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Agronomy
Special Issues
Multi-Functional Cultivation of Crops
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Multi-Functional Cultivation of Crops

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Farming Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 January 2022) | Viewed by 11195

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Kestutis Romaneckas

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, 44248 Kaunas, Lithuania
Interests: organic and precision farming; sustainable tillage and sowing machinery and technologies; seedbed formation; soil properties; weed-crop concurrence; inter-cropping; field crop productivity and quality; biomass waste management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Intensive agriculture based on large amounts of fertilizers and pesticides initiated the physical, chemical, and biological degradation of soil, decreases in the biodiversity of soil and agrocenosis biota, the spread of weeds and pests, and increased GHG emissions and environment pollution worldwide. The rate of the Green Revolution is slowing down, and people’s food and raw biomass supplies are deteriorating. One sustainable way to prevent these problems is to increase crop functionality by inter-cropping several species of crops. This type of cultivation increases the productivity of the total herbal biomass per unit area, while also protecting against the spread of weeds, diseases, and pests. Multi-functional inter-cropped agrocenoses stabilize and restore soil fertility. In addition, increasing the cultivation biodiversity can improve the nutritional and energy efficacy of the harvest or raw biomass production. This Special Issue will highlight the agro-technological methods to increase the multi-functionality of field crop cultivation. Research papers, communications, and review articles are all welcome. More attention will be paid to research on agro-technological design (sowing methods, seed rate and distribution, fertilization methods and rate, harvesting methods, etc.) of multi-functional cultivations, the selection of crop species, their combinations, allelopathy, and their concurrence with each other and weeds or pests. Attention will also be paid to studies addressing the impact of inter-cropping on soil properties, nutrient leaching or runoff, GHG emissions, and the development, quantity, and quality of main production and biomass. Research data on multi-functional biomass processing for energy purposes (e.g., solid bio-fuel) are also welcome.

Prof. Dr. Kestutis Romaneckas
Guest Editor

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. Agronomy 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

  • agronomy
  • field crops
  • biodiversity
  • inter-cropping
  • soil fertility and respiration
  • weed and pest management
  • yield and quality
  • bio-fuel processing

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2909 KiB  
Article
Short-Term Impact of Multi-Cropping on Some Soil Physical Properties and Respiration
by Kęstutis Romaneckas, Jovita Balandaitė, Aušra Sinkevičienė, Rasa Kimbirauskienė, Algirdas Jasinskas, Ugnius Ginelevičius, Andrius Romaneckas and Rita Petlickaitė
Agronomy 2022, 12(1), 141; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy12010141 - 07 Jan 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1935
Abstract
Growing as much crop biomass as possible in the shortest possible time is the target for most bio-energy producers. However, according to the requirements of the Green Deal, the consumption of fertilizers and crop protection products will have to be significantly reduced between [...] Read more.
Growing as much crop biomass as possible in the shortest possible time is the target for most bio-energy producers. However, according to the requirements of the Green Deal, the consumption of fertilizers and crop protection products will have to be significantly reduced between 2023 and 2027. In order to meet all the necessary conditions for the production of biomass, a stationary field experiment was carried out at the Experimental Station of Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, in 2020–2021. Multi-cultivations of maize, hemp and faba bean were investigated. The aim of this study was to ascertain the impact of multi-cropping intensity on soil structural composition, stability, penetration resistance and gas concentration–respiration. As expected, multi-cropping stabilized the gas concentration and emission from the soil and decreased the proportion of micro-structures in the top soil layers. However, the stability of the soil decreased in all the experimental plots. Gas concentration and respiration mainly depended on soil structural composition, temperature and moisture content. The results of the experiment suggest performing investigations at a long-term scale because the intensive variation of meteorological conditions had a higher impact on the soil properties than the multi-cropping systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Functional Cultivation of Crops)
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13 pages, 531 KiB  
Communication
Catch Crops: A Nutrient Reservoir in Post-Harvest Residues under Water Deficit
by Magdalena Jastrzębska, Marta K. Kostrzewska, Maria Wanic, Marek Marks and Kinga Treder
Agronomy 2021, 11(8), 1501; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11081501 - 28 Jul 2021
Viewed by 1298
Abstract
Undersowing catch crops (CCs) in cereals provides many environmental benefits and potentially contributes to building agricultural resilience to climate change. The increasing soil water deficit due to global warming is becoming a challenge for the sustainability of Central European agriculture. Some of the [...] Read more.
Undersowing catch crops (CCs) in cereals provides many environmental benefits and potentially contributes to building agricultural resilience to climate change. The increasing soil water deficit due to global warming is becoming a challenge for the sustainability of Central European agriculture. Some of the multiple functions of CCs may be altered under water shortage. Two pot experiments were conducted in Poland to assess the effect of water deficit on N, P, K, and Mg accumulated in post-harvest residues left by spring barley undersown with Italian ryegrass or red clover, and in the soil under these crops. In both experiments, barley grown alone provided a reference, and two levels of water supply were adopted: higher (sufficient for barley) and lower (reduced by 50%). Under water deficit, CCs undersown in spring barley maintained their function of capturing and storing nutrients. Post-harvest residues of barley undersown with CC and stressed with water shortage accumulated the same or higher amounts of N, P, K, and Mg than residues of barley grown alone under sufficient water supply. Soil nutrient contents were negatively correlated with crop biomass. Further research with other CC species and studies based on field experiments under rainout shelters are recommended. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Functional Cultivation of Crops)
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16 pages, 3240 KiB  
Article
Weed Spread and Caraway (Carum carvi L.) Crop Productivity in a Multi-Cropping System
by Aušra Marcinkevičienė, Aušra Rudinskienė, Rimantas Velička, Robertas Kosteckas and Zita Kriaučiūnienė
Agronomy 2021, 11(6), 1172; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy11061172 - 09 Jun 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2875
Abstract
The field experiment was carried out at the Experimental Station of Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy (Lithuania) in 2017–2019. The aim of the study was to determine and to compare weed spread and caraway crop productivity in sole (spring barley, spring wheat, pea, [...] Read more.
The field experiment was carried out at the Experimental Station of Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy (Lithuania) in 2017–2019. The aim of the study was to determine and to compare weed spread and caraway crop productivity in sole (spring barley, spring wheat, pea, caraway), binary (spring barley-caraway, spring wheat-caraway, pea-caraway) and trinary (spring barley-caraway-white clover, spring wheat-caraway-white clover, pea-caraway-white clover) crops. In the second and the third years of caraway cultivation, it was estimated that the abundance of perennial weeds in the crops increased. In the first year, significantly the highest dry matter mass of weeds was determined in non-sprayed with herbicides binary crops with undersown caraway and in trinary crops with undersown caraway and clover; in the second year—in the caraway binary crops, when they were grown after barley and wheat without clover; in the third year—in caraway binary and trinary crops when they were grown after barley, wheat and pea without clover and after barley and wheat with clover. In the second year, the highest yields of caraway seeds were obtained by growing them in peas, and in the third year by growing them in wheat together with clover. Caraway can be grown in trinary crops, including white clover, and harvested in the second or the third year of the vegetative season. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Functional Cultivation of Crops)
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13 pages, 3286 KiB  
Article
The Impact of Intercropping on Soil Fertility and Sugar Beet Productivity
by Kęstutis Romaneckas, Aida Adamavičienė, Egidijus Šarauskis and Jovita Balandaitė
Agronomy 2020, 10(9), 1406; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/agronomy10091406 - 16 Sep 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4178
Abstract
There is a lack of research on the practice of intercropping sugar beet and the impact of such agrocenoses on soil and crop fertility, especially under organic farming conditions. For this reason, a three-year stationary field experiment was performed at Vytautas Magnus University, [...] Read more.
There is a lack of research on the practice of intercropping sugar beet and the impact of such agrocenoses on soil and crop fertility, especially under organic farming conditions. For this reason, a three-year stationary field experiment was performed at Vytautas Magnus University, Agriculture Academy, Lithuania. Sugar beet was grown continuously with intercropped Persian clover (Trifolium resupinatum L., MC), white mustard (Sinapis alba L., MM) and spring barley (Hordeum vulgare L., MB) as a living mulch. Inter-row loosening (CT) and mulching with ambient weeds (MW) were used as comparative treatments. The results showed that, under minimal fertilization, CT and intercropping increased the average content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the soil. However, the average content of magnesium was reduced in single cases (MW, MB), and the average content of sulphur was reduced in all cases. Intercropping significantly decreased the yields of sugar beet root-crop, but was mainly neutral in quality terms. The meteorological conditions during experimentation had a weak impact on root-crop quantity and quality. Generally, the practice of sugar beet intercropping requires more detailed research on how to minimize the competition between the sugar beet, living mulch and weeds, and how to balance the nutrition conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Functional Cultivation of Crops)
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