Work

Agronomic performance of a front roller multi-disk harrow prototype for legume devitalization in temporary wheat-faba bean intercropping

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: The practice of cereal-legume temporary intercropping, with the legume devitalization in late winter, offers promising benefits for fall-sown organic cereal crop production, where nitrogen (N) availability is often limiting. This 3-year field experiment was focused on legume termination methods. The devitalization efficiency, operational characteristics and implications for wheat N availability, grain yield and quality of a novel non power-take-off (PTO) based front roller multi-disk harrow prototype (RMH) were compared to those of a conventional PTO-based split rotary hoeing (SRH) system. The results demonstrate that temporary intercropping significantly improves the Partial Factor Productivity of N as compared to traditional sole-crop wheat, with an average yield increase of 35 kg per kg of applied N. The RMH prototype was found to have no impact on the grain yield (3.82 vs. 3.73 Mg ha -1 ), quality or N uptake (80.3 vs. 80.2 kg ha -1 ) of wheat compared to SRH. Our research shows that the RMH prototype is as effective as the SRH in terms of devitalization efficacy of the legume component and N supply to wheat. Overall, the prototype appears to be a suitable tool for management of cereal-legume temporary intercropping in Mediterranean farming systems, with lower fuel consumption (-17.3 kg ha -1 ) than PTO machines. • Adoption of temporary intercropping is hindered by the legume termination • A non-power take-off (PTO) prototype tool was tested against a split rotary hoeing • The prototype consumed less fuel than the conventional tool • The performance of the prototype was similar to the conventional tool

Source: Italian Journal of Agronomy

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijagro.2026.100085

Authors: Giacomo Tosti, Daniele Antichi, Beatrice Falcinelli, Christian Frasconi, Michele Raffaelli, Paolo Benincasa

Institutions: University of Pisa, University of Perugia

Language: English

Topic: Agronomic Practices and Intercropping Systems

Subfield: Agronomy and Crop Science

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDGs: Zero hunger, Responsible consumption and production

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,640