RESTOR - Healthy plants from healthy soils: Resilience and stability of organic cropping systems
Projekt title |
RESTOR - Healthy plants from healthy soils: Resilience and stability of organic cropping systems
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Duration | 2016 - 2018 |
Funded by | Ekhagastiftelsen, Sweden |
Responsible at University of Bonn, Agroecology and Organic Farming
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Prof. Dr. Thomas Döring
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Project description | Health plays a key role in organic agriculture. A criterion of health recognised for all domains of agriculture is resilience, i.e. the ability to recover after disturbance or stress. This project aims to improve the understanding of resilience in organic cropping systems. We investigate the resilience of the soil’s ability to suppress plant diseases and the resilience of annual crops in response to climatic stress factors, using a set of long-term field experiments from three countries with a large eco-geographic range. Our results will help farmers to design more reliable and resilient cropping systems and will improve the understanding of what factors are responsible for system health in ecological farming. By exploring potential links between soil health and plant health, we will widen the currently insufficient scientific basis underlying the principle of health. |
Project partners | University of Debrecen, Scottish Rural College, University of Kassel, Humboldt University of Berlin |