Greenresilient case study of Economic Performance: Deliverable 5.10

Summary

Greenhouse cultivation is becoming increasingly important in the food supply throughout Europe, even under organic production conditions. Organic greenhouse soils are often used very intensively, which often results in one-sided, short crop rotations geared toward cash crops, as well as a high use of inputs such as fertiliser, water, energy or plant protection measures.
In the Greenresilient research project, eleven research institutes from eight European countries aim to test possible solutions to the challenges in organic greenhouse production. Over a period of two years, alternative cultivation systems were investigated at five test sites in different climate zones in Europe with regard to energy efficiency, soil fertility, reduction of external inputs and diversification of greenhouse crop rotations.
For this report, profitability calculations were made for the different crop rotations at the Swiss trial site. The aim was to estimate how the different methods perform economically. Using the ProfiCost calculation tool, a production cost calculation was carried out for each crop in the crop rotations, taking into account the different heating, fertilisation and crop protection methods.