With 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. This means tripling the current organic farm area with estimated 700.000 farmers expected to enter the organic sector. One of the obstacles hindering conversion to organic farming is the lower yields per hectare grown under organic conditions as compared with those produced under conventional farming. Therefore, improving organic yields is a key challenge of the organic sector, which however needs to be achieved on the basis of the principles of organic farming. Against this background, the overall aim of the project is to contribute to a sustainable increase in yields in organic cropping systems through a comprehensive and structured compilation and evaluation of existing knowledge, devising sustainable impact strategies relevant to stakeholders and policy. The project will set up an European-wide network of testing, experimentation and demonstration sites from 11 regions / countries, representing a wide range of pedo-climatic and structural conditions. It will connect actors from science and practice to jointly reflect on organic yield increase strategies. It will draw recommendations for the future research agenda and development of EU policies relevant for organic production. The outcomes of the project will be widely available and disseminated to actors within and beyond the organic community.
The four major project key goals are:
1) To provide data and knowledge on yields in organic cropping systems and the impact of strategies and approaches to improve yields
2) To assess the suitability and the potential of these strategies to improve yields in the short- and medium-term in a sustainable way
3) To provide recommendations for the future research agenda and the further development of EU policies
4) To increase the availability and accessibility of information that provides information on how yields can be improved in organic cropping systems
PIK will use the crop model LPJmL to simulate the yield potential of EU organic agriculture in different climatic scenarios.
