Agronomic Performances of Organic Field Vegetables Managed with Conservation Agriculture Techniques: A Study from Central Italy

Daniele Antichi,Marco Mazzoncini,Andrea Peruzzi,Michele Raffaelli,Luisa Martelloni,Christian Frasconi,Lara Abou Chehade,Marco Fontanelli,Massimo Sbrana

doi:10.3390/agronomy9120810

Abstract

Organic farming systems are considered not compatible with conservation tillage mainly because of the reliance of conservative systems on herbicides. In this three-year field experiment, we tested the performances of an innovative vegetable organic and conservative system (ORG+) combining the use of cover crops (exploited as either living or dead mulch) and no-till techniques. This system was compared to “business-as-usual” organic farming (ORG) and integrated farming system (INT) based on the same crop sequence: savoy cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. sabauda L. cv. Famosa), spring lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Justine), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill. Cv. Montebianco), and summer lettuce (Lactuca sativa L. cv. Ballerina RZ). The results of crop yield parameters and weed abundance contribute to spotlight potentialities and weaknesses of organic-conservative management of field vegetables. In particular, ORG+ caused significant yield depletion for all the crops and revealed suboptimal weed control and N availability. The agroecosystem services provided by the cover crops grown in the ORG+ as dead mulch or living mulch were affected by weather conditions and not always resulted in significant crop gain. Nevertheless, interesting results in terms of P availability and reduced N surplus encourage further development of the system targeting more sustainable organic vegetable production.

Highlights

IntroductionThe response to a growing demand for food under climate change and environmental risks connected to intensive agriculture requires more efficient and sustainable agricultural practices
The response to a growing demand for food under climate change and environmental risks connected to intensive agriculture requires more efficient and sustainable agricultural practices.Ecological intensification has been proposed as a solution to these challenges, and organic farming principally relies on this, by promoting biodiversity and soil health [1,2,3,4]
Mean maximum temperatures were higher than multiannual values in most cases during the three experimental years

Summary

Introduction

The response to a growing demand for food under climate change and environmental risks connected to intensive agriculture requires more efficient and sustainable agricultural practices. Ecological intensification has been proposed as a solution to these challenges, and organic farming principally relies on this, by promoting biodiversity and soil health [1,2,3,4]. Organic farming is increasingly growing in Europe, with almost 14.6 million hectares of agricultural land as of 2017 and a corresponding growth of more than 75% in a decade [5]. The current organic management practices have been an object of debate recently. Organic farmers still rely heavily on conventional intensive tillage to incorporate crop residues, organic fertilizers, and cover crops and most importantly to control weeds [6]. The intensive tillage leaves the Agronomy 2019, 9, 810; doi:10.3390/agronomy9120810 www.mdpi.com/journal/agronomy

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