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… […]
Ecological approach to soil fertility and health in the Tropics – Practices that improve the soil and meet crops needs
This factsheet introduces soil fertility and health, explains how the holistic organic farming approach improves soil fertility, provides some practices which contribute to improving soil health and help meet the nutrient requirement of crops, animals and humans. The information is based on long-term experiments and on-farm research conducted in the scope of three projects across […]
Agroecological crop protection for sustainable agriculture
Crop losses from pests threaten global food security and safety. In the last six decades, pest control using chemical pesticides has resulted in important yield gains per unit area, worldwide. However, the long-term sustainability of chemical pest control has been increasingly thrown into doubt due to the negative impact on human health, biodiversity, and the […]
Diversified rotations in protected vegetable production systems (DiverIMPACTS Practice Abstract)
In protected vegetable systems of the Mediterranean area, rotations are based on a limited number of species and botanical families. In the long term, this favours the development of soil pests and diseases. In order to diversify rotations, a workshop brought together DiverIMPACTS case study 25 (CS25) participants including farmers, technicians, marketers and scientists, to […]
Soil Health and Nutrient Density: Beyond Organic vs. Conventional Farming
Controversy has long surrounded the question of nutritional differences between crops grown organically or using now-conventional methods, with studies dating back to the 1940s showing that farming methods can affect the nutrient density of crops. More recent studies have shown how reliance on tillage and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers influence soil life, and thereby soil health, […]
The role of cover crops in improving soil fertility and plant nutritional status in temperate climates. A review
Cover crops (CCs) are a promising and sustainable agronomic practice to ameliorate soil health and crop performances. However, the complex of relationships between CCs, the soil, and the plant nutritional status has been little investigated. In this article, for the first time, we critically review, under a holistic approach, the reciprocal relationships between CCs and […]
