Preprint Article Version 1 Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed

Durum Wheat Quality, Yield, and Sanitary Status Under Conservation Agriculture

Francesco Calzarano
ORCID logo ,
Fabio Stagnari
* ,
Sara D'Egidio
* ,
Giancarlo Pagnani
* ,
Angelica Galieni
,
Stefano Di Marco
,
Elisa Giorgia Metruccio
,
Michele Pisante
ORCID logo
Version 1 : Received: 23 July 2018 / Approved: 23 July 2018 / Online: 23 July 2018 (11:39:38 CEST)

A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.

Calzarano, F.; Stagnari, F.; D’Egidio, S.; Pagnani, G.; Galieni, A.; Di Marco, S.; Metruccio, E.G.; Pisante, M. Durum Wheat Quality, Yield and Sanitary Status under Conservation Agriculture. Agriculture 2018, 8, 140. Calzarano, F.; Stagnari, F.; D’Egidio, S.; Pagnani, G.; Galieni, A.; Di Marco, S.; Metruccio, E.G.; Pisante, M. Durum Wheat Quality, Yield and Sanitary Status under Conservation Agriculture. Agriculture 2018, 8, 140.

Abstract

Conservation agriculture (CA) could be very effective for agricultural sustainability under Mediterranean environments, where farmers rely on short rotation based on durum wheat. In this work we investigated the effect of different combination of tillage treatments and crop sequence (conventional tillage and wheat monocropping, CT-WW; conventional tillage, and wheat following faba-bean, CT-WF; zero tillage and wheat monocropping, ZT-WW; zero tillage and wheat following faba-bean, ZT-WF) on yield, grain quality traits as well as on diseases incidence and severity in durum wheat (var. Saragolla). The results of a two-years of data of a long-term experiment (7-year experiment; split-plot design) are discussed. The CA approach (ZT+WF), which induced always the highest grain yields (6.1 t ha-1 and 3.3 t ha-1 in 2016 and 2017) thanks to an increased number of spikes m-2 (296 vs 269 and 303 vs 287 spikes m-2 in 2016 and 2017, respectively) as well as to a more pronounced ear length, demonstrated significant positive influences in terms of grain quality. It promoted grain protein accumulation (12.1% for ZT+WF versus 11.4% for ZT+WW and 12.4% for ZT+WF versus 10.6% for ZT+WW in 2016 and 2017), improved gluten quality (in terms of SDS sedimentation test) and colour of the grain. The abundance of crop residues determined a higher incidence and severity of Zymoseptoria tritici leaf symptoms under CA system; nevertheless the late appearance of infection was the main reason of not affecting yield and quality traits. The presence of faba-bean (WF) in the rotation significantly reduced leaf symptoms of Z. tritici.

Keywords

Conservation Agriculture; Durum Wheat; Faba-bean, Fungal diseases; Grain Quality

Subject

Biology and Life Sciences, Agricultural Science and Agronomy

Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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