Forage Potential of Cereal–Legume Mixtures as an Adaptive Climate Change Strategy under Low Input Systems

Rajia Kchaou (), Salah Benyoussef, Sihem Jebari, Kalthoum Harbaoui and Ronny Berndtsson ()
Additional contact information
Rajia Kchaou: National Research Institute for Rural Engineering, Water and Forestry, Tunis 2080, Tunisia
Salah Benyoussef: National Institute of Agronomic Research of Tunisia, Tunis 1004, Tunisia
Sihem Jebari: National Research Institute for Rural Engineering, Water and Forestry, Tunis 2080, Tunisia
Kalthoum Harbaoui: Higher School of Agriculture, Mateur 7030, Tunisia
Ronny Berndtsson: Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies & Division of Water Resources Engineering, Lund University, SE-22100 Lund, Sweden

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Mixed cropping systems can constitute important agroecological adaptation strategies for enhancing crop growth and productivity in view of climate change, while reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers and providing important ecosystem services. The aim of this study was to investigate growth, competitiveness, and productivity of two forage mixtures combining triticale ( X triticosecale Wittmack ) to common vetch ( Vicia sativa L.), and to fenugreek ( Trigonella fœnum-græcum L.) in different mixture combinations (40% T–60% V vs. 60% T–40% V and 40% T–60% F vs. 60% T–40% F). Field results showed that both forage legumes were higher inside the different crop mixtures (+225% for vetch, +94% for fenugreek) than in monocropping. In regard to the competition ration (CR), triticale was the more dominant and competitive species in three out of four studied mixtures. Forage yield was higher in crop mixtures than for corresponding sole crops. Yield gain was greater for common vetch-based mixtures than fenugreek ones (+60% vs. +30%). The results show that using cereal–legume mixtures can provide important productivity increase for fodder yield compared to conventional pure crops. The method is an important adaptive agricultural strategy in view of climate change.

Keywords: mixed cropping systems; triticale; fenugreek; common vetch; adaptation; climate change; agriculture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/338/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/1/338/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2022:i:1:p:338-:d:1015054

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().