LINK Integrated farming systems : a considered approach to crop protection.

Abstract

Integrated farming requires a more considered approach to crop production and protection, and seeks to integrate cropping sequences, husbandry techniques, and disease resistant cultivars with more managed and efficient agrochemical use and natural biological control. The LINK Integrated Farming Systems project aims to develop practical and economically viable, integrated arable systems, which are environmentally more acceptable than conventional production systems. The first two years of the five year project on six sites in the UK have shown that generally inputs can be reduced and profitability maintained, but husbandry practices used to minimise leaching of nutrients and to replace agrochemical inputs may increase management time and result in higher operating costs. However, it will require three to five years of the study to be completed before a full evaluation of the economic and environmental effects can be made.