Stakeholders
The project's dissemination activities will target farmers, advisors, and the scientific community, but also the agricultural support industries and policy makers. The main innovative strategy of the project is to adapt conservation agriculture approaches to organic farming drawing on existing field experiments and existing practical experiences across Europe.
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Integrating reduced tillage and green manures in organic cropping systems |
Background
Reduced tillage and green manuring are environmentally friendly practices that increase levels of soil organic matter and biological activity, improve soil stability, and reduce fuel consumption. The avoidance of deep ploughing is successfully practised as no-tillage agriculture in conventional farming systems; however, these no-tillage systems rely on herbicides for weed control and mineral fertilisers for plant nutrients. The TILMAN-ORG project focuses on strategies for efficient weed management and improvement of nutrient management. In order to quantify the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation greenhouse gas emissions will be assessed.
Project objectives
The overall goals of the project are to design improved organic cropping systems with enhanced productivity and nutrient use efficiency, more efficient weed management and increased biodiversity, but lower carbon footprints.
Methods
These goals will be achieved by adapting and integrating conservation agriculture techniques (in particular reduced tillage and improved use of green manures) into organic farming systems to intensify biological soil functions like nutrient cycling, soil carbon build-up, and biological nitrogen fixation, while at the same time optimising management protocols for weeds (which are the main challenge when introducing minimum tillage systems). Optimum techniques for organic systems will be identified using an integrated approach:
1. Farmers' experiences and perceptions about reduced tillage and green manures will be assessed in semi-structured interviews. Existing data from medium and long-term trials on reduced tillage and green manures provided by the consortium and the published existing peer reviewed and grey literature, will be evaluated with respect to yield stabilisation, soil quality and biodiversity (WP1 and WP2).
2. Experimental Case Studies on soil quality and greenhouse gas emissions, weed management and functional biodiversity, and improved nutrient management will be carried out, and carbon stocks under reduced tillage compared to ploughing will be measured (WPs3-5). Data from long-term tillage trials across Europe will be exploited to calibrate NDICEA, a decision support tool to predict soil organic carbon and nitrogen fluxes in the soil - plant system.
3. Design of optimised cropping systems by modelling approaches based on results from the literature and case studies (WP6). This will also involve the preparation of guidelines focused on helping farmers to address weed management challenges, and temporary shortages of nitrogen supply in order to improve yields and yield stability, thus improving both the environmental and economic sustainability of organic farming systems.
[Project website] | Main activities
Optimum techniques for reduced tillage and green manures in organic systems will be identified using an integrated approach:
i. Farmers' experiences and perceptions will be assessed. Existing data from medium and long-term trials provided by the consortium and the existing literature will be evaluated.
ii. Experimental Case Studies will be carried out, and carbon stocks under reduced tillage compared to ploughing will be measured. Data from long-term tillage trials across Europe will be exploited to calibrate NDICEA, a decision support tool to predict soil organic carbon and nitrogen fluxes in the soil - plant system.
iii. Design of optimised cropping systems by modelling approaches based on results from the literature and case studies.
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Existing knowledge and experiences
A farmers’ survey and an analysis of the existing
literature (meta-analysis) has shown that
under water limiting conditions, as in Mediterranean
areas No-Till (NT) and Reduced Tillage (RT)
practices are sustainable forms of management.
In regions with higher precipitation levels, the
use of green manures combined with less tillage
can improve soil fertility. In the long-term, RT will
enhance soil quality as indicated by enhanced
carbon stocks. In general, crop yields in RT are
reduced by 7% compared to Conventional Tillage
(CT) with minimal increases in weed competition.
Yield reduction due to RT is most pronounced in
sandy soils. Shallow ploughing results in comparable
yields to deep ploughing, and does not
increase weed infestation, but increases carbon
stocks. In the view of farmers, weed pressure is
seen as the biggest challenge to adapt reduced
tillage, improvement of soil quality is the strongest
motivation.
Case study: Influence of reduced tillage on soil
quality and greenhouse gas emissions
Soil organic carbon, soil microbial biomass and
diversity are more stratified in RT as compared to
CT and increase in the top soil. However, pre-crop
effects on microbial communities are more pronounced
than tillage effects. RT positively affects
earthworms (number of cocoons, juveniles) and
mycorrhizal fungi (spore density and number of
species). N2O emissions tend to be higher in RT.
Case study: Weed control and weed diversity
Weeds are more abundant in RT but do not
necessarily reduce yields. Weed biodiversity is
often higher in RT. The weed composition differs
between RT and CT with more perennial plants
in RT. A model to assess functional traits of weed
communities has been developed. Site-specific
weed management strategies are needed.
Case study: Nutrient efficiency and decision support
tool
RT may be reducing yields by 8 % due to 15 %
lower available nitrogen in spring. This can be
compensated by the use of green manure. The N
model NDICEA was adapted to simulate impacts
of RT on soil organic C and N dynamics, but further
improvements of predictive models are still
needed.
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TILMAN-ORG
15 partners, 11 countries
Coordinator
Dr. Paul Mäder, FiBL Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland
Partners
Dr. Christophe David, ISARA Lyon, France
Prof. Dr. Michael Schloter, Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany
Dr. Thorsten Haase, University of Kassel, Germany
Dr. Chris Koopmans, Louis Bolk Institute, The Netherlands
Ir. Wijnand Sukkel, Wageningen University and Research Centre, The Netherlands
Ir. Koen Willekens, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Belgium
Scientific Director Lucien Hoffmann, Public Research Center-Gabriel Lippmann, Luxembourg
Dr. Julia Cooper, Newcastle University, United Kingdom
Dr. Thomas Döring, The Organic Research Centre - Elm Farm, United Kingdom
Prof. Dr. Anne Luik, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Estonia
Prof. Dr. Marc Mazzoncini, Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerche Agro-Ambientali, Italy
Prof. Dr. Paolo Bàrberi, Scuola Superiore Sant´Anna, Italy
Prof. Dr. F. Xavier Sans Serra, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain
Director Andreas Kranzler, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Austria
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