Long-term monitoring of effects of conversion to organic farming

A long term field monitoring concerning the documentation and development of organic farming has been performed at the bio-farm “Rutzendorf“ in the Marchfeld region, Lower Austria, east of Vienna since 2003. The results will be used for optimising organic farming, for monitoring processes of climatic relevance and their effects on agriculture and agro-ecology. The results also serve for a comprehensive and systematic control and evaluation of organic farming-specific measures in the Austrian agro-environmental scheme ÖPUL. The monitoring on the rounded farm is implemented on the field plot level, on the level of the particular fields and on the level of the whole farm. The monitoring plots were established, the present state of the examined parameters was determined and first biotope structures were established during project phase I. The monitoring was optimised during phase II. In the current phase of the project (MUBIL III), continuously performed investigations shall be pursued. Several partners from the BOKU and from external institutions cooperate interdisciplinary in this project. The aims of the project MUBIL III – research are: (a) to examine extent and rate of changes concerning plant and economy parameters with the conversion to organic farming; (b) to study the effects of different organic fertilization systems, (c), to analyse the effects of organic farming and biotopes on the carabid biodiversity on the farm and the predator enhancement (d) to realise the farm and field trial management and the work coordination as basis for the surveys in this project and in a concurrent realized evaluation project.