Crop Rotations and Soil Tillage Interactions for Biomass Production

Authors : Chris CAVALARIS, Chris KARAMOUTIS, Theofanis GEMTOS

Pages : 1-6

View : 91 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2014-02-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The introduction of energy crops for biofuel production is expected to cause severe soil degradation as all crop material will be removed from the fields leaving the soil bare and susceptible to soil erosion. The adoption of crop rotations to keep the soil covered by vegetation all year round along with the application of reduced tillage or no-tillage methods can offer considerable soil protection. Basic criterion for an energy crop is the positive energy balance. Energy budgets for two energy crop rotations insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(in the first one all the plant material is removed from the field while in the second one the residues are left on the soil); and five tillage methods were estimated. Crop rotations were combined with: 1. Conventional Tillage insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(CT);, 2. Reduced tillage with heavy cultivator insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(HC);, 3. Reduced tillage with rotary cultivator insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(RC);, 4. Strip tillage or disk harrow insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(ST/DH); and no-tillage insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(NT);. The energy budget proved to be positive when the whole plant material of a crop was used as an energy feedstock but turned to negative if part of it was left on the field and crop yield was not high enough. The first rotation presented higher net energy gain as the whole plant material was utilized. Energy efficiency was higher in the ST/DH for both rotations and all the crops. Soybean proved to be most efficient as a second crop in the year than sunflower. In sweet sorghum net energy was high due to the high biomass production but energy efficiency was low due to high energy requirements of irrigation. The most efficient crops were the low-input, non-irrigated winter mixtures of vetch / oats and triticale / peas.
Keywords : Crop rotations, soil tillage

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