vision & mission
vision
Our vision is a sustainable agricultural and food system that produces high-quality food while protecting natural resources.
We are convinced that this can be achieved through organic farming and that its production methods and agroecological principles pave this way.
mission
Our mission is to empower farmers and producers through research, advisory and knowledge transfer to create a sustainable agricultural and food system.
aims & objectives
aims & objectives
IBLA sees the purpose and aims of its efforts in research, consultancy, education and communication on topics of organic agriculture and agroecology.
These objectives are achieved by:
- Research and development of practical methods for organic and biodynamic agriculture; Taking into account nutritional, ecological and socio-economic aspects.
- Research of aspects of agriculture that are socially relevant;
- The establishment of an extension service for agricultural holdings and public bodies, with the aim to provide organic and biodynamic agriculture with the importance it deserves.
- Education of producers and consumers on organic and biodynamic agriculture as well as promotion of cooperation between producers, trade and consumers.
- Promotion of training in organic and biodynamic agriculture at the training and education centres in Luxembourg.
Since 2015, the IBLA has been a registered non-profit organization and has also been recognized as an official research institute in Luxembourg.
board
the board
FELTEN Claude (agricultural engineer)
-President
COLLING-VON ROESGEN Jean-Louis (farmer)
-Vice President
CONTER Gérard (agricultural engineer)
JACOBS Francis (farmer)
NOESEN Charel (farmer)
NESER Jean-Michel (farmer)
KONSBRÜCK Jeff (Winegrower)
MANGEN Michèle (agricultural engineer)
AENDEKERK Raymond (agricultural engineer)
-Members
team
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extension services offer agriculture
agriculture
The IBLA extension service for your agricultural holding presents itself
- You are a farmer and want to explore the production and business management possibilities a conversion to organic agriculture can offer your farm?
- You have decided to convert your farm to organic agriculture and need competent advice and support during the conversion phase?
- You are already an organic farmer and need help with a specific problem?
- You want to get first insights into the methods of organic farming?
- You want to profit from the benefits of leguminous crops in your crop rotation and need help in variety selection, production technology and the design of your crop rotation?
If one of these situations applies to you, the IBLA agricultural extension service has just the right offers for you. Our advisers have knowledge in all fields of organic agriculture due to their education and many years of practical experience. We combine research and practice and offer a wide range of extension services suited to fit your professional and personal needs. Our advisers are active both on a regional and Europe-wide level to provide you with the best service.
They offer a wide range of advice, from arable land and grassland to animal husbandry and feeding. They are your contact before and during the conversion. Their consulting services include crop rotation, fertilization and soil cultivation in field fodder and crop production with the aim of increasing natural soil fertility and yield potential.
You can profit from their long-standing experience and their knowledge regarding animal health and performance. This includes questions related to breeding, keeping, feeding and ration calculation, as well as grassland-management and improvement.
Variety recommendations are based on the results of our variety trials. Another focus of IBLA is the cultivation of legumes. Here you can benefit from our experience gained through field experiments on cultivation techniques and variety trials. Business analyses and individual support in the implementation of the guidelines for organic agriculture complete our offers in the agricultural extension service.
extension services and further education offers
Take advantage of IBLA's extension service and further education offers and benefit from years of experience in consulting and research. Arrange a personal consultation on your farm or choose from the IBLA modules the one best suited for your farm:
- Module 15.1: Organic agriculture – Pre-transitional initial consultation (for conventional holdings)
- Module 15.2: Organic agriculture – Pre-transition, intensive (for conventional holdings)
- Module 16: Organic agriculture – Transition (for holdings under conversion)
- Module 17a: Organic agriculture (for certified organic holdings)
- Module 17b: Methods of organic agriculture (for conventional holdings)
- Module 8: Legume cultivation (for all holdings)
- Module 9: Group consultation on crop production (for all holdings)
contact extension services agriculture
Jean-Paul Weis
Mobile +352 621 39 27 48
Svenja Zelder
Mobile +352 621 75 18 75
Ben Mangen
Mobile +352 621 49 40 09
extension services offer viticulture
viticulture
The IBLA extension service for organic viticulture presents itself
- You already make use of the natural biological processes in many areas of production and want to explore the production and business management possibilities a conversion to organic viticulture can offer your winery?
- You have decided to change your winery to organic viticulture and you need competent advice and support during the conversion phase?
- You already are an organic winegrower and want the latest information in plant protection during the vegetative phase? You want competent expertise and want to be part of a strong network?
- You want to get insight into organic cultivation methods?
Then IBLA Viticulture Consulting has exactly the right offers for you! Thanks to his training and many years of practical experience, our viticulture consultant has knowledge in all areas of organic viticulture. He is well networked regionally and Europe-wide and will support you. IBLA Viticulture Consulting combines research and practice and offers a comprehensive range of advice according to your winery-specific and personal requirements.
Jörg Pauly, who has managed his own organic winery for 20 years, studied agricultural sciences at the University of Bonn and then became a PhD in agricultural sciences (Dr. agr.). These studies were followed by 10 years of scientific work in agricultural and landscape research, as well as 20 years of managing his own organic winery. He will be happy to support you and give you advice in all matters relating to viticulture. From organic cultivation in the vineyard, to soil and greening maintenance, to plant protection and organic winemaking, he will advise you according to your operational goals and personal wishes. Wine-growing businesses are given targeted support both, before, during and after the conversion. In doing so, attention is always paid to the individual winery and weather-related conditions. Regular inspection rounds in the vineyards as well as newsletters during the growing season provide you with the most important current information on. Become part of a grown consulting community that is in close contact with practice and research.
extension services and further education offers
Take advantage of IBLA's extension service and further education offers and benefit from years of experience in consulting and research. Arrange a personal consultation on your winery or choose from the IBLA modules the one that best suited for you:
- Module 23.1: Organic viticulture – Pre-transitional initial consultation (for conventional holdings)
- Module 23.2: Organic viticulture – Pre-transition, intensive (for conventional holdings)
- Module 24: Organic viticulture – Transition (for holdings under conversion)
- Module 25a.1: Organic viticulture – soil fertility (for certified organic holdings (
- Module 25b.2: Methods used in organic viticulture – plant health (for conventional, partially converted and certified organic holdings (>0,1 ha))
contact extension services viticulture
Jörg Pauly
Mobile +352 621 677 351
communication
network of demonstration farms
organic agriculture Luxembourg
Our goal is to provide consumers and conventional farmers, processors and merchants with an insight into organic agriculture and through farm visits, festivals and practice days to our 9 demonstration farms. These visits offer a practice oriented insight into the everyday life on an organic farm and winery, as well as the special quality, the opportunities and challenges of organic agriculture.
In addition, the demonstration farms provide information on their production focus and marketing forms, as well as regional growing conditions. For this reason, organic farms from different regions and with different main branches have been selected to show the variety of organic agriculture in Luxembourg.
If you want to visit one of these demonstration farms, contact us or the farms directly to make an appointment for your visit. The project “demonstration farms organic agriculture” is an initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Consumer protection/ASTA financed within the framework of the organic action plan in Luxembourg.
An Dudel
Bio-Haff Baltes
Domaine Sunnen-Hoffmann
Karelshaff
Schanck Haff
Biohaff Witry
Fromburgerhaff
projects
vision 2050
Vision of 100% organic agriculture in Luxembourg in 2050: Resilience, environmental impacts and dietary change
This project VISION 2050 will model a number of scenarios of a conversion of agriculture in Luxembourg to 100% organic production, with the aim to design a sustainable Luxembourgish organic agricultural and food system in the year 2050, considering climatic change and environmental conditions.
The starting point is the analysis of the base scenario of the current agricultural system in 2020 and a business-as-usual reference scenario for 2050. Several scenarios with 100% conversion to organic agriculture, partly complemented with other strategies, such as circular food systems, reduced food wastage or reduced concentrate feed will be analysed. The scenario specifications will be done in close collaboration with key stakeholders and with the international scientific board of the project.
For all scenarios, various sustainability indicators will be analyzed, with a focus on trade-offs and synergies. In close collaboration with the stakeholders, most promising scenarios for a future with 100% organic agriculture in Luxembourg will be identified. To link this scenario analysis to the farm level, typical farms for the current baseline situation and the envisaged future with 100% organic agriculture will be identified, to illustrate what these changes may mean for the farms and the agricultural sector structure.
The output of the project will be a vision for a sustainable 100% organic farming system in Luxembourg for the year 2050. In this vision, climate change adaptation performance and climate change mitigation impacts will be addressed besides other sustainability aspects. These results will provide guidance to Luxembourg on how to design a future sustainable food system.
durum wheat and pasta from luxembourg
Development of a value chain from the cultivation of durum wheat to further processing into pasta products
As a result, the project ‘Development of a value chain from the cultivation of durum wheat to further processing into pasta’ was set up as part of the ‘Plan d'action nationale de l'agriculture biologique PAN-Bio 2025’. The organic egg marketing co-operative „Bio-Ovo“ has set itself the goal of launching a new pasta product with the highest possible proportion of Luxembourg durum wheat on the market. This will not only expand the range of Luxembourg organic food products, but also utilise eggs that cannot be sold due to visual defects. The plan is to successfully cultivate durum wheat and process it into semolina at the ‘Dörrwiesmühle’ in St. Wendel (Germany). This will be followed by processing into pasta at the ‘Miller-Mariany’ organic farm.
The aims of this project are to encourage the cultivation of durum wheat and to provide expert advice from cultivation to marketing. In addition, long-term solutions are to be found for professional storage, cleaning and selection according to quality. Finally, an appropriate price for durum wheat should be ensured, which compensates for additional costs such as cleaning, drying, storage and transport.
lefasus
Investigating Legume Soil Fatigue for Sustainable Expansion of European Grain Legume Cultivation
The aim of this project is therefore to identify the main causal factors and indicators of legume fatigue in a variety of European environments. In this context, easily implementable indicators to assess the risk of legume fatigue, including soil suppressiveness in addition to pathogen load, will be developed. Proposals for agronomic measures to prevent or reduce legume fatigue will be developed and a basis for further targeted research will be established.
organicyieldsup
Improving yields in organic cropping systems
precision
Advanced Machine Learning for Drone-Based Precision Agriculture: Optimisation of Nitrogen and Weed Control for Wheat Yield
and Ranging (LiDAR) and Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) systems.
Data processing is realised using a combination of established methods (ML, DL) and artificial intelligence.
Based on these data sets, PRECISON will develop efficient and innovative PA methods using machine and deep learning algorithms that can be immediately applied by the farmers involved in the project.
legendary
legu-wsk
Promotion of the value chain of grain legumes for human nutrition in Luxembourg
bio-wsk lux
Characterization of the main value chains of organic agriculture in Luxembourg
tassili
Biotechnology To Fight Fungal Infections in Plants; The Use of Saponins Isolated from Fabaceae
Plants cannot run away from unfavourable conditions, but they have, through evolution, developed a number of mechanisms that allow them to survive non-optimal conditions, including exposure to pathogens. One of these mechanisms is the synthesis and accumulation of small molecules with activities that protect plants from infections. Among these compounds, saponins are known and studied to protect plants from fungal infections. However not all plants produce the same saponins and this in different quantities, furthermore not all fungi have the same sensitivity for saponins.
Mining data from previous projects resulted in the identification of saponins in stems from different Fabaceae, and it was seen that the conditions wherein these plants grow have an impact on the composition of the saponin pools of these plants. Based on this TASSILI will provide the fundamental data for further studies towards the production of saponin-based fungicides extracted from locally-grown Fabaceae (alfalfa, peas, soybean and faba bean).
Extracts will be made from different varieties of the mentioned plants. This will generate a set of extracts with different composition and thus potentially different fungicidal activities against plant pathogenic fungi. The activity of these extracts will be tested against some common plant pathogenic fungi: Botrytis cinerea (a pathogen in viticulture), Fusarium graminearum and Zymoseptoria tritici two important pathogens in grain cultivation. By testing a diverse set of extracts against these fungi, TASSILI will result in the correlation between the composition of the extracts and the measured fungicidal activity. Furthermore, the saponins that contribute most to this activity will be identified.
commect
Bridging the digital divide and addressing the need of Rural Communities with Cost-effective and Environmental-Friendly Connectivity Solutions
COMMECT aims to bridge this gap by providing quality, reliability and security in terms of digital access for rural areas. The goal of expanding broadband connectivity in remote areas is achieved by integrating non-terrestrial networks with terrestrial XG mobile networks and low-cost Internet of Things (IoT). Artificial intelligence, edge and network automation will reduce energy consumption at both the connectivity and compute levels.
A participatory approach with end users and IT experts working together on development challenges will be key to digitizing the sector. In doing so, COMMECT will build intensive exchange of best practices and technical knowledge among agroforestry value chain actors.
Five Living Labs (model regions) will be established inside and outside Europe, where "problems" and "benefits" of connectivity will be derived from different perspectives for end users.
The "Living Lab Luxembourg", which is also the focus of IBLA's work, deals with the digitalization of Luxembourg's viticulture. At the beginning, the needs of the stakeholders (winegrowers) for digital area information for the management in the areas of irrigation, fertilization and plant protection, among others, are determined in workshops. On this basis, relevant data will be made available to the stakeholders for their cultivation decisions, as well as decision-support systems will be made usable. Demonstration events will be held to eventually improve awareness and acceptance of digital technologies in viticulture.
monesca
Development of a semi-automatic, high-resolution monitoring of ESCA and other dieback symptoms in viticulture
The main objective of the MonESCA I project is to monitor and understand the occurrence of disease, and in the continuation MonESCA2 a special emphasis is placed on knowledge transfer into viticultural practice. Therefore, the IBLA organizes several workshops for winegrowers on management practices for ESCA prophylaxis and control (gentle pruning, reset method, vine surgery). The second task of the IBLA in the MonESCA2 project is the development of a decision support system, which generates ESCA-effective measures for the winegrowers at different infestation intensities.
water protection
Methods of organic farming for the benefit of drinking water protection
ancient wheat
Development of a value chain from the cultivation of ancient wheat varieties in organic farming to organic bread
fact sheets
Preparation of fact sheets for organic farming
To ensure that the target group of Luxembourg agriculture can be informed in a way that is as tailored as possible to their needs, the IBLA has been drafting relevant technical literature specifically adapted to Luxembourg as a location since 2021. The advantage of such an approach lies in the fact that the knowledge communicated on the basis of existing international technical brochures is both brought together and supplemented by experience gained in-house.
In addition to preparing and publishing fact sheets, IBLA is now also working on variety information sheets containing the results of variety trials in organic farming. These are a supplement to the national list of varieties and contain more detailed information on plant development, which covers the special information needs of organic farms.
méi weed
Pasture optimization by adapting pasture management to pedoclimatic conditions
In this project, a prediction model of daily grass increment is adapted to Luxembourg pedoclimatic conditions. The forecasts will allow for predictive pasture planning and will help in the future with regular adjustments of grazing areas, feeding of roughage and/or concentrates to grazing animals, etc.
Five pasture-based dairy farms are participating in the project. These pilot farms are located in different pedoclimatic zones throughout Luxembourg. The pilot farms will be intensively accompanied in their pasture management for the whole duration of the project. In this way, the practical benefits of the grass growth model will be implemented on the farms.
In parallel, a survey of consumers will be conducted to determine their added value in pasture management and its influence on their purchasing behavior. Furthermore, a sustainability analysis with the SMART (Sustainability Monitoring and Assessment RouTine)- Farm Tool will be carried out on the pilot farms at the beginning and end of the project in order to develop farm-specific improvement approaches and recommendations and to monitor the development of the farms.
i2connect
Connecting advisors to boost interactive innovation in agriculture & forestry
To enhance and profile the role of advisors in interactive innovation processes, at different scales: by a better understanding of the AKIS at country level, by identifying providers of advisory services across Europe, by creating an enabling environment within advisory services, by better connecting and embedding advisory services within the AKIS and by appropriate public policies.
To create a social support network and a networking culture among advisors facilitating innovative innovation processes. In particular emphasis will be given to ensure that advisors in Central and Eastern European countries make use of the opportunities being created in the project.
2000 m² for our food
Project to promote a sustainable agricultural and food culture
susteatable
Integrated analysis of dietary patterns and agricultural practices for sustainable food systems in Luxembourg
variety trials
in organic agriculture in Luxembourg
• Summer cereal variety trials in 2014-2016, and again since 2019
• Soybean variety trials in 2014, and again since 2018
• Clover grass mixture variety trials in 2013-2015 and again since 2020
• Pea and faba bean variety trials since 2016
• Potato variety trials since 2016
• Maize variety trials since 2020