Crop Management of Rapeseed and Pollen Beetle Control

Summary

Rapeseed stays in the field for eleven months. During this time, there are various threats that an organic farmer has to pay attention to in order to achieve good yields.
In the first part of the video, FiBL researcher Claudia Daniel summarizes the main recommendations on variety selection, fertilisation, cultivation system as well as disease and pest control. Farmer Michel Arn shares his experiences with organic rapeseed cultivation.
In the second part, Claudia Daniel and Deborah Kaiser (Agroscope) provide insight into ongoing research on pollen beetle (Rapsglanzkäfer) control using aromatic substances and entomophagous fungi.
Hans-Georg Kessler (Biofarm) explains the economic aspect and shows that the good producer price compensates for occasional years of poor rapeseed development.
The film was realised during the Bioackerbautag 2016 in Brütten, Canton of Zürich, by Thomas Alföldi (FiBL). The Bioackerbautag is an annual event in Switzerland including field visits, variety trials, information on cultivation and machinery demonstrations.