Organic Vegetable Production and Soil Management

The basis of any successful organic cultivation system is a healthy soil, which requires developing strategies to improve soil fertility and supply nutrients for crops. To build soil systems and enhance the fertility of organic vegetable production, it is necessary to use biological components such as compost, cover crops, green manures, and animal by-products.
Research in this section focuses on the various approaches to maintaining and improving soil fertility for organic vegetable production systems.

Current research focuses:

• Effectiveness of different methods for applying compost in open field vegetable production

• Suppression of soil-borne plant diseases with composted organic materials

• Improving N-supply and water retention capacity in soil with suitable cover crops and managing the C:N ratio