Comparison of the nitrogen leaching between a crop rotation with non food agricultural products and traditional crops

The cultivation of non food agricultural products during the set-aside period is lucrative for German Farmers. They receive a governmental premium for set aside of some parts of their arable land. But on the same area they are able to earn money by producing agricultural products as raw materials for industrial purposes ( e.g. oil-plants like rape and oil-flax). A lysimeter trial was created at the UFZ-lysimeter station in Falkenberg to investigate the effects concerning the nitrogen leaching with the seepage water by farming of non food agricultural products. Tue investigations showed an increased nitrogen leaching after converting a traditional intensively farmed crop rotation into a set aside used for the cultivation of non food agricultural products. Tue nitrogen leaching depends on the cropping of the previous year. Tue plantation of potatoes and oil-flax was characterized by comparatively high nitrogen leaching losses.