Speaker
Description
Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus var. altilis) is a versatile Mediterranean crop used in marginal land both for food and energy production [1,2]. This study focuses on I) verifying the adaptability of this crop to Mediterranean mountain environments and II) testing cardoon intercropping with forage species (Ornithopus sativus - serradella and Raphanus sativus var. oleiformis – fodder radish), in the perspective of reducing weed competition and assuring useful production also in the first year of the crop growing cycle, usually unproductive when cardoon is grown as a single crop. Phenological and biometric data were collected systematically. At the end of the first-year field experiment, the results showed that the species chosen for intercropping influenced the cardoon density, their height and biomass production levels. At the end of the third year (2023), the observed cardoon density was significantly higher (6.8 plants m-2) in the plots cultivated with fodder radish than in the control or serradella plots (2.1 and 2.2 plants m-2 respectively). The cardoon seed yield was significantly higher in the plots intercropped with fodder radish (2.73 t ha-1) than in the serradella and control plots (0.904 t ha- 1 and 0.372 t ha-1, respectively). The biomass production obtained from the inter-row showed sufficiently high production levels and a floristic composition of high pastoral value, making this intercropping management a suitable option to cope with the first unproductive year of the cardoon in mountain pastoral communities.
The intercropping with serradella influenced the weed species composition by favouring indirectly some Poaceae via the nitrogen fixation. These results offer promising agronomic options for the management of arable agricultural land in the Mediterranean mountains by integrating fodder production with alternative crops to enhance local agro-biodiversity.
