It takes a long time, up to several decades, before the benefits of organic farming take full effect on land that was previously cultivated conventionally, a new study from Lund University suggests. After thirty years, the plant species richness around the cultivated crop had doubled on organic farms compared to conventional farms.
It takes a long time, up to several decades, before the benefits of organic farming take full effect on land that was previously cultivated conventionally, a new study from Lund University suggests. After thirty years, the plant species richness around the cultivated crop had doubled on organic farms compared to conventional farms.
It is well known that organic farming benefits biodiversity and can mitigate some of the negative effects that arise from farming. What is less known, however, is how long it takes for biodiversity to recover after a transition from conventional to organic farming and how significant the recovery will be.
To seek answers, a research team from Lund University investigated 88 different fields in southern Sweden, on 30 different farms. The results show that after thirty years of organic farming, the number of arable plant species had more than doubled in the fields of the organic farms, from an average of 15 to 35 plant species.
The study is published in the Journal of Applied Ecology.
