Diversity of Conservation Agriculture Practices Among European Organic farmers

The interest of organic farmers for adopting conservation agriculture practices is currently growing. But, there are few technical and scientific references available for organic farmers when they start applying conservation agriculture practices. The main objectives of this study are (1) to explore the diversity of crop management practices using conservation agriculture methods among European farmers, and (2) to identify main farmers’ strategies. We carried out a survey of 159 farmers located in 10 European countries. Data were analysis to identify groups of farmers that share the same type of spring and winter crop managements. Organic farmers in Europe show very diverse crop management. The high diversity of crop management can be described by two main strategies: ‘low soil cover’ and ‘soil conservation’ strategy. Distinct geographical distribution of both strategies suggests that applicability of conservation agriculture practices is strongly context oriented.