Adoption of Durum Wheat Cultivar ‘Salim’ with a Technical Package and Its Resilience to Climate Change Impacts in Smallholders: Case of Nebeur/Kef Region, Tunisia

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an urgent need for local strategies to ensure food sustainability in Tunisia, recognized as a climate change hotspot region. In this context, adaptation measures, including the adoption of high-yielding durum wheat cultivars with adequate agronomical practices, are an important avenue to improving the productivity of the smallholders that represent 80% of Tunisian farmers. Thus, this study highlights the impact of (i) the adoption of the recently marketed durum wheat cultivar ‘Salim’ as compared to the common cultivar ‘Karim’ and the transfer of a technical package to 11 farmers in the Nebeur delegation/Kef-Tunisia (semi-arid region) during the 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 cropping seasons, and (ii) climate change on the expected mean grain yield and biomass by 2070, using the CropSyst agronomic cultivation model based on multi-year crop simulations run with a daily weather series (2020–2070). The adoption of ‘Salim’ with the recommended package, compared to ‘Karim’ with the farmer practices, significantly increased the grain yield (37.84%) and biomass (55.43%). Otherwise, the impact of the 0.8 °C temperature rise on the potential yields and biomass over the next 51 years was positive. Contrary to expectations, the yield increases for the two cultivars were very close, but the yield of ‘Salim’ (36.02 q ha−1) remains much higher than that of ‘Karim’ (23.34 q ha−1). On other hand, ‘Salim’ experienced a higher increase for biomass compared to that of ‘Karim’. These results indicate that the adoption of the ‘Salim’ cultivar with its technical package might be considered as a strategy of adaptation to Nebeur conditions and to future climate change events.

Sustainable management practices for durum wheat production: Analyzing specific agronomic interventions on productivity, grain micronutrient content, and quality

“…These highlights the need for adaptive agronomic management strategies that take into account the specific genetic characteristics of durum wheat varieties, the local growing condition and dynamic nature of the climate. Hence, regularly assessing and adjusting agronomic practices could optimize the performance and sustainability of wheat production [ 27 ].…”

A Bio-Economic Model for Improving Irrigated Durum Wheat Performance and Regional Profits under Mediterranean Conditions

“…CROPSYST has been widely used in bio-economic modeling to assess agronomic indicators. This model has been applied to simulate several crops (maize, wheat, barley, soybean, sorghum, sugar beet, lupins, and forage crops) in different regions, generally with suitable results [28][29][30][31][32].…”