BAB 018/19: Organic Crop Yields

Initial situation

Organic farming has been an important part of agricultural production in Austria for many years. Around 25% of agricultural land is currently farmed organically. The BML is making efforts to promote and further develop organic farming by focusing on specific measures. Information on area yields of the various crops as well as total quantities, local differences, potential demand and actual yield differences compared to conventional production are fundamental to this. In 2016, the Federal Institute of Agricultural Economics carried out and published special evaluations and projections on this topic for the period 2003-2015 in the scientific project AWI/54/16 W: Yields from organic farming. This time series has been continuously updated since then.

Objective

The aim of the project is to present Austria-wide volume yields from organic farming. Based on existing data, specific evaluations are to be carried out according to regions (dry, occasionally dry and wetlands) and main agricultural production areas. Existing data sets will be supplemented to provide an overview of the quantities produced in organic farming and thus improve the availability of statistical information in organic production.

Work 2023

For the Green Report 2023, the harvest quantities of selected organic crops and the organic yields per hectare were calculated and published in tabular form. Evaluations were also carried out for the project "Crop contributions and data bases for farm planning" (BAB/015/10). While the allocation of the farming method in previous years was based on the information provided by the farmers, since 2021 the organically farmed areas have been identified via participation in the "Organic farming method" measure according to INVEKOS.

Work in 2024

A calculation of organic yields and the relative differences to conventional yields per hectare is also planned for 2024 in accordance with the methodology and presentation developed in the AWI/54/16 W scientific project.