Soil-Improving Cropping Systems selected for testing in Study Sites
Study site | Short-listed SICS | Comments |
Belgium | 1.Application of different types of organic fertilizers: wood chips, cut and carry fertilizers, bokashi, compared to compost and solid manure. 2.Maize: undersown with grass, strip-till in existing grassland, ordinary strip till compared to conventional tillage. 3.Precision farming: site-specific application of compost and or wood chips; field scan (pH, OM content) before and after the trial, yield mapping. 4.Controlled traffic: implemented in at least one field, measurements of soil characteristics, crop growth and yield in and outside the roadways. 5.Novel crops: perennial cereals (if seeds are available) and soya, in at least one field, measurement of soil and crop characteristics and yield potential (in comparison with traditional crops). |
Scientific trials (with layout of treatments and replications, execution of measurements and observations) |
Norway | 1. Precision agriculture 2. Biological compaction release 3. Cover crops |
Demonstration trials (with execution of measurements and observations) |
Hungary | 1. Leguminous crops 2. Farmyard manure 3. Crop rotation |
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Switzerland | No single system chosen, but likely to be controlled traffic (comparison of a plot where limiting compression by weight is applied, with plot without limiting compression), green manure or the Controlled Uptake Long Term Ammonium Nutrition system |
Measures will need to be looked at in suitable combinations and will depend on location of field trials chosen, experimental set up and monitoring |
Denmark |
1.Ploughing contra no ploughing systems
2.Row (Alley) cropping systems
3.Crop rotations with and without grass / Clover (with grass varying amounts of grass and other crops); technologies for row/alley cropping "micro- rotations" 4.Liming experiments (long term effects of dose
5.Long term effects of manure and fertilizer practices
6. Lap and trial |
Less ploughing is also demonstrated in the row cropping experiment at Samsø (with Gunnar Mikkelsen), where strips of green manure clover grass is not ploughed. Tested/demonstrated at the farm of Anders Lund where the cereals are sown in rows, and at Samsø (with Gunnar Mikkelsen), where strips of green manure clover grass is not ploughed. Moreover we have row cropping experiments at the AU Field Station in Foulum.
As at the long term experiments at St. Jyndevad As in the long term experiments at Askov. Moreover the fields with Gunnar Mikkelsen/ Samsø is fertilized with compost recycled from urban areas) The whole island of Samsø as a full scale demonstration lap and trial, via scenarios and impacts assessments of possible soilcaring transitions of the farming in the island |
UK |
1. Amendments 2. Compaction 3. Grass leys |
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Germany |
1. Cover crops 2. Conservation tillage 3. Either undersown cover crops or Glyphosate-free conservation agriculture |
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Romania |
1. Narrow rotation + legumes; balanced mineral fertilization; sprinkler irrigation; deep ploughing; weeds and pests control 2. Narrow rotation + legumes; balanced mineral 3. Narrow rotation + root crops; balanced mineral fertilization; sprinkler irrigation; deep ploughing; weeds and pests control 4. Narrow rotation + root crops; balanced mineral fertilization; organic fertilization; deep ploughing; weeds and pests control |
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Italy |
2. Green manures, cover crops, catch crops 3. Integrated nutrient management |
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Poland |
1. Soil improving crops: cover crops - legumes: lupines + serradella + phacelia (130+30+4 kg/ha) 3. Amendments: B: Liming CaCO3 5.6 t/ha S/R, oat, wheat, triticale. |
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Portugal |
1. New rotation systems 2. Organic fertilization using urban sludge 3. Reduced soil mobilization (vertical tillage, multi- task planting, controlled traffic) |
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Greece | 1. Terracing 2. Contour ridging 3. No tillage or minimum tillage |
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Sweden |
1.Sub-soil loosening plus straw incorporation compared to loosening with liming 2. Introduction of cover crops (such as bluebell (Sw. honungsört = Phacelia spp.), melilot (Melilotus officinalis = Sw. sötväppling) or a mixture of cover crop species) |
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Spain | 1. Cover crops 2. Increasing organic matter by chopping pruning wood 3. Implementation of deficit irrigation strategies on stone fruit trees and olive |
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France |
1. Grassland management including: aération, Vibrosem or grassland fissuring and grass seed mixtures - Cover-crop sowed under rapeseed
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Czech Republic |
1. Application of limy materials
2. Applications of manures, composts, crop residues, and the other sources of organic matter
3. Reduced/non-reduced soil cultivation |
Increasing of soil buffering capacity (experimental results of long-term experiments) Increasing of acid-neutralizing capacity of the soil and improving of SOM content (long-term field experiments with application of different kind and application doses Study of impacts of different cultivation technologies (with/without ploughing, minimum tillage) on soil quality, fertility, as water flows, microorganisms, texture and structure |