| Organic agriculture (OA) aims to identify a production regime that causes less environmental problems than conventional agriculture (CA). We examined whether the two systems differ in their susceptibility to soil erosion by water. To account for the large heterogeneity within the rotations practised on different farms, we chose a statistical evaluation which modelled erosion using the USLE method from the cropping statistics for 2056 districts in Bavaria (70 547 km2; 29.8% arable). Physical conditions of erosion were determined in a rectangular grid yielding 13 125 grid-cells of c. 5 km2 each. For validation, erosion was measured in 10 sub-watersheds on two neighbouring OA and CA farms over 8 years (287 erosive events). On average, about 15% less erosion... |
