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Organic farming is a comprehensive production management system that fosters and improves the health of agroecosystems, encompassing biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. The potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a crucial crop in organic farming systems, standing out as one of the most highly demanded organic products on the market. Among all crops, with potatoes, there is a very large yield gap between organic and conventional systems, attributable mainly to its intensive nutrient demands. The present review, considering the most relevant scientific literature worldwide, discusses the contemporary state of knowledge on crop nutrition and soil fertility management in organic potato crop production, analyzing the effects of animal manures, green manures, organic amendments, and biostimulants on organic potato tuber yield and quality. Overall, the main findings show a particular combination is needed to effectively maintain good soil fertility, satisfy the nutritional needs of the crop, and overcome the difference in potato yield between organic and conventional farming methods while meeting consumer demand. This combination entails using an animal manure or leguminous green manure with an organic soil amendment, and even better with a biofertilizer, such as a mycorrhizae-fungus-based one. It also emerged that more targeted studies are needed to select appropriate cultivars for organic potato farming systems to optimize this environmentally friendly production method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Potato is the most important non‐grain crop worldwide, whose quality characteristics are always affected by temporal and spatial variability. Knowledge of the performance consistency of quality characteristics over long periods could prove very important to identify which quality traits are less variable over time, and therefore provide greater guarantees of stability. In this research, variations in physicochemical and nutritional traits of tubers over five consecutive growing seasons of two potato genotypes (Arizona and Vogue) were monitored in two locations. RESULTS: Although qualitative performances of genotypes fluctuated across the seasons in both locations, two physicochemical traits (pH and dry matter content) and starch content showed less variability throughout the five seasons compared to total soluble solids and most of the nutritional traits (namely reducing sugars, citric acid, vitamin C, total phenolics and antioxidant capacity), which were considerably influenced by weather conditions. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that pH, dry matter content and starch content traits could be used advantageously in studies of temporal stability in potatoes. This approach could prove useful in providing scientific support for the setup of potato protected geographical identifications. © 2024 Society of Chemical Industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Mediterranean Basin, potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is a major staple crop, the yield performance of which can vary dramatically based on pedo-climatic conditions and genotype. Hence, dissecting the genotype × environment interaction (GEI) in this region is mandatory for the setup of high-yielding and stable potato genotypes, also considering its importance for local potato breeding and the development of protected geographical identifications. Therefore, this research evaluated the marketable tuber yield (MY) and several yield components of five potato genotypes (Arizona, Generosa, Levante, Paradiso, and Vogue) over 4 years (2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022) and three locations in Sicily (Southern Italy) by additive main effects and multiplicative interactions (AMMI) and genotype main effects + genotype × environment interaction (GGE) biplot analyses. From combined ANOVA emerged a high significance of GEI, with the environment that provided the most considerable extent of variation for the most of the productive traits. The AMMI and GGE analyses identified Arizona as the best leading genotype in the studied area by virtue of its high productivity (44.5 t ha−1 of mean MY) coupled with stability, followed by Generosa (46.5 t ha−1). Ideal environments (location × year) were highly dependent on the productive trait, but most of them belonged to Acireale, characterized by fertile soils. According to our results, this approach could be recommended for breeding programs and commercial cultivation in the studied regions, along with the setup of potato protected geographical identifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limited information is available concerning the influence of nitrogen fertilization jointly on yield response, nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and grain quality of durum wheat under semi-aridMediterranean conditions. The study focused on evaluating, through a systematic study, over three seasons in southern Italy the effects of three nitrogen fertilization rates (0, 80 and 160 kg N ha-1 - N0, N80 and N160), on grain yield, yield components, nitrogen efficiency indices and grain quality characteristics of three durum wheat genotypes ('Creso', 'Trinakria' and 'Line 25') from different breeding eras to achieve a more sustainable fertilization management of the durum wheat crop. We found that nitrogen fertilization at 80 kg N ha-1 was able to maximize the yield performances (2.1 t ha-1 year-1) of the crop and keep NUE index at an acceptable level (16.3 kg kg-1). On the other hand, nitrogen fertilization at 160 kg N ha-1 improved grain quality measured through protein (up to 14.3%) and dry gluten concentration (up to 12.8%), but had a detrimental effect on grain yield and nitrogen efficiency. Among the genotypes studied, 'Trinakria' showed the greatest potential to utilize nitrogen fertilization to improve grain yield and NUE (at N80) and quality (at N160), 'Line 25' made good use of N80 both for yield and quality, whereas 'Creso' proved wholly unresponsive to nitrogen. The effect of N fertilization on grain yield and N use efficiency depends on rainfall distribution, giving the best results when about 80% of total rainfall occurred from sowing to heading. Overall, our data show that in seasons with regular rainfall in quantity and distribution, combining no more than 80 kg ha-1 of nitrogen fertilization with genotypes characterized by a more efficient response to nitrogen, is a useful tool to improve the agronomic and quality performance of the crop, ensuring, at the same time, a more environment-friendly nitrogen fertilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought represents significant environmental stress, and improving agriculture water management and yield is a priority goal. The effect of diminishing soil water content in the grain filling (GF) stage, throughout physiological maturity (GM), on the yield and grain quality, leaf water potential (LWP), and maximum quantum yield (Fv/Fm) in four long photoperiod quinoa genotypes was evaluated in the South-Central zone of Chile, during the 2014–2015 and 2015–2016 seasons. Five irrigation treatments (T) were established. Irrigation was carried out when the available water (AW) of the root zone reached values of 100%, 70%, 40%, 20%, and 0%. The lowest LWP values were obtained by T20 and T0 (−1.95 MPa). The 'Morado' genotype reached the lowest LWP at both seasons, while the highest average LWP was achieved by the 'AG 2010' (2014–2015) and 'Cahuil' genotypes (2015–2016). A global trend of Fv/Fm values was observed from GF to GM: 0.74 toward 0.79 (2014/2015), and 0.74 toward 0.82 (2015/2016). Only during the second season, Fv/Fm showed differences among irrigation treatments. Total average grain yields in the second season (2.97 t ha−1) were greater than those in the first season (1.43 t ha−1). In both seasons, the 'Cahuil' genotype and T100 reached the highest yields. A significative decrease in yield was observed when AW diminished. A direct relationship between seed yield and leaf water potential (ΔY/ΔLWP) was found in all genotypes, varying between 5.53 ('Cahuil') and 2.86 t ha−1 MPa−1 ('AG 2010'). Total proteins, albumins, and globulins varied between seasons, with almost no differences among irrigation treatments. Only the 'Morado' genotype showed a slight trend to obtain a higher content of total protein in both seasons. It is possible to grow quinoa under irrigation deficit conditions between GF throughout GM, maintaining yield parameters and nutritional quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both water stress and P deficit limit soybean seed yield, but the effects of water regimes and P application rates, their interaction on P status, acquisition, and partitioning, and their roles in yield performance have not been well-studied. Two soybean genotypes (Huangsedadou (HD) and Zhonghuang 30 (ZH)) with contrasting seed yield and root dry weight (DW) were used to investigate the P status, P acquisition, P partitioning, and yield formation under two water regimes (well-watered (WW) and cyclic water stress (WS)) and three P rates (0 (P0), 60 (P60), and 120 (P120) mg P kg−1 dry soil). The results show that increased P and water supply increased the seed yield, shoot and root DW and P concentrations and accumulations in different organs. Cultivar ZH had a significantly higher seed yield than HD at P60 and P120 under WS and at P0 under WW, but a lower seed yield at P60 and P120 under WW. Cultivar ZH had a significantly higher P harvest index and P acquisition efficiency, but a significantly lower shoot and root DW than HD. The interaction between water treatments and P rates had significant effects on leaf and stem P concentration. Cultivar ZH had significantly lower P partitioning to leaves and stems but significantly higher P partitioning to seeds than HD. The seed yield was positively correlated with leaf and seed P accumulations and P acquisition efficiency under WS. We conclude that (1) adequate water supply improved the P mobilization from leaves and stems at maturity, which may have improved the seed yield; and (2) the high P acquisition efficiency is coordination to high P partition to seeds to produce a high seed yield under water- and P-limited conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irrigated cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) growers in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) of Australia, are challenged by limited water availability. This modelling-study aimed to determine if deficit irrigation (DI) practices can potentially improve water use efficiency (WUE) for furrow irrigation (FI), overhead sprinkler irrigation (OSI) and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems. We validated the Agricultural Production System sIMulator (APSIM) against observed cotton lint yield and crop biomass accumulation for different management practices. The model achieved concordance correlation coefficients of 0.93 and 0.82 against observed cotton crop biomass accumulation and lint yields, respectively. The model was then applied to evaluate the impacts of different levels of DI on lint yield, WUE across cotton growing locations in the MDB (Goondiwindi, Moree, Narrabri, and Warren), during the period from 1977 to 2017. The different levels of DI for the FI system were no irrigation, full irrigation (TF) and irrigated one out of four, one out of three, one out of two, two out of three and two out of four TF events. For the OSI and SDI systems, DI levels were no irrigation, TF, 20% of TF, 40% of TF, 60% of TF and 80% of TF. Lint yield was maximised under the OSI and SDI systems for most locations by applying 80% of TF. However; modelling identified that WUE was maximised at 60% of full irrigation for OSI and SDI systems. These results suggest there are significant gains in agronomic performance to be gained through the application of DI practices with these systems. For FI, DI had no benefit in terms of increasing yield, while DI showed marginal gains in terms of WUE in some situations. This result is due to the greater exposure to periodic water deficit stress that occurred when DI practices were applied by an FI system. The results suggest that in the northern MDB, water savings could be realised for cotton production under both OSI and SDI systems if DI were adopted to a limited extent, depending on location and irrigation system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]