PRODUCTIVITY OF WINTER RYE IN ORGANIC VS.CONVENTIONAL CROPPING SYSTEM

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