In Italy, soybean is mainly cropped in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia accounting 2/3 of the national surface. In these areas, soybean-based cropping systems (SBCS) appeared to be poorly diversified where soybean is cropped since long term, thus it is vulnerable to both abiotic and biotic stresses hampering its productivity. Indeed, a serious issue is represented by the two-spotted spider...
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...
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...
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...
Introduction
Legumes are well-known for their beneficial pre-crop and rotational effects (Ditzler et al., 2021; Zhao et al., 2022). However, climate effects are rarely included in analyses under European pedo-climatic conditions (Binacchi et al., 2023). Within the joint research project “ISLAND” environmental and agronomic effects of winter wheat after pulses and green manure legumes in...
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....
Chickpea, an important component of diversified cropping systems in Mediterranean environments, often face significant challenges when grown in low-input systems. These limitations, including nutrient deficiencies, water stress, and soil health, can reduce grain yield and nutritional quality. Biostimulants, such as liquid vermicompost extract (LVE), offer innovative solutions to enhance soil...
Introduction
Since 2000, oil palm cultivation has generated considerable controversy, as the >20 million ha of plantations linked with deforestation, burning, a high carbon footprint, biodiversity loss and environmental pollution from the with palm oil industry. The effects of palm oil on human health have also been critiqued, with palm oil used in various fast foods and iconic products like...
Prospectives studies enables to envision possible and desirable futures. They are particularly used in agroecological transition and sustainable food regime studies. To name a few, the Ten Years For Agroecology (TYFA) model demonstrate how Europe can be food self-sufficient without using pesticides and artificial fertilizers (Poux & Aubert, 2018), the Afterres2050 scenario suggests ways for...
Proliferation of the aquatic weeds water hyacinth and hippo grass in freshwater bodies of tropical and subtropical areas causes serious ecological and socio-economic problems. The weeds have been reported to block waterways, clog hydroelectric power generator turbines and to deplete oxygen for aquatic life. Various efforts to control these weeds have been ineffective. In areas with soils of...
- 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...
One of the major issues of cereal systems in the Paris Basin is the management of ryegrass (Lolium spp.). The emergence of herbicide resistance, the increase in winter crops instead of spring crops, and the ban and restrictions on the use of certain chemical molecules tend to exacerbate this problem. Weed management is therefore a short-term but also a long-term issue on which Arvalis, an...
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...
Introduction
Agroecological transition can be a lever for meeting the multi-dimensional and interdependent challenges of sustainability. However, issues relating to food and biomass production and the reduction of associated environmental impacts, as well as those linked to the protection of natural resources, biodiversity and the services provided by agricultural landscapes, are still...
- 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...
Over the past two centuries, agricultural production methods have been pushed towards monospecific systems intensive in chemical inputs, with negative impacts on the environment and climate. A global awareness of the need to change the production patterns is gradually emerging (Sanchez et al., 2022). The aim is to identify synergetic agro-ecological solutions that are both socio-economically...
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:
Drought, as a major environmental factor that limits plant growth and photosynthesis, is a challenge for agriculture in the context of climate change. High temperatures and drought stress impact crops as a function of their stage of development and genotypic tolerance. Choosing adapted sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) varieties and management practices can mitigate impacts of...
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
Monitoring crops, including their phenological stages, plays a crucial role in agronomic applications, providing essential insights into temporal dynamics and crop conditions throughout the growing season. These insights are particularly valuable for informing crop models used in agricultural management and resource allocation, especially in the face of climate change. Remote...
- 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...
The development of anaerobic digestion plants in agricultural farming systems and landscape can offer the opportunity to redesign cropping systems, with the aim of maximizing both biogas production, nitrogen cycle and ecosystem services provision (e.g. water quality regulation, organic carbon sequestration). This transition has already been initiated by a few pioneers, but for its...
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
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....
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.,...
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...
INTRODUCTION
The coastal wetland of Yellow River Delta (YRD) is one of the largest, most integrated and youngest wetlands in the warm temperate zone of China, and the YRD has the most reserve land resources in the east coast. While, soil salinization in this region induced and compounded problems like low fertility, low microbial activity, and poor soil structure, seriously affecting...
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:...
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...
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...
- Introduction
Climate extremes such as high temperatures, droughts and floods are likely to become more frequent, intense and prolonged and to decrease yields regardless of the spatial scale (1). These climate extremes create agro-climatic risks, which are defined as the combination of hazard, exposure and vulnerability, for wheat crops (2). Given the particular sensitivity of wheat to...
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...
Introduction
Crop association is the concurrent cultivation of different crops on the same land at the same time, so to maximize their synergic biological interactions. Integrating crop associations into existing cropping systems and farm landscapes may increase farm resilience by promoting efficient use of natural resources while reducing the dependency on external inputs [1]. However, the...
Current economy heavily relies on fossil resources to satisfy energy demands of human societies. Reaching climate change mitigation objectives requires to shift to carbon neutrality through the development of a bioeconomy. Notably, such transition requires the substitution of fossil-based energies into biomass-based energies (e.g. biogas). However, reducing dependency on fossil energies...
Introduction:
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) stands as the leading global oil-producing crop, representing a production of approximately 75 Mt y-1 (FAOSTAT). However, the present challenge of oil palm cultivation is to meet global food demands while respecting the environment. To achieve this, it is crucial to control the use of fertilizers, in particular potassium (K). Potassium is the...
There is a broad agreement that in order for science to enable actual change and foster real-life innovations, we need to connect practitioners to researchers (Lang et al., 2012; McPhee et al., 2021). How can researchers find and engage farmers and other stakeholders and involve them in the research process? One emerging method for transdisciplinary agricultural research is so called...
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...
INTRODUCTION
For several decades in France, nitrogen (N) fertilization reasoning has been based on the principle of the "balance sheet" method. This method comes up against strong implementation limitations (Ravier et al., 2016), and a lack of adaptability in the face of climatic hazards. This observation has motivated the emergence of a new concept of "integral" management of N...
Intercropping provides benefits in terms of production gains and other ecosystem services. Although legume-cereal intercrops have received the most attention in literature, other species should be explored to increase the diversity of intercropping systems (Cheriere et al., 2020). Including pseudo-cereals in cropping systems enriches biodiversity and lowers the environmental impact of arable...
Cover cropping holds the potential for spatio-temporal diversification of cropping systems, which can help address food security and enhance environmental sustainability (Quintarelli et al. 2022). Yet, the global adoption of cover crops (CCs) by farmers is limited. One of the reasons of this poor CC adoption is difficulties to ensure a good CC establishment (Lamichhane and Alletto 2022; Feng...
Introduction
The nexus between agricultural land use and biodiversity loss poses a huge challenge worldwide. Amplified by the effects of climate change, the biodiversity hotspot "Mountains of Central Asia" (MoCA) is under increasing threat (Mustaeva et al. 2019). Despite the small proportion of arable land in the total hotspot area, it harbours one of the richest segetal floras globally,...
Introduction
The use of intercrops has started to gain interest amongst farmers, particularly those practicing organic or agroecological principles, as this approach is known to help maintain crop yields under reduced input conditions through improved resource use efficiency and can help limit yield variation across seasons associated with unusual weather patterns. Some national Governments...
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...
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...
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...
Nitrogen and potassium are fundamental nutrients that are pivotal for the growth of wheat, and their equilibrium markedly influences agricultural output. Understanding the nuanced effects of nitrogen and potassium fertilization on different components of winter wheat yield is important for sustainable agricultural practices and enhanced food production.
Two experiments were established in...
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
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...
Introduction:
The random forest (RF) machine learning model has been applied successfully for crop yield prediction in recent years (Silva et al., 2023). But extrapolation of predictions to other areas or other years where the feature space or time is considerably different from that of the training data very likely produces unreliable results (Wadoux et al., 2021). Yield measurement error...
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...
Rice blast, caused by the fungus Pyricularia oryzae, is the most important disease of rice globally. Variety mixture has proven potential to reduce the incidence of rice blast and increase yield, but the effectiveness of variety mixture as a disease control method varies, and the general effectiveness and yield benefits of this agroecological practice have not been demonstrated. Here, we...
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
Recovery of environments altered by human activities can be hampered by the lack of stockpiled soils, which are required for restoration work and planting. However, large amounts of by-products are produced during the treatment of solid urban waste and construction and demolition waste. Many of these secondary products can be recycled to create Technosols. Soil health management...
- 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
In France, phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilizer deliveries have declined since 1990, and stabilized at a relatively low level since 2010. This current situation is the consequence of, on the one hand, the continuing rise in energy prices which is affecting fertilizer prices and, on the other hand, a general reduction in phospho-potassium fertilization of agricultural...
Introduction
According to FAO, the total fertilizer nutrient demand was 185,063 million tons in 2016, and this demand was forecasted to grow to reach 200,919 million tons in 2022 (FAO, 2022), leading to the search for new sources of fertilizers. On the other hand, rational use of fertilizers is necessary, since long-term fertilization can deeply affect the physiochemical and biological...
1-Introduction
Sugarcane-legume intercropping systems have attracted much attention worldwide to improve soil fertility (Tang et al., 2021) and to reduce herbicide application (Soulé et al., 2024). Nonetheless, a recent meta-analysis highlighted how introducing companion plants with sugarcane leads to highly variable yield response (Viaud et al., 2023), and the processes and resources...
Introduction.
The measurement of xylem water potential in plants has always been a necessity in the study and modelling of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, which drives and explain the water flux through plants and crops. Until now, the available methods for the measurement of water potential were discontinuous, destructive, and labor-intensive. The recent appearance of innovative xylem...
- 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...
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...
Introduction
Grain legumes (pulses) are interesting parts in sustainable crop rotations due to their ability of biologic nitrogen fixation (BNF). Among them, faba bean has a huge potential to derive nitrogen (N) from the atmosphere (Walley et al. 2007; Liu et al. 2019; Palmero et al. 2022). However, empirical results suggest that they are mostly N self-sufficient when balancing only the...
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...
To develop new cropping strategies (e.g. early sowing, double cropping) and explore suitable cultivation areas for grain legumes under current and future climates, an accurate prediction of crop phenology under different photo-thermal conditions is a pre-requisite. This means the simulation of the onset and length of the main phenophases between emergence and physiological maturity as a...
Introduction
Rhynchosporium leaf scorch (causal agent Rhynchosporium graminicola) is a devasting disease of barley. To control the diseases, fungicides are used heavily to maintain grain yield and quality. To prevent the overuse and unnecessary application of pesticides, farmers are being encouraged to adopt Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies that combines a range of management...
Introduction
The sunflower production area in Switzerland is small (6404 hectares; swissgranum, 2023) and increasingly subjected to summer water deficit that may limit sunflower performance. In order to maintain a domestic production, and even support its growth, it is important to determine drought adaptation strategies. The advancement of sowing dates in combination with very early...
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...
