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Agronomy
Special Issues
Mixed Cropping—a Low Input Agronomic Approach to Sustainability
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Mixed Cropping—a Low Input Agronomic Approach to Sustainability

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Innovative Cropping Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2023) | Viewed by 5232

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Silvia Pampana

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture Food & Environment, University of Pisa, Via del Borghetto 80, I-56124 Pisa, Italy
Interests: sustainable agriculture; cropping systems; energy crops; yield physiology of the main herbaceous field crops; plant nutrition and allelopathy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Marco Mariotti

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Veterinary Science, University of Pisa, Via delle Piagge 2, 56124 Pisa, Italy
Interests: intercropping; forage crops; forage conservation and quality; pseudocereals; field crops fertilization

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of the key strategies to diversify cropping systems is the cultivation of two or more crops together in the same space at the same time (mixed cropping, intercropping, polyculture, or co-cultivation). These farming systems sprout mutualistic relationships among crops, leading to increased productivity, yield stability and soil health and greater resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses. The complementary use of resources, as well as differences for niche occupation in time and space, matters to a greater extent under limiting conditions. However, the efficiency of intercrop is affected by environmental conditions, cropping managements and genotypes and should be site-specifically determined because the interactions between species may prompt significant variations in the intercrop composition and performance.

To fill this gap, with this Special Issue, we aim to enhance knowledge on the context-dependency of interactions in mixed crops, thus facilitating their adoption, primarily in environments where resources are more limiting to crop growth and yield, as the advantages of intercropping are more paramount in low-input agriculture.

We welcome review and research papers, outlooks, opinions and methods to highlight the latest progress on understanding the use of abiotic resources in mixed crops by means of functional interdisciplinarity.

Dr. Silvia Pampana
Prof. Dr. Marco Mariotti
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. 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

  • competition
  • complementarity
  • cooperation
  • diversification
  • intercropping
  • low-input
  • mixed cropping

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

29 pages, 6147 KiB  
Article
Herbage and Silage Quality Improved More by Mixing Barley and Faba Bean Than by N Fertilization or Stage of Harvest
by Francesco G. S. Angeletti, Marco Mariotti, Beatrice Tozzi, Silvia Pampana and Sergio Saia
Agronomy 2022, 12(8), 1790; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12081790 - 29 Jul 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2508
Abstract
Legume–cereal mixtures are pivotal in yielding a more balanced forage composition compared to the sole crops, due to the well-adjusted equilibrium of carbohydrate and protein. However, great attention is required in choosing the optimal ratio of the components for the mixtures and other [...] Read more.
Legume–cereal mixtures are pivotal in yielding a more balanced forage composition compared to the sole crops, due to the well-adjusted equilibrium of carbohydrate and protein. However, great attention is required in choosing the optimal ratio of the components for the mixtures and other agronomic practices (including N fertilization and stage of harvest), because they can sharply change the forage composition and quality. To fill this gap, the present research compared the herbage and silage qualities and key fermentative and nutritional traits of biomasses obtained by: (i) five mixtures (i.e., 100:0; 75:25, 50:50, 25:75, and 0:100) of hybrid barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and faba bean (Vicia faba var. minor); (ii) two N barley fertilization rates (0 vs. 140 kg N ha−1); and (iii) three stages of harvest (milky, early dough and soft dough). We found that the presence of faba bean improved the forage quality, either herbage or silage, through different mechanisms. In the herbage mixtures, faba bean inclusion increased crude protein (CP), and, when compared to the fertilized barley, also water-soluble sugar (WSCs) concentration, with small effects on the relative feed values (RFV) and total digestible nutrients (TDN). In the silage, the higher the faba bean share in the mixture, the higher the RFV, the non-fibrous carbohydrates, and total and lactic acid concentrations, and the lower the pH and the hemicellulose and cellulose concentrations, particularly at the early and mid stages of harvest. These improvements were likely due to the high ability of faba bean to attain a vegetative status (i.e., low dry matter concentration) by the end of the cropping season, and to improve the organic acid production. Our results suggest that the inclusion of faba bean in a barley-based silage system can widen the window for silage harvesting, thanks to its ability to sustain the fermentation process, despite a lower WSC to CP ratio compared to the unfertilized barley. These results occurred almost irrespectively of the faba bean share in the mixture and barley fertilization. This implies that when designing intercrop mixtures, the effect of crop densities on yield should be considered more than on quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mixed Cropping—a Low Input Agronomic Approach to Sustainability)
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17 pages, 1890 KiB  
Article
Optimizing Seeding Ratio for Semi-Leafless and Leafed Pea Mixture with Precise UAV Quantification of Crop Lodging
by Yanben Shen, Lena D. Syrovy, Eric N. Johnson, Thomas D. Warkentin, Thuan Ha, Devini de Silva and Steven J. Shirtliffe
Agronomy 2022, 12(7), 1532; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12071532 - 26 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1720
Abstract
The field pea has both semi-leafless (SL) and leafed (L) types. Mixing these two types together might improve yield by optimizing pea solar radiation interception, reducing lodging, and decreasing disease. However, an optimum mixing ratio has not yet been established, since previous studies [...] Read more.
The field pea has both semi-leafless (SL) and leafed (L) types. Mixing these two types together might improve yield by optimizing pea solar radiation interception, reducing lodging, and decreasing disease. However, an optimum mixing ratio has not yet been established, since previous studies mixed two leaf types from two separate varieties. This study used four near-isogenic pairs of pea genotypes differing only in leaf type to determine the optimal mixing ratio for yield and agronomic traits. Two leaf types were mixed at seeding in five mixing ratios: 0:100, 50:50, 67:33, 83:17, and 100:0 SL/L. With precise UAV quantification of canopy height (r2 = 0.88, RMSE = 2.6 cm), the results showed that a ratio of over 67% semi-leafless pea had a 10% greater lodging resistance when compared to the leafed monoculture. For mycosphaerella blight and Uromyce viciae-fabae rust diseases, the 83:17 mixture decreased disease severity by 4% when compared with the leafed monoculture. Regression analysis of yield estimated that the 86:14 ratio provided an 11% increase to the leafed monoculture, but there was no increase compared with the semi-leafless monoculture. Mixing the two types in a high semi-leafless ratio can reduce leafed lodging and prevent yield loss but does not increase the overall yield over the semi-leafless monoculture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mixed Cropping—a Low Input Agronomic Approach to Sustainability)
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