Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Crop
Management
practices in
organic crops
Crop protection consequences as
compared to conentional
Reference
Straw-
berry
Straw mulch, no
fumigation or
fungicides, low
fertility
Less fruit rot by
Botrytis
cinerea
,
variable grey mould severity
depending on cultural practices
Gliessman
et
al
.
(1996),
Daugaard
(1999)
Tea
No synthetic
pesticides
Greater abundance and diversity of
carabid beetles
Mukhopadhyay
et
al
. (2003)
Tomato
Biological
insecticides and
living mulch
Higher level of thrips and caterpillar
damage.
Hummel
et
al
.
(2002)
Cover crops,
composted manure,
insecticidal soap, Bt
Same levels of potato aphids, army
worm and tomato fruit worm, wild
fluctuations; more stinkbug injury in 1
of 8 years
Clark
et
al
.
(1998)
Lower severity of corky root,
Fusarium
and
Pythium
root rot,
Phytophthora
root rot
Clark
et
al
.
(1998), Workneh
et
al
. (1993)
Reduced Southern blight
Bulluck and
Ristaino (2002)
Organic, cannery
waste compost
Reduced anthracnose (
Colletotrichum
coccodes
) on fruits
Abbasi
et
al
.
(2002)
Various
crops
Alternative soil
amendments
Higher
Trichoderma
and lower
Phytophthora
and
Pythium
propagule
densities
Bulluck
et
al
.
(2002)
Organic practices,
habitat
diversification
Higher species richness, abundance
and activity of nocturnal insects
insectivorous bats
Wickramasinghe
et
al
. (2003)
Organic
management: cover
crops, composted
chicken manure
Reduced populations of
Pratylenchus
spp.,
Rhizoctonia
solani
and
Verticillium
dahliae
in soil
Clark
et
al
.
(1998),
Berkelmans
et
al
.
(2003), Neher
and Olson
(1999), van
Bruggen and
Termorshuizen
(2003)
Biodynamic mixed
farm with 6 years
grass-clover in a 10
year rotation
Carabid abundance and species
richness generally higher (except in
potato)
Staphylinid and spider abundance and
species richness generally similar
Booij and
Noorlander
(1992)
Organic practices
Greater abundance and lower diversity
of predaceous beetles
Shah
et
al
.
(2003)
Case study 1 - pest and pathogen regulation in organic ersus conentional
cereal crops in Europe
Since the 1980s, the proportion of cereal crops (wheat, barley, oats, rye) has steadily dropped in
conventional agriculture in north-western Europe (except for France). The main reason is a
reduction in price supports, resulting in such low prices that it is not profitable to grow cereals
as intensively as was commonly done in this region (with straw shorteners, high fertilisation,
