Evaluation of stockless organic crop farming and its agri-environmental achievements in the semi-arid region of Austria

The present project is part of the overall project MUBIL, within which a long term field monitoring concerning the development of Organic Farming has been performed at the bio-farm “Rutzendorf“ in the Marchfeld region east of Vienna since 2003. Six Divisions and the Center for Environmental Studies and Nature Conservation of the BOKU cooperate interdisciplinary in this evaluation project. The aim of the project MUBIL III - Evaluation is to describe and evaluate the achievements of organic farming on preservation and enhancement of biodiversity, preservation and improvement of soil quality, adaptation on climate change and strategies to reduce negative climate-relevant effects. Agri-environmental measures (ÖPUL) of the Austrian Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 shall be evaluated with results of surveys on a concrete bio-farm in the semi-arid region of Austria. For this purpose the monitoring of the soil water balance and soil physical properties, the soil fauna, the weed flora, the breeding birds and wild bees as well as agro-meteorological measurements on the farm is continued as before in the MUBIL projects. Nutrient and energy balances shall be calculated with the yield and cultivation data to assess sustainability and environmental effects of the organic farming system. An evaluation report is created with the monitoring data, the results and the developed knowledge since 2003.