Organic Research Centres Alliance ORCA

The Organic Research Centres Alliance (ORCA) intends to internationally network and strengthen existing institutions with scientific credentials and empower them to become centers of excellence in transdisciplinary organic agriculture research. The objective is to ensure that environmental, economic, and social benefits accruing from organic research are shared worldwide. The ORCA concept is designed following a research paradigm that heavily draws on traditional knowledge, improves it with scientific investigation and shares it widely. Research centres may be physical laboratories or “institutions without walls”, formed through alliances between producers and scientists, as well as twinning between developing and developed countries’ institutions.

Weblinks

• orca-research.org: ORCA portal
• FAO.org/Organic Ag: ORCA concept
• FAO.org/Organic Ag: ORCA database
• FAO.org/Organic Ag: Organic farming pages at the FAO homepage