Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

T. LINDENTHAL and J. HESZ:

On the problem of comparative experiments and investigations between conventional and ecological agriculture

Summary

The major part of research funds for organic agriculture is still being used for comparative investigations between organic and conventional agriculture. The administration needs the results of these investigations to make decisions in agricultural and environmental policy. Also in basic research comparative investigations were made. In this paper weakness and usefulness of comparative investigations are shown, and it can be stated that environmental compatibility and functionality of organic agriculture is now sufficiently documented by a lot of comparative investigations. Moreover, these investigations led to a certain awareness of science and politics towards organic agriculture. It is suggested that in future comparative investigations only should be used in basic research to demonstrate or to work out new phenomena and basic principles of agricultural ecosystems. For conducting comparative investigations in future mentioned weakness of earlier experiments and deducting criteria should be taken into account. Considering the enormous research deficit in the system development of organic agriculture it is necessary to divert all available resources on this type of research. Key-words: organic agriculture, ecological agriculture, comparative investigations, research.