THE UK’S largest organic on-farm event is to take place virtually this summer.

Organic Farmers and Growers, AHDB and Agricology are behind the move to make ‘National Organic Combinable Crops' (V-NOCC) virtual, with a series of free interactive seminars and online farm tours led by experts in UK food and farming.

The Digital agenda will include a ‘Seeds and deeds’ webinar on June 9, between 9am and 1030am looking at collective plant breeding for reduced input farming. On Tuesday, June 23, there will be an NFU virtual organic walk exploring the challenges of net zero farming between 1 and 3pm.

Replacing the original on-farm event date of July 7, will be a ‘Know your soils and know your sales’ webinar between 9am and 1030am, looking at organic min-till and non-organic no-till farming. On July 14, a ‘Land sharing and sparing’ webinar will explore the value of agroecological food production systems.

OF and G’s business development manager, Steven Jacobs, expanded on the online event scheduled for July 7.

“Organic farmer John Pawsey will be joined by no-till specialist, Clive Bailye, to talk about how they farm and where their approach is working and where it maybe doesn’t perform as well as they would like.

“Like all good business people, John and Clive have clearly defined strategies and they constantly observe how their farm activities impact the farm business, both from a financial and an environmental perspective,” he continued. “We want them to really get into the ups and downs of farming and to explore what lessons each might learn from the other.

“In the wider series, we’ll extend the debate around the economics and agronomics of farming. We want to look at what the threats are and what the opportunities may be following COVID-19, with Brexit and the climate crisis still very much on everyone’s minds.”

“This will not be exclusive to our licensees or organic producers. We’re keen to welcome farmers and industry delegates from across food networks to join our online events,” concluded Mr Jacobs.

To join in with discussions during the events people are encouraged to use the hashtag #NOCC20 and follow @ofgorganic on social media.

For the V-NOCC agenda and to register for webinars, visit https://ofgorganic.org/events/of-g-national-organic-combinable-crops-2020-nocc20.