MAXI-CoberLEG Operational Group: Maximizing the benefits of cover crops through winter legume species selection and crop management

Conservation agriculture is based on agronomic practices that manage agricultural soil by minimally altering its composition, structure, and biodiversity, and by reducing erosion and degradation. It pursues soil conservation and appears as an alternative to conventional agriculture, which uses aggressive tillage. The shift toward sophisticated techniques offers numerous environmental advantages, such as direct seeding (no tillage), conservation tillage (reduced, without turning over, without or only partially incorporating crop residues), and the establishment of plant cover between rows.

The FAO considers cover crops as one of the three solutions for agricultural conservation, along with reducing tillage and strengthening biodiversity. The primary sector must adapt to new policies, especially the new European Regulation on fertilizers and pesticides. Spain, with a production of 5.9 x 106 T, is the leading citrus producer in the EU (60%) and sixth in the world (5%). However, production is around 1.1 x 106 T lower (-13%) compared to the last five years, due to low utilization due to pests, older trees with lower yields, rising production costs, and the growing abandonment of crops due to low profitability. On the other hand, organic citrus production has increased in recent years, thanks to increased demand. In this context of Mediterranean agriculture, and particularly in semi-arid systems, where citrus crops play a key economic, social, and environmental role, there is a need to optimize agricultural practices that increase the capacity to adapt to and mitigate climate change, an aspect emphasized by MAXI-CoberLEG.

Cover crops can include any plant species grown for purposes beyond primary grain or forage production. Lupin (Lupinus spp.), as a winter legume, is promising due to its good adaptation to Mediterranean areas, its high capacity to fix atmospheric N, and its ability to self-reseed. This means that the fixed N can persist for years in the cover crop without mechanical reseeding, reducing the costs of external inputs. This project emerges as a public-private collaboration between members with recognized technical capacity and extensive experience in different sectors of the agri-food chain. This project allows for the creation of links between knowledge and cutting-edge technologies among farmers, researchers, companies, and communication services. A methodology is implemented so that the potential results obtained can be analyzed by all partners and immediately transferred to the industrial sector for optimization for end users, thus generating a transversal vision of the same.

Lupin (Lupinus spp.), as a winter legume, is promising due to its good adaptation to Mediterranean areas, its high capacity to fix atmospheric N, and its ability to self-reseed. This means that the fixed N can persist for years in the cover crop without mechanical reseeding, reducing the costs of external inputs. Conservation agriculture is based on agronomic practices that manage agricultural soil with minimal alterations to its composition, structure, and biodiversity, and reduce erosion and degradation. It pursues soil conservation and appears to be an alternative to conventional agriculture, which uses aggressive tillage. The evolution toward these techniques presents numerous environmental advantages, such as direct seeding (no tillage), conservation tillage (reduced, without turning over, without or only partially incorporating crop residues), and the establishment of plant covers between rows. The FAO considers cover crops as one of the three solutions for agricultural conservation, along with reducing tillage and strengthening the presence of biodiversity. The primary sector must adapt to new policies, especially the new European Regulation on fertilizers and pesticides.

Spain, with a production of 5.9 x 106 T, is the leading citrus producer in the EU (60%) and sixth in the world (5%). However, production is around 1.1 x 106 T lower (-13%) compared to the last five years, due to low utilization due to pests, older trees with lower yields, rising production costs, and the growing abandonment of crops due to low profitability. On the other hand, organic citrus production has increased in recent years, thanks to rising demand.

In this Mediterranean agricultural context, and particularly in semi-arid systems, where citrus crops play a key economic, social, and environmental role, there is a need to optimize agricultural practices that increase the capacity for adaptation and mitigation to climate change, an aspect emphasized by MAXI-CoberLEG. Cover crops can include any plant species cultivated for purposes beyond primary grain or fodder production.