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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 present study was to determine the effect of different intercropping schemes on the growth of weeds. More specifically, we assessed weed growth in monocultures of bread wheat, faba bean and pea and intercropping of bread wheat with pea, faba bean and two commercial mixtures. The results indicate that intercropping of wheat using the two commercial mixtures is an effective approach to reduce weed growth. Therefore, the use of appropriate crop species and sowing densities can suppress the development of weeds and improve the sustainability of the cropping system.
Keywords: biomass, yield, growth, leaf area index, LER
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Introduction
Weed management in agriculture largely depends on synthetic herbicides despite the widely accepted environmental & health impacts and the growing herbicide resistance (Liebman et al., 2016). Agroecology seeks to transform food & agriculture systems, providing long-term solutions based on natural processes (Bastiaans et al., 2008). Agroecological practices aim to reduce or even substitute inputs including herbicides, while maintaining or even improving crop productivity (Liebman et al., 2016).
The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of intercropping as an agroecological intervention on the growth of weeds. -
Materials and methods
The experiment was performed during the 2023-2024 growing season, at the experimental farm of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in northern Greece (40°32'07.7"N 22°59'20.5"E) without any application of herbicides. Wheat, faba bean and pea monocultures, their respective cereal-legume intercropping combinations and two commercial intercropping mixtures (Commercial mixture 1) consisting of 20% soft wheat, 10% oat, 35% triticale, 15% field pea and 20% common vetch and the second commercial mixture 2 consisting of 30% soft wheat, 10% oat, 20% triticale, 15% field pea and 25% common vetch (American Genetics, Corporation, Greece) were cultivated to assess weed growth in terms of relevant biomass percentage. Differences in weed biomass percentage between the alternative intercropping schemes were assessed by one way ANOVA and means were compared using the LSD test? within the methodological frame of General Linear Models (SPSS version 27, IBM Corporation, Armonk, New York, United States).
3. Results
Figure 1: Effect of intercropping and increased in biodiversity on reducing the weed pressure. Means followed by the same letter do not differ significantly between the treatments, according to the LSD0.05 (Least Significant Difference) test (p=0.05)
Intercropping of wheat in the two commercial mixtures reduced growth of weeds (p=? (figure 1). Faba bean is a crop species that does not compete with weeds and therefore it showed the lowest ability to control weeds.
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Discussion
Weed growth is a critical parameter in agriculture as weeds compete with crops for light, water, and nutrients. To effectively control weeds, agrochemicals are extensively used, whereas mechanical weed control is used to a lesser degree when appropriate. Intercropping can potentially reduce weed pressure. However, proper intercropping schemes and sowing density are essential for effectively suppressing weed growth and to improve the sustainability of the cropping systems (Verret et al., 2017; Gu et al., 2021). Although weed control by intercropping alone is a difficult task, on-going experiments indicate that certain mixtures of oat, triticale, field pea, common vetch and bread wheat can suppress weed growth up to 95%. -
References
Bastiaans, L., Paolini, R., & Baumann, D. T. (2008). Focus on ecological weed management: what is hindering adoption?. Weed Research, 48(6), 481-491.
Gu, C., Bastiaans, L., Anten, N. P., Makowski, D., & van der Werf, W. (2021). Annual intercropping suppresses weeds: A meta-analysis. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 322, 107658.
Liebman, M. et al. (2016). Ecologically sustainable weed management: how do we get from proof‐of‐concept to adoption? Ecological applications, 26(5), 1352-1369.
Verret, V. et al. (2017). Can legume companion plants control weeds without decreasing crop yield? A meta-analysis. Field Crops Research, 204, 158-168.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This research was funded by the EU’s HORIZON EUROPE CONSERWA project under the grant agreement number 101081802
| Keywords | biomass, yield, growth, leaf area index, LER |
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