As warm season droughts increase in frequency due to climate change, causing severe yield losses especially among cereal crops, European agriculture is in dire need of adaptation. While agroforestry is widely regarded as a key adaptation measure, little is known on how yield performance is influenced by changing water availability in temperate regions. Therefore, we assessed the yield dynamics of five

The impact of a changing climate on crop and tree growth remains complex and uncertain. Whilst some areas may benefit from longer growing seasons and increased CO2 levels, others face threats from more frequent extreme weather events. Models can play a pivotal role in predicting future agricultural and forestry scenarios as they can guide decision-making by investigating the interactions of crops,

Transitioning to a fossil fuel free society requires an increase in solar energy production. However, expanding solar power to farmland competes with food production. Additionally, climate change threatens food security and leads increasingly to yield losses. Agrivoltaic systems produce solar energy and food on the same field, while sheltering crops. In agrivoltaic systems, crops grow in a protected

Agroecological practices are largely recognized as one way of engaging social actors in the co-design and transformation of food systems towards sustainability. Such comprehensive approaches are difficult to evaluate using conventional metrics of agronomic and economic performance, which are only partial judges of the changes they enable. Holistic evaluation frameworks are essential to capture the

Weedy rice has recently emerged as a serious problem in Southeast Asia, despite the region’s long history of rice culture. Major economic losses have resulted from reduced yield, grain quality deterioration, and increased control cost. This review seeks to describe the complete set of circumstances leading to the sudden invasiveness of weedy rice in Southeast Asia. The paper begins with a timeline

Agriculture is a key contributor to gaseous emissions causing climate change, the degradation of water quality, and biodiversity loss. The extant climate change crisis is driving a focus on mitigating agricultural gaseous emissions, but wider policy objectives, beyond net zero, mean that evidence on the potential co-benefits or trade-offs associated with on-farm intervention is warranted. For novelty

Crop cultivar mixtures commonly increase productivity in the short term and stabilize or enhance productivity in the long term. However, these effects can be highly variable, likely due to limited research that has experimentally addressed intraspecific diverse effects over time and simultaneously explored their underlying mechanisms. We explored the effects of cultivar mixtures on the temporal yield

Climate change-driven extreme events are reducing barley productivity. The high use of mineral fertilizers, combined with low nutrient use efficiency, leads to environmental and economic concerns. Indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculants offer a sustainable alternative, especially in intensive farming systems where AM colonization and diversity are low. However, poor adaptation to local

Maize is the second most important cereal crop in European agriculture and a widely used raw material for feed, food, and energy production. Climate change studies over Europe predict a significant negative change in maize production. Finding appropriate and feasible adaptation strategies is a top priority for agriculture in the twenty-first century. Long-term agricultural experiments provide a useful

This virtual issue reports on the use of digital technologies in On-Farm Experimentation (OFE) in varied farming systems across the world. The authors investigated diverse questions across contrasted environments and scientific domains, with methodologies that included review, empirical studies, interviews, and reflexive accounts. The contributions thus showcase the multiplicity of research directions

Cover crops (CC) have the potential to reduce the dependency of rice (Oryza sativa L.) production on chemical N fertilizers and the associated environmental and economic risks. While extensively studied in tropical and subtropical systems, their potential in Mediterranean lowlands remains underexplored. This study evaluated whether CC could reduce chemical N fertilization in a Mediterranean rice system

Despite a growing literature highlighting the benefits of agroecology in Africa, policy makers, donors, and scientists are still debating the “viability” of agroecological practices. However, assessing the viability of agroecological practices poses challenges, and so far, no studies have clearly documented them and options for addressing them. The aim of this paper is to describe the main methodological

Strategic design decisions regarding wine label, plant material, vine age renewal, and planting choices are crucial for winegrowers when planning their future vineyards that will influence grapevine yield in the long term. However, the repercussions of these choices have mostly been studied in experimental vineyards and small datasets. Therefore, we are missing a comprehensive analysis of a large diversity

Pulse crops are commonly used to improve nitrogen management and diversify cereal-based cropping systems. However, integrated assessments of diversified rotations with pulse crops using plant, soil, and environmental quality indicators remain limited and relatively underexplored. A comprehensive evaluation of such diversified rotations based on agronomic performance, economic returns, and environmental

Accurate calculation of nitrogen requirements is essential in rice fields utilizing both local manure and mineral fertilizers to mitigate nitrogen deficiencies and yield losses associated with reducing chemical fertilizer use. Traditional approaches often fail to effectively integrate organic and mineral fertilizers or adapt to the complexities of real-farm conditions. To tackle these challenges, this

In lowland rice agroecosystems, inefficient resource utilization has led to reduced agricultural productivity and increased greenhouse gas emissions, particularly methane from flooded paddy fields. Alternative systems, such as rice-green gram under resource conservation practices, are underexplored in eastern India, where energy-intensive, high-emission, low-productivity rice-rice and rice monocropping

Nitrification and nitrogen (N) immobilization are important pathways in soil N transformations, involving soil N loss and retention, respectively. The ratio of nitrification to N immobilization generally reflects the potential risk of soil N loss. However, little is known about the response of this ratio to anthropogenic carbon (C) and N inputs, but also climate and soil conditions. Here, we aimed

Increasing our understanding of farm resilience drivers to climate-related risks is critical for designing innovative farm systems, especially for smallholders that are highly vulnerable to climatic hazards and expected to follow a pathway toward sustainable development. However, the literature is fragmented on the concepts and methods to measure farm resilience. Moreover, quantitative assessments

Contextualization of generic scientific knowledge to context-specific farmer knowledge is a necessary step in farmers’ innovation process, and it can be achieved using crop and farm models. This work explores the possibility to simulate a large number of scenarios based on farmers’ descriptions of their environment and practices in order to contextualize the discussion for each participating farmer

On-farm research with farmer participation is promoted as a transformative approach that increases inclusivity and innovation within agricultural research, ultimately improving research quality and outcomes. However, little is known about the farmers who participate in on-farm research (i.e., research farmers) or how well these farmers represent the broader agricultural community, including farmers

Rice is traditionally cultivated worldwide under continuous flooding irrigation. However, in Mediterranean environments, there has recently been a decline in the area of rice cultivation in several producing regions where water supplies for this crop cannot always be guaranteed. Therefore, it is necessary to identify alternative crop management strategies that improve water-use efficiency in order

Farm animals are often lumped together into a single “livestock” entity, reduced to the production of milk and meat and accused of being the cause of major environmental disruptions. However, livestock farming systems are highly diverse, and the functions of livestock encompass multiple dimensions. Based on the methods of comparative agriculture and the quantification of animal labor energy on farms

Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is one of the most important staple crops grown to produce feed for animals worldwide as well as in Iran with considerable surface in the arid and frost-prone climates. The yield gap analysis is an important topic for researchers worldwide as it aims to identify the factors influencing the gap between actual and potential yields and to enhance food security. To date, almost

Wheat cultivar mixtures provide a more complex and functional cropping system than monocultures. Their functionality may result in the delivery of agroecosystem services. However, research on cultivar mixture performance has mainly been done in controlled environments. Greenhouses and laboratory experiments do not account for environmental or agronomic factors that may influence the polyculture’s functionality

Diversification of agricultural systems in order to integrate off-farm activities, like tourism, is a way to improve the overall system resilience while shaping a project that is eco-friendly as well as socially relevant. However, creating and maintaining such an integrated agritouristic system requires finding a way to organize individual and collective management of activities and commons in order

In temperate Europe, agroforestry practice is gaining interest due to its potential to enhance carbon (C) sequestration and mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in agriculture. To date, the effects of agroforestry on the spatial and temporal dynamics of soil carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) fluxes are still poorly quantified. Here we present a systematic comparison of soil CO2 and CH4 fluxes

Anthropogenic disturbances have led to substantial declines in grassland legumes worldwide, with consequences for plant nutritional quality, biodiversity, food-web complexity, and ecosystem sustainability. Despite the growing acknowledgment of the significance of legume presence, it has rarely been investigated how the introduction of legumes affects the growth of neighboring plants over time and the