Organic Compared to Conventional Crop Yields: A Mini-Review

Organic farming is an alternative method to produce agricultural products. Here, an update of results is provided related to the internationally important topic organic compared to conventional crop yields. The most recently published meta-analyses continue to show that organic crop yields, average across all crop species worldwide, are roughly about 15–25% lower than yields of conventionally produced crops. Organic cereal and potato yields are often 30–40% lower, whereas legume and animal pollinator-dependent crop species are able to match conventional crop yields quite often. Thus, the level of the yield difference is dependent on the crop species among many other factors such as the geographic origin of the yield comparison studies. Here, a summary of informative articles is provided, which can be a useful guide for people, who are interested in the topic organic compared to conventional crop yields. This mini-review concludes that organic farming should be promoted, among other farming systems, although organic compared to conventional crop yields are usually lower, because organic farming has many strengths. For example, in general, organic farming is environmentally friendly, thus a sustainable farming system. Therefore, it might be wise to promote a fair and respectful co-existence of different agricultural production systems, including organic agriculture.