The TRUE project has marked its first anniversary with the release of its second newsletter, bringing readers up to date with its work on ‘Transition paths to sustainable legume based systems in Europe’, which includes 24 case studies in three pedoclimatic regions across the continent (‘Atlantic’, ‘Continental’ and ‘Mediterranean’).
TRUE has two principal objectives: identifying from data collected across a diversity of farms and case studies the key factors for the successful use of legumes in a range of production systems, and providing a Decision Support Tool for producers, agronomists, processors, associated businesses and decision makers to determine a range of options for successful transitions that include a range of legume species to match pedoclimatic zones and farm network types.
Among the 24 case studies being conducted by 24 partners in 11 countries, several may be of particular interest to users of this website. Case study 3, for example, is examining the role of intercropping with barley and pea. This work, being conducted in Scotland, will examine the potential of pea to provide sufficient nitrogen for spring barley, the main ingredient in the country’s brewing and distilling industries.
Another case study, being conducted in England, is examining precision agricultural technologies and in particular the role of living mulches in cereal production. TRUE reports: “Due to various beneficial properties e.g. related to soil fertility and crop health and, in horticulture, promotion of on-farm pollination, living mulches represent a potentially ‘multifunctional’ solution, both for future arable production and for the environment.
“Despite their benefits, to date commercial uptake of living mulches in UK/European arable farming has been limited by production conflicts and practical difficulties in the management of ‘polycultural’ systems. Using commercially available machinery and precision agricultural technologies (PAT), however, affords an innovative opportunity to overcome the restrictions that have prevented commercial uptake of living mulches to date; the current Case Study aims to make use of these innovations to demonstrate that living mulches are compatible with, and both profitable and beneficial for, modern yield-driven arable production.
“Of particular importance to demonstrating compatibility of living mulches to modern arable production is state of the art strip-tillage machinery, allowing crops to be sown into cultivated bands in a single pass.”
TRUE is being coordinated by the James Hutton Institute, ENDURE’s Scottish partner, and is funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme.
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Last update: 24/05/2023 - ENDURE © 2009 - Contact ENDURE - Disclaimer