Economics of pulse crop frequency and sequence in a wheat‐based rotation

Abstract

Pulse crops (PC) have become an essential part of cropping systems in the northern Great Plains. Despite agronomic benefits of rotating pulses with cereal crops, knowledge of the economics of PC frequency and sequence in a rotation is limited. A field study was conducted from 2010 to 2014 at three locations in western Canada to evaluate the effects of rotating a cereal crop with a range of PC at different frequencies and sequences on the economic returns and risk of both the entire rotation and each individual crop. Crops in rotation included spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (W), field pea (Pisum sativum L.) (P), chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) (C), lentil (Lens culinaris Medik) (L), and Oriental mustard (Brassica juncea L.) (M). Thirteen 4-yr-cycle crop rotation treatments, along with a continuous wheat treatment as a baseline, were included. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replicates at each site-year. The net revenue (NR) was defined as the income remaining after paying all monetary, land and ownership, and labor costs. Crop rotation had a significant effect on average annual NR. The most profitable rotations were L-L-L-W and P-M-L-W. These rotations provided CAN$330 and $235 yr -1 ha -1 higher NR, respectively, than the baseline, and were most preferable by risk-averse producers. The economic ranking of the rotations remained the same with different crop price scenarios. Preceding PC also had a positive impact on the succeeding wheat crop NR.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Crop rotation influences yield more than soil quality at a semiarid location

“…This may be a result of greater evapotranspiration in the central compared with the northern Great Plains. Legume cover crops, however, showed promise in the northern Great Plains, including Montana, and had limited or no wheat yield reduction with a prior legume cover crop (Khakbazan et al., 2020; Burgess et al., 2014; Miller et al., 2006). The effect of lentil grown for grain (WSL) compared with lentil managed as a cover crop (WSCC) was best seen by the differences in winter wheat yield in Figure 2.…”

Crop yield and water use efficiency in response to long-term diversified crop rotations

“…Crop frequency in the sequence of the crop rotation system affect the output by affecting soil nutrients and water, which is finally shown to have a significant effect on average annual net revenue (Brennan and Smith, 2017;Khakbazan et al, 2020). Our results suggest that oil flax frequency in the rotation cycle significantly affected soil water content before sowing and after harvest in the next rotation cycle (Figure 2).…”

“…57, 271.49, 352.91, and 350.83 mm, respectively. It follows then that both continuous cropping years and crop frequency could affect soil water, which is also confirmed by Li et al, 2021b on maize and Khakbazan et al (2020) on pulse crops.…”

Pulse Frequency in Crop Rotations Alters Soil Microbial Community Networks and the Relative Abundance of Fungal Plant Pathogens

“…This trend has been particularly evident in the Northern Great Plains for pulse crops such as field pea ( Pisum sativum L.), lentil ( Lens culinaris Medik . ), and chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.), which are common grain legume crops that have been used to diversify cereal and oilseed cropping systems ( Khakbazan et al, 2020 ). The globally cultivated area for pea, lentil and chickpea is around 8.1, 6.6, and 14.6 Mha, respectively, which provide about 0.74, 0.36, and 0.66 Tg of annual fixed nitrogen, respectively ( Jensen et al, 2020 ).…”