Energieeffiziente Bodenbearbeitung im biologischen Ackerbau

Summary

Soil management techniques require both in conventional and organic agricultural systems high amounts of energy which are related to the emissions of greenhouse gases and climate change as well as an increasing dependence on fossil fuels. This paper examines ecological and economic effects of reduced tillage techniques and ploughing over two years with the crops winter wheat and sugar beet. The tillage trial was carried out on a Chernozem soil in a semi-arid region in Austria. The results show 31 % lower energy consumption for reduced tillage over both crops. Interestingly, the ploughing variant resulted in 12 % higher sugar beet yield, but showed 12 % lower wheat yields per hectare. An economic evaluation of both variants did not identify differences over the whole cropping period. The results show, that the integration of agricultural upstream processes such as fertilizer production and the consideration of soil mineralization processes are essential in drawing a holistic picture on climate change mitigation potentials in agriculture.