Productivity of winter rye in organic vs. Conventional cropping system

Rye is a cereal which is very much demanded at the market, for making a special kind of bread, but it is little grown in Serbia. The aim of this paper is to investigate possibilities of organic growing of winter rye, comparing with the conventional one, in agroecological conditions of Valjevo hilly region during 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 cropping seasons. The trial was set up in a village of Kote ica, on soil which had not been used for agriculture for 7 years. In organic cropping system three combinations of microbiological fertiliser baktofil with zeolite and hydrogel were used prior to sowing. Half of each plot was treated with foliar microbiological fertiliser Slavol during crop growing period. In conventional cropping system three variants with mineral fertilisers were included: NPK, NPK+zeolite, NPK+hydrogel. Results of the yield obtained in the experiment showed a significant difference between two seasons, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. In comparison with the control, the treatments in an organic cropping system resulted with statistically insignificant differences for mean values in both years, while the mean in conventional cropping system has significantly higher yield of winter rye. Organic cropping system under conditions of Valjevo hilly region did not give significantly lower rye yield compared with the conventional one in a moderate growing season such was 2008/2009. The combination of soil microbiological fertiliser (Baktofil) with foliar fertiliser (Slavol) and zeolite gave the highest winter rye grain yield in all other treatments in the second year of investigation. In a very wet season (2009/2010) mineral fertiliser NPK showed an advantage, especially in combinations with zeolite, and this treatment can be recommended.