Training - Organic Agriculture Expertise Consultancy Haas

Technical Vocational and Education Training (TVET/VET) - Train the Trainer

Workshops - Guided Tours - Exhibitions

As a well experienced and highly skilled trainer for advisers, experts, administrative personal and
decision makers, farmers, consumers, students, also at university level (see end of this page)
I offer my organic agriculture expertise as listed below:

Topics (main modules)

Organic Farming/Aquaculture: Basics - Production - Conversion - Economics - Strategies
Organic Farming Farm Management - Nutrient Management - Agronomy
Catchement Sensitive Farming - Nitrate and Pesticide Vulnerable Zones - Chemical Pollution
Organic Farming Profile - Process-Quality - Environmental Impact
Organic Farming Extension and Research Concepts and Strategies
Organic Food Market and Marketing
Organic Standards and Regulations - Certification and Accreditation
Organic Agriculture Policy - Supporting Measures
Working Groups - Excursions - Study visits - Guided tours - Exhibitions Fairs

Topics
will be tailor-made adapted, shortened and expanded depending on background and interest of participants.

Guided tours farming and processing
to professional organic farms (also with special focus such as big scale organic dairy farming, professional organic horticulture), specialised processors, well selected demonstration and research stations and universities), administration, NGOs and decision makers.

Guided tours exhibitions (AgriTechnica, EuroTier, BioFach, DLG Field Days)
Germany is famous for several big agricultural exhibitions on farm machinery, stable barn construction and agricultural equipment as well as particular on organic farming, processing and trading. Personal guided tours including translation are offered tailor-made to meet machinery suppliers, importers, exporters, processors, and other experts and stakeholders.

Full service
will be guaranteed including design, preparation and development of course training material for training on all matters and all levels in organic agriculture and environmental farming issues. Also full documentatin of visited farms and exhibitions are possible for further planning and discussions.

Much more details on request.

Training and Teaching at University Level

Below please find some currently existing farming and organic agriculture teaching modules I present at university level at the University of Bonn but also at other places predominantly for students, some of it is also used for training farmers, advisers and other experts.

· Intensity of Agricultural Production Systems
Principles of agro-ecosystem, input and output-oriented agro-ecosystem management, intensity level and type of production; conventional and organic agriculture impact on the environment, nature protection and management of natural resources; energy-, mass- and nutrient flow and budgets; comparing energy consumption of conventional and organic farming, pesticide and herbicide application strategies and impact of different farming intensity levels on the environment, site conditions and consequences of different soil cultivation intensities, eco-balance/life-cycle-assessment, defining relevant environmental impact categories, challenge of defining adequate functional units, defining efficient and pragmatic agro-environmental indicators, characterizing and evaluating agro-environmental programs.

· Organizational Principles of Organic Agriculture
Introduction/basics, history; environmental impacts, input and output-oriented agro-ecosystem management; types of organic farming, transition strategy, agronomic farm planning and controlling; designing crop rotations, legume cropping, pre-crop effects, soil organic matter/humus reproduction and balances; weed control strategies and measures; specific seed quality and production measures; components of system stability.

· Nutrient Management Strategies and Environmental Impact Assessment
Maximizing symbiotic nitrogen fixation of organic agriculture systems, strategies of minimizing nutrient losses in the solid, liquid and gas phases, promotion of rhizosphere activity, subsoil nutrient uptake, nutrient efficiency, farm nutrient mass flow analyses and budgets (farm gate, field, livestock), catchment sensitive farming particular in nitrate vulnerable zones, development of efficient and adapted nutrient management strategies for organic agriculture production.

· Environmental Impact of Conventional and Organic Farming
Eco-balance/life-cycle-assessment, defining relevant impact categories (such as resource use, soil functions, eutrophication, acidification, global warming potential, biodiversity, genetic resources, landscape and farmstead image, animal welfare and appropriate management and housing conditions), challenge of
defining adequate functional units, environmental farm weak point analyses, defining efficient and
pragmatic agro-environmental measures, policies and indicators.

· Organic Farming Management and Planning
Farm and farmers background, farm infrastructure, current natural, economic and social conditions; analyzing farm structure (current, options for development), farm operation plan, feeding pattern, crop rotation agroforestry, alley cropping; input/output budgets of plants, livestock, fodder and straw; balancing organic matter and nutrient mass flow at farm gate, field and livestockl level; assessing farm impact on natural resources and optimizing biotic performance; economic and labor program consequences; distribution
and marketing of products.

· Optimizing Organic Farm Operation
Conducted at an experimental farm based on ongoing research projects: preparation and presentation
of a paper by the participants/students for the specific topic under investigation; visit of field trials and discussions with scientists regarding the background, method, first results and conclusions for farm management; survey of fields and livestock production and analyses of ongoing farm management.