vision & mission
vision
We envision a world where we can produce high quality food while protecting the natural environment through farming in respect with nature.
We believe that we can achieve such a sustainable farming system through organic agriculture.
mission
Improving organic agriculture with research, advisory, dissemination and support activities, thus making agriculture more performant and resilient.
This will empower farmers to implement sustainable farming practices in Luxembourg.
aims & objectives
aims & objectives
IBLA sees the purpose and aims of its efforts in research, consultancy, education and communication on topics of organic agriculture.
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 (status 11.04.2017)
President – FELTEN Claude (agricultural engineer)
Vice president – COLLING-VON ROESGEN
Jean-Louis (farmer)
Treasurerer – CONTER Gérard (agricultural engineer)
JACOBS Francis (farmer)
KOEUNE Marco (farmer)
KRIER-BISENIUS Jean-Paul (vintner)
MAJERUS Roland (merchant)
SCHANCK Aender (businessman)
SCHANCK Jos (farmer)
Cash auditors – DORMANS Pierre (farmer)
SIEBENALER Fräns (pensioner)
team
+352 621 302 523
+352 26 15 13-82
+352 26 15 13-87
+352 26 15 13-77
+352 26 15 13-82
+352 621 512 451
+352 621 302 522
+352 621 494 485
+352 621 677 351
+352 621 678 467
+352 621 629 217
+352 26 15 13-88
+352 621 392 748
+352 621 751 875
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
Rudolf Leifert
Office +352 26 15 13 - 83
Mobile +352 621 30 25 22
Gilles Altmann
Office +352 26 15 13 - 78
Mobile +352 621 49 44 85
Jean-Paul Weis
Office +352 26 15 13 - 93
Mobile +352 621 39 27 48
Svenja Zelder
Office +352 26 15 13 - 94
Mobile +352 621 75 18 75
Mathieu Wolter
Office +352 26 15 13 - 89
Mobile +352 621 67 84 67
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?
If one of these situations applies to you, the IBLA viticulture extension service has just the right offers for you. Our adviser has knowledge in all fields of organic viticulture due to their education and many years of practical experience. Our adviser is active both on a regional and Europe-wide level to provide you with the best service. The IBLA viticulture extension services combine research and practice and offer a wide range of offers suited to fit your professional and personal needs.
Sonja Kanthak is a government certified winegrower and a communication host, and she holds a Bachelor of Science in organic agriculture and marketing. She is ready to assist you with all questions concerning organic viticulture. She offers individual consulting in organic cultivation in the vineyard and plant protection, as well as organic wine production. Vineyards are carefully managed before, during and after the conversion to organic viticulture with a focus on individual and weather-related conditions. Regular on-site inspection tours in the vineyards, as well as newsletters during the vegetative period, provide you with the most important and up-to-date information. Become part of a growing community that offers exchange 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
Sonja Kanthak
Office +352 26 15 13 - 85
Mobile +352 621 67 73 51
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.
A Mechels
An Dudel
A Schiewesch
Domaine Sunnen-Hoffmann
Jeekel’s Haff
Karelshaff
Naturhaff
Schanck Haff
information brochures
In collaboration with several European partners such as the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture (FIBL), technical information brochures are being prepared, which are made available to organic farmers and other interested parties in Luxembourg. This will give farmers access to the extensive know-how of the research institutes in the field of organic agriculture and the latest national and international research results.
This project is an initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Viticulture and Consumer protection/ASTA financed within the framework of the organic action plan in Luxembourg.
Information brochuresprojects
ecological footprint – reloaded
The ecological footprint of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is being recalculated.
Within the "Ecological Footprint - Reloaded" project, the ecological footprint of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is being recalculated in cooperation with the Global Footprint Network (GFN).
The GFN calculates the ecological footprint of individual countries and worldwide using a kind of accounting for natural resources on the basis of global hectares (e.g. taking into account emitted CO2 and the CO2 equivalents) and compares them with the available capacities on global hectares (including for the absorption of CO2 equivalents), called biocapacity. This is used to calculate the number of planets that are required to provide the resource consumption of the inhabitants of a country if all people worldwide lived like this population. The calculation of the ecological footprint is based on all resources that the population or the process needs as well as the disposal of the generated waste. With the Ecological Footprint, the GFN wants to raise awareness for the need for sustainable development and to promote political decisions.
The IBLA's task is to calculate Luxembourg's Ecological Footprint for 2018 using the data published by the various national authorities. The Centre de Rechereche Public - Henri Tudor and Centre de Ressources de Technologies pour l'Environnement carried out a calculation for 2008. The additional aim is to calculate the resource consumption by fuel tourism separately in order to get a more realistic picture of consumption for the Luxembourg population. Amongst others, fuel tourism, as well as the export of predominantly services that are not traded and numbered as goods, lead to a very high consumption of resources by the Luxembourgish population with 7.92 planets. On the basis of these elaborations, trends are to be shown and critical areas of consumption and areas with high savings potential are identified and communicated.
The project is being carried out on behalf of the Luxembourg Sustainability Council.
monesca
towards an operational very high resolution monitoring of die-off phenomena including the esca complex
Drone based very high-resolution images can help monitoring long term and small scale patterns of diseases. Recently, innovative hyperspectral sensors, which are very light and can be installed on drones, came on the market. This allows for new insights into diseases reactions and developments in vegetation canopies which haven’t been possible before. Esca, in contrast to many other diseases is not spreading continuously within the vineyard but occurs on single plants. Furthermore, symptoms may occur in one year and disappear the following year on infected plants. Thus, very high resolution is necessary to detect the symptoms. In combination with thermal sensors, innovative methods will be developed which may help to detect and understand the disease.
2000 m2 for our food
Projekt zur Förderung einer nachhaltigen Agrar- und Esskultur
Using 2000 m2 at the “Haus vun der Natur” in Kockelscheuer, we will show the relationships between our dietary habits, agriculture and environmental protection in a very practical, hands-on manner. The 2000 m2 field will show that a sustainable food supply, on the basis of our natural resources, is possible. At the moment, agricultural production plays a minor role in the direct food supply in Luxemburg. Accordingly, the “2000 m2 for our food” project aims to highlight the value of fruit, vegetable and field crop cultivation, because a diverse range of seasonal delights is possible using regionally produced fruits and vegetables. This means: apples and pears instead of mangoes and kiwi. Lentils, peas and regionally produced soybean instead of chick peas from sub-tropical regions.. Being a region with a high proportion of permanent grassland, animal husbandry is very important for Luxemburg and builds an important link to the arable land and crop production, since the organic fertilizers produced by the animals especially enhance soil fertility. Chicken, pig and cow manure play an important role in keeping nitrogen and other important nutrients in the agricultural cycle, maintaining a natural soil fertility and making the use of mineral fertilizers redundant.
The aim of the project partners “Institut fir biologësch Landwirtschaft an Agrakultur Luxemburg” a.s.b.l. (IBLA), “natur & ëmwelt” a.s.b.l. and Co-Labor, is to use this project, financed by the Ministère de l’Environnement, du Climat et du Développement durable, to promote awareness of the arable land that is available for crop production, to encourage reflection about our own dietary habits and consumption patterns as well as to inform about regional and sustainable agriculture.
susteatable
Integrated analysis of dietary patterns and agricultural practices for sustainable food systems in Luxembourg
lighthouse project: optimization of organic materials cycles of viticulture in luxembourg
Grape marc - from underrated waste product to regionally produced premium fertilizer
Locally produced compost products help to promote humus formation and thus help to protect the climate. The aim of the project is to promote wide support for compost products. There will be demonstration windrows and demonstration plots that can be used for composting courses and workshops. The courses are aimed at farmers, winegrowers and private individuals. In addition, information events and communication activities are carried out that appeal to all social groups.
“schlassbierg” pilot project
The aim of the project is to abandon the use of all mineral fertilisers and chemical-synthetic pesticides in order to analyse the impact that this agricultural practices have on the drinking water quality of the springs. The following questions are addressed in this context:
• What implications does the described procedural change have for the quality of the drinking water springing from the two reinforced sources as well as for the quality of the water springing from the three wild sources, respectively?
• What changes are necessary in order to achieve stable yields despite not using pesticides and mineral fertilisers?
• What levels will crop shortfalls reach?
legutec
Sustainable and resource-efficient protein production using various mechanical weed control methods in grain legume cultivation; using soybean as an example
From spring 2018 onwards, five mechanical weed control methods in soybean cultivation are tested and compared under real conditions on three organic farms spread over Luxembourg (Organic farm Mehlen in Manternach, organic farm Emering in Sprinkange und organic farm François in Hostert): 1) harrow, 2) interrow cultivator with duck foot shares, 3) interrow cultivator with duck foot shares and finger weeder, 4) a flexible system, a combination of treatment 1 and 3, while the decision is made according to the actual site and weather conditions and 5) mixed cropping of soybean and camelina in combination with harrow. A negative control, where no weed control is administered, and a positive control, where all weed control is done manually, are considered as well. The trials are implemented each as a one-factorial-exact-trial with 4 replicates. Additionally, an on-farm trial is conducted at the experimental site of the Lycée Technique Agricole in Bettendorf. Weed and soybean biomass and cover, weed species and number of plants/species as well as number of soybean plants are taken before and after each weed treatment as well as at flowering and at harvest to assess the efficiency of the used technique and potential plant damages. The company Geocoptix GmbH complements the assessments with the help of drone-supported aerial photographs using different true colour and multispectral images of the treatments.
The aim of the project is to show modern possibilities of mechanical weed control in grain legume cultivation in order to stimulate sustainable and resource-efficient protein production in Luxembourg.
Farm Mehlen, Manternach
Farm François, Hostert
variety trials
in organic agriculture in Luxembourg
Variety trials conducted by IBLA for organic agriculture are:
• Winter cereals (winter wheat, winter rye, winter triticale)
• Summer cereals (summer wheat, oats, summer barley
• Soybeans
• Peas and field beans
• Potatoes
• Summer cereal variety trials in 2014-2016
• Soybean variety trials in 2014
• Clover grass mixture variety trials in 2013-2015
• Pea and faba bean variety trials since 2016
• Potato variety trials since 2016
grassland and animal health eifel
The optimization of permanent grassland, the pasture management, the perennial field forage cultivation and the fodder conservation, in order to improve the efficiency, animal health, value and environmental compatibility of the dairy production in the grassland region.
The objectives of the project are:
• Analysing grassland and forage production with regard to their yields while taking into account their fertilization and cutting times.
• Improving the silage process by reducing the pure protein degradation and indicating alternatives to the silage process.
• Analysing the influence of the grassland and forage production, as well as the conservation methods on the basic feed intake and animal health of the dairy cow, thus improving the profitability of dairy cattle as a whole.