Harvesting early potato corresponding to Case Study 1 in Mediterranean South (Spain): Use of soil biodiversity to reduce soil-borne diseases/pests incidence and increase nutrient availability in potatoes cropped in multiple cropping and rotations.
Cover crops are a good practice to enhance soil life and soil quality. After late vegetables, like leek, the circumstances are not always good enough to sow cover crops. When the next main crop is planted late in the following year, it is possible to sow the cover crop in spring. In case study 8 we have sown a mixture of Phacelia (P. tanacetifolia) and crimson clover (Trifolium incarnatum) in the last week of march. These fast growing crops are…
SoildiverAgro video is out!! Soil biodiversity enhancement in european agroecosystems to promote their stability and resilience by external inputs reduction and crop performance increase. Project funded by H2020. Watch it here?
Last week farmers of the Lusitanian region starts sowing wheat for the SoildiverAgro project. These images are related to: Case study 3: Use of crop diversification and trap crops in potato fields to reduce the incidence of cyst nematode, decrease the use of nematicides, increase the crop yields and increase the soil biodiversity. Case study 5: Implementation of the Decision Support Systems (pest alert system) to reduces the use of fungicides in potato and wheat crops and their impact in biodiversity.…
All Finnish partners of the SoildiverAgro project held an online meeting via MS Teams on 7th May to celebrate a Regional meeting. The objective of the meeting was to discuss and change information between project members about the current situation and ongoing tasks in the project. There was a lively discussion about the knowledge transfer between SDA community and farmers since there is a need for research-based knowledge for example of the effects of tillage practices and usage of cover…
On the 27th of April 2021, a visit to ILVO Plant Sciences Unit was planned by the students from the University of Ghent, Belgium, following the course ‘soil ecology’. Unfortunately, due to the still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the excursion was replaced by an online meeting via Teams. Eighteen students participated at the event, where they learned about the organisation of the ILVO Plant Diagnostic Centre (https://www.ilvodiagnosecentrumvoorplanten.be/nl/) and about the research projects, like SoildiverAgro, investigating soil fauna (https://ilvo.vlaanderen.be/nl/onderzoeksprojecten). Especially soil processing…
SoildiverAgro project participates this week at the FAO Global Symposium for soil Biodiversity with a poster and a video. You can watch it here.
Our partner Proefstation voor de groenteteelt made this interesting presentation about the results so far concerning case-study 8 focus on intensive versus extensive versus vegetable organic farming.
Next week, 16th March from 10-12 AM, the WP3 discussion group will assemble during an online meeting to discuss about the framework concerning data analysis. Some of the main points will focus on: Filling in the metadata file Data collection for downstream analysis Data analysis how? who? Publication strategy The main objective of WP3 is to determine the current status of the soil biodiversity across Europe in relation to climate conditions, soil characteristics, cropping and agricultural management systems. The results…
The proportion of women in science worldwide is less than one third. With the “International Day of Women and Girls in Science”, the United Nations wants to draw attention to the importance of promoting women researchers at all career stages. “The world needs science and science needs women”, says Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO: “Humanity cannot afford not to use half of its creative potential”. From SoildiverAgro we have made a list of some interesting initiatives: https://www.un.org/en/observances/women-and-girls-in-science-day/ https://www.womeninscienceday.org/ https://womeninsoilecology.github.io/ https://500womenscientists.org…
