Advisory activities in 2001 were mostly orientated towards problems connected with introduction of Act No. 242/2000 on Ecological Farming and its Procedural Decree No. 53/2001. At the beginning of the year it meant helping farmers to fill in forms to apply for registration in EF.

An advisory visit to Mr. Karel Tachecí's farm in Budyně nad Ohří. Photo: Jiří Urban, Pro-bio archive.

Such application was demanded by law from all participants in ecological farming by the end of February 2001. It was also necessary to prepare our members for KEZ inspection, as this inspection organisation was, during the last year, much more thorough and consistent in its activities. Faults mostly appeared in obligatory record-keeping. At the end of the year we had to sort out registration of some land newly belonging to the system of ecological farming in connection with subsidies. All of these advisory activities were carried out at the level of "field consultancy" at regional centres whose administrators had been continuously trained in this area. Just as in previous years, the advisory service was co-financed via so called advisory interest groups which are entitled by the Czech Ministry of Agriculture (principles stating conditions for providing financial support in the form of subsidies based on supporting programmes defined in article 2, paragraph 1, the Act No. 252/1997 on Agriculture for the year 2001). Because of lower payments for consultancy from the Czech Ministry of Agriculture, amounting to 47.51%, interest among farmers was not very strong. However, there were 6 advisory interest groups at PRO-BIO regional centres (White Carpathians RC, Šumava RC, Třebíč RC, Jeseníky RC, Severovýchod RC and Litomyšl RC), which included 86 agricultural enterprises and gained 119.5 points, which means that the groups provided consultancy tothe sum of 2,390,000 crowns. Activities of the groups were limited, though, by the fact that they could only take in farmers from three neighbouring districts. That is why some of our members were included in groups at agrarian chambers, or other advisory organisations, but they still used PRO-BIO contractual advisors service. Besides advice concerning inspection and registration, there was also professional consultancy, especially on growing non-traditional crops and cattle and sheep breeding for meat.

Seminars, field trips and professional meetings
Most professional events of the year were transfered to regional centres responsibilitiy.

24th January:	work meeting of PRO-BIO advisors in Šumperk, topic - "Interpretation of Act No. 242/2000 on Ecological Farming", Mr. Rozsypal
13th February:	lecture on ecological fruit-growing and nurseries at the Czech University of Agriculture in Prague
7th March:	lecture on ecological fruit-growing at a fruit-growers seminar in Raná
11th March:	"Processing and sale of organic products" seminar in Šumperk
21st March:	PRO-BIO advisors gave lectures at the seminar entitled "Utilization of traditional crops in ecological farming and possibilities of sale" which was held in the Research Institute of Crop Production in Prague
24th March:	"Naturgarten - Biozahrada" ("Organic Garden") seminar with Czech and Austrian experts giving lectures was held in České Budějovice
29th March:	a half-day seminar entitled "Experience from ecological farmers work" was held in Zábřeh na Moravě and focused on possibilities of organic beef sales concerning BSE in the Czech Republic, other examples were given on agrotourism and fruit-processing for juices.
25th May:	Ing Rozsypal gave a lecture at the PRO-BIO Board of Administrators, in which he gave information about changes in the ¨interpretation of the Act on ecological farming and about experience from the ongoing inspection.
7-10th June:	lectures of a PRO-BIO advisor at an ecological fruit-grower's training course in Sweden (with Swedish, Danish and Finnish fruit-growers and advisors participating); topics- "Ecological fruit-growing" and "Ecological farming in the Czech Republic and the PRO-BIO Association".
21st June:	participation in a seminar at the Czech Ministry of Agriculture in Prague and annotations to the Act on seed and seedlings.
14th December:	advisors work meeting - topics: "Requisites of forms for KEZ inspection authority: EF Plan for 2001 and last year's report" - by Mr. Marek Štěrba, and "Experience from inspections after introduction of Act No. 242/2000 and Regulation No. 53/2001 and possibilities of cooperation between KEZ inspection authority and PRO-BIO in the field of advice" by Mr. Jan Dvorský.

Publications
In 2001 three issues of the Bulletin of Ecological Farming were put out:

--	Bulletin No. 21: Beef Cattle Breeding, Production and Sales of Organic Meat
--	Bulletin No. 22: Organic Food Sales
--	Bulletin No. 23: Ecological Apple Growing and Marketing Production of Organic Apples

A book, written by Mr. Juršík, Mr. Drgáč and Mr. Trávníček was published as well. Its title is "Non-Dairy Cattle Breeding in Conditions of Ecological Farming" Publication of the PRO-BIO Journal for members was also renewed.