creators_name: Mata, Macarena
creators_name: Garrido, Marisol
creators_name: Longhurst, Phil
creators_name: Seaton, Roger
editors_name: Powell, Jane
editors_name: et al., 
type: conference_item
datestamp: 2006-04-28
lastmod: 2009-08-20 14:32:04
metadata_visibility: show
title: A method for soil health assessment in the conversion to organic farming
ispublished: pub
subjects: 2soilbiol
subjects: 5transfer
subjects: 7biodiversity
subjects: 1soilqual
full_text_status: public
keywords: organic farming; soil health; conversion assessment; indicators; soil biostructure; monitoring; Colloquium of Organic Researchers (COR)
abstract: This paper was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference of the Colloquium of Organic Researchers (COR).
The regulation for the assessment of the conversion to organic farming establishes the use of soil/produce pollution and the type of agricultural practices as indicators of performance. However, these indicators don’t reflect the complexity of the soil ecosystem and soil health. Therefore, complementary indicators were sought (soil biostructure and field capacity), and a specific three-steps method for the assessment and monitoring of soil health during the conversion process was developed.
date: 2002
date_type: published
publication: Proceedings of the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference
publisher: Organic Centre Wales, Institute of Rural Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth
pagerange: 149-151
refereed: never
referencetext: Mata Porras M (2001) Policy-relevant indicators for ecological agriculture. Ph.D. thesis, School of  Industrial and Manufacturing Science, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK    

Tamés Alarcón C; Peral T (1958) Ensayos rápidos semicuantitativos para la caracterización de suelos  con fines agrícolas. Ministerio de Agricultura, INIA, Estación Agronómica Central, Madrid, Spain.

citation: Mata, Macarena; Garrido, Marisol; Longhurst, Phil and Seaton, Roger (2002) A method for soil health assessment in the conversion to organic farming. UK Organic Research 2002 Conference of the Colloquium of Organic Researchers (COR), Aberystwyth, 26-28 March 2002. In: Powell, Jane and et al., (Eds.) Proceedings of the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference, Organic Centre Wales, Institute of Rural Studies, University of Wales Aberystwyth, pp. 149-151.
document_url: http://orgprints.org/8236/1/mata_soil_health_assessment_conversion.pdf