Despite the wide use of herbicides in the past century, their use is decreasing due to rising resistance phenomena, absence of discovery of new modes of actions and more regulatory restrictions. On the other hand, several tactics and technologies have developed recently providing alternatives from mechanical, cultural, robotic and natural products use perspectives, that could profitably enhance weed management within the agroecosystem and usher in a new paradigm of weed management that integrates chemical and non-chemical weed management practices. In the next future, herbicide will remain an important tool for weed management and will be increasingly complemented by other innovative tactics and tools in a IWM perspective. This integrated approach would thus preserve the chemical and transgenic technology for future generations.

The sunflower was introduced in Europe (in Spain) in the 15th century, and later in Italy in the second half of the 16th century by Giacomo Antonio Cortuso who was the head of the Botanical Garden in Padua. He and Andrea Mattioli published a detailed description of the species. The sunflower was mainly used for ornamental and medicinal purposes in the following two centuries. In the early 1800s, its cultivation area expanded as a consequence of two new, divergent uses and breeding programs: oilseed production and seed consumption. Nowadays, sunflower is cropped for many uses, mainly food, feed, and biodiesel. Beyond the global interest in this crop, it is extremely difficult to predict its cultivation and productivity in the short/medium term because of the current geopolitical and climate change scenarios. In this last perspective, sunflower cropping should foresee the integration of (i) crop breeding for improving quali-quantitative traits and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance; (ii) agronomic practices to increase the resilience of this crop through anticipated sowing dates and scheduled irrigation according to its phenological phases; and (iii) exploration of new cultivation areas towards higher latitudes.

Potato is a staple food crop and an important source of dietary energy. Its tubers contain several essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals that contribute to the nutritional value of this important product. Recently, scientific interest has focused on purple and red potatoes that, due to the presence of anthocyanins, may be considered as natural powerful functional food. The aim of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of pigmented varieties, the types of anthocyanins accumulated and the level of both beneficial phytochemicals (vitamin C and chlorogenic acids, CGAs) and anti-nutritional compounds (glycoalkaloids) following various cooking methods. The analyses described the presence of a mix of several acylated anthocyanins in pigmented tubers along with high level of CGA. The amount of antioxidants was differently affected by heat treatments according to the type of molecule and the cooking methods used. In some cases, the beneficial compounds were made more available by heat treatments for the analytical detection as compared to raw materials. Data reported here describe both the agronomic properties of these pigmented varieties and the effects of food processing methods on bioactive molecules contained in this natural functional food. They may provide useful information for breeders aiming to develop new varieties that could include desirable agronomical and industrial processing traits.

In 2013, a pilot experimental field of about 15 ha was set up within the basin of Lake Massaciuccoli (Tuscany, Italy) in order to compare different management strategies—a paludicultural system (PCS), a constructed wetland system (CWS), a nearly-natural wetland system (NWS)—for peatland restoration after almost a century of drainage-based agricultural use (CS). After five years, changes in peat soil quality were investigated from a chemical, biochemical, and ecoenzymatic perspective. The soil in CS was mainly characterized by oxidant conditions, higher content of overall microbial activity, low levels of easily available phosphorus for vegetation, and medium total carbon content ranging from 25.0% to 30.7%. In PCS, the levels of total carbon and the content of bioavailable P were higher, while the oxidant conditions were lower compared to the other systems. As expected, the soils in CWS and NWS were characterized by the most reduced conditions and by the highest levels of arylsulphatase activity. It was noteworthy that soils in the NWS systems were characterized by the highest level of nonavailable P. Outputs from ecoenzymatic activity confirmed the physico-chemical and biochemical results.

On-farm experimentation (OFE) renovates agronomic research since it brings researchers out of their experimental field stations to the farms, shaping the direction of research in collaboration with farmers. In the context of increasing interest in OFE, this paper aims to map the current picture of agronomic research articles published on OFE in Italy. We observe that few articles are published on OFE in Italy. Moreover, among these articles, only a few explicitly mentioned farmers’ opinions or involvement, while none of them mentioned digital technologies as enablers of OFE. Therefore, we started a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to identify the main weaknesses and threats limiting OFE developing in Italy, along with the opportunities and strengths enabling OFE development. Despite the time-consuming research underpinning OFE, the lack of recognition by the academic community, the risk of not robust statistic, and difficulties in publishing, there are a series of opportunities emerging at the national level for which the implementation of OFE could be crucial to properly target the scopes set by the EU concerning agricultural research and innovation.

Poplar (Populus L. spp.) Short Rotation Coppice systems (SRCs) for bioenergy production are being converted back to arable land. Transitioning to Alley Cropping Systems (ACSs) could be a suitable strategy for integrating former tree rows and arable crops. A field trial (Pisa, Central Italy) was set up with the aim of assessing the C storage of an ACS system based on hybrid poplar and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) and comparing it with that of an SRC cultivation system. The carbon budget at the agroecosystem scale was assessed in the first year of the transition using the net biome production (NBP) approach with a simplified method. The overall NBP for the SRC was positive (96 ± 40 g C m⁻² year⁻¹), highlighting that the system was a net carbon sink (i.e., NBP > 0). However, the ACS registered a net C loss (i.e., NBP < 0), since the NBP was −93 ± 56 g C m⁻² year⁻¹. In the first year of the transition, converting the SRC into an ACS counteracted the potential beneficial effect of C storage in tree belowground biomass due to the high heterotrophic respiration rate recorded in the ACS, which was fostered by the incorporation of residues and tillage disturbance in the alley. Additional years of heterotrophic respiration measurements could allow for an estimate of the speed and extent of C losses.