Apulia (southeast of Italy) has always been an agricultural region in the Italian landscape. Nowadays, the countryside is a mix of natural environments and artificial landscapes. From 2014 to 2016, the region has been the object of a project aimed to collect information about geographic position and surface devoted to legume and/or cereal landrace cultivation. The collection missions carried out allowed

The cultivation of oil crops for biofuel production has often been accused of not being environmentally sustainable due to the high inputs needed. To explore the effect of reduced input on productive and qualitative traits of camelina (Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz), a trial was carried out over a two-year period. This study analysed two different levels of input: a low input treatment (shallow non-inversion

The agriculture sustainability assessment is a difficult issue for the coexistence of conflicting objectives and the multidimensionality of the performances. The environmental, economic and social pillars need to be simultaneously considered in an assessment to evaluate potential synergies and trade-offs of the agricultural processes within and among the attributes of the dimensions in both implemented

Soils play a central role in achieving sustainable development. The new European Green Deal is addressing all policy areas relevant to sustainable soil management: climate change, biodiversity, agriculture and desertification, including sustainable water management, are necessarily at the core of the European policies. Consistently addressing soil protection across these different policy areas will

Agricultural land set up systems comprise those agronomic structures able to preserve the soil fertility from water erosion, such as: ditching, contouring, earth-riser and stonewall terracing, draining, and channelization, etc.. However, in the past 60 years, agricultural mechanization has led to an expansion of the field size and reduction in land set up system intensity to make machine operation

Vineyards’ soils are especially threatened by the risk of soil compaction and soil erosion, with negative consequences for wine production and provisioning of ecosystem services. The adopted inter-rows soil management influences the response of vineyard to different types of rainfall events, in terms of runoff and soil erosion. Actually, the use of cover crops in vineyards is widely considered as an

Land set-up systems in Italy were and, in a few cases, still are integral parts of agricultural landscapes. The soils of Italy mirror a wide variety of climates and morphologies and derive from a great diversity of parent materials influenced by different soil temperature and moisture regimes. Furthermore, their development was influenced by several anthropogenic activities over time including land

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) identify the need to restore degraded soils in order to improve productivity and the provision of ecosystem services. The aim is to support food production, store and supply clean water, conserve biodiversity, sequester carbon, and improve soil resilience in a context of climate change. Within this framework, in order to achieve the SDGs and to correct land

Desertification is a complex phenomenon defined as the extreme degree of land degradation induced by human activities and climatic conditions. Climate change is accelerating and widening these areas. Previews analysis and studies assessed the vulnerability to desertification in Italy at national and regional level through a methodological approach based on integrating climate, soil, vegetation, and

According to European Landscape Convention, the term Landscape means an area whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and human factors. The equilibrium between these forces is mandatory to preserve this heritage implementing a good land protection and conservation policy that implies many professional figures like agronomists and soil scientists. Italian territory includes

Land reclamation and drainage networks represent one of the most ancient human modifications of the Italian soilscape, where tailored land set-up systems were developed in agro- and forestecosystems in three millennia of man’s activity. Most of once manually maintained land settings are currently scarcely working or even disappeared because of the cost needed for their maintenance and the advent of

The European Cross-Compliance mechanism set up within the Common Agricultural Policy provides support payments to farmers under the condition that specific Standards for Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) are respected. GAEC standard 5 is specific to limit soil loss by erosion in arable crops and requires to comply with the ‘Realization of temporary ditches’ in sloping lands affected

Soil erosion is one of the biggest environmental problems throughout European Union causing considerable soil losses. Vegetation cover provides an important soil protection against runoff and soil erosion. To this aim, unlike annual crops, perennial plants have the advantage of covering soil for a longer time and reducing soil erodibility thanks to SOM increase due to litter effect and to reduction

The present research was conducted to assess the competition of four cover crop species including the Festuca ovina L., Festuca rubra L., Agropyron desertorum (Fischer ex Link) Shultes, and Bromus tomentellus Boiss with the weeds as well as enhancement of their establishment. B. tomentellus with 7.7 and 8.73 t h–1 had the highest dry weight production in 2016 and 2017, respectively. In 2016, the highest

To study the effects of salt stress and plant growth regulators (kinetin, gibberellic acid, potassium) on growth, yield, glycine betaine content, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase (PEPC) and ribulose biphosphate carboxylase (RBC) gene expression of two Libyan bread wheat varieties, a factorial design of greenhouse experiment with three replications was conducted. Results revealed that salt stress significantly

As in any agroecosystem, also in aquaponics the nitrogen (N) balance represents an important tool to evaluate sustainability, and to identify factors that can improve N use efficiency (NUE) and reduce N losses. In this respect, fish stocking density has been little investigated, hence this research aimed to evaluate the N balance of a low technology aquaponic (AP) system managed at two fish densities

Agricultural activities are potential sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and nitrous oxide (N2O) is one of the most important non-carbon-dioxide GHGs. Perennial legumes such as alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) have potential roles for reduction of soil GHG emissions as part of crop rotation systems. However, the implications of perennial legume termination by tillage and subsequent soil incorporation

Ocimum basilicum L. is an herbaceous plant from the Labiate family that used fresh, as a spice, and as a medicinal plant. Mulch is technique capable of reducing evaporation from the surface of the soil in basil production systems; it has more impacts on yield and essential oil quality of a basil crop. This research was performed in order to study the effects of different mulch types and irrigation

The present study was designed to assess the impact of hen grazing on plant biodiversity in the ground cover of hazelnut orchards, as well as the quality of eggs from hens grazing in the orchards. Two different sites of hazelnut orchards located in Basilicata region were selected to conduct this study. The results showed that hen grazing affected the composition of herbaceous stratum of the orchards

Optimal planting speed of vacuum maize planters is usually suggested by planter’s manufacturers, while increased planting speed may influence plant spacing and finally yield. Our hypothesis was that by increasing planting speed over the suggested level plant spacing variability will also increase which will result in decrease of silage and grain yield and saving of seed and energy. The field trial

Once a very important crop, the cultivation of hemp has seen a significant reduction in Europe for a long time, but it is now subject to direct payments and promotion initiatives. Italy used to be an important producer and exporter of hemp textiles until the Second World War but currently information is lacking regarding the hemp production chain and legislation on the issue is often misunderstood

The high demand of barley for animal feed and the scarcity of fresh water increase the need for the reuse of treated wastewater as an alternative source for irrigation. Therefore, two-field experiments were conducted to study physiological processes, plant growth, grain yield and yield components of four-barley cultivars grown under four-irrigation treatments using treated wastewater or fresh water