Sunflower under conventional and organic farming systems: results from a long term experiment in central Italy.

Sunflower productivity under organic and conventional agricultural systems was studied between 2002 and 2004 in the frame of the MASCOT experiment (Mediterranean Arable Systems COmparison Trial), established in 2001. The aim was to compare organic and conventional management systems for a typical arable crop rotation of Central Italy in the long-term. Sunflower was cultivated as a part of a five-year stockless arable crop rotation (sugar beet-common wheat- sunflower-pigeon bean-durum wheat). In the organic system, red clover (Trifolium pratense) is interseeded in common and durum wheat and used as a green manure for sunflower or sugar beet. Grain yield of organically-grown sunflower was lower by 41%, 17% and 44% in 2002, 2003 and 2004 respectively, but no significant differences in percent seed oil content were found between the conventional and organic sunflower in two years out of three.