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Lookup NU author(s): Enas Sufar, Gultakin Hasanaliyeva, Dr Paul BilsborrowORCiD, Dr Leo RempelosORCiD, Dr Nikolaos Volakakis, Professor Carlo Leifert
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2024 by the authors. Faba beans are one of the most suitable grain legume crop for colder, maritime climates. However, there is limited information on the effect of changing from conventional to organic production methods and potential impacts of global warming on the health and performance of faba bean crops in Northern Europe. We therefore assessed the performance of faba beans grown with contrasting crop protection (with and without pesticides) and fertilization (with and without P and K fertilizer input) regimes used in organic and conventional production in seven growing seasons. Conventional crop protection and fertilization regimes had no effect on foliar disease severity, but resulted in small, but significant increases in faba bean yields. The overall yield gap between organic and conventional production regimes was relatively small (~10%), but there was substantial variation in yields between growing seasons/years. Redundancy analysis (RDA) showed that climate explanatory variables/drivers explained the largest proportion of the variation in crop performance and identified strong positive associations between (i) temperature and both straw and grain yield and (ii) precipitation and foliar disease severity. However, RDA also identified crop protection and variety as significant explanatory variables for faba bean performance. The relatively small effect of using P and K fertilizers on yields and the lack of a measurable effect of fungicide applications on foliar disease severity indicate that the use of these inputs in conventional faba beans may not be economical. Results also suggest that the yield gap between organic and conventional faba bean production is significant, but smaller than for other field crops.
Author(s): Sufar EK, Hasanaliyeva G, Wang J, Leifert H, Shotton P, Bilsborrow P, Rempelos L, Volakakis N, Leifert C
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Agronomy
Year: 2024
Volume: 14
Issue: 3
Online publication date: 22/02/2024
Acceptance date: 20/02/2024
Date deposited: 08/04/2024
ISSN (electronic): 2073-4395
Publisher: MDPI
URL: https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy14030422
DOI: 10.3390/agronomy14030422
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