FertilCrop - Fertility building management measures in organic cropping systems

• Forschungsstelle: BLW
• Projektnummer: 07.12_10
• Projekttitel Englisch: FertilCrop - Fertility building management measures in organic cropping systems

Schlüsselwörter (Deutsch)

Bodenfruchtbarkeit, biologische Landwirtschaft, Bodenorganismen, Boden-Nährstoffe, Humus, landwirtschaftliche Betriebsführung, Ertrag

Schlüsselwörter (Englisch)

soil fertility, organic agriculture, soil organisms, soil nutrients, humus, farm management, crop yield

Schlüsselwörter (Französisch)

fertilité du sol, agriculture biologique, organismes du sol, substances nutritives du sol, gestion agricole, rendement

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

FertilCrop aims at improving soil fertility using synergies provided by improved crop management techniques. The improvement of organic farming systems by building a higher level of soil fertility is important to develop more sustainable agroecosystems that safeguard soils and guarantee unrestrained crop growth. The project combines scientific and practical knowledge to further improve organic cropping systems. The aim of FertilCrop is to increase and stabilize yields in an environmentally friendly way and to close yield gaps between organic and conventional farming. The project seeks to gain more knowledge on the dynamics of nutrients and humus and the functional role of the living soil in order to manage soils to support crop growth.  FertilCrop evaluates farming systems that efficiently build soil fertility based on field trials and farm networks in 13 European countries.

Main activities

FertilCrop focuses on the interactions of crops with:

• the accompanying vegetation
• soil organisms that build soil structure
• microorganisms that indicate soil fertility and drive the nutrient dynamics

Improved systems will be tested with:

• modeling tools to predict crop growth
• farm prototyping exercises

Projektziele (Englisch)

The project will develop tests for farmers to evaluate soil quality in the field. The project team comprises expertise from various disciplines that are relevant to develop, evaluate, and disseminate new agricultural management techniques.

FertilCrop will provide strategies to improve and techniques to assess soil fertility while protecting the environment. Combining improved management techniques will help farmers to overcome the barriers to adopting organic farming practices. Depending on the physical and climatic environment, techniques such as reduced tillage, green manures, adapted crop rotations, and mixed cropping will contribute to a better use of the biological processes governing the ecological services of agroecosystems.

The farmers are in the focus of this project, and their opinion on the project’s approaches will be considered. Novel ideas and results will be shared with them.