ORGANIC FARMERS IN EUROPE: MOTIVATIONS AND PROBLEMS FOR USING CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE PRACTICES. "TILMAN-ORG Session"

Summary

As conservation agriculture and organic farming are currently considered as environmentally friendly options for producing food, this study explores the motivations and problems of organic European farmers that apply at least two of the following techniques: (i) no-tillage, (ii) reduced tillage and/or (iii) green manures conservation practices. We carried out a survey about motivations and problems of 159 farmers located in 10 European countries with a questionnaire with closed-ended questions. Data were analysis with a principal component analysis followed by clustering to identify groups of farmers that share the same type of motivations and problems. The most important motivations are related to soil preservation concerns and problems are mainly linked to agronomic conditions and crop management. There are three groups of farmers that share the same type of attitude: “atypical farmers”, “soil conservationists” and “agro-technically challenged farmers”. According to this study, research may address in priority agronomic problems, such as weed infestation, caused by adoption of conservation agriculture in organic agriculture.