Assessing Earthworm Populations in Some Hungarian Horticultural Farms: Comparison of Conventional, Organic and Permaculture Farming

Abstract

Soil is one of the most important, non-renewable natural resources of humans. People use soils for food production, thus maintaining soil health is crucial. Farming systems have a tremendous impact on soil biota. Effects can be negative and positive. Less intensive farming (e.g., organic and permaculture) is known to be more favorable for soil life while intensive farms known for their negative effects. Our aim was to compare different farming systems based on the density of earthworms. Fifteen small-scale (0.3-2 ha) farms in Hungary with similar agroecological features were selected for comparison. All of them are horticultural farms with diverse crops in the crop rotation, the only difference is the farming systems, i.e., one intensive (conventional), and two extensive types (organic and permaculture). Earthworms were sampled in May and September 2020, six replicates on each site, by hand sorting of 25 × 25 × 25 cm soil blocks. In May, abundance of earthworms were significantly higher in case of permaculture farms compared to organic and also conventional farms. However, we did not find significant differences in earthworm abundance in September. Earthworm species number was signicantly higher in permaculture farms in May however there was no significant difference in September. We did not find significant differences regarding Shannon diversity indices. Based on our soil-wise experiences it is of great importance to know as much soil information as possible (i.e., soil thickness, soil organic matter content, texture, soil management, fertilizers used, soil moisture content at the time of the counting, soil cover etc.) for considering earthworms data as good indicator for soil quality assessment.