13 NORSOK

Norwegian Centre for Organic Agriculture – NORSØK
https://www.norsok.no/en/about-norsok

Team in O+

Dr Anne-Kristin Løes. Anne-Kristin is leading WP5 SOIL. She is a senior researcher at NORSØK specialised in soil science and plant nutrition, especially for agricultural crops. She has 30 years of experience in academic research, being employed by NORSØK since 1988. During this period, she has followed closely the development of R&D within organic food and farming in Norway, Europe and globally, being the vice president of ISOFAR (International Society of Organic Agriculture Research) since 2011. She has worked with whole farm case studies, soil fertility, various organic and recycled fertilisers, root studies and field and pot experiments, but also been engaged in social science studies e.g. of farmers’ motivation for organic production, and public procurement of organic food coordinating the CORE Organic pilot project iPOPY. Anne-Kristin made her MSc in soil science in 1986, and Dr scientiarum in soil chemistry and plant nutrition in 2004, both at the Norwegian Agricultural University, Ås. More at http://www.norsok.no/en/employees/anne-kristin-loes

Dr Ishita Ahuja. Ishita started as a researcher at NORSØK on January 1, 2018. Ahuja has a doctorate in plant biology from India, and 14 years of research and teaching experience from NTNU, Trondheim. She has multidisciplinary competence in plant physiology, biochemistry, plant breeding and genetics, plant defence and plant-environmental interactions, chemical ecology and systems biology, and has carried out research experiments in fields and under controlled environmental conditions. At NORSØK she will be mainly study organic fertilisation by marine residues like seaweeds and fish waste. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ishita_Ahuja

Berit Marie Blomstrand. Berit is the PhD student in “BarkCure” project. She has 15 years of broad practical experience as a veterinarian, ranging from farm animals to food safety. She was educated in Hannover, Germany in 1999. The University of Copenhagen is responsible for the doctoral study. Berit participate in WP4, Livestock.

Dr Atle Wibe. Atle is an entomologist specialised in pheromone traps and horticultural crops. He is responsible for the O3 project, and will participate in WP3, PLANT.

About Norsk senter for økologisk landbruk – NORSØK

The Norwegian Centre for Organic Agriculture (Norsk senter for økologisk landbruk – NORSØK)is a private foundation established in 1986 to develop organic farming in Norway by research and developmental work. The location is in Tingvoll, Møre and Romsdal county, about 200 km south-west of Trondheim. In this region, dairy production dominates the agriculture. NORSØK owns and manages Tingvoll research farm with 22 organic dairy cows, a farm scale biogas plant, a regional centre for solar and bioenergy, a large garden and a centre for educating the public about organic food and farming, soil life and animal welfare. We divide our work into four pillars; agriculture, food, environment and energy (http://www.norsok.no/en/). Central R&D topics are nutrient supply and environmental effects of agricultural systems, animal welfare and agricultural crops. NORSØK cooperates closely with other Norwegian research institutions, and has participated in several international projects especially via the CORE Organic ERA-net (iPOPY, SoftPest, FertilCrop, Improve-P, COBRA). By 2017, we have 17 employees, and two PhD students starting their work this year on topics funded by national bodies, fitting nicely into the Organic-PLUS project: The Bark-CURE project, utilising condensed tannins from spruce and pine bark to substitute anthelminthic drugs for ruminants, and the RESTOR-project, developing a complete, commercial fertiliser for organic production from marine raw materials (fish, seaweed). We also have a relevant one-year project studying the effect of ozone (O3) as a plant protection agent against grey mould in strawberries. Possibly, O3 could be a substitution for copper in potatoes. Whereas Norwegian agriculture is a small sector in the national economy – Norway imports more than 50% of the food consumed- the marine sector is comprehensive and rapidly increasing. This makes Norway an interesting case for blue-green synergies, e.g. recycling nutrients by seaweed production. Forest resources are also rich in Norway, and may be used e.g. as bedding material.