Land use intensification in the Rolling Pampa, Argentina: Diversifyingcrop sequences to increase yields and resource use

POGGIO, S.; ANDRADE, J.F.; SATORRE, E.H.; ERMÁCORA, M.

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF AGRONOMY

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2017 vol. 82 p. 1 - 10

1161-0301

tIncreasing and maintaining high productivity levels presents a major challenge facing farmers today andwill continue into the near future. More integrative and complex approaches to decision-making, besidesadopting new technologies, are necessary for redesigning more productive, stable, and sustainable farm-ing systems. Thus, novel crop sequences should be implemented to improve these properties of farmingsystems. The aim of our research was to characterize how different preceding crops that open recurrentsequences will impact on the productivity and resource use of the following crops, in order to determinethe possibilities of increasing the frequency of double crops in rotations. Three field experiments wereconducted under rainfed conditions at three sites in the Rolling Pampas of Argentina. The effects of sevencropping systems on the productivity of succeeding crops were evaluated at each location. The sevencropping systems included five double crops (rapeseed/soybean, wheat/soybean, barley/soybean, fieldpea/soybean, and field pea/maize) and two single crops (maize and soybean). The seven cropping systemswere followed by the same crop sequence: wheat/soybean double crop and maize single crop in the firstand second growing seasons, respectively. Radiation use and grain yield, water use and nitrogen uptakewere evaluated for each crop in the sequence. Results indicate that repeating cereal crops in the croppingsequence reduces their productivities, while well balanced sequences that include legumes resulted inthe highest productivities of cereal crops. Our findings highlight that diversifying cropping systems byadopting different double crops are practical options that can contribute to a more sustainable intensifi-cation of cropping systems specialized for grain crops. Increasing crop diversity in sequence influencednitrogen uptake, among other factors, and may explain the enhanced crop yield in such systems. Ourresearch highlights that crop diversification is critical in designing efficient and sustainable intensifiedcrop sequences.