So organic farming provides the most biodiversity for the money

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Growing organically benefits biodiversity. But make the most of the environmental benefit on land where conventional cultivation is most profitable. According to researchers, economic instruments are needed that make it more favorable for farmers to grow organically.

The environmental benefit of organic farming depends on it surrounding landscape. The positive effect on biodiversity is particularly large in agricultural landscapes with few remaining natural habitats such as natural pastures, according to a study from Lund University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

– Organic farming contributes more to the biological diversity in places where it there are already relatively few species, says William Sidemo Holm, researcher at AgriFood and PhD in environmental science at Lund University. What is a natural pasture? A meadow and pasture is a natural grassland that has been grazed or mowed for many hundreds of years. Some may have been fertilized or ditched and are then called cultivated pastures. Those that have never been fertilized or affected by other production-increasing measures are called natural pastures. Natural pastures belong to our most species-rich soils, but must be grazed to maintain their biological diversity. Organic farming can give less yield At the same time, such agricultural landscapes often have a high agricultural production and therefore the costs in the form of crop loss are also high at a transition to organic farming. As the profitability of organic farming is often lower than in conventional farming, farmers can receive an environmental compensation for growing organically. ) But the size of the compensation is not affected by the area’s productivity, which is a problem, according to William Sidemo Holm: – This leads to few growers organically in more productive areas where conventional farming is comparatively profitable. At the same time, it is precisely in these areas that organic farming can be most beneficial as the amount of natural pastures is often low, says William Sidemo Holm, who has just studied the costs of increasing biodiversity through organic farming, and how these are affected by the surrounding landscape. – Our study shows the need to design instruments that make it favorable for farmers in landscapes with few natural pastures to cultivate organically. Organic farming and biodiversity – the study shows that:

Spread organic farming The study also shows that the cost of increasing the number of species with the help of organic farming increases as a larger area in an area is already used organically. This is because the species that benefit most from organic farming have already been added, and the loss of profits increases as more productive land must be converted to organic. Therefore, the study also shows that it is important to have a geographical spread regarding where you grow organically. This is how the study went to: The method is based on the researchers studying how organic and conventional cultivation of grassland , winter wheat, spring barley, rapeseed, sugar beet and legumes, as well as animal husbandry on natural pastures, affect the number of wild plant species and farmers’ profits. For this, the researchers conducted a field study where they collected data on land use, harvest and the number of plant species from 19 farms (10 organic and 9 conventional) in Skåne. To calculate the effect on farmers’ profits, the field study was supplemented with agricultural statistics from the Swedish Board of Agriculture’s operational planning program Agriwise. Dissertation: Effective conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes (pdf)

Contact: William Sidemo Holm, Investigator at AgriFood Economics Center, SLU and PhD in environmental science with a focus on the conservation of biological diversity, Lund University, william.sidemo.holm@slu.se

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