OrganicYieldsUp – Improving yields in organic cropping systems

Lead Institute OL Institute of Organic Farming

The joint project OrganicYieldsUp focusses on the yield gap between organic and conventional arable farming. The participating European reseach and advisory intitutions collect data from trials and from organic farms to describe the current yield level and the effect of different measures on the yields in different soil-climate regions. On organic lighthouse farms in all participating countries we discuss future yield increasing strategies with a broad range of stakeholders.

Background and Objective

Organic Farming is considered a sustainable land use system and contributes to fair, healthy and environmentally friendly food system. Organic Farming is therefore specifically supported by policy. As part of the European Green Deal, the Farm-to-Fork and Biodiversity Strategy, the EU aims to achieve the target of at least 25% of the EU’s agricultural land under Organic Farming by 2030. However, there is a yield gap between organically grown crops and those from conventional farming. Reducing the disparities is important to further improve the economic competitiveness of Organic Farming. There is also criticism that the ecological advantages of organic farming are outweighed by the lower yields and have a detrimental effect via leakage effects – by compensating for reduced production volumes in the EU through the expansion of global and poorly regulated conventional production.

The principles and goals of Organic Farming must not be jeopardized in the approaches to increasing yields. In the last decade, great efforts have been made to improve organic yields. So far knowledge and know-how have not been sufficiently shared in Europe and new challenges arise in the face of climate change. The project ‘OrganicYieldsUp – Improving yields in organic cropping systems’ project aims to contribute to a sustainable increase in yield in organic arable farming through a structured compilation and evaluation of existing data and of practical knowledge on yield strategies as well as through stronger networking of relevant stakeholders. A Europe-wide network of research and demonstration sites will be created, covering a representative range of pedoclimatic and structural conditions of organic production, as well as a wide range of crops.

Approach

In each network region of the 11 European project partners, four lighthouse farms with different methods in organic arable farming are selected. At field days and workshops, the techniques and management practices used and other possible strategies for increasing and stabilising yields are presented and discussed with a broader audience. Experienced farmers, agricultural advisors and stakeholders from the value chain form a group of experts with the project partners and contribute their knowledge and assessments to the project. In addition to regional practical experiences, the results of the evaluation of the collected experimental and farm data will be reflected. The yield strategies in various European regions will also be presented, exchanged and discussed and serve as a basis for future further developments.