Abstract
Conservation agriculture (CA) can be very strategic in degradation prone soils of Mediterranean environments to recover soil fertility and consequently improve crop productivity as well as the quality traits of the most widespread crop, durum wheat, with reference to protein accumulation and composition. The results shown by two years of data in a medium long-term experiment (7-year experiment; split-plot design) that combined two tillage practices (conventional tillage (CT) and zero tillage (ZT)) with two crop sequences (wheat monocropping (WW) and wheat-faba bean (WF)) are presented. The combination ZT + WF (CA approach) induced the highest grain yields (617 and 370 g m−2 in 2016 and 2017, respectively), principally due to an increased number of ears m−2; on the other hand, the lowest grain yield was recorded under CT + WW (550 and 280 g m−2 in 2016 and 2017, respectively). CA also demonstrated significant influences on grain quality because the inclusion of faba bean in the rotation favored higher N-remobilization to the grains (79.5% and 77.7% in 2017). Under ZT and WF, all gluten fractions (gliadins (Glia), high molecular-weight glutenins (GS), and low molecular-weight GS) as well as the GS/Glia ratio increased. In durum wheat-based farming systems in Mediterranean areas, the adoption of CA seems to be an optimal choice to combine high quality yields with improved soil fertility.
Highlights
Durum wheat is the main cereal crop grown within Mediterranean regions, the erratic rainfall distribution and the extremely fluctuating temperatures during grain filling stages determine the instability of yields
We propose a comprehensive approach based on the combination of two tillage practices with two crop sequences including the conservation agriculture (CA) approach in a medium-long term (7-years) experiment to investigate durum wheat responses
Residues obtained under WW showed a higher thickness and weight than WF (1.40 vs. 0.46 cm and 3.06 vs. 0.95 t ha−1 ) and were characterized by a greater percentage of hemicellulos, cellulose, and lignin, but with lower N content (Table 1)
Summary
Durum wheat is the main cereal crop grown within Mediterranean regions, the erratic rainfall distribution and the extremely fluctuating temperatures during grain filling stages determine the instability of yields. In these areas, wheat is usually grown in monocropping or short rotations, in conventionally managed soils (ploughing and harrowing) characterized by severe water loss, erosion, organic matter depletion, and CO2 release. Wheat is usually grown in monocropping or short rotations, in conventionally managed soils (ploughing and harrowing) characterized by severe water loss, erosion, organic matter depletion, and CO2 release Both the reduced soil fertility and effects of climatic change strongly affect durum wheat yields and quality traits [1]. Several allelic variants of x and y genes coding for HMW-GS have been associated with flour technological quality [10] as well as the B-group LMW-GS, coded at Glu-3 loci at chromosome 1 (Glu-A3, Glu-B3, and Glu-B2) [11]
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