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About ECON

ECON is foundation focused on development of sustainable employment opportunities in BiH.

All of our projects are connected to the development of rural areas with special attention on self assistance for the local communities. ECON provides expert assistance that enables local groups to establish sustainable projects that bring long term economic benefit to the most vulnerable groups.
ECON efforts are currently focused on development of organic agriculture in BiH. The aim is to form key elements for sustainable sector and general awareness of the organic agriculture. It is clear that there is great potential in the organic food sector for income generation and assistance to income generation and sustainable development as well as the protection of biodiversity of land.
ECON enforces it's environment protection politics and will only get involved in the projects that fit into strict international environment protection standards.

ECON strategy includes cooperation with other international and local organizations to combine skills and resources in implementing sustainable economic projects.
Good cooperation is achieved with the following organizations and their was essential for the good results ECON had so far – EU, OHR, OSCE, World Bank, EUMM, Sida, Seed - and others.

About Organic Agriculture

The aim of organic agriculture is the sustainable production system based on ecological cycles and alertness. Ways to enforce that are to:

• focus on local renewable resources,
• maintain soil fertility,
• maximize recirculation of nutrition material from plants and organic mater,
• support genetic diversity in the production system,
• effectively use solar and other renewable energy as much as possible,
• enable farm animals life conditions that suit their ecological role and allow for natural behavior,
• do not use substances foreign to nature.

Organic agriculture uses terms like pest and wed control. It does not strive to eradicate pest and weed spices. The philosophy behind it is that all life has it's role in the ecosystem. Most of the pest and weed control in organic agriculture is done through planning (crop rotation, crop selection etc) and preventive measures. This approach requires higher engagement and knowledge by the farmer, due to lack of direct measures (like pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals).

Development of Organic Agriculture in BiH

Economic aspects of organic agriculture and it's application in BiH. As well as the possibility to turn some of the disadvantages of BiH agriculture into it's assets resulted in attempts by several organizations and individuals to start organic agriculture in BiH. The biggest problem was certification price and communication problems, that emerged due to the fact that there was no certification body in BiH and certification was provided by certification organizations hired internationally (Italian, English and others).

The next phase of development of organic agriculture was marked by BIHOP – a Sida financed project implemented by Swedish Consultancy Grolink, and ECON as a local partner. The project had a holistic approach to the problem and it addressed several key problems like local certification body, provision of certificates and assistance with the certification procedures, market development and assistance with approaching markets locally and internationally, general knowledge about organic agriculture – simultaneously. You can get more information of this project on this page under “projects” section.

The third phase of organic agriculture development is the further development of organic agriculture independently from any single project. OK – a local certification body is functional and it expects to be IFOAM accredited this year. Local market in BiH, although small, exists, and BiH organic products are sold all over the World.

About Certification

Briefly, certification is a process of checking whether certain criteria (standards) are met. The most common form of certification is a “third party” certification, which is practical terms mean that someone other than buyer or seller (which means independent of the economy of the product itself) is hired (most commonly by the seller or producer) to evaluate fulfillment of selected standards.

There can be more factors in the certification process, but we can select here a few basic ones:

• operator (e.g. producer, processor, trader) – requests certification services, is responsible for meeting the standards and controls the certificate,
• certifier – a certification body that provides certification services. In BiH Organska Kontrola (OK) is BiH local certification body,
• inspector – a person in charge of inspection, appointed by certification body,
• standards – a set of rules that have to be met in order to be certified,
• certificate – a statement that certain standards are met.

One operator can obtain many certificates, which means that operator is checked for and meets many standards (the standards one received certificates for). Many certification bodies offer certificates under different standards (in accordance with agreements between certification bodies), and OK is doing that as well. OK certification body offers OK, KRAV, AIAB certificates, and the body itself is in final stages of IFOAM accreditation.

About the Others

ECON did not start activities re development of organic agriculture in BiH with the illusions that this can be achieved without wide support and involvement of all interested in this form of agriculture. This approach resulted in a number of useful contacts and relationships in BiH, the region and internationally. Only a few will be mentioned here, complete list is under construction:

• OK – BiH certification body, contact is in contacts section,
• Association of Agricultural Producers of Organic Products – organizes all interested in organic agriculture in BiH,
• BETA – association focused on technical part of development of organic agriculture,
• LIR – association for development of organic agriculture in Banja Luka
• CEFA – Italian organzation that is in BiH for a long time, is active in development of organic agriculture and is one of the pioneers in in this area in BiH.

Many were left out, but such is life when one writes about whole area of development.

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