Natural products in changing agricultural policies: knowledge sharing and implementation

The landscape of agricultural policy is changing towards more sustainable systems with minimal use of chemical and antimicrobial products. Natural products, like herbs, can play an essential role in reducing the use of chemical and antimicrobial products in agriculture and animal health care. For this, a government funded project has been started with the aim to distribute and practically implement knowledge about natural products. For this project farmers, veterinarians and their teachers were identified as stakeholders for which an information development and distribution strategy should be developed on the use of natural products. Secondly, an inventory was devised from the different stakeholders by conducting interviews focused on communication needs for transfer of knowledge to students. Building on already available teaching material, like the course for veterinarians and stablebooks, new material is being designed to accommodate these needs. Needs that have so far been identified are: 1) reliable and easily accessible information on safety and efficacy of natural products in animal health care (this has been achieved for example via herd and farm specific health plans) and, 2) to train teachers so they can teach students and other teachers (“train the trainer”) on the use of natural products. Finally, distribution of this material is realized by using different options of communication such as interactive group meetings (“knowledge sharing”) and online resources (“easily and free accessible information”). First results show that identifying needs and making knowledge (sharing) accessible in multiple ways is helpful in correct implementing and increased usage of natural products by farmers and veterinarians [1] [2].

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
13. Dezember 2021

• References

• 1 Groot et al. (2021), submitted
• 2 https://www.wur.nl/nl/Onderzoek-Resultaten/Onderzoeksinstituten/food-safety-research/Wetenschappelijk-onderzoek/Kruiden-en-diergezondheid.htm