Advances in Organic Agriculture—Decreasing Yield Gap via Optimising Cultivation Methods and Agrarian Policy
A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Production".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 May 2024) | Viewed by 8948
Special Issue Editors
Interests: organic agriculture; agricultural systems; world agriculture; the impact of agricultural management on biodiversity and the environment
Interests: soil fertility; organic farming; cropping systems; agroecology; biodiversity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: consumer behavior; acceptance; novel research methods in consumer and sensory science; food values and attitudes; organic food; local food; food innovations; food trends
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The EU agrarian policy to reach a 25% share of the UAA through organic farming by the year 2030 is challenging in many respects. One of these is the continually growing yield gap in arable crops between organic and intensive conventional farming methods.
This Special Issue aims to present solutions for decreasing this yield gap. There are many reasons why farmers are not reaching the yield potential of the organic system. One of the major factors causing a reduced yield is inadequate nutrient supply—not only nitrogen deficiencies but also other nutrient deficiencies. As fertilisation in organic farming is based on long-term management (crop rotation, use of crop residues and on-farm manures), it is difficult to obtain a radical improvement within a short time span. Another factor is that organic farmers are attempting to protect the environment, and increased fertiliser rates may cause leaching. Moreover, organic farmers often have low-quality soils. Poor soils require greater investment for their improvement. Relying mainly on external inputs is costly and therefore soil fertility management in such circumstances is very challenging.
The answer might be concerted efforts to optimise arable yields. The core issues might be more efficient use of natural resources, improved nutrient recycling techniques, and innovative fertiliser and fertilisation practices. Increased fertiliser rates must not cause increased environmental pollution.
To achieve improvement in decreasing the yield gap, knowledge transfer is very important. This is one of the activities should be addressed to the young generation. In many countries, organic farming is not a part of teaching programmes either at agricultural high school or university, even in the form of general information about organic farming systems. In this aspect, change in agrarian policy might be a significant factor in narrowing yield gap and improving the economic performance of organic farms.
Dr. Józef Tyburski
Dr. Jarosław Stalenga
Dr. Sylwia Żakowska-Biemans
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- agrarian policy
- environmental protection
- intensification of organic farming
- intensification and economics
- intensification and food quality
- market development
- optimising cultivation methods
- organic farming
- yield gap
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