About this Research Topic
From soil to policies: integrating organic farming and agroecological values into innovative horticultural cropping systems. Novel approaches to organic horticulture that embed some of the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the European Union Green Deal shall address the challenges derived from food safety and food security in a climate change adaptation framework while minimizing environmental impact and supporting fair revenues for producers and affordable food for consumers.
To this end, enhanced functional biodiversity is a concrete tool to strengthen the efficiency of organic horticultural farms, as it delivers ecosystem services and promotes the maintenance of soil fertility. However, site-adapted strategies must be developed, possibly integrating practices to restore functional biodiversity. A better understanding of the impact of the surrounding environment on-farm biodiversity, including pests, is also needed to optimize these practices. Functional biodiversity should also include soil biodiversity, as healthy soil with a well-functioning microbiome supports soil fertility. Practices of soil management in line with an agroecological approach and aiming at improving the biodiversity of organic horticultural cropping systems, as well as the application of new kinds of organic fertilizers or microbial biostimulants derived from agro-industrial or urban by-products, represent an exciting opportunity that can foster the circular economy approach of organic horticulture.
On the other hand, concerns about contaminants introduced into organic cropping systems through external inputs shall also be thoroughly evaluated. A comprehensive understanding of the relations between soil microbiome and the cropping system (including the crop and the accompanying species) should increase crop resilience against biotic and abiotic stresses. Integrating agronomical practices fostering functional biodiversity with applying (pre-, pro-, post-) “biotics” could thus lead to new cropping systems with lower environmental impact. Moreover, effective adoption by farmers shall be addressed and validated under field conditions to transform a potential opportunity into a successful practice.
Adapted policy frameworks are necessary to raise these potentials fully, and trade-offs between ecosystem services must be assessed. Research articles, reviews, and any other contribution addressing the issues mentioned above are thus welcomed in this Research Topic. They are expected to contribute to a specific aspect or tackle several of them with an integrated approach, including:
• Agronomical plant protection and cropping systems
• Microbiological plant protection and biodiversity
• Soil health and fertility
• Nutrient management
• The relationship between agricultural management and the nutritional quality of organic produce
• Economics of ecosystem services.
To this end, enhanced functional biodiversity is a concrete tool to strengthen the efficiency of organic horticultural farms, as it delivers ecosystem services and promotes the maintenance of soil fertility. However, site-adapted strategies must be developed, possibly integrating practices to restore functional biodiversity. A better understanding of the impact of the surrounding environment on-farm biodiversity, including pests, is also needed to optimize these practices. Functional biodiversity should also include soil biodiversity, as healthy soil with a well-functioning microbiome supports soil fertility. Practices of soil management in line with an agroecological approach and aiming at improving the biodiversity of organic horticultural cropping systems, as well as the application of new kinds of organic fertilizers or microbial biostimulants derived from agro-industrial or urban by-products, represent an exciting opportunity that can foster the circular economy approach of organic horticulture.
On the other hand, concerns about contaminants introduced into organic cropping systems through external inputs shall also be thoroughly evaluated. A comprehensive understanding of the relations between soil microbiome and the cropping system (including the crop and the accompanying species) should increase crop resilience against biotic and abiotic stresses. Integrating agronomical practices fostering functional biodiversity with applying (pre-, pro-, post-) “biotics” could thus lead to new cropping systems with lower environmental impact. Moreover, effective adoption by farmers shall be addressed and validated under field conditions to transform a potential opportunity into a successful practice.
Adapted policy frameworks are necessary to raise these potentials fully, and trade-offs between ecosystem services must be assessed. Research articles, reviews, and any other contribution addressing the issues mentioned above are thus welcomed in this Research Topic. They are expected to contribute to a specific aspect or tackle several of them with an integrated approach, including:
• Agronomical plant protection and cropping systems
• Microbiological plant protection and biodiversity
• Soil health and fertility
• Nutrient management
• The relationship between agricultural management and the nutritional quality of organic produce
• Economics of ecosystem services.
Keywords: Organic farming, Horticulture, Cropping Systems, Biostimulation, Soil health, Biodiversity, soil-microbiome
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
