Close to the ground plow

No allowance is paid for transition: from temporary grassland by sowing into the covered soil, sowing of green fertilizers and intercrops, wheat or triticale after corn.

Allowances are paid until 2019.

Sowing into the covered soil

The best is to work the soil covered by crops (residues of plants) all over its surface and superficially. Devices and machines shall be used preferably without force drive. Sowing is done into the worked part of the soil. The following machines are used for this reduced tillage: chisel cultivator with winglets, rotary harrow or vibro-cultivator. Disc or blade decompactors ("paraplow") are not allowed. In case of not using herbicides (which is of course always the case in organic agriculture), it is possible to use also the plow-harrow or classic plow, provided we do not work more than 10 cm of depth of the soil.

Sowing of an intercrop

The process of sowing an intercrop (= green fertilizers or cover crops) can be chosen independently based on the main crop that will follow. But if allowances for farming techniques preserving the soil are requested for the main crop, it is necessary that the preceding intercrop is sown by one of the three following methods: direct sowing, strip-till or sowing into the covered soil. If a farmer practices direct sowing, strip-till or sowing into the covered soil on at least 75 % of his farm, he receives a compensation of 50 Fr/ha for the current year (which is added to the basic federal allowance).

The definitions of direct sowing, strip-till and sowing into the covered soil are the same as those of the FOAG mentioned at the top of this page.

Source: Intercrops and undersowing. Www.bioactualites.ch [online]. [cit. 2017-03-10]. Dostupné z: http://www.bioactualites.ch/fr/cultures/grandes-cultures-bio/travail-sol/pres-sol-charrue-dechaumeuse.html