In crop rotation green manures as winter cover crops enhance ecosystem services of farming

Summary

Organic farming systems should be characterized by excellent soil fertility management to keep plant nutrient cycles short and as closed as possible. Therefore, it is extremely important to establish growing systems that have rotations with appropriate crops and intercrops to ensure fertile and biologically active soils, to enhance biodiversity and to provide high quality crop yields. Locally available organic fertilizers include green manures and animal manure. The influence of green manures as intercrops and these combined with composted cattle manure on soil properties, biodiversity indicators and crop yields was studied in a crop rotation experiment in three organic systems at the Estonian University of Life Sciences.