Within the EU-Project CHANNEL a status quo-analysis on organic agriculture practice was made for all new member countries, including Romania and Bulgaria as new accession countires and Austria and Germany as old member countries.
Rotational and nutrient management in crop husbandry was evaluted through ques-tionnaires answered by experts of each country. Examples of typical rotations were proved with regard to duration, share of legumes and distribution of legumes.
21 of 93 rotations were shorter than 4 years and seemed to be very susceptible to unavoidable phytosanitary and compatibility problems. 20 of 93 rotations only con-sisted of non-legumes. Correspondingly the complete N management of these rota-tional systems has to be organised through external N sources: (1) a weak point in terms of dependencies upon conventional systems (purchase of farm yard manure, organic fertilizers, etc.), (2) a weak point in terms of missing contribution of forage (grass-) legumes towards weed and humus management in the long-term perspective of organic rotations.
The application of farm yard manure is common practice in most of the participating countries. The practice of mostly uncovered, unprotected manure heaps indicates another field of improvement in order to avoid excessive degradation of organic matter during storage and uncontrolled nutrient leaching.
The use of fertilizers seems to be quite restricted in the partner countries. Although rotational management and the application of farm yard manure or composts can substantially contribute to nutrient balances there are still some nutrients that have to be considered separately: (1) environmental influences can cause increased Ca losses through leaching, (2) P and K have to be taken into account especially in rota-tions with a high share of root crops and other vegetables. The other fact is derived by the presented examples for crop rotations and the found necessity for external nutrient inputs which contains N in first priority, but other nutrients as well. 23 answers from 14 partner countries are hartly sufficient to reflect the described situation
