The attitudes of French and Spanish winegrowers towards the use of cover crops in vineyards

ABSTRACT

Vineyards are an intensive cultivation system and expose the soil to long-lasting stress. Many vineyard areas already show high degrees of soil degradation. To prevent further soil erosion, cover crops, which have various positive effects on the environment, are highly recommended. But, depending on the climatic conditions, cover crops can reduce grape yields and are sometimes more work intensive than bare soil management. In some areas cover crops are already widespread while in others bare soil is dominant. In this qualitative study, we explore the attitudes of European winegrowers towards cover crops and determine the background for differences in the adoption of greened vineyards. Thus, we conducted focus groups with winegrowers in two different regions, namely Coteaux du Layon in France and Montilla-Moriles in Spain. In this setting, the transregional differences are mainly based on the climatic conditions but also on different business structures and knowledge levels. Direct sellers seem to be more attentive to the environment and use cover crops more often than farmers which sell their grapes to cooperatives.

KEYWORDS:

• Cover crops
• focus group
• winegrower
• Europe
• attitude

Acknowledgements

The authors like to especially thank our research partners in France and Spain who helped conducting the focus groups as well as Prof. Dr Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel and Dr Elke Plaas for their encouragement and proof reading.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 A trunk disease.

Additional information

Funding

This work contributes to the VineDivers Project (01LC1401A) and the authors are grateful for the financial support through the 2013/14 BiodivERsA/FACCE-JPI joint call for research proposals and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung).