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].
