About RELACS

‘Replacement of Contentious Inputs in Organic Farming Systems’ (RELACS) will foster the development and facilitate the adoption of cost-efficient and environmentally safe tools and technologies, to phase out the dependency on and use of inputs considered contentious in organic farming systems.

As a system approach to sustainable agriculture, organic farming aims to effectively manage ecological processes whilst lowering dependence on off-farm inputs.

The RELACS project partners will evaluate far-advanced and new solutions to further reduce the use of external inputs and, if needed, develop and adopt cost-efficient and environmentally safe tools and technologies to:

• Reduce the use of copper and mineral oil in plant protection,
• Identify sustainable sources for plant nutrition, and
• Provide solutions to support livestock health and welfare.

The project was developed by involving actors from research, farming, advisory services and industry from the very start hence implementing a truly multi-actor approach. RELACS has 29 partners from thirteen countries.

RELACS is coordinated by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) Switzerland. IFOAM Organics Europe is responsible for communication, dissemination and facilitation of the science-practice-policy dialogue. The project runs from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2022 and received 3,999,674.50 EUR from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.