Research Research activities at IOL comprise a broad spectrum of topics of the agroecosystem including the opitmisation of nutrient management in cereals, legumes, potatoes and field vegetables. Other topics focus on root ecology, product quality, weed control and the development of environmental risk assessment of agricultural practices including life cycle assessment and indicators of external effects.
Scientific expertise of IOL is documented by broad spectrum of publications and contributions in international and national journals and at conferences. IOL staff is involved in various national and international working groups and serve as external reviewers.

 

Research topics - Product quality

Producing and securing high quality of products

• Potatoes: Optimising development, yield and product quality through pre-crops, amount and distribution of organic fertilizer
• Potatoes: Development of a quality index to describe tuber quality

Optimising weed control

• Strategies to optimize weed control in organic agriculture
• Strategies to control hairy vetch (Vicia hirsuta L.)
• Strategies to control Cirisum avense L.
• Strategis to control dock species (Rumex spp.) in pasture and arable land_____________

The Institute of Organic Agriculture (IOL) at the Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn deals since October 1987 with research and teaching in organic/ecological agriculture.

Our research goal is to develop methods for optimising ecological agriculture, in order to fulfill an organisational principle where the farm is considered as organism. Here, our approach is to integrate basic and applied research closely linked to the needs of the farmers.

Goals in research and development:

• Development of methods to optimise organic agriculture.
• Support sustainable development through economically sound management systems which guarantee animal's well-being, maintainance and support of environmental quality as well as the protection of natural resources and high product quality,
• Support of other institutions in gaining knowledge to develop sustainable, environmentally sound land management systems, especially organic agriculture,
• Promoting multi-disciplinary national and international research cooperations.

Our approach at IOL is the integration of basic and applied research methods contucting research experiments in the field, in the greenhouse, climate chambers, stable and at the farm level. Most of our experiments are being conducted at Wiesengut, the experimental farm for organic agriculture or at various pilot farms.

Analysis of soil, plant and animal samples takes place in our laboratory established in 1990 using modern techniques (GC, AAS, HPLC, etc.).

 

 

 

Research topic - crop production

Optimising nutrient managements

• Crop production in water protection areas.
• Reduction of nitrate leaching through Brassicaceae crops
• Undersowing crops in potatoes to reduce nitrate loss
• Red clover-grass mixture: Optimising yields, fodder quality, silage quality and N2-fixation
• Nitrogen efficiency of spring and winter cereals
• Influence of reduced intensity of soil cultivation on root growth, nutrient aquisition and yield in cereals
• Nutrient flow analysis in model farms
• Intercropping of maize and legumes