Current status, opportunities, and challenges of cover cropping for sustainable dryland farming in the Southern Great Plains

ABSTRACT

Cropping systems that integrate cover crops into crop rotations, reduce tillage intensity and frequency, and maintain residue cover have the potential to improve agricultural sustainability in drylands. However, there is much yet to learn about the benefits of cover crops in sustainable dryland farming in the southern Great Plains (SGP). We reviewed the literature on the effects of cover crops on soil organic carbon (SOC), nitrogen, soil water conservation, and crop yields in dryland cropping systems of the US Great Plains (GP), and analyzed the opportunities and challenges for integrating cover crops into dryland crop-fallow systems of the SGP. Majority of the studies in the central Great Plains (CGP) and the northern Great Plains (NGP) of the United States suggest that cover cropping improves sustainability of cropping systems through their positive effects on SOC accumulation, nutrient cycling, soil erosion control, weed suppression, and soil health improvement. However, integrating cover crops into dryland cropping systems of the SGP faces challenges because of low quantity of soil-water availability. More research on the tradeoff between water use and other agroecosystem benefits of cover cropping is required to successfully integrate cover crops into dryland cropping systems in the SGP.

KEYWORDS:

• Crop rotation
• green manure
• soil health
• soil organic carbon
• water conservation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This paper is based upon work supported by New Mexico State University Agricultural Experiment Station funding and USDA [Project No. 2016-68007-250660], through the National Institute for Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. We thank Mr. Frank Sholedice for editing the manuscript.