What is ECAF?
  
• ECAF definition

The European Conservation Agriculture Federation (ECAF) brings together eleven national associations which promote among Europe's farmers the soil management "best practice" aspects of conservation agriculture. With member associations in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, ECAF represents the interests of the majority of the European Union's cropped farmland.

ECAF was constituted in Brussels on 14th January 1999, as a non-profit making association, subjected to the Belgium laws. It was conceived to encourage any issue focused on maintaining the agrarian soil and its biodiversity in the context of sustainable agriculture. ECAF is not involved in any commercial product, equipment and/ or trademark.
 
• Conservation Agriculture: A definition

Conservation agriculture refers to soil management practices which minimise the disruption of the soil's structure, composition and natural biodiversity thereby also minimising erosion and degradation, and water contamination. Direct sowing and minimum cultivation systems are examples.

Conservation agriculture has an increasingly prominent role to play in world agriculture as farms seek to develop Integrated Crop Management (ICM) systems that benefit the environment and enhance farm profitability. Direct sowing and minimum cultivation systems are already in widespread use in North and South America and other parts of the world. ECAF can help Europe to catch up.

 
• ECAF Objectives          

At national level ECAF's member organisations aim to:

  • improve technology transfer to farms;
  • promote agricultural and environmental policies supportive of sustainable soil management;
  • improve information exchange in the research, policy and practitioner communities; and
  • research, develop, evaluate and promote soil management systems to improve crop production and protection of the environment.
 
• ECAF Operations

To reinforce the aims of its members at European level ECAF operates as:

  • The principal point of contact for discussions on conservation agriculture with European policy makers.

    • Thus ECAF will work with EU Commission, Parliament and Environment Agency officials on the design and implementation of the agri-environment provisions of Agenda 2000.

  • A clearinghouse at European level to collect and spread information to farmers and agrarian technicians about conservation agriculture.
  • A focus for encouraging the investigation, development, and teaching of all aspects of conservation agriculture.

    Thus ECAF is co-ordinating a project funded by the EU LIFE programme to share and promote knowledge between its member associations and their respective farmer audiences.

  • A collaborator with other international and national organisations that have related and complementary objectives.
 
• ECAF Activities

ECAF undertakes the following specific activities:

  • Publication of bulletins, newsletters, technical reports, and books.
  • Organisation of international workshops, seminars, congresses and training
    programmes (World Congress page).
  • Information exchange between its member associations.
 
• ECAF Council

President:

Luis García Torres 
Professor, Institute of Sustainable Agriculture, Spanish Council for Scientific Research, Cordoba, Spain. 

 

Vice-President:

Gottlieb Basch (Director of APOSOLO)
Professor of the Crop Science Department, University of Evora, Evora, Portugal

 

General Secretary-Treasurer:

Friedrich Tebrügge (President of GKB)
Academic Director, Institute for Land Technology, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen, Germany

 

Members:

Vic Jordan (Chief Executive, UK SMI)

Formerly Head, IACR Less Intensive Farming and Environment Programme; Research Fellow, University of Bristol

Michele Pisante (Executive Secretary of AIGACoS)

Director, Extension and Experimental Station for Land and Irrigation Techniques, Vasto, Italy

 

Assistant to ECAF Board:

Evaristo Holgado
 ecaf@arrakis.es

 

Executive Director:

Armando Martínez-Vilela
conservation.agriculture@ecaf.org

 
• Founding Organisations

Danish Conservation Agriculture Association (DKA) DENMARK
Go to Web Site

Association pour la Promotion d´une Agriculture Durable
(APAD) FRANCE
Go to Web Site

Gesellschaft für Konservierende Bodenbearbeitung (GKB)
GERMANY
Go to Web Site

Associazione Italiana per la Gestione Agronomica e Conservativa del Suolo
(A.I.G.A.Co.S.) ITALY
Go to Web Site

Associação Portuguesa de Mobilização de Conservação do Solo (APOSOLO) PORTUGAL
Go to Web Site

Asociación Española de Agricultura de Conservación.
Suelos Vivos (AEAC.SV) SPAIN
Go to Web Site

Schweizerische Gesellschaft für bodenschonende Landwirtschaft (Swiss No-Till) SWITZERLAND

Go to Web Site

UK Soil Management Initiative (SMI)
UNITED KINGDOM
Go to Web Site
 

• Become a member

ECAF, as a non-profit association, is open to collaborate with any European farmers' associations, private companies and administration departments interested in promoting conservation agriculture. ECAF does not endorse any specific commercial products, or trademarks.

If you are interested in collaborating with us, or in receive further information about us, please fill in the following form

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Go to the main page of ECAF