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Agriculture
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Conservation Agriculture, an Alternative for Sustainable Farming
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Conservation Agriculture, an Alternative for Sustainable Farming

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Agricultural Systems and Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 April 2023) | Viewed by 7494

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Michele Rinaldi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Council for Agricultural Research and Economics-Cereal and Industrial Crops Research Center (CREA-CI), S.S. 673 km 25,200, 71122 Foggia, Italy
Interests: cropping systems; irrigation; soil-tillage; field crops; conservation agriculture; precision agriculture; sustainable agriculture
Dr. Thomas Gitsopoulos

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Plant Breeding and Genetic Resources, Hellenic Agricultural Organization Dimitra, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: integrated weed management; herbicide resistance; weed biology; weed ecology; conservation agriculture; herbicide efficacy and selectivity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Danilo Marandola

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Council for Agricultural Research and Economics-Agricultural Policies and Bioeconomy Research Center (CREA-PB), Via della Navicella 2/4, 00184 Roma, Italy
Interests: agricultural policies; conservation agriculture; rural development; decision making; environmental support

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Conservation agriculture (CA) is an agro-ecological approach that aims to achieve the sustainable and profitable intensification of agricultural systems through the application of three inter-linked principles, based on locally-formulated practices: minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and crop rotation. 

The obstacles to the adoption of CA farming systems need to be analyzed and removed. Advantages in economics, environmental and soil-quality aspects over conventional farming systems have also been evaluated. CA holds tremendous potential for all sizes of farms and agro-ecological systems.

This Special Issue intends to cover recent progress in different aspects related to the implementation of CA in a wide range of cropping systems across different agro-ecologies in the Mediterranean area.

Prof. Michele Rinaldi
Dr. Thomas Gitsopoulos
Dr. Danilo Marandola
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agriculture is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • soil tillage
  • crop residues
  • crop rotation
  • cover crops
  • intercropping
  • soil fertility
  • economics
  • weed control
  • machinery

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2384 KiB  
Article
Simultaneous Assessment of Water and Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Rain-Fed Chickpea-Durum Wheat Intercropping Systems
by Omar Kherif, Benalia Haddad, Fatma-Zohra Bouras, Mounir Seghouani, Bahia Zemmouri, Ramzi Gamouh, Nadia Hamzaoui, Amira Larbi, Nazih-Yacer Rebouh and Mourad Latati
Agriculture 2023, 13(5), 947; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture13050947 - 25 Apr 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1229
Abstract
It is well known that multiple interactions can occur between nitrogen and water use, depending on climate, soil and crop characteristics, in crop growth and yield development. However, little is known about the simultaneous change in both water and N use efficiency (WUE [...] Read more.
It is well known that multiple interactions can occur between nitrogen and water use, depending on climate, soil and crop characteristics, in crop growth and yield development. However, little is known about the simultaneous change in both water and N use efficiency (WUE and NUE) and their possible interactions in cereal–-legume intercropping systems. In order to advance our knowledge on the N and water facilitation mechanisms involved in the intercropping responses of N and water input co-limitations, we investigated, via four experiment years, the simultaneous optimization of water and N-fertilizer inputs, as well as its possible effects on growth, yield, N acquisition, and the NUE and WUE in intercropped species. The results indicated that intercropping increases the leaf area index by more than +0.14 and +1.03 units when compared to durum wheat and chickpea monoculture systems, respectively. This increase is particularly noticeable under higher rainfalls during the crop period (i.e., as can be seen in the 2022, 2020, and 2019 seasons). Moderate N-application enhanced both the grain yield and protein accumulation in the mixed crops by more than 0.22 t ha−1 and 57 kg ha−1, respectively. Conversely, intercropping significantly decreased the mixed grain yield when compared to durum wheat monocultures. Intercropping advantages in terms of biomass (ranged from 1 to 44%) and N-acquisition (2 to 91%) was confirmed in either low- (2021) or high- (2019 and 2022) rainfall growing periods, but only under low and moderate N-applications. Improving N nutrition under both rainfall and drought growth periods was confirmed only for the mixed crops under all applied N-fertilizer doses. Such improvements in growth, N acquisition, and yield quality were most likely achieved by positive interactions (r2 = 0.73, p ≤ 0.001) between the NUE and WUE for the chickpea–wheat intercropping. Thus, 0.62 kg m−3 of WUE promotes a significant increase of 1 kg kg−1 in NUE by mixing chickpea-durum wheat. Rain-fed chickpea-durum wheat intercropping provides a higher performance in growth and yield quality compared to sole cropping systems; this may occur from the simultaneous optimizations of both water and N fertilizer inputs in low-N soil under semiarid conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation Agriculture, an Alternative for Sustainable Farming)
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14 pages, 843 KiB  
Article
Effects of Tillage Systems on the Physical Properties of Soils in a Semi-Arid Region of Morocco
by Abdelali El Mekkaoui, Rachid Moussadek, Rachid Mrabet, Ahmed Douaik, Rachid El Haddadi, Outmane Bouhlal, Mariyam Elomari, Matike Ganoudi, Abdelmjid Zouahri and Said Chakiri
Agriculture 2023, 13(3), 683; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture13030683 - 15 Mar 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3412
Abstract
Climate change, drought, erosion, water contamination resources, desertification, and loss of soil quality represent major environmental risks worldwide. Facing these risks is the most important issue for sustainable development. Conventional tillage (CT) practices seem to expose the soils of semi-arid regions, which are [...] Read more.
Climate change, drought, erosion, water contamination resources, desertification, and loss of soil quality represent major environmental risks worldwide. Facing these risks is the most important issue for sustainable development. Conventional tillage (CT) practices seem to expose the soils of semi-arid regions, which are initially fragile, to degradation that is accentuated by the overuse of the environment. The benefits of conservation agriculture (CA) could mitigate the degradation of natural resources, particularly soils. The adaptation and transfer of the no-till (NT) system with mulch open new perspectives for the development of agriculture in semi-arid regions. The main objective of this study is to assess the impact of conservation agriculture, especially no-till (NT) system, on the physical properties of soil (structural stability (SS), bulk density (BD), gravimetric water content (θg), and soil organic matter (SOM)) compared to conventional tillage (CT). The main changes associated with the transition from a CT system to an NT system were evaluated at the experimental site, Merchouch (M13), which is typified by vertisol soil, and at the Ain Sbit (AS7) site, which is characterized by isohumic soil. Under a no-till system, most of the physical properties of the soil were improved in both sites, with a clear difference in the M13 site. Structural stability under NT showed a significant increase in both sites (fast wetting (FW), slow wetting (SW), and wet stirring (WS) improved by 88, 43, and 83% at the M13 site, respectively, against, 16, 23, and 7%, respectively, at the AS7 site). On the other hand, the SOM increased from 2.0 to 2.6% (an improvement of 28%) at AS7 and from 1.2% to 1.9% (an improvement of 52%) at M13. This research demonstrated that conservation agriculture, especially NT, improves the soil physical quality in both medium and long terms, confirming its suitability for the climatic and edaphic constraints of semi-arid areas in Morocco as well as in other parts of the world. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation Agriculture, an Alternative for Sustainable Farming)
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15 pages, 707 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Nitrogen Supply on Water and Nitrogen Use Efficiency by Wheat–Chickpea Intercropping System under Rain-Fed Mediterranean Conditions
by Fatma-Zohra Bouras, Salah Hadjout, Benalia Haddad, Asma Malek, Sonia Aitmoumene, Feriel Gueboub, Luiza Metrah, Bahia Zemmouri, Omar Kherif, Nazih-Yacer Rebouh and Mourad Latati
Agriculture 2023, 13(2), 338; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agriculture13020338 - 30 Jan 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2023
Abstract
It is well known that legume–cereal intercropping systems are more efficient in terms of resources use, in particular nitrogen (N) and water. However, the response of this cropping system to water and N co-limitation was poorly studied in most of the recent field [...] Read more.
It is well known that legume–cereal intercropping systems are more efficient in terms of resources use, in particular nitrogen (N) and water. However, the response of this cropping system to water and N co-limitation was poorly studied in most of the recent field researches. The present study aims to assess the relationship between N and water use efficiency (NUE and WUE) by chickpea–durum wheat intercropping under contrasted climate and N supply conditions. Field experiments were carried out during the 2021/2022 growing season, in three sites located at both sub-humid and semi-arid regions. WUE, NUE, aboveground biomass, grain yield and crop physiological parameters for either intercropped chickpea or durum wheat were assessed and compared to the respective measurements in monocultures among all N-fertilizer level × site treatments. The results showed that WUE relative to grain yield (WUEGY) and biomass (WUEYB) were significantly higher in sole cropped wheat under the conditions of the three studied sites, except for WUEYB in S2, in which intercropping increased WUEYB by +0.46 and +1.03 kg m−3, as compared respectively, to monoculture under low application of N fertilizer. As compared to chickpea monoculture, intercropping increased WUEGY by more than 0.30 and 0.57 kg m−3 under semi-arid conditions (S1 and S3) over three N-application doses, and by more than 0.18 kg m−3 under sub-humid conditions (S2). Simultaneously, NUE was significantly increased by intercropping, where in the mixed crop the highest values were noted as compared to sole-cropped durum wheat and chickpea. However, reducing the N-application dose leads to a gradual increase in NUE by more than 4.44 kg kg−1. As a consequence, intercropping enhanced protein accumulation in the grain yield of mixed crops by more than 30 kg ha−1 as compared to sole-cropped durum wheat, in particular under moderate N-application and sub-humid climate. Indeed, average chlorophyll content was increased (7.8%) in intercropped durum wheat under all applied N-doses in sub-humid conditions. Rain-fed chickpea–wheat intercropping promotes an improvement in growth and yield quality thanks to simultaneous optimization of water and N use under low and moderate N-application in both semi-arid and sub-humid climates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation Agriculture, an Alternative for Sustainable Farming)
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