SCIENCE@home

Benefits of Circular Agriculture for Cropping Systems and Soil Fertility in Oases

Mustapha El Janati,N. Akkal-Corfini,A. Bouaziz,A. Oukarroum,P. Robin,A. Sabri,M. Chikhaoui,Z. Thomas

Published 2021 in Sustainability

ABSTRACT

Circular agriculture is an effective approach for the management of soil organic inputs that improves soil fertility and cropping system sustainability. We developed a cropping system typology and assessed effects of crop rotation, organic fertilization, and crop residue management on soil fertility properties. Farmers in Drâa-Tafilalet oases in Morocco were surveyed, and soil was sampled and analyzed. In the most common cropping systems (Type I), date palms were associated with cereals, forages, and perennial crops. Type II cropping systems referred to a monocropped date palm of only one cultivar. In Type III, date palm was associated with other crops on part of the utilized agricultural area and monocropped on the other part. In all cropping systems, mean soil organic matter (SOM) content was less than 1.5% and the SOM:clay ratio was less than 12%, which increased the soil degradation risk. Livestock was combined with crops in Type I and III cropping systems and produced 19.4 and 24.2 t of manure per farm per year, respectively. Type I and II cropping systems produced annually 0.98 and 2.1 t.ha−1 of dry palms, respectively. Recycling these organic waste products remains a promising option that could produce organic inputs and offset the current lack of manure.

PUBLICATION RECORD

  • Publication year

    2021

  • Venue

    Sustainability

  • Publication date

    2021-04-23

  • Fields of study

    Agricultural and Food Sciences, Environmental Science

  • Identifiers
    DOI 10.3390/SU13094713
  • External record

    Open on Semantic Scholar

  • Source metadata

    Semantic Scholar

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-61 of 61 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-26 of 26 citing papers · Page 1 of 1