How organic farming practices preserve biodiversity in the natural world while growing healthy abundant food, by Olivia CooK

L’interessante articolo, in lingua inglese, illustra con molta efficacia i benefici all’ambiente ed alla biodiversità apportati dall’agricoltura biologica, portando il lettore attraverso quelle che sono le principali pratiche di questo tipo di agricoltura, presentate in modalità spot: colture di copertura, rotazioni, uso del compost, no-till, gestione delle avversità e dei parassiti, pascolo, gestione degli animali...

Economic analysis of organic cropping systems under different tillage intensities and crop rotations

The study is published in Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems/Cambridge University Press. Costs of production and organic price premiums are defining factors influencing the economic viability of organic crop production systems. Different agronomic practices, such as crop rotation and tillage intensity, are known to affect the economic performance of the production systems.

“How Tillage and Crop Rotation Change the Distribution Pattern of Fungi”

Massive sequencing of fungal communities showed that climatic factors, followed by edaphic and spatial variables, are feasible predictors of fungal richness and community composition. This study, based on a long-term field experiment with tillage and no-tillage management since 1995 and with a crop rotation introduced in 2009, confirmed that tillage practices shape soil properties and impact soil fungal communities.