Organic Research Centre hopes to add new functionality and features to knowledge exchange hub
The Organic Research Centre (ORC) has launched a fundraising campaign to develop new resources for the Agricology knowledge exchange hub.
Donations received through the campaign will ensure Agricology continues to support farmers in adopting practical, sustainable agricultural practices through a mixture of on-farm and online resources.
Agricology is a free, independent knowledge platform that helps farmers and growers ”transition to more sustainable and resilient farming systems by bringing together research from the field and farmer experiences on practices that restore the farm ecosystem”, and includes contributions from over 40 sector-leading organisations.
Tim Field, co-founder and Agricology advisory group member, said: “Demand for Agricology has increased significantly, with the site now receiving over 100,000 visitors a year. We have been able to adapt and develop our content over time – for example during the pandemic we turned our farm tours into virtual events and created and shared webinar content so that our community could still engage with one another.
”But there is so much more that we want to do – we want to expand our farmer profiles, videos, podcasts and library of over 440 resources, not to mention reinvigorating our programme of field days on-farm in collaboration with partners to provide a space for demonstration and discussion.”
Lucy MacLennan, chief executive of ORC, added: “It costs over £180,000 a year to run Agricology, the majority of which is secured from charitable trusts. A donation to our campaign will help continue to ensure the information on Agricology remains freely available to users and open to everyone, regardless of labels.”
