Background
The DOK trial
In the 1970s, discussions on food production in relation to the environment and yield had already been generating debate for several decades. Some pioneers of organic farming practice and scientific from the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and from the Swiss federal research centre for agricultural chemistry and environmental hygiene founded the DOK trial in 1978.
The DOK trial is a long terme experiment comparing three cropping systems. DOK stands for BioDynamic, bioOrganic and Konventionell. These three farming system have been studied for 45 years. Since the start of the trial, a large number of scientific publications have been produced thanks to this long-term experiment. Important topics such as climate adaptation, biodiversity, soil quality and yield have been studied on this site.
The site
The DOK site is located in the canton of Baselland, halfway between Biel-Benken and Therwil. The area is located in the Rhine Valley. The floor of this Valley are filled with a layer of gravel and covered by loess material (fine Calcareous silt). This large layer of1 to 1.3 m deep created a fertile soil, that allows water to rise through capillary transport during the sommer. The climate is favorable for agriculture, with temperatures averaging 9.7° C until the end of the last century and current annual rainfall of 872 mm. However, average temperatures have been rising steadily in recent decades, with an average of 11.2°C between 2010 and 2020. Climate change and crop resilience are also being studied at DOK, with a view to future extreme weather events (drought, heavy rain, hail, etc.).