Coordination meeting reinforces OrganoRice progress and international partnership.
On 17 February 2025, German project partners convened at the University of Bonn for a key coordination meeting, joined by their Vietnamese colleagues online. Representatives from the German project agency PT DLR mandated by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR), were also present, underscoring the importance of the initiative for sustainable agricultural development.
This hybrid-meeting allowed for seamless transcontinental collaboration, as teams from both countries presented progress updates and discussed strategic planning for the project’s final implementation phase.
Highlights from the meeting included:
- Strong results from organic pest and disease management trials conducted in all three growing seasons, showing improved yields and reduced incidence of leaf blast and grain rot diseases.
- Promising weed and golden apple snail control measures, such as Azolla mulch and biological extracts, which have demonstrated effectiveness in field trials.
- Socioeconomic findings from stakeholder interviews, pointing to persistent challenges for organic production, but also identifying pathways to scale transient “Safe Rice” and organic standards.
- Extensive monitoring and analysis of pesticide residues and heavy metals in soil water and rice, with side-by-side comparison between conventional and organic plots. In total pesticides from 147 different brands are monitored with a great variety of active ingredients.
- Capacity-building activities aiming at university staff and students, DARDs, Farmers and other stakeholder. This includes trainings and the dissemination of research results through the OrganoRice platform and social media channels.
DLR representatives commended the strong engagement of the consortium and the scientific depth of the results. Looking ahead, the discussion also addressed the proposed cost-neutral extension to allow for the completion of PhD research and pilot applications. The meeting concluded with a reaffirmed commitment to finalizing research outputs, preparing for upcoming joint publications, and hosting the International Symposium on Organic Farming and Production (ISOP) in 2025.