Swiss Trial Shows Organic Farming Is 85% As Productive As Conventional Agriculture

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) This is shown by the results of a globally unique open-air trial that has been running for 47 years in Therwil in the Swiss canton of Basel-City. This content was published on June 25, 2025 - 15:31 3 minutes Keystone-SDA

• Deutsch de Bio-Landwirtschaft ist laut 47-jährigem Feldversuch effizient Original Read more: Bio-Landwirtschaft ist laut 47-jährigem Feldversuch effizien

In the so-called DOK trial, the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and the federal agricultural research centre Agroscope have been comparing organic and conventional farming methods. In a press release issued on Wednesday, the institutions described the trial as the“Methuselah of field trials”.

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The trials showed that, on average, organic farms achieve around 85% of the yields of conventional systems. However, they only use around 65% of the nitrogen fertilisers and around 8% of the pesticides.

The differences in yield are strongly dependent on the respective crop: while the yields of soy are the same when grown organically instead of conventionally, there are greater losses in organic farming for crops such as wheat and potatoes.

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