ABSTRACT
In Europe a working group of the International Organization for Biological Control tries to develop integrated arable farming systems inspired by the aims and methods of integrated pest management. The conventional and the integrated farms are concerned exclusively with arable farming. They are each 17 hectares and have the same four-year rotation. The research on the farms has three objectives: development of the organic mixed farm and the integrated arable farm in theory and practice, evaluation of the results of the systems based on their specific aims, and comparison of the results of the experimental systems with those of the conventional reference system. Nitrate leaching on the integrated farm remained below the conventional, notwithstanding its principally organic form of nitrogen supply. On the conventional farm, 8.5 pesticide treatments per field were applied; only 3.6 were applied per field on the integrated farm.
