Sustainable agricultural soil management practices are key to restore, maintain and improve soil health. The European Joint Programme for SOIL (EJP SOIL) has identified twelve main soil challenges in Europe. To assess the potential and eventually increase the adoption of soil‐improving management practices, it is necessary to know (i) the current levels of adoption of the practices, (ii) socio‐technical barriers influencing their adoption, and (iii) their bio‐physical limits. This study compiled an inventory of soil‐improving management practices relevant to European conditions, and used a survey among soil scientists to assess the levels of adoption of these practices in Europe. In total, 53 soil management practices were identified that address one or several of the soil challenges. The adoption of most practices was low or spatially heterogeneous across Europe, highlighting region‐specific limitations to sustainable soil management. Qualitative interviews were conducted to explore the importance of socio‐technical aspects of adoption. Using conservation agriculture as an example, factors that can hinder adoption included the availability of knowledge and adequate machinery, financial risks, and farming traditions. Through a modelling approach, 54% of arable land in Europe was found to be suitable for cover cropping, indicating that the adoption of soil management practices is frequently limited by climatic constraints. We propose a region‐specific approach that recognizes the importance of identifying and overcoming socio‐technical barriers, and by acknowledging bio‐physical limits that may be expanded by innovation.

Cereal-legume intercropping is important in many low-input agricultural systems. Interactions between combinations of different plant species vary widely. Field experiments were conducted to determine yield formation regularities and plant competition effects of oat (Avena sativa L.)–black medick (Medicago lupulina L.), oat–white clover (Trifolium repens L.), and oat–Egyptian clover (T. alexandrinum L.) under organic farming conditions. Oats and forage legumes were grown in mono- and intercrops. Aboveground dry matter (DM) measured at flowering, development of fruit and ripened grain, productivity indicators, oat grain yield and nutrient content were established. The results showed that oats dominated in the intercropping systems. Oat competitive performance (CP_o), which is characterized by forage legumes aboveground mass reduction compared to monocrops, were 91.4–98.9. As the oats ripened, its competitiveness tendency to declined. In oat–forage legume intercropping systems, the mass of weeds was significantly lower compared to the legume monocrops. Oats and forage legumes competed for P, but N and K accumulation in biomass was not significantly affected. We concluded that, in relay intercrop, under favourable conditions, the forage legumes easily adapted to the growth rhythm and intensity of oats and does not adverse effect on their grain yield.

Knowledge of the mineralisation and nutrient release of organic fertilisers is essential to ensure plant nutrient demand and availability, to increase N use efficiency and to minimise environmental risks. In 2018–2020, two similar field experiments were carried out on clay loam Cambisol with winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown without N application and applying liquid anaerobic digestate (LD), pig slurry (PS) and ammonium nitrate (AN) fertilizer with and without additional fertilization (N₁₂₀ and N₁₂₀₊₅₀). The aim of the research was to compare the effect of organic and mineral fertilizers on the variation of soil mineral nitrogen forms in the 0–30, 30–60 cm soil layers and N accumulation in wheat yield. Fertilizers applied during the previous growing season increased the nitrate and ammonium nitrogen (N-NO₃ and N-NH₄) content after the resumption of winter wheat vegetation. The dry period in spring (2019) had a negative impact on winter wheat N uptake. In a year of normal moisture content (2020), PS and LD fertilizers and the fertilizer application of the previous year (2019) significantly increased the N-NO₃ content in the topsoil, while all applied fertilizers increased it in the deeper soil layer (by a factor of between 3.6 and 12.3), compared to unfertilized soil.

Reducing tillage intensity and increasing crop diversity by including perennial legumes is an agrotechnical practice that strongly affects the soil environment. Strip tillage may be beneficial in the forage legume–cereals intercropping system due to more efficient utilization of biological nitrogen. Field experiments were conducted on a clay loam Cambisol to determine the effect of forage legume–winter wheat strip tillage intercropping on soil nitrate nitrogen (N-NO₃) content and cereal productivity in various sequences of rotation in organic production systems. Forage legumes (Medicago lupulina L., Trifolium repens L., T. alexandrinum L.) grown in pure and forage legume–winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) strip tillage intercrops were studied. Conventional deep inversion tillage was compared to strip tillage. Nitrogen supply to winter wheat was assessed by the change in soil nitrate nitrogen content (N-NO₃) and total N accumulation in yield (grain and straw). Conventional tillage was found to significantly increase N-NO₃ content while cultivating winter wheat after forage legumes in late autumn (0–30 cm layer), after growth resumption in spring (30–60 cm), and in autumn after harvesting (30–60 cm). Soil N-NO₃ content did not differ significantly between winter wheat strip sown in perennial legumes or oat stubble. Winter wheat grain yields increased with increasing N-NO₃ content in soil. The grain yield was not significantly different when comparing winter wheat–forage legume strip intercropping (without mulching) to strip sowing in oat stubble. In forage legume–winter wheat strip intercropping, N release from legumes was weak and did not meet wheat nitrogen requirements.

The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the characteristics of non-treated and fermented [via submerged (SMF) and solid-state (SSF) fermentation using Pediococcus acidilactici] lentils (Lens culinaris) grown either in pure stands (L) or relay intercropped with winter rye (LR). It was observed that the lentils were suitable substrate for lacto-fermentation. Most of the free amino acid concentrations increased in lentils after both fermentations. The highest concentration of γ-aminobutyric acid was found in SSF LR samples. However, fermentation led to higher biogenic amines (BA) content in lentils. The most abundant fatty acid in lentils was C18:2. SSF lentils showed more complex volatile compound (VC) profiles (with between nine and seventeen new VCs formed), whereas, in SMF samples, between two and five newly VCs were formed. When comparing lentil grown types, L contained significantly higher concentrations of Na, K, Ca, P, Mn, and Se, while LR contained significantly higher concentrations of Fe and Ni. To sum up, fermentation with lactic acid bacteria (LAB) contributed to the improved biological value of lentils; still, the quantity of BA needs to be considered. Further investigations into the P. acidilactici metabolism of certain compounds (such as phenolic and antinutritional compounds) in lentils during fermentation ought to be carried out.

The benefits of cereal-legume mixed cropping is a sustainable agricultural practice. However, knowledge of the genotypic differences of semi-leafless pea varieties is not enough to help them compete with cereals. In this study, the effects of Lithuania’s newest Pisum sativum cultivars (‘Egle DS’ and ‘Lina DS’) and, for comparison, a control cultivar (‘Jūra DS’) established with Avena sativa in mixed cropping system were investigated. Three years of field trials (2018, 2019 and 2020) with four experiments involved three different mixtures of each field pea cultivar with oat. The aboveground biomass of mixed cropped new field pea cultivars was found to be significantly higher: biomass of cultivars ‘Egle DS’ increased by 17.0% and ‘Lina DS’ by 7.2% on average compared with the control cultivar ‘Jūra DS’. For the mixed cropping system, statistically greater total aboveground biomass was observed with plant ratios of 50% pea + 50% oat and 60% pea + 40% oat compared to peas monocultures. Mixed cropped oat was the dominant species in all tested mixture compositions; however, the highest total grain yield of mixed crops was obtained when new pea ‘Lina DS’ and ‘Egle DS’ cultivars were included in the mixtures compared with the control cultivar. The new pea cultivar ‘Egle DS’ had a greater effect on protein content compared to other tested pea cultivars. In the new pea cultivars ‘Lina DS’ and ‘Egle DS’, the higher photosynthetic capacity and aboveground biomass of mixed cropped pea with oat showed mixture effects in the mixed cropped system and could increase total yield compared with pea monoculture. Generally, the new pea cultivars displayed a greater Land Equivalent Ratio (LER) value, resulting in the greatest yield among the mixtures on average for all three years and all four experiments. Future research could optimize the effects of pea cultivar mixtures with cereals to further improve the yield of organic mixed cropping systems.