Conservation Agriculture in Organic Farming Motivations of European Farmers and Diversity of Practices

Summary

One of the tasks of the TILMAN-Org project is to assess organic farmers' experiences and perceptions about reduced tillage and green manures. We carried out a survey with around 150 organic farmers that applied at least two out of the 3 following techniques: no tillage techniques, reduced tillage techniques and green manure techniques in 8 partner countries (Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and UK). The questionnaire addressed the motivations and major problems when adopting each conservation technique. We also collected data on the detailed crop management of one winter and one spring crop per farm (especially tillage and green manure management). The objectives of the data analysis are to: (i) identify farmers’ profiles of motivations and problems, (ii) identify the diversity of practices and their combination in farms depending on country and farm characteristics, and (iii) analyze the relationship between farmers’ profiles of motivations and their conservation techniques. The results of our analysis will be presented and discussed during this session. The final perspective of this work is to identify promising techniques for designing new cropping systems for Organic Farming, taking into account soil preservation.