Krunoslav Sajko

Soil tillage as influenced by climate change

Oil rape is a valuable fodder because in early spring and late autumn it produces green forage used for the nutrition of domestic animals. It has been replacing sunflower and soy in colder and wetter regions. It is additionally advantageous because it leaves behind more nitrogen in soil, which is beneficial to other plants in plant rotation. There are some possible ways for the fixation of nitrogen in soil and they are as follows: by the means of oil rape straw ; by relatively long roots ; by the action of nitrogen bacteria, which perform the nitrogen synthesis within their root system, which is the case in some leguminous plants. Oil seed rape is expected to be wider used in crop rotation of West and Middle Europe, Croatia included. Due to this various sorts have been introduced and potential positive impacts have been studied in order to boost the process. This paper presents information on barley and wheat yield in case when they were sown after oil seed rape and corn. The aim of the research is to determine the presence of positive impacts upon the soil with special attention paid to a potential increase of nitrogen content after oil seed rape was grown. The preceding crops had statistically significant effect. Rape yield was significantly higher compared to the one with corn as preceding crops. Very similar results were obtained in 2007.The maize hybrids seed from three different FAO groups (FAO 400, FAO 500 and FAO 600) in four fractions (KO, KP, SO and SP) produced in two climatically different years (extremely dry 2000 and extremely wet 2001) had been different in quality and chemical composition. The effects of year, genetic specifity and seed fraction at the kernel mass, chemical composition (starch, proteins, cellulose, oil and moisture content) and seed vigour have been evaluated. The influence of agroecological conditions during two production years have been exposed at seed chemical composition and vigour indicators (cold test – CT and bulk seed electrical conductivity - EC). The genetic specificity and seed fraction had significant influence at all tested indices, with the exception of the influence of the fraction at the starch content

NITROGEN USE EFFICIENCY IN WINTER WHEAT

Oil rape is a valuable fodder because in early spring and late autumn it produces green forage used for the nutrition of domestic animals. It has been replacing sunflower and soy in colder and wetter regions. It is additionally advantageous because it leaves behind more nitrogen in soil, which is beneficial to other plants in plant rotation. There are some possible ways for the fixation of nitrogen in soil and they are as follows: by the means of oil rape straw ; by relatively long roots ; by the action of nitrogen bacteria, which perform the nitrogen synthesis within their root system, which is the case in some leguminous plants. Oil seed rape is expected to be wider used in crop rotation of West and Middle Europe, Croatia included. Due to this various sorts have been introduced and potential positive impacts have been studied in order to boost the process. This paper presents information on barley and wheat yield in case when they were sown after oil seed rape and corn. The aim of the research is to determine the presence of positive impacts upon the soil with special attention paid to a potential increase of nitrogen content after oil seed rape was grown. The preceding crops had statistically significant effect. Rape yield was significantly higher compared to the one with corn as preceding crops. Very similar results were obtained in 2007.The maize hybrids seed from three different FAO groups (FAO 400, FAO 500 and FAO 600) in four fractions (KO, KP, SO and SP) produced in two climatically different years (extremely dry 2000 and extremely wet 2001) had been different in quality and chemical composition. The effects of year, genetic specifity and seed fraction at the kernel mass, chemical composition (starch, proteins, cellulose, oil and moisture content) and seed vigour have been evaluated. The influence of agroecological conditions during two production years have been exposed at seed chemical composition and vigour indicators (cold test – CT and bulk seed electrical conductivity - EC). The genetic specificity and seed fraction had significant influence at all tested indices, with the exception of the influence of the fraction at the starch content

Resilience of Soil in Modified Climatic Conditions

Agriculture is the most important land use in Europe and because of it plays a central role in the quality of the wider environment. Whilst European landscapes have experienced rapid changes in agricultural land use and have changed considerably in recent times, further changes are likely as a result of the influences of policy reform, socio-economics and climate change. Therefore the need for sustainability in agriculture is putting a high demand on methodologies in planning of agricultural uses that will ensure it. One of the methodologies developed within the landscape planning area offers environmental vulnerability as tool to assess sustainability of the proposed land use at planning stage. This paper presents a vulnerability approach for integration of environmental protection issues within the planning process. The methodology of vulnerability modelling is presented in a case study of agricultural land-use within the planning process for a rural area of continental Croatia. The vulnerability models were developed for specific environmental qualities that will be exposed to impacts by a proposed agricultural activity. Vulnerability maps allowed the identification of environmental protection interests to be located in space. Such models are relevant tool for representation of possible degradations due to a landscape change and can be a promising starting point to determine which agriculture uses are sustainable before they are implemented – at the planning stage.