The Dihlmann family purchased a farm in the Altmark 15 years ago and converted it into an organic farm. Area-based payments for organic production, namely for ensuring traditional crop rotation, contributed to ensure the competitiveness of the farm.

The members of the Dihlmann family have been farmers for more than 14 generations. They moved from Baden-Wuerttemberg to the northern Altmark (Saxony-Anhalt) 15 years ago and purchased a farm in the village of Busch in the administrative district of Stendal. Since then the farm has been managed following organic production principles.

The farm’s owners turned to the possibility offered by the EAFRD support for organic production practices (under the agri-environment payments) in order to continue organic production and specifically to produce under the German organic standard and label ’Bioland’, while at the same time maintaining a competitive farm enterprise.