Agroecological practices in organic fennel cultivation to improve environmental sustainability

ABSTRACT

The simplification and intensification of agricultural systems have often caused environmental harm, whereas implementing agroecological practices may improve the sustainability of farms. Therefore, a four-year experiment was carried out on an organic fennel crop comparing a system with organic management and a cover crop (ORG+CC) with both a traditional organic system (ORG) and a system without living mulch and fertilizer (CONTR). The systems were evaluated for agronomic performance, energy analysis, and carbon footprint. The carbon footprint was calculated considering the impacts of agricultural operations, and those by the production and biogeochemical processes of the soil through the DNDC (DeNitrification DeComposition) model. The ORG+CC system showed the most stable production recording the lowest losses over the years under adverse climatic conditions. The ORG and CONTR systems had an average marketable yield reduction of −29.58% and −43.66%, respectively, when extreme rainfall events occurred, compared to ORG+CC. The ORG+CC was the most sustainable system, showing the best Net Energy (output-input) value and the lowest total CO₂ eq. emissions, despite the highest energetic requirements and CO₂ emissions during cultivation. The study showed the effects of the practices used and quantified the adaptation and mitigation potential over the medium term that included extreme weather events.

KEYWORDS:

• Organic fennel production
• carbon footprint
• cover crops
• climate change mitigation

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Angelo Fiore, Rosalba Scazzarriello, Marco Favale, and Angelo Raffaele Quaranta for the technical assistance and field management. This paper is a result of the AGROCAMBIO (Sistemi e tecniche AGROnomiche di adattamento ai CAMbiamenti climatici in sistemi agricoli BIOlogici); RETIBIO (Attività di supporto nel settore dell’agricoltura biologica per il mantenimento dei dispositivi sperimentali di lungo termine e il rafforzamento delle reti di relazioni esistenti a livello nazionale e internazionale) and PERILBIO (“Promozione E Rafforzamento dei dispositivi di Lungo periodo In agricoltura BIOlogica”) research projects funded by the Organic Farming Office of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.