Identifying Agronomic and Environmental Benefits and Drawbacks of Diverse Crops in Cereal/Canola/Pulses Crop Rotations on Semi-Arid Canadian Prairies
Principal Investigator: DR. MANJULA BANDARA, Crop Diversification Centre South, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry
Diversified cropping systems, where cereal, oilseed and pulse crops are arranged in well-defined crop sequences in crop rotation systems have been shown to have several agronomic benefits, including improved input use and net productivity of crops. Rain-fed crop rotational studies conducted on the Canadian prairies have frequently used major crop groups (cereal, oilseed and pulse), and little attempt if any has been made to show how special crops would perform and contribute to carbon sequestration (C), when included into a major crop group-based crop rotation.
