this work investigates the effect of the application rate and type of sludge throughout the soilcarbon cycle in a semiarid mediterranean agro-ecosystem. we study the two-year evolution of the variouspools of soil organic and inorganic carbon and their influence on soil respiration. we applied three rates (40, 80 and 160 mg/ha) of two types of sludge –aerobically and anaerobically digested sewag...

Although worldwide organic agriculture is constantly gaining ground compared to traditional agriculture, still a number of countries encounter problems mostly related to lack of validated information and knowledge, technical support by specialized agronomists, coordination and organization of the trading network and promoting mechanisms. The appropriate use of Web technologies and mobile comput...

traditional agriculture and non-chemical crop production have a long story; however organic agriculture which relies on local and in-farm inputs, with the aim of protecting ecological balances and developing biological cycles on the one hand while regarding regulations and specific standards on the other hand, doesn’t have a very long history. there are numerous environmental reasons for the pr...

Conventional agriculture has improved in crop yield but at large costs to the environment, particularly off-site pollution from mineral N fertilizers. In response to environmental concerns, organic agriculture has become an increasingly popular option. One component of organic agriculture that remains in question is whether it can reduce agricultural N losses to groundwater and the atmosphere r...

Introduction With a 20% growth rate in 2001, organic agriculture continues to expand in the U.S. and the world (OTA, 2002). After the release of consistent federal standards for products marketed as “organic” in October 2002 (USDA/AMS, 2002), organic production and consumption was expected to increase beyond current organic sales of $10 billion in 2001 (OTA, 2002). In 1999, Iowa farmers reporte...

The tradition in agriculture has been to maximize production and minimize the cost of food with little regard to impacts on the environment and the services it provides to society. As the world enters an era in which global food production is likely to double, it is critical that agricultural practices be modified to minimize environmental impacts even though many such practices are likely to i...

Organic agriculture is rapidly growing while the lack of knowledge and skills to manage organic farms and the lack of market opportunities for the organic products are the most important reasons for the disinclination to the use of the organic agriculture practices. The main aim of this study was to determine the factors underpinning the marketing of organic agriculture products. The research w...

In this paper, we describe the development of a set of guiding principles for the evaluation of breeding techniques by the organic sector over time. The worldwide standards of organic agriculture (OA) do not allow genetic engineering (GE) or any products derived from genetic engineering. The standards in OA are an expression of the underlying principles of health, ecology, fairness and care. Th...

Land area devoted to organic agriculture has increased steadily over the last 20 years in the United States, and elsewhere around the world. A primary criticism of organic agriculture is lower yield compared to non-organic systems. Previous analyses documenting the yield deficiency in organic production have relied mostly on data generated under experimental conditions, but these studies do not...