Energiepflanzenanbau für die Biogaserzeugung im Ökologischen Landbau

Summary

The interest in the cultivation of energy plants for the biogas production is increasing
in organic agriculture. But this cropping has to be designed according to the principles
of organic farming and sustainable agriculture. Therefore in the research project
ÖKOVERS different energy crops as a part of a standard crop rotation are compared
in two different cropping systems. Cropping system 1 is a double cropping system with
a mixture of grass/clover harvested in spring as first crop and a following second crop
like sunflowers, maize, sorghum, amaranth, buckwheat and others. The second
system is a mixture of grass/clover with several cuts during one year. The highest
yield was obtained with the mixture of grass/clover in the second system with 18,5 t
ha-1. Also the highest methane yield with 5100 Nm3 ha -1 was achieved with the
grass/clover mixture. The different summer crops after grass/clover mixture were
affected by drought during the summer and early frost in autumn. Hence the mixture of
grass/clover was a good alternative to maize. These results will be checked in further
researches.