How organic farmers practice conservation agriculture in Europe

Abstract

The interest of organic farmers in adopting conservation agriculture principles, including minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover and crop rotation has been growing since the early 2000s. However, currently there is no network for organic farmers practicing conservation agriculture, and a lack of knowledge on how organic farmers implement conservation agriculture in practice. Consequently, few technical references are available for organic farmers when they start applying conservation agriculture practices, in particular on controlling weeds without the use of herbicides. The main objectives of this study were: (1) to explore the diversity of conservation agriculture techniques (i.e., reduced tillage, no-tillage and green manures) practiced among European farmers, and (2) to identify farmers’ main strategies for implementing conservation agriculture and the agronomic and environmental factors that determine these strategies. Strategies were identified by analyzing survey results on: (1) the type and degree of use of conservation agriculture practices by farmers, and (2) the effects it produces in terms of soil disturbance and soil cover (low, medium and high). We carried out a survey of 159 European organic farmers and collected 125 data sets on management of winter-sown crops. Among the conservation agriculture practices, reduced tillage was used by 89%, no-tillage by 27% and green manure by 74% of the 159 interviewed farmers. Green manures were more frequently used in northern Europe than in the south (below 45°N). Most of the farmers used crop rotations, with a mean duration of 6 years. A wide diversity of conservation agriculture practices were used, with farmers rarely using all three techniques (no-till, reduced till and green manures) within one system. The range of practices was grouped into five strategies ranging from intensive non-inversion tillage without soil cover to very innovative techniques with no-tillage and intercrops. The five strategies for conservation agriculture could be grouped into two larger categories based on weed control approach: (1) intensification of the mechanical work without soil inversion or (2) biological regulation of weeds with cover crops. The diversity of strategies identified in this study shows that organic farmers use innovative approaches to implement conservation agriculture without herbicides. This study's findings will help organic farmers to experiment with innovative practices based on conservation agriculture principles and also benefit conventional farmers who use conservation agriculture practices and would like to reduce or eliminate the use of herbicides

Overview of Organic Cover Crop-Based No-Tillage Technique in Europe: Farmers’ Practices and Research Challenges

“…In Europe, published papers dealing with tillage issues in OF are focused on RT, and it is difficult to discern from this knowledge about NT [13,15,17,20,44,[47][48][49]. While there are some references referring to organic MBNT in arable crops, data analysis on this technique is often presented in the context of a comparison with traditional ploughing and RT [15,20,[50][51][52].…”

“…Despite the potential benefits of integrating NT practices into organic cropping systems (including, but not limited to, MBNT and LBNT) which have been reported by researchers, and the interest shown by European farmers, NT has not been widely implemented in Europe and few research studies have been conducted investigating this technique [19,20]. The trials that have been carried out in Europe and interviews with farmers using organic conservation tillage including MBNT bring to light the typical practices, motivations, and challenges related to conservation techniques [19,20].…”

“…The trials that have been carried out in Europe and interviews with farmers using organic conservation tillage including MBNT bring to light the typical practices, motivations, and challenges related to conservation techniques [19,20]. This paper aims to synthesize knowledge and conclusions drawn from previous European research projects to identify the overarching challenges facing research in Europe in the promotion of organic MBNT in arable crops.…”

Organic Agriculture 3.0 is innovation with research

“…However, interest by organic farmers in conservation tillage is increasing in both arable (Peigné et al 2007;Peigné et al 2016) and vegetable cropping systems . Recent research projects (e.g.…”

Reduced Tillage and No-Till in Organic Farming Systems, Germany—Status Quo, Potentials and Challenges

“…Farmers usually have site-specific experience for the establishment of these mixtures (e.g., underseeding in spring or autumn depending on water availability for germination) and can easily introduce them into their RT and NT systems. This practice seems to frequently be applied by organic farmers using RT and NT over all of northern Europe [19]. In some cases, the vigorous growth of undersown crops results in harvest problems and reduced yields of the cereal cash crop [34].…”