Effect of two cultivation intensities on yields and economical parameters

On a loamy soil in Tänikon (Switzerland) the project «Chaiblen» has compared two cultivation intensities – intensive (IS) and integrated (IP) – and three different crop rotations. Over the period of two five-year crop rotations from 1991 to 2000, yields were similar for clover grass in IS and IP. Maize yielded slightly less and cereals as well as rape considerably less in IP than in the IS system. The decrease of profit, however, was nearly compensated by the reduced costs for fertilizer and pesticides and by subsidies for pesticide free cultivation of cereals and rape. There was little effect only by the three different crop rotations on the relative yield differences of wheat or maize for the two cultivation intensities.