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Agro-biodiversity in sustainable systems


Europe
November 24, 2014

Author Camilla Moonen during a field excursion of IOBC Workshop ‘Landscape management for functional agrobiodiversity’ in Poznan, Poland. Photograph: Polish organisation committee

In this article we focus on the results recently published by the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna (SSSA), one of ENDURE's Italian partners, and the University of Pisa's 'Enrico Avanzi' Centre for Agro-environmental Research (CIRAA) on new ways to re-design cropping systems based on agro-ecological principles.

The underlying aim of the studies, reports SSSA's Camilla Moonen, is to propose systems that optimise the synergies between all living organisms to avoid situations where weeds, pests and diseases dominate while, at the same time, maintaining economically sustainable crop yield and yield stability. This approach to Integrated Crop Management is based on the evaluation of the performance of the entire cropping system rather than on the success of a single Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practice.

Overall, research on the integrated management of weed and pest communities has shown that agro-biodiversity at various levels can contribute to the development of sustainable cropping systems in general and pest management in particular. These levels are genetic, species, habitat and management, and below we take a closer look:


Maize genetic diversity of conventional and old varieties and composite cross populations. Photo by Nevena Nol

Genetic variability 

Genetic variability is considered with a view to achieving a better integration between breeding and management, with a clear focus on crop traits related to key agroecosystem services (Costanzo and Bàrberi, 2014a). Experimentation using this functional agrobiodiversity has seen the introduction of variety mixtures and composite cross populations, including old cultivars, in organic wheat and maize production. This significantly decreased the incidence of pests and diseases (Costanzo and Bàrberi 2014b).

Species variability

Cover crops and living mulches are being investigated in two collaborative international projects. The OSCAR project [1], funded under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), aims to develop more sustainable systems of conservation agriculture through an increase in the diversity of cover crops and living mulches. In particular, SSSA is focusing on the combination of cover crops and living mulches with the conservation of soil fertility and water management (reduced competition with the crop in summer) in the Mediterranean environment. The results of these researches will be updated in a Wiki and you can follow progress here.

The Tilman-Org project [2], also funded under FP7, aims to use cover crops and living mulches to reduce the need for intensive tillage in organic agriculture. An overview is presented by Paolo Bàrberi (Land Lab - SSSA) in a video, in Italian, which you can watch here.

Research activities are focusing primarily on the strategies to be implemented to achieve an efficient control of weeds, and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, while saving soil organic matter and soil fertility, which are often negatively affected by highly intensive soil tillage (Cooper et al., 2014; Bàrberi et al., 2014).

Consider, for example, hairy vetch (Vicia villosa  Roth) as a cover crop. It is known that hairy vetch produces a huge biomass, even under dry conditions (Antichi et al., 2008). It is therefore an ideal green manure for Mediterranean cropping systems. A video-guide on how hairy vetch can be used as a green manure in dry conditions has been produced and can be seen, in English here.

However, hairy vetch is difficult to manage because of the huge crop residues left on the soil surface and the incorporation of this green manure into the soil is challenging. A video has been produced, in Italian, presenting three different machines - disk harrow, stone burier and crimper roller - for the termination of hairy vetch. These machines have a different degree of conservation of soil fertility and the main pros and cons are discussed. You can watch the video here.

Moreover, Carlesi et al. (2013) have found that in maize plots where V. villosa  is applied as a cover crop (green manure), the presence of detrimental perennial species, such as Cyperus sp., is lower. Costanzo and Bàrberi (2014b) have shown how the use of subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum  L. subsp. brachycalycinum ) as a living mulch in wheat reduced the overall biomass of weeds. However, the living mulch was more effective in suppressing dicots and therefore the relative abundance of monocots in the weed community increased. At the same time, the presence of a living mulch decreased the incidence of leaf spot disease on the flag-leaf.

Habitat variability 

The introduction of wild flower strips around cropped fields can contribute to sustaining beneficial insects near the crop in such a way that the beneficial can attack the pest early in its invasion stage. Balzan and Moonen (2014) have reported that sowing flower strips consisting of Fagopyrum esculentum , Coriandrum sativum  and Phaseolus vulgaris  around organic tomato fields in Grosseto, Italy, acted as a trap crop for sap-sucking insects and resulted in increased aphid parasitism. At the same time, crop damage from sap-sucking insects and foliar damage from Lepidopteran pests was lower in plots near the sown flower strips, especially early in the growing season. 

Bibliography

1. FP7 Project OSCAR - Optimizing Subsidiary Crop Application in Rotations. Go to website here
2. TILMAN-ORG - Reduced tillage and green manures for sustainable organic cropping systems – funded by the FP7 ERA-Net project CORE Organic II. Go to website here.
3. Antichi, D., Mazzoncini, M., Bàrberi, P., Bigongiali, F., Carpi, G. (2008). Leguminous cover crops: an important tool for improving resource use efficiency in organic arable cropping systems. Proceedings of the 16th IFOAM Organic World Congress, Modena, Italy, June 17-20, 2008, p. 232-235.
4. Balzan, M.V. and Moonen, A.C., 2014. Field margin vegetation enhances biological control and crop damage suppression from multiple pests in organic tomato fields. Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata , 150: 45-65.
5. Bàrberi, P., Aendekerk, R., Antichi, D., Armengot, L., Bigongiali, F., Blanco-Moreno, J. M., Carlesi, S., Celette, F., Chamorro, L., Crowley, O., Döring, T. F., Grosse, M., Hess, J., Huiting, H., José-Maria, L., Klaedtke, S., Kranzler, A., Luik, A., Peigné, J., Sukkel, W., Surböck, A., Talgre, L., Sans, F. X. (2014). Use of Reduced Tillage and Cover Crops in Organic Arable Systems Preserves Weed Diversity without Jeopardising Crop Yield. In RAHMANN G & AKSOY U (Eds.) (2014) Proceedings of the 4th ISOFAR Scientific Conference. ‘Building Organic Bridges’, 'TILMAN-ORG Session' at the Organic World Congress 2014, 13-15 Oct., Istanbul, Turkey.
6. Carlesi S., Bigongiali F., Bàrberi P.. Effect of compost enriched in phosphorus and green manure application on maize weed density and composition. Proceedings of the 16th EWRS Symposium, Samsun, Turkey 24-27 June, 2013
7. Cooper, J., Baranski, M., Nobel de Lange, M., Bàrberi, P., Fließbach, A., Peigné, J., Berner, A., Brock, C., Casagrande, M., Crowley, O., David, C., De Vliegher, A., Döring, T. F., Entz, M., Grosse, M., Haase, T., Halde, C., Hammerl, V., Huiting, H., Leithold, G., Messmer, M., Schloter, M., Sukkel, W., van der Heijden, M., Willekens, K., Wittwer, R., Mäder, P. (2014). Effects of Reduced Tillage in Organic Farming System on Yield, Weeds and Soil Carbon: Summary of Meta-Analysis Results from the TILMAN-ORG Project. In RAHMANN G & AKSOY U (Eds.) (2014) Proceedings of the 4th ISOFAR Scientific Conference. ‘Building Organic Bridges’, 'TILMAN-ORG Session' at the Organic World Congress 2014, 13-15 Oct., Istanbul, Turkey.
8. Costanzo A. and Bàrberi P. (2014a). Functional agrobiodiversity and agroecosystem services in sustainable wheat production. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development , 34: 327-348.
9. Costanzo A. and Bàrberi, P. (2014b) A functional agrobiodiversity approach to improve organic wheat production. In RAHMANN G & AKSOY U (Eds.) (2014) Proceedings of the 4th ISOFAR Scientific Conference. ‘Building Organic Bridges’, at the Organic World Congress 2014, 13-15 Oct., Istanbul, Turkey.



More news from: ENDURE - EU Network for the Durable Exploitation of Crop Protection Strategies


Website: http://www.endure-network.eu

Published: December 1, 2014

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