Crop diversity enhances drought tolerance and reduces environmental impact in commodity crops

LEGUIZAMÓN, YAMILA; GOLDENBERG, MATÍAS G.; JOBBÁGY, ESTEBAN G.; WHITWORTH- HULSE, JUAN I. ; SATORRE, EMILIO; PAOLINI, MARÍA; MARTINI, GUSTAVO D.; MICHELOUD, JOSÉ R.; GARIBALDI LUCAS A.

AGRICULTURE, ECOSYSTEMS AND ENVIRONMENT

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2025

0167-8809

Key challenges in agriculture include enhancing tolerance to extreme climatic events andreducing environmental impacts. While diversified crop rotations and cover crops are knownto reduce pest incidence and improve soil health, their combined effects on production,especially during extreme droughts, remain unclear. To examine the impact of crop rotationdiversity and cover crops on grain yield and pesticide footprint (measured by theEnvironmental Impact Quotient, EIQ) of rainfed maize and soybean in both normal andextremely dry years, we applied mixed-effects models to data from 1777 fields in Argentina.Overall, increasing crop rotation diversity reduced field EIQ, with the impact on grain yieldvarying based on crop type, nitrogen fertilization, and year. Maize yield improved with croprotation diversity in the dry year, particularly with low nitrogen fertilization, reaching yieldssimilar to those in normal year. Soybean yield, instead, was unaffected by either croprotation diversity or cover crops. While grain yields of crops following cover crops and fallowwere comparable, fields with cover crops showed a reduction in EIQ of up to 20%.Diversified crop rotations emerge as an effective management strategy to alleviate droughtand low nitrogen fertilization’s adverse effects on maize yield. Additionally, cover crops helpreduce agriculture’s environmental impact without diminishing maize and soybeanproduction. Our findings underscore the importance of crop diversification in developing amore sustainable agricultural system with reduced inputs and enhanced drought resilience.