Once every three years, IFOAM – Organics International organizes the Organic World Congress (OWC) in a different country to achieve its vision as the global organic movement and also to provide a platform where organic stakeholders can share their knowledge and expertise and establish valuable partnerships.
The OWC is considered the leading event for the development of the organic sector worldwide. It is held to promote and celebrate the inevitable turning of global agriculture to organic farming methods and to measure progress.
The last (18th) edition of the Organic World Congress was organized in Istanbul, Turkey in October 2014. India, home to more than 600,000 organic farmers won the bid to host the 19th IFOAM Organic World Congress at a very critical time in its agricultural history. The organic food movement has grown by four times in the last three years. The OWC played a critical and unprecedented role in supporting the Indian organic farming movement and tilting India’s agriculture policy firmly and irrevocably in the direction of organic. At the same time, it enabled solidarity among organic farmers and organic farming associations across continents, supporting the efforts of the Intercontinental Network of Organic Farming Organisations (INOFO). For these reasons, the theme of the 19th OWC was ‘An Organic World through an Organic India.’
From 7th to 11th November 2017 with the generous support of SWISSAID, SAT CEO Programme Janet Maro also attended the OWC 2017 at the India Expo and Mart in Greater Noida, India. The event was attended by more than 2500 people from more than 100 countries. There were different themes that ranged from science, marketing and value chain development to on the ground experiences of farmers and seed savers. Presentations, product exhibition at Biofach India and Aveda State pavilions as well as seed festival were the methodologies used throughout the days.
Chairpersons and top officials from all organic movements in the world attended the event, it was a nice networking opportunity for the colleagues in the movement and network.
Mrs. Maro attended the preconference events in Ghaziabad and New Delhi at the National Centre for Organic Farming as well as the main event at the India Expo and Mart.
SAT highly increased its level of awareness in 2017 through the participation of several major organic conferences across the world.
