Bioacademy 2006
Lednice na Morave, 29 th June – 1 st July 2005
The sixth year of the European Sumer Academy on Organic Farming - Bioacademy 2006 - was held, traditionally, at the turn of June and July in Lednice na Moravě, on the premises of the Hoticultural Faculty of the Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry. Bioacademy 2006 was organized by the Czech PRO-BIO Association of Organic Farmers in cooperation with Bio Austria Association and other Czech and foreign partners. The Conference began with an introductory Plenary Meeting where political-economic development was assessed, and was followed by specialist conferences, a practical workshop and popular excursions within the Czech Republic and to neighbouring countries.
Conference A
PERMANENT GRASSLAND IN ORGANIC FARMING AND ITS PRODUCTIVE AND NON-PRODUCTIVE FUNCTIONS
Garant: Prof. Bořivoj Šarapatka, UP Olomouc
Conference A of Bioacademy dealt with a very current issue - permanent grassland, which makes up 90% of organically farmed acreage. Nowadays grassland must fulfil several economical, environmental and social functions. Extending, renewing and maintaining grass communities in the countryside is one of the possible solutions to agricultural over-production and at the same time a way of conserving land resources. Beside this, grass communities also create numerous additional features; they mainly affect the volume and quality of water, help to control erosion and local flooding, and significantly help biodiversity and its protection. Organic farmers are not only valuable producers but they also play an important role in the countryside regarding protection of individual components within the environment and the increase in biodiversity. Regarding the hydrological aspect, grassland has two important functions: quantitative, as it prevents surface-run-off from torrential rain, converting it to under-surface flow, and also qualitative (filtering function) as it extracts nutrients from the soaking water with its well developed root system. Grassland is a tool for reducing water erosion and for protecting water courses and residential areas from floodplain sediments.
In the future we can expect greater emphasis on the environmental aspect of organic farming. Therefore organic farmers should not only know how to grow fodder but also be well informed about meadow and pasture communities rich in species and about their non-productive effects. The question of permanent grassland in the countryside is still viewed differently by biologists and agricultural experts. Conservationists’ interest in creating species-rich meadows and pastures is severely restrained by high costs. Moreover, botanists are worried about insufficient knowledge of nature (genetic structure of populations, ecotypes, cytotypes etc.) Agricultural experts mainly require sufficient and stable yield of good-quality fodder, ensuring economic utility of farm animals. This is why we have to seek compromise in solving the question of renewing and maintaining meadows and pastures: to ensure the desired diversity in organic farming on the scale of the landscape, it will be necessary to partly farm the land intensively and elsewhere extensively, with various changes in the system of grass-cutting and fertilizing.
Composition of seed mixture for grassing is a much-disputed issue. Commercially available mixtures with a limited range of species and of diverse origin are used. However, there are other options: e.g. a regional mixture of grass and herb seed was first collected in the White Carpathians in 1993. Seeds of one hundred species were collected on the meadows and were experimentally grown. More than half of the species proved competent. Since 1999, 30-60 hectares of arable land per year have been restored to meadows by using the White-Carpathian seed mixture, making a total of more than 270 ha so far. Currently, wildflower-seed mixtures are being prepared in several Czech regions. Recipes have been defined for selected grass communities and regions.
How can grassland be evaluated in organic farming in terms of species composition? At the conference, Swiss methods for the estimation of grass communities and their productivity, biodiversity and environmental impact, were presented. Actual yield can be assessed on the basis of the botanical composition of the sward, the intensity of management and characteristics of the site. For this purpose, determination of the sward composition can be simplified to evaluation of the yield proportion of some functional groups of plants. The quality of forage can also be estimated from such simplified evaluation of botanical composition if the phenological development of the sward at harvest time is known. Plant species richness is most precisely assessed by exhaustive species inventories, which require a lot of human resources and an extensive botanical knowledge. A possible alternative is the estimation of species richness from the presence or absence of chosen indicator species. The number of plant species in a sward is closely linked to management intensity but is also strongly influenced by the history of the plot.
In using grassland in organic farming, we must also consider its productivity and quality of the biomass produced. Therefore experts in plant nutrition presented changes in nutritional value and production of forage depending on the intensity of farming the grassland areas. The value of examined samples from different variations of the experiment was assessed on the basis of so called Weenden Analysis and of assumed digestibility of organic matter and degradability of nitrogenous compounds (protein). Production of biomass from experimental plots was evaluated as well. The results showed lower concentration of energy (NEL) and PDIN, PDIE depending on lower intensity of use. A difference in production of dry matter was also recognized. These results are important in providing nourishment for cattle and for farming permanent grassland.
There is a serious problem in productive grassland: broad-leaved dock. Therefore the conference also dealt with ways to control it. This nasty and persistent weed needs light for germination and therefore prefers in sward gaps and patchy plant stands. Broad-leaved dock not only competes for nutrients and takes up room, but also reduces forage quality because of its high content of tannin and oxalic acid. Therefore efficient measures should be taken to control this troublesome weed. Special attention must be paid to the avoidance of sward damage and gaps in plant stands which creates ideal conditions for the germination and development of broad-leaved dock. There are some additional problems in fertilizer management, which improve broad-leaved dock, such as over-application of manure and poor distribution quality. Other described measures relate to reduction of seed production and seed propagation of broad-leaved dock. For organic farming, the following non-chemical measures of symptom control are available: dock leaf beetle (Gastrophysa viridula), manual removal, mechanical root-tillage and infra red - gas technique. In conclusion we can say that by means of continuous observation and evaluation of grassland areas, weed problems can be detected in time. The avoidance of management errors and preventive measures have to be combined with specific symptom control measures and these methods must follow after reseeding with quality seed mixtures free of dock seed.
Organic farming has very large resources of biomass, because, e.g. in the Czech Republic, large areas of agricultural land in mountainous and sub-mountainous regions have been grassed. This biomass can be utilized, among other possibilities, for energy production. With careful integration into the farming system and careful choice of biomass energy technology, benefits other than just energy can be obtained. One of the most promising technologies for organic farming is biogas production from animal manure and from crops. By adding easily digestible crops, such as grass, the energy production from biogas is significantly increased compared to using only manure. Biogas is normally used for heat and power production, but in Sweden biogas is used for transport as well and biogas filling stations are established throughout the country.
In order to fulfil customers expectations of organic farming as a resource-efficient and sparing alternative to conventional farming, it will be a wise investment in the future for the organic farming sector to develop the use of renewable energy. Biomass energy is agriculture’s own energy source, which can create new energy for the development of organic farming.
One of the final contributions of Bioacademy dealt with the development of support policy for grassland in the Czech Republic and EU, including new member states, with emphasis on organic farming (OF). State support is one of the most powerful policy measures encouraging farmers to convert and continue as organic farmers. Support for OF is available in all states of the EU-25. Based on comparative analysis, the main similarities and differences in strategies of support provided in particular countries are described. Payment for organic grassland is lower than for arable land or permanent crops in most EU countries, but areas of grassland still dominate in the land-use structure of OF. In 2003, grassland and fodder crops accounted for more that 61 % of total organic acreage in the EU-25.
Nowadays, discussion on support policy adjustment, not only for OF, is very topical, regarding the preparation of a new Rural Development Plan for the period 2007-2013.
The concluding debate was a chance for the specialists to discuss topical issues, linked to both productive and non-productive functions of grassland. A suitable model for strengthening the environmental aspects of agricultural production and for use of the countryside must be found, so that it is acceptable to agricultural experts and specialists in biology as well.
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