Organic agriculture nutrient balance

Ebbesvik M and Loes A K (1994), Organic dairy production in Norway - feeding, health, fodder production, nutrient balance and economy - results from the 30-farm-project 1989-1992 , in Granstedt Aand Koistinen R, Converting to Organic Agriculture Seminar, Scandinavian Association of Agricultural Scientists, 93, 35 13. 

Lees, A. K. and A. F. 0gaard (in prep.). Changes in the nutrient content of agricultural soil on conversion to organic farming, in relation to farm level nutrient balances and soil contents of clay and organic matter. Acta Agric. Scand., Sect. B, Soil and Plant Science. 

Data on P leaching and runoff from organic agriculture are scarce. As nutrient balances for organic farms rarely show a significant surplus of P, losses are assumed to be small (Edwards and Withers 1998). A more reliable indicator to determine losses could be the differences in the dominant loss pathways in livestock and arable farming. 

Lantinga, E. 2001. Presentation on nutrient balances. In Workshop on Organic farming. System Thinking and the Future. 21-23 February 2001. International Agricultural Centre, Wageningen, the Netherlands. 

Description-. These ions enter the environment in the form of salts. Their presence is due to the extensive use of fertilizers as a result of the intensification of agriculture. As they are plant nutrients, they can lead to eutrophication—the enrichment of water by nutrients, causing an accelerated growth of algae and higher forms of plant life, leading to an undesirable disturbance in the balance of organisms present in the water and in the quality of the water. 

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