TILMAN-ORG survey on conservation agriculture techniques in organic farming in Europe

The TILMAN-ORG (www.tilman-org.net) group in charge of this study selected organic farmers that apply (or used to apply) at least two of the following techniques: no tillage techniques, reduced tillage techniques and/or green manure techniques.

So far, around 150 European farmers have participated to the study, and currently the final database is being buildt.

Analyzing the data at European scale is expected to give insights on different topics:

• Identify the diversity of conservation agriculture techniques in organic farming in Europe and their combination in farms and understand the diversity based on country and farm characteristics.
• Identify the farmers' motivations for adopting these techniques and analyze farmers’ profiles of motivations.
• Identify the major problems encountered by farmers applying conservation techniques.
• Analyze the potential relationship between farmers’ profiles of motivations and their conservation techniques.
• Identify promising techniques for further research

First results will be presented during the TILMAN-ORG meeting to take place in Birmingham early 2013 in Birmingham. These results will also provide the basis for future design of innovative cropping systems (Work package 6: Design of sustainable conservation agriculture systems by use of knowledge-based Assessment).

More information

Contact

Josephine Peigné, ISARA

Link

• TILMAN-ORG.net: ISARA Lyon
• TILMAN-ORG.net: Work package 1: Management of Mid-term and Long-term Experiments on Reduced Tillage and Green Manure Across Europe
• TILMAN-ORG.net: Work package 6: Design of sustainable conservation agriculture systems by use of knowledge-based Assessment

About TILMAN-ORG

The overall goals of the project Reduced tillage and green manures for sustainable organic cropping systems – TILMAN-ORG (www.tilman-org.net) 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. The TILMAN-ORG project is funded by the CORE Organic II Funding Bodies being partners of the FP7 ERA-Net project, CORE Organic II (www.coreorganic2.org).