Entomologists from the Faculty of Environment of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague! together with farmers from the company VIN AGRO! sro! have been working on the issue of biobelts for a long time and last year they launched a new project dealing with this area.
” Even though nectar-rich biobelts have a clearly positive effect on biodiversity! this measure is rarely used by farmers in the landscape. One reason may be that biobelts bring new challenges for farmers! for example! how to properly set up the care of biobelts with regard to their possible unwanted weeding. However! the complex setting of subsidy titles may also be a complication! for example! the ban on the movement of agricultural machinery through biobelts outside their mowing area!” said the project’s principal investigator Martin Štrobl. Petr Řebíček! CEO of VIN AGRO sro! reminded that this company currently manages almost 35 hectares of nectar-rich biobelts on the outskirts of Prague and! together with scientists! we have a unique opportunity to test and verify new procedures for establishing and caring for biobelts and their impacts on invertebrate communities.
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This project will provide new information on previously neglected aspects of establishing biobelts and their care or the possibilities of their further use by farmers. ” Biobelts have to be renewed after several years due to their weeding! and we are interested in whether no-till sowing technology can be used to re-establish the biobelt instead of classic plowing !” explained Štrobl. He stated that they assume that if biobelts are re-established in the same place without plowing! the soil will not be disturbed and soil organisms will thrive better in them. On the other hand! deep plowing can cope much better with persistent weed species.
From the point of view of invertebrates! the most gentle telegram data way to maintain biobelts is gradual mowing with subsequent removal of biomass. “However! many farmers do not have the technology or capacity to harvest these non-productive areas and use the resulting material in some way. They either do not create biobelts and similar elements in the landscape at all! or they want to mulch these areas. We are trying to find out whether there is a compromise option for maintaining biobelts! for example! gradual mulching of biobelts! which would minimize negative impacts on wild organisms and maximize the acceptability of biobelts for farmers! ” added Štrobl.
The scientists are in the first year of data collection
” We will then evaluate the data and find out how discover how to identify the buyers most eager for innovation in order to capture them plant communities develop in differently established and managed biobelts and how invertebrates thrive there. We hope that our research will ultimately contribute to a better reputation of biobelts among farmers and at the same time increase their motivation to establish new biobelts more widely across the Czech Republic. Thanks to biobelts! we will be able to better maintain our agricultural landscape in good condition !” added Štrobl.
