Spatial analysis of climate, soil and crop types
| Main authors: | Gergely Tóth, Xiaodong Song, Brigitta Tóth,Tamás Kismányoky, Oihane Fernandez-Ugalde |
| Editor: | Jane Brandt |
| Source document: | Tóth, G. et al. (2017) Spatial analysis of crop systems in relation to pedoclimatic conditions in Europe and China. iSQAPER Project Deliverable 2.3 34 pp |
Sustainable agriculture implies long-term productivity achieved through optimizing the use of available resources, including the local climate and soil conditions, relying on nutrient recycling and reducing the use of external and non-renewable inputs. Improving the synergies between soil quality and cropping patterns can secure long-term production sustainability.
»Importance of cropping practices and soil type under a changing climate
In this section of iSQAPERiS we highlight the main features of soil-suitability based cropping in Europe and China. By this we mean that consideration is taken of the soil type and properties when selecting crop types and cropping patterns. Our analysis focused on land-based agriculture (i.e. large scale open-air arable farming).
We studied the cropping patterns in the different European and Chinese climate zones with regards to the shares of crop types in different soils.
»Cropping systems and pedoclimatic zones - assessment methods
Similarities and differences between the distribution of crop types on different soils within climatic zones were examined by
- assessment of the dissimilarity between the cropping compositions in different pedoclimatic zones;
- analysis of the degree of association between crops and soil types.
»Cropping systems in relation to pedoclimatic conditions in Europe
»Cropping systems in relation to pedoclimatic conditions in China
Results suggest that in Europe, farmers generally take account of pedoclimatic conditions when selecting their cropping patterns. However, we have strong reasons to believe that soil-suitability based cropping is not currently practiced to its full potential, particularly in growing legumes. In China, farming is generally conducted on reasonable soil types following a long history of agriculture, but generally cropping patterns on all soil types are not significantly different from each other.
»Cropping systems and pedoclimatic zones - discussion and conclusions