TY - JOUR
T1 - Crop rotation options for dryland agriculture
T2 - An assessment of grain yield response in cool-season grain legumes and canola to variation in rainfall totals
AU - Houshmandfar, Alireza
AU - Ota, Noboru
AU - Siddique, Kadambot H.M.
AU - Tausz, Michael
PY - 2019/9/15
Y1 - 2019/9/15
N2 - Crop production in dryland systems is mainly dependent on water availability from rainfall which is highly variable between years and locations. We employed the widely used boundary-line analysis, with an existing industry dataset from across the Australian dryland cropping regions, to investigate the relative sensitivity of grain yield in canola (Brassica napus L.), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), faba bean (Vicia faba L.), field pea (Pisum sativum L.), lentil (Lens culinaris L.), and narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.) to variation in rainfall totals. Chickpea had the lowest non-productive water use, was more responsive to water supply, and reached its maximum yield at a lower water supply than the other species. In contrast canola had the highest non-productive water use, was less responsive to water supply, and reached its maximum yield at a higher water supply than the other species. These results suggest that chickpea offers the most stable outcome, and canola the greatest variation, in response to the variability in rainfall totals between years and locations.
AB - Crop production in dryland systems is mainly dependent on water availability from rainfall which is highly variable between years and locations. We employed the widely used boundary-line analysis, with an existing industry dataset from across the Australian dryland cropping regions, to investigate the relative sensitivity of grain yield in canola (Brassica napus L.), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), faba bean (Vicia faba L.), field pea (Pisum sativum L.), lentil (Lens culinaris L.), and narrow-leafed lupin (Lupinus angustifolius L.) to variation in rainfall totals. Chickpea had the lowest non-productive water use, was more responsive to water supply, and reached its maximum yield at a lower water supply than the other species. In contrast canola had the highest non-productive water use, was less responsive to water supply, and reached its maximum yield at a higher water supply than the other species. These results suggest that chickpea offers the most stable outcome, and canola the greatest variation, in response to the variability in rainfall totals between years and locations.
KW - Alternative crops
KW - Climate change
KW - Crop diversity
KW - Rainfed farming systems
KW - Water supply
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85066748985&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.06.001
DO - 10.1016/j.agrformet.2019.06.001
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85066748985
SN - 0168-1923
VL - 275
SP - 277
EP - 282
JO - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
JF - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
ER -