Nitrate leaching from arable crop rotations in organic farming

Summary

The crop rotation is a crucial and integral part of organic farming systems. It must be designed to maintain and exploit soil fertility, and to minimise the impacts on environment, e.g. through nitrate leaching. Crop rotations in organic farming typically include legume crops to provide nitrogen fixation and improve soil fertility. Catch crops are also commonly used, if demands for soil tillage to control perennial weeds allow. This paper presents results on nitrate leaching from a field experiment with comparison of three different crop rotations with and without catch crops designed for organic farming.