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The OSC3 project includes 27 research activities under five themes: field crops, horticulture, pest management, livestock and environment.

Field Crops

• Activity 2 – Development of breeding strategies for organic soybean production systems in Canada.
• Activity 3 – Evaluation of farmer-selected wheat, oat and potato genotypes under organic production in Eastern and Western Canada.
• Activity 4 – Efficacy of using cover crops in 2 of the 3 growing seasons on nitrogen supply in an organic soybean-winter wheat-corn rotation.
• Activity 5 – Organic oat breeding: oat cultivars specifically developed for organic production systems in Canada.
• Activity 6 – Breeding of winter cereals to benefit no-till organic production systems.
• Activity 7 – Optimizing yield and resilience of organically grown milling oat.
• Activity 8 – The right balance: management strategies for plugging organic soil health constraints and moving forward.
• Activity 9 – Diversified cropping strategies to improve sustainability of organic crop production in the Brown soil zone.
• Activity 10 – Agronomic performance, resilience and baking quality of wheat cultivar mixtures adapted to organic management in Eastern Canada.

Horticulture

• Activity 11 – Participatory variety trialing and breeding for commercial organic vegetable growers and seed producers in Canada.
• Activity 12 – Development of an organically managed baby greens production system: a multidisciplinary approach.
• Activity 13 – Organic vertical farming (OVF) vs. smart use of greenhouses.
• Activity 14 – Improving organic vegetable farm sustainability through enhanced nutrient management planning.
• Activity 15 – Unique cover crops, rootstocks, and irrigation techniques for Canadian vineyards.
• Activity 16 – Physical control of pests and increasing the harvesting season via an innovative high tunnel adapted to organic berry farming, rain shelter and insect proof nets.

Pest Management

• Activity 17: Optimizing tillage and competitive green manures for Canada thistle control
• Activity 18: Potential of predatory bugs (Nabis and Orius) as biological control agents of the tarnished plant bug (Lygus lineolaris) in organic strawberry field
• Activity 19: Saponins as inducers of host resistance for insect and disease management in organic greenhouse production
• Activity 20: Ecological pest management for Spotted Wing Drosophila
• Activity 21: Managing wireworms in vegetable crops
• Activity 22: Biological control and management of Fusarium head blight and associated diseases in organic grain production

Livestock

• Activity 24: Optimization of berry by-products use in organic poultry production
• Activity 25: Welfare friendly alternative to surgical castration for organic pigs

Environment

• Activity 26: The effects on soil biology, soil chemistry, and water quality of amending organically managed soils with struvite
• Activity 27: Soil health in organic tillage-based systems
• Activity 28: Increasing pollination, biological control and beneficial insect diversity farms using flowering habitats
• Activity 29: Net life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of Canadian organic field crop production systems