Effects of soil‐protecting agricultural practices on soil organic carbon and productivity in fruit tree orchards

Abstract

This 4-year on-farm study reports the effects of different agricultural practices on yield and soil organic carbon (SOC) in kiwifruit and apricot orchards grown in a Mediterranean area. Groups of plants under local orchard management (LOM,x) practices (i.e. soil tillage, removing of pruning residues and mineral fertilisers) were compared with plots under soil-protecting orchard management (SPOM) actions (i.e. cover crop, no-tillage, compost application and mulching of pruning residues). In the SPOM blocks fertilisation rate was based on plant demand and irrigation volumes calculated on the evapotranspiration values, while they were empirically calculated in the LOM plots. Results show that yield was 28–50 per cent enhanced by SPOM practices while SOC remained close to the initial values. In comparison with LOM plots, changed practices increased up to 28–90 per cent the amount of P and K, and 13 per cent that of N annually incorporated into soil increasing their reservoir in the soil. The study demonstrates that appropriate land management can increase the mean annual carbon soil inputs from about 15 to 90 t ha1 per year

Preface

“…Giusseppe Montanaro, G. Celano, B. Dichio and C. Xiloyannis presented a paper on the 'Effects of soil-protecting agricultural practices on soil organic carbon and productivity in fruit tree orchards' which demonstrates how positive organic matter recovery can be if conservation strategies are applied in Mediterranean orchards (Montanaro et al, 2009). Another strategy to control the soil losses on agriculture land is the use of geotextiles.…”

Irrigation in Mediterranean Fruit Tree Orchards

“…Increased soil carbon is a prerequisite for soil fertility remediation, mineral element supply and better soil water holding capacity (Montanaro et al, 2010). Therefore, higher carbon input in the S plot may have increased the retention of winter rainfall in the soil resulting in a likely higher soil available water compare to the C plot.…”

Comparison of European Olive Production Systems

“…Olive tree crops have an important climate change mitigation potential, since as permanent crops they provide carbon storage in soils [10][11][12][13]. In addition, the use of olive grove residues from orchard management and olive oil extraction residues (pomace, olive pit) in biomass boilers as fossil fuel replacement provide additional reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [14,15].…”

“…The above issues and other environmental aspects have been investigated in many studies by using the Life Cycle Assessment methodology (LCA), both at local and global scales [16][17][18][19]. In these studies, Olive tree crops have an important climate change mitigation potential, since as permanent crops they provide carbon storage in soils [10][11][12][13]. In addition, the use of olive grove residues from orchard management and olive oil extraction residues (pomace, olive pit) in biomass boilers as fossil fuel replacement provide additional reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [14,15].…”