Introduction
Weeds are the most harmful pest among those targeted by pesticides for arable crops but they are also are beneficial (e.g. feeding wild fauna). If herbicides are the most effective to control them, their consequences on health and environment compel to reduce their use. To achieve this goal, farmers need to combine several partially effective techniques. While the effects of each...
1. INTRODUCTION
Soil salinity affects more than 935 million hectares globally, especially in arid and semi-arid areas, and represents over 20% of the world's irrigated territories. Intensified by climate change — through higher evaporation rates, changes in precipitation, and sea-level rise — and human activities such as the overuse of fertilizers and unsuitable farming techniques, soil...
Diversifying crop rotations in arable farming is considered as an option to regulate weeds, pests and diseases, and therefore to decrease the need for pesticides. However, the potential for reducing the reliance on pesticide through crop diversification had, so far, not been quantified at the cropping systems scale. In this study, we analysed this relationship from 1285 cropping systems...
Crop growth models - or process-based models - simulate the dynamic responses of a range of varieties (G) as a function of environmental conditions (E) and management practices (M) and hence are appropriate tools to predict and explain G×E×M interactions (Chapman, 2008 ; Wang et al., 2019). Therefore such models could have practical applications for improving the design and analysis of...
- Introduction
Livestock farms are a major contributor to environmental impacts [1]. For dairy farms, one strategy for reducing these impacts is to increase the share of grass in the animals' diet [2]. However, this increases their dependence on grass growth, and therefore on the climate, in the context of climate change. This raises questions about the possibility of reconciling...
Context description and research question: Reducing pesticide use such as glyphosate, is a key challenge to support agroecological transition and resilience of farming systems. However, politicians and scientists argue that in certain situations, which they describe as "dead-ends", reducing glyphosate use is particularly difficult because of structural barriers (Reboud et al., 2017). Then, our...
Introduction
Excess use of mineral fertilizers can lead to eutrophication of rivers and lakes and biodiversity loss. Alternatives include the use of biofertilizers such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). AMF form a symbiosis with most plant species, where they contribute to plant growth by providing essential nutrients such as phosphorus. However, the success of AMF inoculation is...
Soilless cultivation of plants during long-term crewed space missions will be essential to produce vital supplies such as clean water, food, and oxygen while sequestering atmospheric CO2. Fertilizer replenishment during these missions will be cost-prohibitive, so nutrients will need to be recycled from waste. Human urine is being explored as a source of nitrogen and phosphorus for plants, as...
In vegetable long value chains, products’ perishability requires to precisely plan production. Such planning has to respect middlemen (e.g., cooperatives or wholesalers) expectations: quantity and timing of supply. Besides farmers have constraints and objective including farm land, crop rotation, workload, and viable income. Middlemen agree with regular suppliers on a planned supply calendar,...
Introduction
Intensive use of pesticides in agriculture has led to negative impacts on human and ecosystem health, and to policies aiming at reducing their utilization. Alternative non-chemical pest control strategies, based on holistic Integrated Pest Management implemented in real commercial farms, have been shown to substantially reduce the reliance on pesticides (Nandillon et al., 2024)....
1.Introduction
The future scarcity of phosphoric rock stocks is forcing to nutrient recycling at a societal scale by producing the so-called bio-based fertilizers (BBFs), allowing phosphorus (P) recovery and reuse in crop production. However, BBFs present a huge variability because they are produced from a wide range of agro-industrial by-products and different nutrient recovery techniques...
1. Introduction
There is an increasing need to improve soil quality (SQ) to preserve agricultural productivity and environmental benefits. While farmers can improve SQ by changing their production management (PM: set of farming practices), this can affect their farm income and therefore constitutes a challenge that can restrain them from improving SQ. To overcome this...
Introduction
Principles around circular agriculture are based on re-using by-products, closing nutrient cycles, minimal feed-food competition, low energy use and low GHG emissions [1]. Moving from current linear to more circular systems is a wicked problem as key trade-offs need to be overcome [2]. The objective here is to provide quantitative insights into such trade-offs and discuss...
Introduction: Renewable energies for sustainable and climate-neutral electricity production are on the rise worldwide. High-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission via underground cables gains influence to connect large production sides with consumer regions. In Germany, almost 5,000 km of new power line projects with an initial start date of 2038 or earlier are planned. During...
Organic winter wheat is characterised by variable grain yield and quality. To bridge the yield and quality gap while minimising the potential environmental impact, nitrogen management needs to be improved. The aim of the study was to examine how organic farmers can achieve the bread making quality of winter wheat by modifying their management practices. A one season field study was con ducted...
Introduction
Cropping system models (CSMs) are vital tools in agricultural research, typically designed for plot level assessments but increasingly applied across different scales, aiding in understanding how crops respond to various factors like climate change (Asseng et al., 2013). However, when these models are scaled up, they face challenges due to limited data...
1 Introduction
As a perennial crop, grapevine life history covers many decades, and the vines are exposed year after year to several biotic and abiotic hazards. The cumulative effect of such exposures influences the present health and productive potential of the vines. It is there important to understand the vine past in order to manage them properly.
The protection of crops against pests...
Abstract
Introduction:
This study employs a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to examine the impact of breeding on yield, greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon footprint trends for five cereal crops (winter wheat, rye, winter barley, spring barley, and winter triticale) over a 39-year period.
Materials and Methods:
We utilized data from Variety for Cultivation and Use (VCU) trials,...
Enhancing soil organic matter is key to sustainable viticulture. This study evaluates strategies to improve soil quality and viticultural performance in the Mediterranean. Winegrowers, acknowledging the impact of soil health on yield and resilience, are adapting to evolving policies like the anticipated glyphosate ban by turning to alternatives like cover crops for effective weed management...
Introduction. Promoting biological weed regulation by shifting resource availability and use from weed to crop may provide an option for a more sustainable weed management. Light is generally the main resource for which crops and weeds compete in conventional cropping systems. But, with the need to reduce mineral nitrogen fertilizer use, better management of crop-weed competition for...
Service crops into crop rotations may provide ecosystem services and reduce dependency to inputs. Its relay intercropping into a winter cereal allows better conditions for service crop emergence in spring, compared to summer sowing, with limited risks for crop productivity (Gardarin et al., 2022). Nevertheless, sowing the service crop into an established crop is constraining and may hinder its...
Introduction
Weeds are the most damaging pest for yields in arable crops, as they compete with the crops for light, minerals and water (Oerke, 2006). Because of climate change, crop-weed competition for water is expected to increase.
As water use and crop-weed competition depend on plant morphology (Moreau et al., 2022), we investigated the interspecies diversity in morphological...
Introduction
Sowing winter oilseed rape (WOSR, Brassica napus subsp. napus) with other species has been promoted in Europe for the last 10 years. Various advantages were pointed, like enhanced nitrogen nutrition (Lorin et al., 2016), improved weed control (Lorin et al., 2015) and less insect pest pressure (Breitenmoser et al., 2022). However, in the practice, farmers face difficulties to...
High quantities of pesticides are applied in vineyards. A shift towards pesticide-free cropping systems, grounded in agroecological principles, is imperative for enhancing the sustainability of agriculture. To achieve this objective, farmers need to change their practices (Tittonell 2014). At the farm level, numerous agroecological practices, more or less effective, already exist but they must...
Lack of control over fertilization is one of the major factors in the yield gap between smallholders and large oil palm plantations (Monzon et al., 2023). The diagnostic tool known as leaf analysis method is used by a large number of plantations to manage their fertilization and relies on annual leaf analysis and specific long-term experiments (Dubos et al., 2022). However, this method is not...
Introduction
While agricultural production is among the main drivers of anthropogenic climate change, projected effects of climate change and climate variability increase the pressure to provide food in sufficient quantity and quality at the same time. Inadequate nitrogen (N)-fertilisation practices, that fail to consider seasonally variable weather conditions and their impacts on crop...
- Introduction: Cocoa production is recognized as a main factor of forest loss and biodiversity declined in west Africa[3]. Thus, agroforestry is being promoted to restore a minimum forest cover, to conserve biodiversity, and to reinstate key ecosystem services in agricultural landscape. This introduced the Cocoa Forest Initiative in Ivory Coast and Ghana and several certifications for...
Introduction
Organic farming restricts the import of fertilisers to support crop and grassland production because it aims to rely on supplying nutrients to crops through managing soil fertility via rotations and the use of on-farm manures and crop residues rather than direct intervention. Designing rotations that effectively use nitrogen fixed by legumes is challenging, as the release of...
1. Introduction
The synergy between different technologies such as field sensors and crop models is fundamental for crop monitoring growth and yield, while assessing climate change impacts at both field and broader scales. In the perspective of climate change mitigation, the implementation of biogeochemical cycles within crop models is essential to evaluate water and carbon (C) fluxes and...
Objectives:
Most arable lands in Mediterranean countries are located in arid and semiarid regions, where water and soil salinity, water shortage and nutrients deficiency in soils are the major constraints affecting food and fodder production. In this context, halophytes emerge as alternative cash crops to be used in sustainable saline production systems, due to their ability to cope with...
Introduction
Soil fertility management differs significantly in organic vs. conventional farming systems, as it ideally relies on closing nutrient cycles rather than on the use of external mineral fertilisers’ inputs. While nitrogen (N) fertility is relatively easy to manage through BNF, phosphorus (P) management is more challenging (Möller et al., 2018). Therefore, investigating soil P...
Introduction
Crop-livestock integration and crop diversification are major levers for the development of agroecology and for improving farming system resilience by e.g. limiting disease pressure, optimizing the use of nutrients and regulating the water cycle (Lin, 2011; Martin et al., 2016). However, their implementation on the long term by farmers is a challenge, as they require an...
- Introduction:
Agricultural systems are vulnerable to pressure from multiple drivers, i.e. today’s agricultural landscapes are neither sustainable in terms of long-lasting (Agovino et al. 2019), nor are farms resilient in terms of responsive to (external) pressures (Meuwissen et al. 2020) .
Prevailing productivity-oriented management practices have led to structurally simplified...
Introduction
Intercropping is a management practice inspired by the interaction between the biodiversity of an ecosystem and its resilience under stress. Intercropping is of strategic interest in the face of climatic and environmental issues, having already shown the capacity to bring beneficial outcomes on production and ecosystem services (for example Gardarin, A. et al, 2022). However...
- Introduction
Nitrogen (N) leaching losses to groundwater are an environmental risk in intensively managed agricultural systems. Among others, an adaptation strategy to mitigate such pollution risks is to reduce the fallow (bare soil) period duration by sowing cover crops after the winter grazing of forage crops (Carey et al., 2018). Cover crops can take up excess residual N after previous...
- Introduction
Growing spring poppy for bakery products has a long tradition in Central Europe. Mean spring poppy seed yields in Austria are with 75.0 g m-2 (2008–2017) quite low as spring poppy starts to flower late and drought during the transition from the vegetative to the generative phase can lead to significant yield reductions. Growing winter poppy instead of spring poppy might get...
Introduction
In conventional intensive banana monoculture systems, fertilization, mainly mineral-based, is managed to keep high levels of mineral elements in soil, in order to ensure maximal crop nutrition and compensate for leaching losses. It actually results in excessive applications of fertilizers, far surpassing plant’s uptake and soil absorption capacity (Godefroy & Dormoy,...
Planning for sustainable agricultural landscapes requires a comprehensive understanding of the needs of stakeholders. To achieve a sustainable agricultural system, the implementation of different strategies for diversification has been a promising approach. These strategies can target the overall landscape complexity to benefit biodiversity or diversify cropping systems to enhance and...
Sowing a legume crop every third year in a crop rotation of cereal and canola can be profitable while increasing the resilience and sustainability of modern farming systems. Some of the benefits include increased soil nitrogen (N) availability and improved rotational and environmental outcomes. In no-till farming systems, sowing large-seeded legumes into retained cereal residues facilitates...
The agricultural sector has experienced significant changes over time. The current issue lies not only in enhancing its economic and productive performance but also in safeguarding the environment. Thus, the interest of this work that investigates ways to balance farmers’ profitability with environmental preservation and food supply goals. Our contribution to the academic literature is...
Exploring the potential of wheat-soybean intercropping as a climate change adaptation in crop production
1. Introduction
Due to climate change and agricultural intensification, crop production has been negatively influenced since the early 2000s. Yet, crop production needs to be doubled to feed the growing population by 2050. Crop diversification has the potential to enhance yield stability...
Introduction. Global climate change requires that the agriculture sector adapts and mitigate its impacts. The present awareness that six of the nine planetary boundaries have already been exceeded implies that agricultural and food systems reconcile with the environment from which they get natural resources that are depleting (e.g., soil, biodiversity) or whose access is becoming irregular...
1. Introduction
There is an urgent need to redesign cropping systems with the challenge to maintain high productivity, reduce inputs and their associated environmental impacts as well as mitigate climate change. Crop diversification is a key lever to meet this challenge. It means increasing the diversity of crops in time and space using strategies such as rotation extension, multiple...
Introduction
Intercropping offers the prospect of providing greater and more stable yield than sole-cropping in the face of climate change and increased climate variability. Cereal-legume intercropping is common in tropical cropping systems, but often with low legume density and limited or no nutrient inputs. Combining intercropping with integrated soil fertility management is a solution for...
In Europe, the specialisation of farms and regions and the disconnection of crop and livestock productions led to major environmental externalities (Lemaire et al., 2014) Still, high-input specialized farming systems are continuing to be developed. Bucking this trend, a few pioneering farmers have intentionally reintegrated (i.e. organized the return of) livestock into crop farms in several...
Agricultural diversification is useful for agronomic, environmental, and dietary reasons, but its consequences for productivity are debated. We conducted a global meta-analysis of 226 field trials, and found (as previous meta-analyses did) that intercropping, i.e. species mixture, leads to substantial land savings over single crops when the objective is to produce a diversified set of crop...
1.Introduction
West Africa, the primary cocoa-producing region globally, has experienced significant deforestation over the past decades, largely attributed to the expansion of cocoa cultivation by small-scale farmers. Farming cocoa represents generally the main source of income for farmers (Sonwa et al., 2019). In efforts to restore forest cover, states have implemented large-scale...
Introduction
Given the backdrop of global climate change, the biodiversity crisis and the energy transition, agriculture must transition from intensive to multifunctional management (Wittwer et al., 2021). Multifunctionality refers to the ability of ecosystems to simultaneously perform multiple functions, thus ensuring the delivery of diverse ecosystem services important for human...
In a context of agro-ecological transition, territorialization of food systems and adaptation to climate change, new agricultural products are increasingly appearing in areas where they were not historically present. These new productions may particularly rely on consumer preferences for geographical proximity and strong territorial identity (Atallah et al. 2021). They represent an opportunity...
Nitrogen (N) losses from agroecosystems threatens the environment. Regions with high livestock densities, such as Brittany (France), are particularly sensitive to this issue. In addition, N losses are expected to increase under the rising intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. Silvopastoral systems, i.e., combination of trees and pastures, are a promising solution to prevent N...
Cereal/legume intercropping allows for reducing inputs while achieving higher crop yields on the same land than expected from the monoculture crop yields of the constituent species. However, several studies have shown that the performance of intercrops depends on the genotypes chosen, crop management, and environmental conditions. Yet, evaluating multiple genotypes on various sites and under...
Introduction
Germany aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045, with focus needed on the agriculture sector where agroforestry systems (AFS), such as alley-cropping, can serve as effective carbon sinks by cultivating perennial woody plants alongside annual crops or grasslands. According to (Beillouin et al., 2023), AFS are the most effective agricultural measure for increasing organic soil...
Until recently, the health of cultivated plants has been approached through "pathogenic" approaches, focusing on chemical control methods against pests. To accelerate the agroecological transition, a paradigm shift is required with "salutogenic" approaches (Döring et al., 2012). These new approaches aim to better understand the natural mechanisms of pest regulation, in order to maintain plant...
Cooperation in rural areas has become an important research objective in recent years. As part of efforts to revitalize rural areas, researchers have often examined the economic and environmental dimensions of cooperation. Agricultural economists have emphasized the importance of farmers’ market cooperation in reducing costs and increasing the competitiveness of family farms in the food supply...
In the Amazon agricultural is a major driver of deforestation and losses of biodiversity.. Understanding farm trajectories may provide insights into new pathways for the development of sustainable territories.
This research conducted in the pioneer fronts of Guaviare and Paragominas aims to explore the contributions of different farm trajectories to the establishment of sustainable...
Introduction
Strip intercropping is a form of species mixture where the companion species are grown in narrow strips to allow species-specific management. Strong interspecific interactions occur between plants in the borders of these strips, whereas plants in the middle of the strips mostly compete for resources with conspecifics (Zhu et al., 2015). Light capture differs greatly between...
Introduction
Given the major impacts of chemical-based agriculture and landscape simplification on biodiversity, alongside climate change and human health, it is urgent to produce food in more sustainable ways (1). Crop fields and agricultural landscapes must promote biodiversity conservation and associated functions, including ecological regulation (e.g., predation, pollination), carbon...
Introduction.
Biodiversity-based cropping systems are a promising option for agriculture to meet socio-environmental issues under climate change. Yet, the levers that could be employed to establish a system based on biodiversity, such as crop diversification, require a degree of coordination with the underlying agroecosystem processes and the specific requirements of farmers. The...
Introduction
Durum wheat, a crucial staple crop, is confronted with escalating fertilizer usage, particularly nitrogen, to meet the surging demands of a growing population. However, the mismanagement of nitrogen to fulfill crop requirements can inflict harm on ecosystems, spark conflicts, and disrupt supply chains. In response to this challenge, precision fertilization technologies,...
Crop-livestock integration is a theoretical ideal for sustainable agriculture. Albeit decreasing due to limiting factors at the farm level (e.g. work constraints), crop-livestock integration beyond farm level is seen as a promising option. However, local integration between neighbouring farms requires collective redesign to address organizational issues faced with increasing levels of spatial...
Context description and research question: Ensuring healthy diets from sustainable food systems is an immediate challenge (Willett et al., 2019). On the one hand, there is an urgent need to limit the environmental impact of production systems while increasing their resilience in the face of climate change. On the other hand, consumer health is also an important point to consider when analyzing...
Introduction
In the face of climate change, improving the stability of food production systems is critical. Increasing diversity in agricultural fields can be a way to stabilize production across time and/or space. Variety mixtures represent a practical way to introduce diversity at the genotype level (Kopp, 2023). In Switzerland, variety mixtures remain rarely used, due to uncertainties and...
Intercropping consists of growing two or more crop species simultaneously on the same field [1]. Cereal-legume intercrops are a particularly beneficial association, with benefits in controlling the spread of diseases, insects and weeds [2], which can reduce chemical inputs use [3] while improving protein content and yields [4]. Despite all those benefits, cereal-legume intercrops are not...
- Introduction
Cultivar mixtures are increasingly used as a practice to diversify crops, notably for cereals such as wheat. Cereal mixtures typically yield higher than the individual components grown in monoculture, although with notable variability (Borg et al., 2018). This variability stems from plant-plant interactions within mixed stands, resulting in diverse plant phenotypes, a...
- Introduction
In Baden-Württemberg (B-W, Germany) N application for high protein quality winter wheat (E) is commonly split into three application dates: tillering, stem elongation and late booting. Total possible N application amount of a field is defined by B-W N-Düngebedarfsermittlung (N-requirement determination). Farmers in B-W commonly apply homogeneously at first N application date...
There is need for a transition of the food system towards more sustainable cultivation methods and more plant-based diets (Billen et al., 2021; Willett et al., 2020). Community supported agriculture (CSA) may have a positive environmental impact locally and increase vegetable intake among members (Medici et al., 2023). It is a format for provisioning food locally, where consumers to various...
Moving towards sustainable and input-efficient cropping systems involves analyzing farmers' practices, particularly those related to managing plant health. Understanding the knowledge they use and the underlying logic guiding their practices (Altieri, 2004) is crucial. Agronomy often focuses on describing and evaluating the technical sequences adopted by farmers but pays less attention to...
Introduction
The evolution of agroecological systems introduces greater complexity in cultivated fields, challenging both traditional and modern observational networks and methods. These include remote observations, e.g. aerial data collection, proxidetection, e.g. crowdsourcing, and direct in situ measurements. The digital transition is continually producing vast amounts of data, enhancing...
Crop diversification is increasingly promoted as a mean to improve the sustainability of agriculture while maintaining a sufficient level of food production [1]. Intercropping is a farming practice that combines at least two crop species in the same field for most of their growing periods [2], and where the two components are harvested and eventually sorted. Since plants vary in their...
- Introduction:
European agriculture is specialized in cereal production, presenting agronomic and environmental risks, and increasing the dependence on imported high-value protein (Watson et al., 2017). For instance, rainfed and irrigated Mediterranean agriculture is highly based on continuous winter cereals and maize (Zea mays L.), respectively. The objectives were to i) redesign and...
Introducing service crops into rotations may help to reduce dependency to inputs. Service provision largely depends on biomass production (Vrignon-Brenas et al., 2016b). Relay intercropping into winter cereal may favor conditions for service crop emergence, without impairing cereal yield (Gardarin et al., 2022). Nonetheless, this technique is complex and service crop establishment could fail,...
Legume-based mixed cropping systems play a crucial role in maintaining crop productivity while reducing reliance on inorganic nitrogen inputs and enhancing resilience under climate change.
Our research provides valuable insights into the long-term economic and ecological implications of adopting specific legume-based crop rotation systems, thus empowering growers to make informed decisions...
Introduction
Weeds compete with crops for resources such as water, nutrients and light, causing an average yield reduction of 34 % globally (Oerke, 2006). However, weeds also have positive effects, such as providing food and shelter for arthropods (Selfors et al., 2018) and preventing soil erosion (Seitz et al., 2019). Weeds are not evenly distributed in the field, but form patches, so...
INTRODUCTION: In Europe, increasing the area cultivated with grain legumes has been identified as a lever to mitigate and adapt to climate change. However, climate change will also impact these crops (Marteau-Bazouni et al., 2024). It is thus necessary to explore adaptation options to sustain grain legume performances in the context of climate change.
To better design innovations for...
1/ Introduction
Organic agriculture (OA) has been identified as key strategy in the European Green Deal to increase the agricultural area dedicated to OA from the current 10% to 25%. One of the key challenges to achieve this goal is the careful management and improved circularity of nutrients, particularly nitrogen, which is a limiting factor for the expansion of OA agri-food...
Introduction: Relay-cropping is a crop association where the implementation and harvest of the crops is delayed, leading to an asynchronous cycle of development. It enhances land productivity with two separate harvests in a year (Lamichhane et al. 2023). The main constraint of relay-cropping is the competition endured by the second crop (i.e., soybean) from the winter cereal, leading to...
Introduction
In recent years intercropping (IC) has increased in prominence in research globally and produced a large legacy of empirical evidence. A bibliometric study on cereal-legume IC found 4735 articles and revealed that on a continental scale most publications originated from Asia (China 785, India 626), followed by the Americas (1003) and Europe (943) (Landschoot et al., 2024)....
Plant proteins are part of the new generation of proteins for the green transition towards a neutral European continent in 2050. The cultivation of protein crops reduces the climate footprint, diversifies production systems and enhances human nutrition. Hence, the SMART PROTEIN EU project has targeted four species to develop sustainable protein supply chains for the future: fava beans,...
Cover crops (CCs) are known to improve soil fertility and cash crop performances. Introducing CCs mixtures is a promising approach to increase multifunctionality of the ecosystem services provided by CCs. However, the effect of CC mixtures on subsequent crop yield remain contrasted. Indeed, the extent to which yields are increased by CCs depends on the type and management of CCs, the type of...
Introduction
Relay strip intercropping with maize has been well studied in China (Li et al., 2020). This system performs well in conventional high-input agriculture partially due to complementary light capture. However, environmental policies aiming at reducing N leaching require reduced N input. In Europe, intercropping has mostly been done by combining cereals and legumes in organic farming...
InnoFoodAfrica was a Horizon 2020 project running from 2020 to 2024, with the aim of improving productivity and sustainability of food systems in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. The work-package on crop production practices used Farmer Participatory Research (FPR). Experiments in each country tested the impact of certain inputs on modern cultivars and local landraces, with three...
Introducing new crops that can thrive under changing climate conditions is crucial for sustainable agriculture. Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) shows promise as a C4 crop due to its high heat and drought stress tolerance. Its deep root system may contribute to increased soil organic carbon, supporting climate change mitigation. However, one of the challenges in expanding sorghum production in...
- Introduction
Potato farmers are easily tempted to apply high N rates (Vos, 1999). This runs counter to an increasing interest in society to use nitrogen (N) fertiliser efficiently. The conventional fertiliser strategy for potatoes in The Netherlands is a single basal N application shortly before or after planting. Sidedress or split N application has been proposed as an alternative...
Introduction
Participatory modeling (PM) is an approach in transdisciplinary research in which stakeholders are actively involved in the modeling process (Halbe et al., 2018). The aim is to improve the accuracy of quantitative models (e.g. hydrological models, yield models)(e.g., Beall et al., 2011; Buchheit et al., 2015) or make qualitative models (e.g. actor networks, decision-making...
- Introduction
The current societal, political, and regulatory context is leading farmers to search and develop low-input cropping systems based on agroecological levers. Sowing a permanent cover crop, usually legumes, in organic arable farming systems is an interesting lever for (i) increasing the quantities of N entering the system and which can be used by cash crops (Amossé et al., 2014;...
Introduction
Wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) are cereal grain crops vital for global food security. Adapting crop life cycles and agronomic management to changing climates is critical to increase yields to meet anticipated global demand. The study of crop species development and phenology has thus never been more important or urgent. Such studies depend on the...
- Introduction
Despite the significant improvements in wheat productivity achieved through breeding progress over the past few decades, there remains a pressing need to target even higher yields to fulfil the growing global demand for food. Understanding the response of both historical and modern wheat cultivars to various management strategies is crucial. This understanding can assist in...
- Introduction
Viticulture is facing emerging challenges not only because of the effect of climate change on yield and composition of grapes, but also of a social demand for environmental-friendly agricultural management. Adaptation to these challenges is essential to guarantee the sustainability of viticulture. Grapevine varieties are susceptible to fungal attacks, insects, and wood...
Introduction
The adaptation of wheat and barley to different growing environments is underpinned by an understanding of crop phenology. The importance of an optimal flowering period (OFP) to ensure the critical period for yield development coincides with favourable seasonal conditions has been demonstrated, whereby the combined risk of frost, heat and drought is minimised, and grain yield...
Introduction
Crop diversification is widely promoted as a sustainable intensification strategy due its positive effects on the land use efficiency (LUE) of crop production and its contribution to ecosystem services. Yet, such effects are highly variable, and an increase in LUE can mask decreases in individual crop yields. This can be a problem for farmers, who may value each crop...
1. Introduction
Crop phosphorus (P) nutrition is one of the key sustainability challenges of the 21st Century (Cordell and White, 2014). Crop models are pertinent tools to study and manage phosphorus in agro-ecosystems. However, P modelling is suffering a delay as compared to nitrogen and carbon. A major reason of this delay is the difficulty in formalizing a semi-mechanistic model...
Introduction
Crop diversity in general, and crop rotation diversity in particular, is a key principle in the design of agro-ecological cropping systems for arable crops. Since economic motives are of primary interest for farmers, assessing and analyzing the economic return of crop production diversification is essential for convincing farmers to consider diversified cropping systems for...
The agro-ecological transition confronts the agricultural world, and agronomists in particular, with the need for new, more systemic knowledge on a variety of objects and scales to go towards diversified cropping system (Ditzler 2022). The means that have been implemented for majority crops such as wheat or corn in intensive production systems cannot be deployed for such diversified systems...
- Introduction
Climate change is increasing the frequency and duration of heat waves worldwide, decreasing growth and yield of most field crops1. In this scenario, it is crucial to recognise any differences in sensitivity between wheat and barley, crops that are grown alternatively in the same fields. As far as we are aware, there are no field studies comparing wheat and barley responses to...
Historically, cocoa cultivation in Côte d'Ivoire has moved from the east in the mid-20th century to the west of the country in recent years. The preferred method of cocoa cultivation is on previous forest land use, after clearing and burning the primary forest and girdling the residual trees (Norris et al., 2010). Today, there are 4.4 Mha of cocoa cropping systems cropped by around one million...
Introduction
We investigated whether varying soybean seeding density and cultivar can tackle within-field variability by conducting a field experiment in Southern Brazil. We tested two hypotheses: that optimal seed density is higher in low yielding environment (HP1) and that high-yielding cultivars perform better than stable ones in high yielding environment and vice-versa (HP2). Three...
Extreme weather events, such as extreme rainfall and flooding events, are expected to increase in frequency and intensity. Such events are known to disturb major biogeochemical cycles such as the nitrogen (N) cycle (Greaver et al. 2016). As a result, N losses from the agroecosystem to the environment will increase, leading to the alteration of soil, air, water, and biodiversity. Hence the...
Introduction
As climate change accelerates, the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves and droughts, are on the rise (Rashid et al., 2018; Egli et al., 2005). These challenges significantly impact oilseed rape (OSR; Brassica napus L.), a globally important oil crop, as it faces increased exposure to adverse weather conditions and abiotic stress (Rashid et al.,...
1. Introduction
There is a growing interest among farmers and consumers for grain legumes in Sweden and potential in increasing their production and consumption (Röös et al., 2020). This requires better knowledge among farmers and advisors about suitable species, varieties and management practices for different conditions. Since cultivar suitability and management practices...
Introduction
Climate change and other societal targets require strategic decisions in agriculture, at different levels of organisation and spatial context. Process-based simulations models support such decisions by making relevant processes graspable to the stakeholders that formulate a large range of different questions. Many of those questions require model simulations in a larger spatial...
Introduction
Intercropping is an increasingly popular management strategy to simultaneously support biodiversity, ecosystem services, and yields in agricultural systems. Nevertheless intercropping studies that look at both yield and ESS, such as pest control, are less common and without them it is difficult to find management that works for both farmers and the environment. The objectives...
Context description and research question: An increasing number of farmers are considering the impact of conservation practices on soil health to guide sustainable management of vineyards. Understanding impacts of soil management on soil organic carbon (SOC) is one lever for adoption of agroecological practice with potential to help maintain or improve soil health while building SOC stocks to...
- Introduction.
Cotton is Benin's leading export crop grown in different climatic zones. As a result of poor farming practices in agroecosystems leading to a decline in soil fertility, coupled with the phenomenon of climatic hazards, seed cotton yields of cultivated varieties are low. Given the context of soil degradation, agroecological practices are proposed as an alternative to...
Introduction
Crop-livestock systems at landscape level consist of interactions between farms (often specialized) promoting ecological interactions over space and time between crops, pastures and livestock sub-systems. They can increase resources circularity to satisfy short-term (e.g. farm autonomy) and long-term goals (e.g. resilience to climatic hazards and agricultural practices...
Introduction. Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is a key diversification crop but current pea varieties are not very competitive against weeds. Intercropping pea with cereals is a promising lever to reduce weed infestation and damages. However, past pea varieties were bred for sole crops usually in herbicide-protected fields. They may not be optimal for growing in intercrops with wheat and in the...
Introduction. Intercropping – several species cultivated in the same field for a significant part of their growing periods – is a key lever for weed control. The aim of this study was to evaluate, by simulations with the FLORSYS model, the effects of bispecific legume–cereal intercrops on weed dynamics and their impact on crop production, tested in the absence of nitrogen or water...
Introduction: Adapting crops to climate will be challenged by shifting environments and increasing weather instability impacting both yield potential and stability. Exploring genotype x environment interactions (GEI) sources at large scale to develop outperforming and stable genotypes is an important step. Defining the Target Population of Environments (TPE) across the crop production area...
Introduction
Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from agriculture is crucial in combating climate change, as this sector contributes significantly to overall anthropogenic GHG emissions. In crop production major emissions, stem from the production of Nitrogen (N) fertilizer and related nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions in the field. The broader integration of legumes in crop rotations can...
Food systems are at the core of numerous negative impacts, involving e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity or human health. To address part of these problems, there were multiple calls to reduce or even suppress animal products in human diets (Tilman and Clark, 2014). However there is still no consensus regarding the extent of reduction of these animal source foods to mitigate the...
1. Introduction
Although breeding progress is contributing to climate change mitigation through increased land use efficiency (Laidig et al., 2021), nitrogen use efficiency (Laidig et al., 2024), and a decreased carbon footprint (Riedesel et al., 2022), increasingly adverse weather conditions exert negative impacts on crop production and food security. Crop modeling serves as a powerful...
Introduction
Crop canopy reflectance is often used as a proxy for crop vitality. While it relatively easy to identify low vitality spots through vegetation indices (e.g. NDVI, WDVI, etc.) automating the identification of the causes of the low vitality spots remains an unsolved challenge. In fact factors that can cause a drop (or an increment) in vegetation indices, for example water and...
1. Introduction
Grain legumes are key species for the agroecological and dietary transitions due to the numerous services they can provide. However, they are known to be weak competitors against weeds leading to unstable yields. For instance, chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is one of the most commonly grown grain legumes worldwide but suffers from major yield losses because of its poor...
Introduction
Cultivating cover crops is considered one of the most promising practices for agricultural soil carbon sequestration (Kaye and Quemada 2017). However, biophysical estimates of the potential for offsetting greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by cover crops have been critiqued as unrealistic (Moinet et al., 2023). This is due to the omission of agronomic and socioeconomic...
Introduction
To address agricultural challenges, engaging agroecological transition is crucial, necessitating a redesign strategy for productive and resilient biodiversity-based farming systems. However, implementing spatio-temporal design of diversified systems is complex due to the diverse factors that need to be considered, the large number of possible crops combinations in time and...
- Introduction
Providing solutions to facilitate agro-ecological, dietary and energetic transitions is a way to limit consequences of the climate change. Due to their ability to fix nitrogen in the soil and their nutritional qualities, pulses are crops that can contribute to these transitions. However, the poor varietal offer in pulses is an obstacle to increase their cultivation, especially...
Introduction
Process-based crop models are helpful tools in studying genotype × environment × management (G × E × M) interactions in agriculture (Boote et al., 2013). With climate change (CC) threatening global food security through increased droughts, higher temperatures, and altered precipitation patterns, understanding its potential effects on crop production is crucial...
1. Introduction
Mechanical weed control is a major element of weed suppression in organic farming systems. In addition to the direct effect on weed growth, mechanical weeding, such as harrowing or hoeing, is known to induce side effects on several soil- and crop-related properties. There is a lack of knowledge regarding the effect of mechanical weeding on soil N dynamics and soil moisture...
- Introduction:
Deep learning-based methods have shown success in predicting crop yield. However, it is still a challenge to train a deep learning model to effectively predict crop yield with only a few labeled observations, especially across small agricultural fields with high heterogeneity. Self-supervised learning (Liu et al., 2021) is a new technique addressing the challenge, but no...
Introduction
In Europe and the UK, farms have typically become highly specialised with little or no integration between crops and livestock enterprises either between or within farms, resulting in an agricultural system that is highly dependent on purchased inputs for the supply of nutrients to both crops and livestock. The consequence of this specialisation has meant there is a risk of soil...
- Introduction.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) faces significant food availability issues largely due to low soil fertility leading to low crop yields. Climate change is expected to exacerbate these issues due to a combined negative impact on crop yield and soil fertility. Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) implies the combined use of mineral and organic fertilizers and is seen as a...
Introduction.
Management of perennial weeds has become increasingly difficult with the reduction of herbicide use. Perennials accumulate reserves in belowground storage organs from which they can regenerate new plants after a disturbance. Tillage is a key lever to control perennial weeds because it destroys the aboveground part and fragments the belowground storage organs, stimulating...
- Introduction
Crop growth models can provide real-time forecasts of upcoming drought or nutrient deficiencies and can thus in principle be used to support decisions about irrigation and fertiliser application. To be useful for supporting in-season crop management, forecasts need to be (1) frequently updated and (2) sufficiently accurate. This second point is problematic in practice,...
INTRODUCTION. Nitrogen (N) fertilization in agroecosystems can lead to non-desirable environmental impacts such as water pollution by nitrate leaching and the emission to the atmosphere of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. The application of nitrification inhibitors (NIs) such as dimethylpyrazole phosphate (DMPP) and dimethylpyrazole succinic acid (DMPSA) has been proven to be an efficient...
The growing negative impacts of climate change on society and ecosystems necessitate accelerating the transition towards sustainable mitigation solutions. Agriculture is responsible for around 12% of EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (EEA, 2022). Yet, it also offers significant opportunities for climate change mitigation, notably through the potential of agricultural soils to sequester carbon....
The aim of agriculture is to produce food of high nutritional quality in sufficient quantity, while being sustainable and taking care of the soil.
The aim of this study was to compare and analyse the impact of organic and conventional growing systems within the same rotation to the yield and quality of spring barley, red clover, winter wheat, field pea and potato, as well as to assess the...
The Mediterranean region is considered a hot spot for climate change with recent acceleration generating major risks in several key sectors, particularly concerning water availability or food production (Cramer et al., 2018). The resilience of agriculture has recently become a critical challenge in supporting farmers in a context of increasing short- and long-term risks. Over the past decade,...
[Introduction] Soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration is essential for sustaining soil health and food supply in agroecosystems (Turmel et al., 2015). The amount of organic C stored in soil reflects a net balance between C inputs and outputs (Kuzyakov and Domanski, 2000). Soil is a complex matrix with a spatially heterogeneous distribution of SOM at different spatial scales (Schlüter et...
- Introduction: In the Mediterranean context, conservation agriculture (CA) is gaining importance due to the rising costs of conventional agriculture (CN) (Cicek et al., 2023). Various solutions have been identified to mitigate the initial drawbacks of switching from CN to CA, but yield losses and soil compaction still occur. The aim of the experiment was to assess the short-term effects...
In intensive vegetable production systems, cover crops are usually incorporated into the soil by disking prior to the subsequent crop. In recent years, silage tarps have gained popularity amongst farmers in Quebec as a suitable tool for no-till cropping systems. Termination of cover crops by roller-crimping is another strategy used by organic farmers. However, these practices have not been...
Soil biodiversity is threatened by intensive agriculture that relies on annual grain crop production, thus leading to a decline in soil functions and ecosystem services. Perennial grain crops have a positive impact on the soil microbial community, but the responsive microbial groups and the magnitude of their response remain uncertain. To better understand how soil microbial community...
1. Introduction
The availability and quality of water resources impose substantial constraints on crop production, particularly affecting arid and semi-arid regions. In the Mediterranean, the climate change driven increase of irrigation requirements by 2080 is estimated to exceed 70 % when taking population growth into consideration [1]. The development and implementation of improved...
Changes in rainfall patterns and extreme wet and dry events are more frequent and will intensify globally because of global warming disrupting the water cycle (Rohde, 2023). This is particularly the case in Southern Africa with an increasing intensity and frequency of rainfall extremes. These events often lead to water stresses ranging from droughts to waterlogging, which may adversely impact...
Introduction
Intensive agriculture has been promoted since the green revolution in the 1960s to boost crop yields and satisfy increasing food demand (Mann, 1999). Such intensification led to modifications in agricultural practices with higher fertilization, increased pest control and intense varietal selection among others. Additionally, the increase in the overall agricultural land cover led...
Winter cereals play a crucial role in human diets. The initial impacts of climate change on these strategic crops include yield stagnation and increased yield variability (Olesen et al., 2011). Projections indicate that for every additional degree Celsius of temperature increase, global wheat production could decrease by 6% (Asseng et al., 2015). Climate change impacts and adaptation...
In recent decades, a significant global shift in our food system was observed, marked by increased consumption of high-calorie diets, processed foods, and animal products. This trend led to a surge in obesity, cardiovascular diseases, and non-communicable diseases [1,2]. To sustain this food system and meet the needs of a growing population, agriculture underwent transformation with the...
Climate change significantly impacts legume crop production systems, necessitating adaptive crop management strategies (1), especially in low-input agricolture. In response, our study utilizes the MONICA crop model (2), previously refined and validated with chickpea and lentil field trial data from Europe, to forecast the response of these crops to upcoming climate variations throughout Italy....
(1) Modern food production largely rely on a linear nutrient flow, with nutrients entering the field as bought fertilisers, or potentially as farmyard manure, but with little return of nutrients from the society. Returning organic waste products is a way of closing nutrient cycles between agriculture and society, contributing to a circular economy where resources are reused (Rosemarin et al.,...
Increasing and heat and drought are major abiotic stressors threatening European cereal yields under climate change. So far little is known about the spatio-temporal yield effect of these stressors (Lüttger and Feike, 2018). In this study, we assess genotype (G) × environment (E) × management (M) specific weather-yield relations utilizing spatially explicit weather indices (WIs) and variety...
- Introduction. In the context of global challenges such as climate change, declining soil fertility, and the aging of cocoa orchards, the sustainable production of cocoa in West Africa is under significant threat (Ameyaw et al., 2018). As the region contributes over 70% to the world's cocoa supply, these challenges call for a profound reevaluation of conventional agronomic practices....
Introduction
In the current agricultural landscape, the intensive use of synthetic fertilizers to meet the nutritional needs of crops, such as spinach, presents significant environmental and economic challenges. Historically, various cultures, especially in North African countries, have turned to organic methods like homemade manure tea (HMT) (Azeez et al., 2014). This tea, obtained by...
Introduction
Agriculture is currently facing the challenge of ensuring food security. In addition, climate change affects the sustainability of farming systems by decreasing crop yield and soil fertility (Kakabouky, 2021). Novel agriculture practices, such as the inclusion of alternative crops into traditional cropping systems could be a new solution to pursue environmental benefits. In...
Introduction
Olive orchards represent a major component of agricultural systems in the Mediterranean basin. In recent decades, modern high-yielding intensive cropping systems are expanding fast, often replacing low-yielding traditional orchards. These changes in olive farming may result in higher environmental impacts as new orchards are highly mechanized and require a higher use of inputs...
The changing global climate of more variable rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures is a severe threat to worldwide food security. There is need for adaptive technologies, agronomy, and crop varieties that will be capable of meeting and exceeding the projected demands of an increasing human population in the changing climate. An increase in average temperatures will result in crop...
Introduction
Weeds compete with crops for light, minerals and water, and weed-related yield losses will probably increase with climate change (drought, heat waves), under the influence of competitive weeds, in particular for increasingly scarcer water resources (Storkey et al., 2021). Thus, cropping systems must be redesigned to make weed management low-input and climate-resilient....
Introduction
In viticulture, addressing contemporary challenges such as the reduction of pesticide use, the agroecological transition, or the adaptation and mitigation to climate change effectively involves soil management practices, especially with the use of service crops (Abad et al., 2021a, 2021b). Service crops are grown to provide provisioning, regulation and maintenance, and...
Introduction
Increasing legume production is a crucial goal of agricultural policy in Germany and the EU, aiming to boost regional protein supply, diversify crop rotations, and mitigate climate change by replacing N fertilizers in cropping systems and by providing alternative plant-based proteins for human nutrition. Narrow-leaved lupin (Lupinus angustifolius) shows promise for...
The recognized impacts of phytosanitary products on human and ecosystems health call for a deep modification of cropping systems. In Brittany, cropping systems are mainly aimed at providing animal feed. If the breeding of ruminants allows the valorization of fodder and therefore the presence of perennial crops in rotations, this is not the case with the breeding of monogastric animals. In...
1.Introduction
Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for plant nutrition. The current fertilization strategies rely on mineral fertilizers, obtained from non-renewable and finite resources, whose production will peak in the coming decades. In a scenario of world population growth, reducing dependence on mineral fertilizers while maintaining/increasing agricultural productivity is...
Agrobiodiversity, as both the spontaneous and the deliberately introduced biodiversity found in cultivated fields, fosters a number of ecological services (Rafflegeau et al., 2023). The understanding of the linkages between agrobiodiversity and these services is a driver of agricultural management strategies. The agroecosystems can be designed through biodiversification in space and time, and...
1. Introduction
Climate change and the overloaded nitrogen (N) cycle are among the greatest challenges in agriculture (Rockström et al., 2009). Therefore, crop production must increasingly focus on environmental and climate impacts. Legume-based cropping systems are known to be particularly environmentally friendly and have several benefits for farmers and the environment (Zander et al.,...
In Mediterranean areas, irrigated maize systems are based on winter bare soil periods and synthetic N fertilizer is split in a maximum of three applications leading to a low nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). Spain is one of the largest pig producers worldwide, which leads to an important availability of organic sources. Therefore, application of organic fertilizers is usual in cereals. Moreover,...
Introduction
The agricultural sector is responsible for approximately 10 - 12 % of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and hence, contributes substantially to climate change. On global scale, the wine value chain emits about 0.3 % to anthropogenic GHG emissions (Rugani et al., 2013). In countries with increased wine production and consumption, these rates might be even higher...
Introduction
Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) situated in the boreal region and faces crop production challenges due to low soil fertility, short growing seasons, and low crop heating units or growing degree days). Cover crops (CCs) have potential to improve soil fertility, soil quality and health (O’Reilly et al., 2012), reduce erosion (Blanco-Conqui et al., 2011), and enhance productivity...
Over the past decades, the demand for plant-based proteins has steadily increased, especially to support animal-based proteins, leading to a strong dependence of European countries towards foreign producers. In a context of transitioning food system through more reliance on food security, reduction of meat consumption or more plant-based diet, legume crops appear as a promising solution....
Introduction
The development of anaerobic digestion plants associated to agricultural farming systems allow biogas production that benefits farmers and society but raises questions on impacts and ecosystem services provision generated by this development. In literature, many studies have focused on digestate application and fertilising value, in experimental trials; most of them are...
Agro-ecosystem models can be useful to assess a wide range of spatial and temporal diversification strategies, as they are able to capture the crops interactions with heterogeneous soil and environment. The models can support the design of diversified field arrangements with limited experimental efforts. However, a prerequisite for their ability to capture these heterogeneities is the adequate...
Understanding agricultural processes and their interaction with the environment is essential to improve agricultural practices in regards to climatic changes. In particular the management of soil water needs to be optimized to improve the crop resilience against extreme weather events and to obtain stable yield levels (Gaona et al., 2022). The most fertile soils in Germany occur in areas with...
Introduction
Recent data indicates a significant increase of mean air temperature and a higher heat waves’
frequency (IPCC, 2021), which lead to detrimental effects on crop yield and products quality.
Consequently, it becomes a necessity to produce thermotolerant cultivars which implies to decipher
the mechanisms underlying heat stress tolerance. Moreover, it is proved that a first...
Agriculture accounts for around 14% of global greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. Field crops, mainly cereals, cover around 520,000 ha, out of a total of 828,000 agricultural ha in Catalonia, NE Spain. Their productivity is based on management practices that involve low crop diversity, long periods of bare soil exposed to degradation, and the use of large amounts of nitrogen fertilizers, leading...
- Introduction
Climate change is caused by the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases, which leads to rising temperatures. This, in turn, alters rainfall amounts and distribution patterns, which will affect canola growth and yield characteristics. A systematic literature review was conducted to investigate the influence of changing climatic factors on canola growth during its vegetative...
Farming systems are both impacted and responsible of climate change, due to a major cause of greenhouse gas emission and consequences on farmers’ productions. In response to these challenges, innovative farming systems based on agroecological principles emerged. Their development transform specialised and input dependent farming systems. Agroecological transformations have not been documented...
Introduction
Spectral indices can determine biomass differences in plant canopies. The indices react differently sensitive to differences in biomass and chlorophyll content in different growth stages (Hunt et.al. 2005; Voitik et.al. 2023). This study explores the potential of the NGRDI for vegetation monitoring as an alternative to other well established indices. A focus was set to the...
Many nutrient management policy combinations have been implemented to reduce the influx of agricultural nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) into watersheds in China and elsewhere. These policy combinations not only consist of measures that directly control nutrient input but also comprise other conservation measures, such as crop selection regulations. However, the combined and separate impacts of...
- Introduction
Agroforestry systems (AFS) especially alley cropping systems with short rotation coppices (SRC), have emerged as promising solutions for mitigating climate change by offering carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction benefits compared to conventional agriculture practices. While AFS has shown promise in mitigating climate change, it is worth noting that...
The application of organic waste products (OWP) and the sowing of winter cover crops are agronomic levers to improve soil health. Anaerobic digestion of OWP is now a common practice and, as biogas is considered a renewable energy source, its development is encouraged by the European Union. Biogas digestate, a by-product of this process, is increasingly produced and recycled on agricultural...
Introduction
Crop diversification in time and space, e.g. through crop rotation, intercropping and cover crops, have been shown to promote ecosystem services such as pollination, biological pest control and soil fertility, thereby reducing input dependency and mitigating agriculture’s negative environmental impacts (Kremen et al. 2012; Tamburini et al. 2020). Diversification via intercropping...
- Introduction
Future crop production depends on plant plasticity to the increase in atmospheric CO2 concomitant to an increase in mean temperatures as well as more frequent and intense events of heat waves and droughts (Zscheischler et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2023). Thus, it is necessary to better understand the effects of these different climatic variables and their interactions on...
- Introduction: Aerobic rice culture employs direct-seeding of dry rice seeds into unpuddled soils, with the field kept unflooded throughout the growing period to save irrigation water (Kato and Katsura, 2014). The method often leads to severe yield loss compared with the conventional transplanting method in flooded fields due to weed infestation (Jabran and Chauhan, 2015). For the judicious...
This is an abstract for a poster to be presented by Prof Kairsty Topp
Adaptation to climate changes adjusts our views on food production and consumption. There is a shift towards reduced fertilizer use in agriculture and zero waste production systems, leading to the importance of whole grains and their complete valorization. Cereal grains contain not only starch and proteins, but also dietary fibers, such as arabinoxylan and beta-glucan, which importance in...
Introduction. At the landscape scale, agricultural intensification resulting from the loss of semi-natural habitats, reduction in land-cover diversity and increase in field size is a major threat to biodiversity and the delivery of ecosystem services (1, 2). In addition, climate change has an increasing role in the decline of biodiversity (3–5) and is posing a growing threat to agriculture and...
Abstract
Agriculture faces significant challenges as there is the need to produce more products reducing costs and maintaining sustainability. One of the approaches that can be followed is the inclusion of intercropping systems which can maximize yields by making more efficient use the environmental resources, increasing agricultural income and enhancing agroecosystem biodiversity. The aim of...
Introduction
Homemade dry manure tea (HMT), a widely used organic fertilizer in North Africa, is considered by local farmers as an affordable alternative to synthetic fertilizers. HMT is used to boost plant growth and health and enhance soil fertility. However, despite its widespread use, HMT remains largely understudied as for its properties and use in North African farming systems....
Introduction
Growing different crops in a repeating sequence on the same field - frequently referred to as crop rotation - has various benefits over monoculture. These include improved control of weeds and soil-borne pests and diseases, enhanced resource use efficiency, and an increase in crop yield overall. Agronomic theory behind crop rotational planning is well-established, and...
Introduction
A good management of nutrients in agriculture is crucial for adequate plant growth and development, but a major problem is low nutritional efficiency. A large amount of the nutrients, especially nitrogen, is lost into the atmosphere or enters ground- and surface waters unused causing major harm to ecosystems. Many farms in Germany and generally in Europe raise live-stock or...
Agricultural soil management is a crucial aspect in agriculture. It is known to influence carbon storage, thus potentially aiding in the mitigation of atmospheric CO2 levels (Martin et al., 2021). The management of crop residues, whether through exportation (e.g., for animal fodder or bioenergy production) or incorporation into the soil, significantly impacts carbon storage (Autret et al.,...
- Introduction
To halt the loss of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes, the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy promotes the implementation of practices that benefit the climate and the environment - various non-productive activities. One of them is the flowering plant margins on field edges. Multifunctionality of flower margins is very different depending on landscape...
- Introduction
Iron is an essential micronutrient for plants with a very important role in their metabolism. 80-90% of Fe is located in chloroplasts. Therefore, any imbalance in foliar Fe homeostasis will affect chlorophyll synthesis and the photosynthetic apparatus [1]. However, excess Fe can cause phytotoxicity, especially in waterlogged soils, through the generation of reactive oxygen...
Climate change is one of the major challenges of the 21st century as the effects on the agricultural sector, are excepted to be massive, therefore jeopardizing food security. Among the climatic constraints, heatwaves have become more intense and more frequent which represent a threat to most crops, particularly during their reproductive stage which is the most critical period for seed yield...
The trend towards a more plant-based diet and growing concerns about climate change have led to an increasing interest in dairy alternatives in the last years. With a 56% share of the total milk alternatives market, oat milk is currently the most popular plant-based milk in Germany (BMEL 2023). However, the area of oat cultivation in Germany has decreased by almost 40% in the last 20 years:...
Agricultural soils are a primary source of anthropogenic $\text{N}_{2}\text{O}$, a potent greenhouse gas (GHG). It is emitted from the cultivation of crops, especially those with low nitrogen (N) use efficiency such as winter oilseed rape (WOSR) wherein high amounts of N fertilizer are added to soils to ensure high crop productivity. WOSR is an important crop cultivated for fuel, food and...
Species mixtures are a key lever for the agroecological transition, mitigating environmental impacts while sustaining yields (Bedoussac et al., 2015). However, farmers encounter diverse lock-ins, including technical and economic challenges, particularly regarding equipment for growing and sorting species mixtures (Bellon Maurel & Huyghe, 2017). To overcome these lock-ins and develop species...
. Introduction:
In comparison to temperate monoculture arable cropping systems, short rotation coppice agroforestry systems (AF) presents a unique opportunity for enhanced carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation due to its integrated approach combining trees with various agricultural components. While both systems aim to improve sustainability, agroforestry's ability to store...
Grain legume production in Europe remains low, despite their numerous benefits. On average, they occupy less than 2% of European acreage. For instance, soybean, a highly valued grain legume, accounts for a small proportion of total arable land in Central Europe, despite its potential. Commercial inoculants are commonly used to inoculate field-grown soybeans in Europe. However, nodulation...
Arable land plays a key role in the sequestration of soil organic carbon (SOC). SOC is an important contributor in soil quality and hence crop productivity. In southwestern Iran, SOC levels are low due to climatic conditions and agricultural practices, and are likely to be affected by climate change. In this study we used the calibrated and validated model called MONICA to assess the impacts...
Yield improvement in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) has shown signs of yield stagnation in Spain 1-4 and other countries in Europe 5–7. Furthermore, prospects for genetic gains and adaptability are challenging in the context of climate change, where the occurrence of extreme events and erratic weather difficult genotypic selection and jeopardizing genetic gains....
Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] and its derived products are presently the most traded plant-based protein source on a global scale (USDA 2021). Soybean has remained a minor crop in Europe since its first introduction, although it is a popular feed supplement for livestock. Given its high demand in Europe, current efforts are aimed at expanding production to non-traditional areas made...
Reconciling agricultural production with environmental preservation is one of the most challenging issues in the agricultural sector. We address this issue by considering two strategies for land management: ‘land sharing’ and ‘land sparing’. Taking into account farm categories, we use an efficiency analysis utilising the DEA method to measure the potential for implementing these two...
In Réunion Island, herbicides are the main pesticides used in sugarcane cropping systems (Antoir et al., 2016; DAAF La Réunion, 2016). Available herbicides registered for use on sugarcane were recently reduced to 8, and should be further restricted to 4 (ANSES, 2023). However, weeds may cause yield losses ranging from 20% to over 50% (Marnotte & Le Bourgeois, 2018), and are considered as a...
1. Introduction
The olive is the main tree crop in regions with Mediterranean climate, being cultivated on extensive areas in most countries of Southern Europe. Olive leaf spot, caused by the fungus Venturia oleaginea, represents one of the most important foliar diseases for the olive tree crop worldwide. Dispersal of the fungus occurs mainly through spores of the pathogen that are...
Abstract: The green manure provides environmental benefits, mainly related to improved soil properties and increased flora and fauna diversity. Incorporated plant biomass with green manure crops aims to replace the insufficient application of livestock manure, increase soil organic matter content, and provide mineral nitrogen (N) for main cash crops in the crop rotation. This study aims to...
While agronomists traditionally consider the level of organization of the plot or the farm in their approaches, the consideration of a higher level of organization such as the territory has been continually advocated for 20 years (Boiffin 2004). Indeed, agriculture is facing challenges such as environmental issues (climate change, natural resource management, biodiversity preservation) or...
In this study, we evaluated the impact of three nitrogen (N) balance calculation methods on N surplus in a five-crop rotation. A complex but precise N balance calculation method revealed a more realistic assessment of legume contribution in crop rotations, considering N surplus, cumulative surplus, and efficiency of N inputs. This method highlighted the significant role of red clover as a...
Introduction
The side effects of chemical inputs in agriculture raise concerns and necessitate the exploration of options for a transformation in cropping systems for enhanced efficiency and sustainability. Intercropping is the cultivation of multiple crop species in the same field at the same time and has multiple ecological advantages, e.g related to nutrient capture and disease control...
Grasslands are an important component of land use in Europe, and the differ considerably in species composition, yield potential and management. Typical use cases include grazing with animals and mowing for haymaking, but mixed use and other forms of use also exist. Wet grasslands have recently come into focus, as many of them have been drained in the past to prolong the production season and...
1.Introduction
The extensive use of pesticides currently constitutes a major environmental and public health issue (Inserm, 2013; Berardi Tadié and Bonvarlet, 2019). several indicators have been used to evaluate pesticide pressure: TFI, NODU and QSA. Other generic, simple and flexible indicators are used in this context: IRSA and IRTE (Mghirbi et al., 2015) to assess the potential risk of...
Introduction
The decision of when and what to plant in a particular field is the decision that faces all farmers. For farmers in regions with variable climates and both summer and winter sowing options, such as the subtropical grains regions of eastern Australia, planting the wrong crop at the wrong time can have severe economic consequences (Angus et al., 1980; Whish et al., 2007), but more...
Introduction
Sustainable cropping systems are deemed multifunctional, i.e., supplying sufficient agricultural products while maximizing eco-environmental and socio-economic benefits. Researchers have made considerable efforts to develop cropping systems towards multi-attribute sustainability either by diversifying crop rotations (Liang et al., 2023) or ameliorating management practices...
Agroforestry, which combines crops and trees, promotes biodiversity and ecosystem services. Despite its potential, the successful establishment of young trees within the agroforestry system remains a major challenge for farmers, who may be faced with heterogeneous recovery after planting. This research aims to identify indicators to assess tree recovery and root health after planting, while...
Introduction
Since the 2000’s, innovative cropping systems have been designed and tested at INRAE in "system experiments", with the constraint of drastically limiting or even eliminating the use of pesticides. To this end, these systems are based on the principles of agroecology, mobilizing - in conjunction with a variety of cropping techniques - the services provided by increased biological...
Abstract: Intercropping is a cropping system that enables maximizing the utilization of limited agricultural land by effectively using resources, soil, water, and solar energy. Growing two or more crops in the same field through intercropping was efficiently used for forage production in Serbia for decades (Mikić et al, 2015). Legume-cereal mixtures are efficient in terms of inputs, especially...
Wheat is grown in variable environments and the fluctuations during critical developmental phases may have significant effects on final grain yield, especially in the context of increasingly frequent climate extremes. Therefore, it is important to understand the impacts of short-term (days) natural fluctuations of environmental variables during specific physiological phases that correspond to...
Introduction
Weeds represent a major global constraint to crop production, leading to ~10% yield losses annually, across crops and regions (Oerke, 2006). Vulpia myuros (rattail fescue) is an annual grass species with an almost worldwide presence. In recent years, V. myuros has been increasingly observed as a weed in arable crops in Europe and northern America, in particular in crops under...
INTRODUCTION
Current agriculture relies heavily on the excessive mineral fertilizer application, which have severely degraded 40% of the world's agricultural soil (Zhang et al., 2017). To tackle this issue, modern agriculture is confronted with the task of identifying alternative strategies to traditional mineral fertilization, which allow its reduction or replacement. Among these...
Agriculture stands as a fundamental pillar of human sustenance, meeting the growing global demand for food, feed and fiber. Within this context, the use of fertilizers, especially nitrogen (N) based, has been pivotal in enhancing crop productivity. However, excess usage of nitrogen not only leads to economic losses but also has negative environmental consequences, such as the emission of...
Intercropping, i.e. growing two or more crops together on the same land simultaneously is becoming more common in Europe in recent years, especially in organic farming and low-input in production systems. Cultivation of legumes together with cereals in intercropping reduces mineral nitrogen need due to nitrogen biologically fixed by leguminous plants, thus also reducing the expenses on...
Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting crops. Traditional breeding and genetic approach are applied to mitigate the effects of the drought. However, crop tolerance to abiotic stresses involves quantitative traits and many genes, therefore the plant adaptation to stresses should be improved by various sustainable strategies (Ali et al., 2022). Sustainability in agriculture...
1.Introduction
Agriculture in France is subject to numerous constraints, notably increasing meteorological risks in recent years due to climate change. Faced with natural disasters and pressure from bio-aggressors, farmers in both conventional and organic production are confronted with a multitude of risk factors leading to variability in their agricultural yields (Arora 2019; Malhi et al.,...
1. Introduction
Olive orchards have been a very important part of Mediterranean agriculture since ancient times. Historically a low input crop grown on rolling landscapes with shallow soils, olive growing is experiencing an intensification process that carries along some radical changes in its thousands-year-old agronomic practices: olive orchards are moving from low-input traditional to...
Introduction
The Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science (SITES) is a network of nine field research stations across different habitats and climate zones of Sweden (www.fieldsites.se). Lönnstorp field research station at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Alnarp, southern Sweden, is one of two agricultural stations within SITES. Situated in an intensively farmed...
- Introduction:
Management practices can modify certain aspects of soil quality such as the soil organic C (SOC) content, thus affecting the cropping system performance. While the use of cover crops or perennial forages is associated with increases in SOC stocks (Börjesson et al., 2018; Poeplau & Don, 2015), the effects of tillage, crop rotations or irrigation are more location-dependent....
- Introduction
Global warming is a pressing issue for all countries and especially their primary producers. The carbon (C) farming industry is an integral part of Europe’s and Australia’s transition to address the threat of global warming.
Prior to designing C farming projects, proponents, policy makers and government agencies need to identify where it is most effective to invest to...
1. Introduction
Among climate change’s features, the recurrence of spring heat waves has become a growing threat to winter crops that complete their reproductive phase over the spring and early summer period (IPCC, 2021) such as winter oilseed rape (WOSR). Modelling approaches to predict and to help anticipating risks of heat stress over crop sensitive stages (e.g. using early or late...
Introduction
Subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.) is a valuable component of regenerative agricultural systems. This legume naturally regenerates from seeds set in previous seasons, which eliminates the need for re-sowing because it maintains a seed bank of ‘hard’ seeds. Some of these remain dormant for germination in later years. The ability to avoid drought by producing...
Soils account for the largest reservoir of terrestrial organic carbon1. However, soil organic carbon (SOC) losses associated with cropland cultivation are substantial2,3 and expected to increase with global warming4,5. Major implications of SOC losses include the exacerbation of climate change (as CO2 is released to the atmosphere) and the decline of soil health6. To circumvent these losses,...
1.Introduction
A 39-year field experiment has been conducted continuously since 1984 in Germany, to evaluate the effects of a combined supply of organic and mineral nitrogen on the biomass of two different selected cover crops.
2.Materials, Methods
The field experiment is located at the experimental Station Berlin-Dahlem (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany). The site has the...
- Introduction
Soil organisms play a crucial role in providing essential ecosystem services such as transforming organic matter, nutrient cycling, forming soil, and regulating pests and diseases (Saccá et al. 2017). To support the biological activity in the soil, organic fertilizers like composts are often used (D´Hose et al. 2016, Sánchez-Monedero et al. 2019), especially in organic farming...
- Faced with the looming threat of climate change and the spread of the Cocoa Swollen Shoot Virus, the sustainability of cocoa cultivation in Côte d’Ivoire is at stake. In this context, agroforestry emerges as a beacon of hope for sustainable cocoa production. However, the quest for optimal shading in these agroforestry systems remains a major challenge. This study aims to unveil the secrets...
Reducing the use of chemical products requires sustainable control of plant pests based on a number of alternative control levers e.g. cultural practices, planned biodiversity, biopesticides, physical barriers, etc. However, these alternative levers have only partial efficacities. Consequently, it is necessary to combine several complementary alternative methods to reduce pesticides and to...
Context and purpose of the study - The winegrowing sector consumes large amounts of pesticides. Changes in vineyard are necessary in order to reduce or even stop using pesticides, and thus limit their harmful impacts on health and on environment. To address these issues, the VITAE project (2021-2026) aims at assessing and designing pesticide free viticulture in France. For that, we searched...
Abstract
Introduction:
This study evaluates the variability in the carbon footprint of winter wheat production in Germany, with a focus on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. It aims to identify significant contributors to emissions variability and suggest improvements in estimation methods.
Materials and Methods:
Employing "Value for Cultivation and Use" trials, we analyzed the impacts of...
Abstract:
Weed growth in crops accounts for ~30% loss in crop yield. In organic farming, weeds can reduce crop yields by over 50% At the same time, weed control by conventional herbicides can be hazardous to both the environment and human health. Therefore, it is crucial to develop alternative weed management approaches which can reduce the application of herbicides. The objective of the...
1. Introduction
The increase in both the frequency and severity of drought occurrences poses a significant threat to the stability of crop yields and the quality of grains. Accurate yield prediction is crucial to mitigate the impact of climate change and optimize yield production. Early yield prediction during the growing season is critical for accurately informed decision-making...
Food production globally relies on monocultures of annual crop species, which require replanting every year and external inputs, causing soil erosion, climate change, water pollution, and biodiversity loss, and are vulnerable to climate extremes like drought. Perennials provide continuous soil cover and roots, which fix carbon, protect soil health, retain nutrients, reduce inputs, and are more...
Introduction
Over the last decades, there has been an increased frequency of intense rainfalls (1). Thus, waterlogging events are becoming and will be more common, jeopardizing the performance of crops. As the higher frequency of storms is associated with increased temperatures (2), the frequency of crops being exposed to both stresses will increase. Wheat is crucial for food security and...
(1) Cropping practices shape the weed species community. Intensive mechanical and chemical weed control measures favour species that can adapt to these conditions while species that cannot adapt disappear, leading to lower species diversity (Albrecht et al., 2016) and potentially making the weed species community more similar to the crop (Fried et al., 2009) and thereby more difficult to...
- Introduction
Long-term field trials are a unique scientific tool that can be used to study changes in the weed species spectrum under different management practices over time. - Materials, methods
The long-term field trial was located at the Žabčice Experimental Station (South Moravia Region, Czech Republic). The field trial was established in 1970 and was designed as a long-term...
Introduction. To reduce herbicide use, different avenues of biological weed regulation are currently investigated. Among these, weed seed predation by carabid beetles appears promising. Though observed in different cropping systems and conditions in fields, there has been to date no demonstration that this process actually influences weed dynamics over time and reduces weed harmfulness for...
Introduction.
In France, numerous public policies and private schemes have been implemented to support the development of agricultural systems that are less dependent on chemical inputs, and rely on landscape restructuring to preserve the environment and biodiversity. These policies have led to changes in cropping and livestock systems that can be assessed at territorial level.
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Introduction
Barley (Hordeum vulgare L) is one of the world's primary cereal crops, and it ranks second in Europe after bread wheat (Triticum aestivum). In Germany, spring and winter barley account for 1.9 million hectares, whereas winter wheat covers 3 million hectares. Assessing yield gaps in agricultural crops is crucial for optimizing production and ensuring food security (Guilpart et...
