Lehr- und Forschungszentrum für Landwirtschaft Raumberg-Gumpenstein
Abstract
The possibilities to balance environmental conditions in organic farming systems are strongly restricted as the input of nutrients is limited and no soluble fertilisers and synthetic pestizides are used. These systems require cultivars that are able to adapt to stressful, less controlled and therefore highly variable environments. This study sums up the results of winter wheat cultivars tested under marginal and fertile soil conditions on organic farms in Switzerland. Three were derived from organic, three from conventional breeding programs and two old cultivars. Across three marginal sites, there was a slight trend towards higher yields of the organically bred cultivars. This difference was statistically signifi cant at the lowest yielding site. However, no such trend could be observed at two fertile sites and across all fi ve sites.
Cultivars suitable for organic farming should achieve high yields but moreover high baking quality and a high nutrient use effi ciency, which was in that study achieved by the organically bred cultivar Scaro
