Innovative agricultural management in organic orchards and perception of their potential ecosystem services

Knowledge about ecosystem services and their values can be used to inform farmers and improve their decision-making process particularly when cropping system changes are concerned. Innovations aiming at reducing the ‘conventionalization’ of management methods in intensive organic orchards (e.g., living mulches or cover crops grown in the row or alley) are also expected to benefit the ecosystem and provide services improving the crop sustainability and resilience. A social science study, with a participatory approach, was carried out to evaluate the perception of professional stakeholders (farmers, advisors and researchers) toward innovative practices of organic orchard management in relation to nine services that had been selected among the four categories of ecosystem services. A questionnaire was prepared asking to provide an answer to the following question: “How do you perceive/believe that the new agricultural techniques proposed/tested by DOMINO Projectb will affect the ecosystem services?” From the analysis of the questionnaires gathered, a quite diversified perception emerged depending on the country and the practice concerned. The impact of a temporary net system on biodiversity and aesthetics was assessed negatively everywhere, while that of the row management was highly dependent on the country of the respondent. On the other hand, in case of cover crops, row living mulch and recycled materials for fertilizers the perception of the impact on soil nutrients, pollination and culture was higher among Italian stakeholders compared to all other countries. On the contrary, in Poland the innovative management was perceived as having a negative effect on provisioning services. Contrasting perception emerged in case of cultural services, while no major impact was perceived for supporting services. The analysis of the questionnaire indicated a high consideration of the added value of the living mulches in terms of aesthetic value and marketing claims for farmers selling directly their products on-farm.