OSCAR – a new European project on cover crops

Summary

There is widespread concern over the damage caused by modern agriculture to soil structure and the ecosystem services provided. One approach to overcome this problem is conservation agriculture (CA) which aims to maintain soil structure by minimising soil disturbance, maximising soil cover and using crop rotation. However, despite recent legislation supporting minimum tillage and direct seeding, together with the efforts of pioneer farmers, CA is still practised on less than 4% of the agricultural land in Europe. This underlines the need for major improvements in the approach together with consolidation of, and access to, information about alternative cropping methods and their biological and economic value and performance. A new European FP7-funded research project has started in April 2012 to address these issues. The project, called OSCAR is conducted by 20 partners and is led by University of Kassel, Germany. OSCAR aims to Optimise Subsidiary Crop Application in Rotations. It extends existing knowledge and improves and develops novel cropping systems based on cover crops, catch crops, living mulches and other subsidiary crops (SC). OSCAR aims to enhance the implementation and increase the duration of soil coverage by plants, introduce diversity to the crop rotation and reduce the need for and the intensity of soil tillage. Optimization will counteract the sometimes reduced yields associated with minimum or non-tillage systems whilst providing durable ecological benefits. Particular attention is given to conservation tillage systems. To maximise the potential of ecological benefits, both conventional and conservation agricultural systems are considered in OSCAR, encouraging a high level of innovation as well as offering a more immediate transfer into practical agriculture.