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Yield gap analysis extended to marketable grain reveals the profitability of organic lentil- spring wheat intercropsservice crops root traits explain soil structural stability in mediterranean vineyards. PS-6.2-05

Viguier L., Bedoussac L., Journet E.P., Justes E.. 2018. In : Book of abstracts of the XV European Society for Agronomy Congress : "Innovative cropping and farming systems for high quality food production systems". Genève : Agroscope, p. 51-51. European Society for Agronomy Congress (ESA 2018). 15, 2018-08-27/2018-08-31, Genève (Suisse).

Introduction: Lentil (Lens culinaris Med.) is a popular legume that has many advantages for nutrition and –as other legumes– for agriculture, such as reduced need for synthetic fertilizers and improved N availability for the following crop. Yet, lentil has been overlooked by farmers in Europe mainly because of its low and unstable yields, notably due to frequent lodging, bruchid beetles damages and weed competition. Intercropping is the simultaneous growth of two or more species in the same field for a significant period. Like other legume-cereal intercrops that have been shown to increase total yield and gross margin, lentilwheat intercrops may be a way to increase lentil production by reducing pests and weeds damages. The issues of lodging and bruchid damage in lentil were analysed by adapting the “yield gap” concept which identifies and quantifies “limiting” and “reducing” factors of a crop. Here, we addressed three questions: do lentil-spring wheat intercrops have i) higher total grain yield?, ii) higher mechanical harvest efficiency?, and iii) higher profitability than sole cropped lentil? Material and methods: A two-year field experiment was carried out in SW France in 2015 and 2016 under organic farming rules. Four lentil and two spring wheat cultivars were grown as sole crops and bispecific intercrops grown in partial additive design (100%L:17%W). The “yield gap” concept was adapted to estimate all grain losses by adding losses during mechanical harvest and losses due to insufficient quality. Results: Mean total intercrop grain yield before mechanical harvest was higher than mean sole crop yield (1.91±0.47 vs. 1.57±0.29 t ha-1, respectively), with a lower mean yield of lentil in intercrop than in sole crop (1.06±0.28 vs. 1.61±0.54 t ha-1, respectively). This led to a lower mean gross margin of intercrops than lentil sole cropped (1797±469 vs. 2396±706 € ha-1, respectively) based on actual yield before mechanical harvest. The percentage of bruchid-damaged gra

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