculture, the participants had the opportunity to discuss good practices in the field, to analyze the key factors on the path to the realization of voluntary quality schemes for organic farmers in the field of cereals. Discussions focused on aspects related to the development of the voluntary scheme, the financing of activities, the development of the system of knowledge and innovation and the development of markets that farms would like to support in their decision-making process”, said Prof. Univ. Dr. Costin Lianu, president of the Inter-Bio cluster consortium.
Costin Lianu
Președinte Inter-Bio
Inter-Bio
Website: https://inter-bio.ro/ro/
Email: office@inter-bio.ro
