SNF - Cover Crops
Conservation agriculture increases farming productivity and contributes to protecting fields. Cover crops play an important role by promoting soil fertility and suppressing weeds among others.
Factsheet
- Schools involved School of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences
- Institute(s) Agriculture
- Research unit(s) Plant Production and Biodiversity
- Funding organisation SNSF
- Duration 01.01.2013 - 31.12.2017
- Head of project Prof. Dr. Bernhard Streit
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Project staff
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Streit
Fabienne Bauer -
Partner
Institut für Agrarwissenschaften ETHZ
ART-Swiss Soil Monitoring Network
European Conservation Agriculture Federation
Swiss No-Till
Wirtschafts-, Energie- und Umweltdirektion (WEU)
Agroscope - Keywords cover crops, conservation agriculture, soil fertility, precision agriculture
Situation
Goal of the project: Development of novel cover crops for conservation agriculture. Description of the demands on the habitat of different cover crops. Provision of a database with suitable cover crops.
Course of action
Investigation on the demands on the habitat, about which little has been known until now, and the agronomic benefits of various types of crop cover systems and mixes, using modelling and field experiments. Additionally the correlation between crop cover systems and both the main crops and soil functions will be investigated. The properties of the various cover crops in relation to sustainable use of the soil will be revealed.
