WP 7: Soil and plant management by farmers and farm prototyping

In a participatory approach with farmers, we will first diagnose the various dimensions of soil quality with indicators from WP2 to WP6. In a second step, we will prototype soil management strategies adapted to the farmers’ needs and then design on-station and on-farm experiments and use the models (WP6) for evaluation. Prototypes of organic soil management strategies will be assessed and improved in an iterative process with farmers. WP7 will produce easy-to-apply tools for farmers who want to assess soil fertility and help them to decide for improved crop and soil management.

The objectives of work package 7 are

• To gather indicators, diagnosis tools, models, decision support systems available in the participant teams and produced by WP2 to WP6.
• To prototype organic soil management strategies for annual and perennial crops with farmers.
• To assess on-station and on-farm the operational effectiveness of the tools and models and the sustaina-bility of the prototypes of soil management strategies.

Contact

• Work package coordinator: Dr. Christian Gary, Institut National de Recherche Agronomique (INRA), France
• Co-coordinator: Dr. Cesare Pacini, University of Florence, Department of Agrifood Production and Environmental Sciences (DISPAA), Italy

Tasks

• Task 7.1: Indicators and tools for the assessment and design of organic soil and crop management strategies.
• Task 7.2: Participatory design of organic soil and crop management strategies.