Cover Crops and Soil Amendments for Soil Health, Crop Production and Regenerative Agriculture
A Special Issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395) belonging to the section "Soil and Plant Nutrition".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 January 2027 | Viewed by 264
Editors
Interests: horticulture; plant physiology; root biology; nutrient management; nutrient cycling; soil fertility
Interests: plant physiology; soil health; root biology; horticultural sciences
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Cover crops and soil amendments have been used for decades to maintain soil fertility and support crop production. Traditionally, these practices helped manage erosion, improve soil structure and increase nutrient availability, but their use has been largely displaced by synthetic fertilizers. In recent years, rising fertilizer costs and concerns about long-term soil productivity have renewed interest in these approaches. Producers are increasingly looking for ways to reduce input costs while maintaining yields and practices such as cover cropping and the use of organic and mineral amendments are gaining traction as practical tools within both sustainable and regenerative agriculture systems.
This Special Issue focuses on the role of cover crops and soil amendments (e.g., mulching, biochar, compost, etc.) in improving soil function, supporting crop performance and reducing reliance on external inputs.
Current research is examining crop yield, plant physiology, nutrient cycling, soil biological activity and carbon dynamics, as well as how different management strategies can improve efficiency and overall system performance.
We invite original research, reviews and case studies from field, greenhouse and modeling work. Topics include crop response, soil health metrics, nutrient management, economic outcomes and practical implementation of cover crops and soil amendments in sustainable and regenerative systems.
Dr. Lukas Hallman
Dr. Lorenzo Rossi
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
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-anonymized 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 semimonthly 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
- cover crops
- soil health
- agricultural sustainability
- soil amendments
- crop production
- nutrient management
- regenerative agriculture
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