The Dean Organic Fund

Donate now to redesign agriculture for greater diversity, resilience and sustainability

Sowing Seeds of Change

Farming systems based on agroecology such as organic, seek to build an alternative model to food production through biodiversity-rich practices and low external inputs. By embracing crop diversity, we can redesign agriculture to be more resilient, sustainable, and better able to support both our environment and our communities.

For decades, crop varieties have been developed to produce high yields in farming systems that are highly standardised and require inputs of pesticides to control weeds, diseases and pests, and synthetic fertilisers to provide crop nutrition.

This industrialised approach to farming has been effective at providing high volumes of food but has come at a cost to our environment and threatens food security and our health. It has also put an increasing concentration of power and control of our food system in the hands of a few large, multinational corporations.

At the Organic Research Centre (ORC), we have been tirelessly working with farmers to provide practical solutions and have been champions of functional biodiversity for more than 40 years.

This appeal is to raise funds to strengthen, share and expand our crop diversity work.

The Problem

Crop spraying

In pursuit of higher yields, our conventional input-intensive and highly standardised systems of farming have led to:

  • Soil erosion and loss of nutrients
  • Loss of agrobiodiversity – the diversity of genetic resources (varieties, breeds) and species used for food, fodder, fibre, fuel and pharmaceuticals.
  • Biodiversity loss
  • Reliance on pesticides, herbicides and synthetic fertilizers
  • Negative impact on water and carbon cycles

The Solutions

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Quadrat in beans

Your contribution will directly fund vital crop research looking at diversifying seed breeding and cropping systems. It will also fund the work needed to share our findings and facilitate change.



Much of our research involves participatory engagement of farmers, producers and other businesses. We currently have over 50 businesses working with us and have now established a Participatory Research Network (PRN) to develop this work.

If you are a producer, farmer, processor or other business interested in getting involved with research, please click on the box below to sign up and be added to the network and a member of the team will email you when a project arises.