Last week we celebrated Maataloustieteenpäivät (The Finnish Agricultural Science Days)! Between the 10th and 11th of January, our partner Luke participated in a national scientific meeting that brought together over 600 participants, including researchers, teachers, students, entrepreneurs and experts from different sectors of agronomy in Finland, to hear about the latest scientific research results and projects.
In one of the sessions on a multidisciplinary approach to farmland diversity, Senior Scientist and Boreal Regional Coordinator Krista Peltoniemi, Research Scientist Annika Tienhaara and Research Scientist Antti Miettinen presented results from boreal case studies. The results showed that Finnish farmers have a positive attitude towards management practices that promote soil quality and biodiversity, that reduced tillage is more cost-effective for a farmer than ploughing threatment because it saves fuel and time, and that preliminary results show that spring ploughing is more beneficial for earthworms than autumn ploughing.
All results were obtained from boreal case studies CS14a, CS14b and CS15 on the effects of tillage (reduced tillage versus conventional ploughing) and cover crops on soil biodiversity in WP5 and WP6 packages.
Find out more about Maataloustieteenpäivät