Impact of long-term trials on crop production research and education.

Long-term trials have a twofold role in life sciences, acting as both live laboratories and public collections. Long-term trials are not simply scientific curios or the honoured relics of a museum, but highly valuable live ecological models that can never be replaced or restarted if once terminated or suspended. These trials provide valuable and dynamic databases for solving scientific problems. The present paper is intended to give a brief summary of the crop production aspects of long-term trials.