Search Results (15)

Cereals are the basis of the human diet, and among them, after rice and corn, wheat is the most cultivated in the world. Drought, conflicts, and high prices affect food security in many countries. The CHANGE-UP project funded by the PRIMA program aims at redesigning agricultural systems for the Mediterranean area to make them more resilient to climate change, and includes, among other agronomic innovations, the cultivation and characterization of perennial wheat genotypes. In this study, four perennial wheat lines, 235a, 20238, OK72, and 11955, grown in Italy, were examined for their technological and chemical composition and rheological properties and compared with the perennial species Thinopyrum intemedium (Kernza^®) and to a modern durum wheat variety, used as controls. On average, all the perennial genotypes presented very small kernels along with high protein content, total antioxidant capacity, and mineral content, and genotypes OK72 and 11955 presented good test weight values. Line 235a had the best gluten quality, whereas line 20238 reported the worst values for bread-making aptitude. Results indicate that perennial grains could adapt to the Italian environment and manifest their nutritional and technological potential, constituting promising raw materials for enhancing diversification in nutrition by sustainable agriculture based on agroecological principles. Full article

Optimizing rice productivity is crucial for global food security, especially in Mediterranean environments. This study investigated the influence of tillering capacity on yield and other agronomic traits in nine European rice cultivars over two seasons (2021–2022). A split-plot design was used with cultivars as the main factor and five tillering levels: main stems (Mn), primary (T1), secondary (T2), tertiary (T3), and quaternary (T4) as sub-factors. The grain yield, total dry matter, harvest index, 1000-grain weight, and number of stems were measured. Significant differences were revealed among cultivars, tillering levels, and their interaction for all traits. Mn and T1 consistently outyielded later tillers, with Ronaldo’s Mn achieving 4.71 t ha⁻¹. Mare and Olympiada displayed the highest average yields (1.52 t ha⁻¹) through balanced resource allocation across tillers. Strong correlations between tillering levels and yield (R² = 0.73) demonstrate that early tillers significantly enhance productivity. We conclude that optimizing early tiller productivity—rather than maximizing tiller numbers—should be prioritized in breeding programs. Cultivars combining vigorous Mn and T1 development with efficient resource partitioning offer the most promising approach for improving Mediterranean rice productivity. Full article

Aerobic rice cultivation represents an innovative approach to reduce water consumption and enhance water use efficiency compared to traditional transplanting methods. Simultaneously, cultivating drought-tolerant rice genotypes becomes crucial to ensure their sustainable production under abrupt climate fluctuations. Hence, this study aimed to explore the physiological, agronomic, and grain quality responses of ten diverse rice genotypes to various irrigation levels under aerobic cultivation conditions. A field experiment was performed for two summer seasons of 2019 and 2020 in an arid Mediterranean climate. The irrigation regimes were well watered (13,998 m³/ha), mild drought (10,446 m³/ha), moderate drought (7125 m³/ha), and severe drought (5657 m³/ha). The results revealed considerable variations among rice genotypes under tested irrigation regimes in all physiological, agronomic, and quality traits. According to drought response indices, rice genotypes were classified into three groups (A–C), varying from tolerant to sensitive genotypes. The identified drought-tolerant genotypes (Giza-179, Hybrid-1, Giza-178, and Line-9399) recorded higher yields and crop water productivity with reduced water usage compared to drought-sensitive genotypes. Thus, these genotypes are highly recommended for cultivation in water-scarce environments. Furthermore, their characteristics could be valuable in breeding programs to improve drought tolerance in rice, particularly under aerobic cultivation conditions. The PCA biplot, heatmap, and hierarchical clustering highlighted specific physiological parameters such as relative water content, chlorophyll content, proline content, peroxidase content, and catalase content exhibited robust associations with yield traits under water deficit conditions. These parameters offer valuable insights and could serve as rapid indicators for assessing drought tolerance in rice breeding programs in arid environments. Full article

Society’s demand for the preservation of water resources has stimulated technological advances and improved agricultural management, to limit its negative impacts, favor socio-economic development and promote the conservation of natural resources. This study assessed the impact of a rice farming system in the Mediterranean area on the microbiological quality of water, representing the irrigation and cultivation conditions of the Lis Valley Irrigation District (LVID). Indicators used include the counting of total coliforms (TC), fecal coliforms (FC), fecal enterococci (FE) and ampicillin-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (Amp^r), and a phenotypic characterization of antibiotic (AB) resistances. The results show that the water at the LVID inlets contained high microbiological contamination due to sources outside the perimeter. The rice paddy agroecosystem had a beneficial impact on the load of TC, FC and FE of the respective drainage water, with a decrease of two orders of magnitude between the values of these counts at the inlets and at the outlets of the rice fields. However, the relative frequency of Enterobacteriaceae Amp^r increased in the rice paddy soil, possibly as a result of the favorable conditions provided by this wetland ecosystem for the transfer of AB resistance genes. The analysis of AB resistance patterns revealed high relative resistance percentages for both β-lactams and non-β-lactams in all samples. This study made it possible to assess the risks of microbiological contamination of irrigation water and the beneficial effect of the rice-growing system in controlling the applied indicators. Full article

The main constraint on rice cultivation in the Mediterranean area is the limited irrigation and its large water consumption. In addition, rice is very sensitive to drought conditions because of drought stress on morpho-physiological traits and yield reduction. The application of salicylic acid (SA) has been noticed to be very effective in alleviating the adverse effects of drought stress on rice. The current investigation was conducted as a split-split arrangement under a randomized complete block design with two lowland rice cultivars (Giza177 and Giza179) and SA as a foliar application at four concentrations (0, 400, 700, and 1000 µM) under normal and drought conditions. The results showed that plant growth, leaf photosynthetic pigments, yields, and the most studied traits were significantly affected by irrigation (I), cultivar (C), and SA concentration (p ≤ 0.05 or 0.01). The interaction effect of I × C × SA was only significant on the carotenoids content (p ≤ 0.05). The reduction in grain yield and most studied traits was more pronounced under drought conditions. The Giza179 proved to be a drought-tolerant cultivar under all SA concentrations under drought conditions, while Giza177 was a drought-sensitive cultivar. The application of 700 µM SA gave the best grain yield in both rice cultivars under drought conditions compared to other SA concentrations. Grain yield for normal irrigation (Yp) and drought stress (Ys) conditions were highly positively correlated with indices of the mean productivity (MP), geometric mean productivity (GMP), stress tolerance index (STI), yield index (YI), yield stability index (YSI), drought resistance index (DI), harmonic mean (HM), and golden mean (GOL). While they are highly negatively correlated with the indices of the stress susceptibility index (SSI), tolerance index (TOL), yield reduction ratio (YR), stress susceptibility percentage index (SSPI), and abiotic tolerance index (ATI). It could be concluded that SA, as a growth regulator, could be used to alleviate the harmful effect of inadequate water availability in soil on rice cultivars as well as to improve the growth, water productivity, and grain yield. Full article

The olive oil industry produces high amounts of waste, which need to be valorized in a more sustainable way as an alternative to its traditional use as an energy source, with high associated CO₂ emissions. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important crops for global food security; however, the traditional cropping systems under flooding lead to an important decrease of soil quality, as well as relevant emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). The aim of this study was to assess the GHG emission from rice fields amended with composted two-phase olive mill waste (C-TPOW), in Mediterranean conditions. A field experiment was carried in rice cultivated by the traditional system, either unamended (Control) or amended with C-TPOW (Compost). GHG emissions were measured over three years following a single C-TPOW application (80 Mg ha⁻¹ only in the first year of study), so that the results found in the first and third years correspond to its direct and residual effects, respectively. Compost decreased CO₂ emissions relative to Control by 13% and 20% in the first and third year after C-TPOW application, respectively. However, in the case of CH₄ and N₂O, increases in the total cumulative emission were recorded in Compost relative to Control throughout the study, in agreement with the highest β-glucosidase and urease activity observed in the amended soil. The values of global warming potential (GWP) and yield-scaled GWP increased by 14% and 11%, respectively, in Compost relative to Control in the first year, but no significant differences between treatments were observed three years after application for GWP and yield-scaled GWP. Therefore, the use of C-TPOW as soil amendment in rice fields could be a good option since its impact on GHG emissions seems to decrease over time, while the benefit for soil remained clear even after 3 years. Full article

Detailed experiments were performed to investigate the effects of the marginal cultivation of temperate japonica rice on salinity tolerance in different developmental stages and to detect new genetic resources for further research and breeding projects. Eight rice varieties were screened for salinity tolerance in a greenhouse at two developmental stages. During seedling-stage screening, stress was induced with a 12 dS m⁻¹ NaCl solution. For reproductive-stage analysis, we applied continuous salinity stress (8.39 dS m⁻¹ of soil extract at 25 °C (EC₂₅)). We compared the marginal rice genotypes (japonica_1) to widely grown controls (those being Mediterranean japonica genotypes, referred as the japonica_2 group, which also included one indica genotype). Without stress, marginally cultivated genotypes had significantly higher potassium storage capacity (406 µmol g⁻¹) in flag leaves than did japonica_2 (347) or indica (267). Moreover, the seeds contained twice as much sodium (5.27) as did the others (2.19 and 2.00). Based on root-to-grain allocation, we identified two sodium excluders (‘Dular’ and ‘Dáma’) and six includers under constant salinity stress. Among the includers, we found that ‘M488’ had extremely high sodium concentration in both the flag leaves (250.54 µmol g⁻¹) and the grains (13.57 µmol g⁻¹). Rice varieties bred for the edge of their habitat show special physiological patterns. The differences are mainly manifested as lower levels of antioxidant pigments, higher amounts of potassium in flag leaves, and higher sodium levels in grains under normal conditions. With the onset of stress, higher tillering ability, enhanced antioxidant pigment synthesis, and rapid potassium translocation from the root are the key mechanisms which help the plants to avoid serious damage caused by salinity. Full article

The Natural Park of Albufera (Valencia, Spain) is an important Mediterranean coastal wetland that suffers continuous environmental effects from human activities and water uses, mainly related to agriculture and urban/industrial sewage discharges. The aim of this research was to assess the water quality of the different aquatic environments of this wetland, taking into account the connection between them, the agricultural impact and the management of irrigation water. The UE Water Framework Directive was followed in order to evaluate the ecological and trophic status of water systems. Spatial approaches were used to integrate physicochemical data into GIS vector layers to map the more problematic points of pollution. The results showed a globally eutrophic system with poor ecological potential. The wetland is nutrient-overloaded during the entire rice cultivation period. Good-quality water inputs are deficient, since the river network already has high levels of nutrients and pollutants, especially in the northern area, where river water is mixed with inappropriate effluents from wastewater treatment plants. Agriculture and water management affected the area intensively up to the Albufera lake, modulating most of the studied variables. The information gathered here can help to optimize the global study and management of the coastal Mediterranean wetlands, which are highly linked to agriculture. Full article

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most cultivated and consumed crops worldwide. It is mainly produced in Asia but, due to its large genetic pool, it has expanded to several ecosystems, latitudes and climatic conditions. Europe is a rice producing region, especially in the Mediterranean countries, that grow mostly typical japonica varieties. The European consumer interest in rice has increased over the last decades towards more exotic types, often more expensive (e.g., aromatic rice) and Europe is a net importer of this commodity. This has increased food fraud opportunities in the rice supply chain, which may deliver mixtures with lower quality rice, a problem that is now global. The development of tools to clearly identify undesirable mixtures thus became urgent. Among the various tools available, DNA-based markers are considered particularly reliable and stable for discrimination of rice varieties. This review covers aspects ranging from rice diversity and fraud issues to the DNA-based methods used to distinguish varieties and detect unwanted mixtures. Although not exhaustive, the review covers the diversity of strategies and ongoing improvements already tested, highlighting important advantages and disadvantages in terms of costs, reliability, labor-effort and potential scalability for routine fraud detection. Full article

The Natural Park of Albufera (Valencia, Spain) is one of the Spanish Mediterranean wetlands where rice is cultivated intensively. The hydrology of the Albufera Lake, located in the center, combines natural contributions with complex human management. The aim of our study was to develop a new methodology to accurately detect the volume of flood water in complex natural environments which experience significant seasonal changes due to climate and agriculture. The study included 132 Landsat images, covering a 15-year period. The algorithm was adjusted using the NDWI index and simultaneous measurements of water levels in the rice fields. The NDVI index was applied to monitor the cultivated area during the summer. Lake inflows and residence times were also evaluated to quantify how the hydrodynamic of the lake is conditioned by the agricultural management. The algorithm developed is confirmed as a useful ecological tool to monitor the flood cycle of the wetland, being able to detect even the lowest water levels. The flood dynamics are consistent over the fifteen years, being in line with the rice cultivation cycle. Water renewal in Albufera lake is altered with respect to that expected according to the rainfall recorded in the study area, so an improvement in the water management of the hydrological basin is required to optimize the runoff during the rainiest months. Full article

Soil seedbanks are defined in composition and quantity by many environmental factors inherent to a specific area, and they can be an indicator of the potential problems of weeds in crops. In Valencia (Spain), rice is cultivated with continuous flooding during the growing season, and after harvesting, many of the paddy fields are flooded again during the winter. This study investigates the paddy fields’ soil seedbank composition in this Mediterranean paddy area and the effect of winter flooding on the soil seedbank. Multispectral images from the Sentinel-2 satellite were used to characterise the water level of paddies in winter. Satellite images facilitated the characterisation of winter flooding in fields. Soil samples from sixty-nine points distributed over 15,000 ha of paddies were used to determine the composition of the seedbank plots. The data were spatially represented by geographic information systems. The species that contributed most to the paddy seedbank were Cyperus difformis L., an important rice weed in the Mediterranean area, and other rice weeds such as Echinochloa sp. and Leptochloa fusca subspecies. Other species with a great contribution to the seedbank are species that develop in paddy fields that produce a large quantity of small seeds, such as Lemna sp., Polypogon monspeliensis (L.) Desf., and Nasturtium officinale R. Br. These species interfere little or do not interfere with the rice crop. The study revealed that in general, flooding reduced seedbank density with differences between species. Furthermore, the influence of winter flooding on the different plant species obtained as well as their distribution maps are a further step in this protected area from the point of view of weed management in rice crop, as well as in the management of this Mediterranean wetland. Full article

The Albufera of Valencia is a coastal lagoon located in the western area of the Mediterranean Sea, in the Iberian Peninsula. It has an area of 23.1 km² and an average depth of only 1 m, with a maximum depth of 1.6 m. This lagoon is the remnants of an original and more extensive wetland of about 220 km² which is now mostly dedicated to rice cultivation. Surface water is supplied through several main and many secondary canals for a total of 64 water entry points and three exit points to the sea. It is difficult to evaluate the residence time due to the lack of reliable measurements of the inflow or outflow, as well as continuous measurements. Between 1988 and 2018, several procedures were used, the results of which are outlined in this document. Overall, a decrease in the inflow during these thirty years was observed and, therefore, it can be concluded that the residence time is increasing. There is a temporal variation during the year due to rainfall and cultivation periods. Likewise, the results found that the natural hydrological zoning of the lagoon causes a spatial heterogeneity with small Northern areas with low residence time of 4.7 days, almost on a weekly basis and large Western extensions with high residence time of 222.9 days. It is impossible to know this information if individual flow measurements are not taken from each of the main watercourses. Full article

The great increase in livestock production in some European areas makes it necessary to recycle organic slurries and manures and to integrate them in crop production. In Northeast Spain, the application of pig slurry (PS) is being extended to alternative crops such as rice due to the great increase in pig production. However, there is a lack of information of the effect of substitution of synthetic fertilizers with pig slurry on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in rice crop, and this information is key for the sustainability of these agricultural systems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the substitution of mineral fertilizers by PS on GHG emissions in Mediterranean flooded rice cultivation conditions under optimal nitrogen (N) fertilization. Two field experiments were carried out in two different (contrasting) soil types with different land management. Site 1 had been cultivated for rice in the previous three years with no puddling practices. Site 2 had been cultivated for rice for more than 15 years with puddling tillage practices and had higher organic matter content than site 1. The cumulative nitrous oxide emissions during the crop season were negative at both sites, corroborating that under flooded conditions, methane is the main contributor to global warming potential rather than nitrous oxide. The substitution of mineral fertilizer with PS before seeding at the same N rate did not increase emissions in both sites. However, at site 1 (soil with lower organic matter content), the higher PS rate applied before seeding (170 kg N ha⁻¹) increased methane emissions compared to the treatments with lower PS rate and mineral fertilizer before seeding (120 kg N ha⁻¹) and complemented with topdressing mineral N. Thus, a sustainable strategy for inclusion of PS in rice fertilization is the application of moderate PS rates before seeding (≈120 kg N ha⁻¹) complemented with mineral N topdressing. Full article

Rice farming is one of the most important activities in the agriculture sector, producing staple food for the majority of the world's growing population. Accurate and up-to-date assessment of the spatial distribution of rice cultivated area is a key information requirement of all stakeholders including policy makers, rice farmers and consumers. Timely assessment with high precision is, e.g., crucial for water resource management, market prices control and during humanitarian food crisis. Recently, two Sentinel-1 (S-1) satellites carrying a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor were launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) within the homework of the Copernicus program. The advanced data acquisition capabilities of S-1 provide a unique opportunity to monitor different land cover types at high spatial (20 m) and temporal (twice-weekly to biweekly) resolution. The objective of this research is to evaluate the applicability of an existing phenology-based classification method for continental-scale rice cropland mapping using S-1 backscatter time series. In this study, the S-1 images were collected during the rice growing season of 2015 covering eight selected European test sites situated in six Mediterranean countries. Due to the better rice classification capabilities of SAR cross-polarized measurement as compared to co-polarized data, S-1 cross-polarized (VH) data were used. Phenological parameters derived from the S-1 VH backscatter time series were used as an input to a knowledge-based decision-rule classifier in order to classify the input data into rice and non-rice areas. The classification results were evaluated using multiple regions of interest (ROIs) drawn from high-resolution optical remote sensing (SPOT 5) data and the European CORINE land cover (CLC 2012) product. An overall accuracy of more than 70% for all eight study sites was achieved. The S-1 based classification maps reveal much more details compared to the rice field class contained in the CLC 2012 product. These findings demonstrate the potential and feasibility of using S-1 VH data to develop an operational rice crop monitoring framework at the continental scale. Full article

Wheat is one of the main crops in Mediterranean countries, and its cultivation has an important role in the Syrian economy. In Syria, Fusarium head blight (FHB) has not been reported so far. Mycological analysis of 48 samples of wheat kernels collected from cultivation areas with different climatic conditions were performed in 2009 and 2010. Fungal isolates were identified at the genus level morphologically; Fusarium species were characterized morphologically and by species-specific PCR. The most frequent fungal genera found were Alternaria spp. and Cladosporium spp., with frequencies of 24.7% and 8.1%, respectively, while the frequency of Fusarium spp. was 1.5% of kernels. Most frequent Fusarium species were F. tricinctum (30% of all Fusarium isolates), F. culmorum (18%), F. equiseti (14%) and F. graminearum (13%). The mycotoxin production potential of selected Fusarium isolates was assessed by HPLC-MS analysis of rice cultures; chemotyping by PCR was carried out for comparison. All six F. graminearum strains tested produced small amounts (<3 mg/kg) of nivalenol (NIV). All ten F. culmorum strains tested produced large amounts of trichothecenes (>100 mg/kg); four strains produced NIV and six strains produced deoxynivalenol (DON) and 3-acetyl-deoxynivalenol (3Ac-DON). PCR chemotyping lead to an oversimplified picture, because all 3Ac-DON chemotype strains produced more DON than 3Ac-DON; furthermore, the strongest NIV producers produced significant amounts of DON. All tested strains of F. culmorum, F. graminearum, F. pseudograminearum (two strains) and most F. equiseti strains (five of six strains) produced zearalenone. Grains of durum wheat were more frequently colonized by Fusarium spp. than grains of soft wheat. Incidence of Fusarium spp. in irrigated fields was higher than in rainfed fields. The incidence of Fusarium strains producing mycotoxins raises concerns about the risk of Fusarium head blight to Syria and its consequences for public health. Full article