Climate change, new varieties, better technological abilities, and increased demand for local resources provide significant reasons to introduce soybeans in northern regions, above the typical soybean distribution area in Europe. This research examined the effects of two delayed sowing times, wide 25 cm and 50 cm row spacings, seed inoculation with Bradyrhizobium japonicum, and the interaction of all these factors on soybean development and productivity in an organic farming system. Length of soybean vegetation varied from 142 to 161 days at latitude 55° N. Yield varied from 673 to 3154 kg ha⁻¹ in response to management factors. In the dry 2015 year, the combination of later sowing dates and wide 50-cm row spacing significantly (p < 0.01) increased the number of pods per plant by 28%, aboveground dry biomass by two times, and seed yield by 36% plant⁻¹. In the wet 2016, yield components reached their highest values of 16.8 g dry biomass, 19.9 pods plant⁻¹ and 7.9 g seeds plant⁻¹ when inoculated soybeans were sown earlier, with 50-cm row spacings. Protein content significantly varied from 27.4 to 35.3%, and fat content 17.4–21.5%. This study suggests that regular soybean development could be maintained in organically managed locations above the present northern soybean distributional region, but its development, productivity, and production quality significantly depends on management practices.

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.

In order to control the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, it is necessary to select the appropriate crop rotation and tillage intensity depending on the soil type and climatic conditions. However, their implementation in agricultural management methods has been insufficient until now. The main objective of this study was to investigate the changes and dependences in soil net CO₂ exchange rate (NCER) and main physico-chemical parameters under different tillage (conventional (CT) and no tillage (NT)) and crop rotation systems. Cropping systems significantly affected the amount of nutrients, but did not affect pH and organic carbon; otherwise, tillage vs. cropping systems had no significant effects on the soil chemical parameters analyzed. The data revealed that in NT treatments, the NCER was 28% higher than in CT. Different crop rotations also revealed a significant effect on NCER from the soil. Carbon dioxide fluxes increased in cropping systems where a higher share of catch crops were included. In NT systems, a comparatively higher soil moisture content was registered. In addition, the rotations with catch crops produced a higher (by 1–3%) soil moisture content. The temperature of the soil surface was not significantly affected by tillage or cropping systems; nevertheless, a trend towards higher soil surface temperatures in CT was determined, which might be affected by enhanced air circulation in the pores. Soil NCER increase correlated negatively with higher soil surface moisture content, while its relationship was positive with soil surface temperature increase. In general, soil surface temperature and moisture were the most significant factors in explaining the fluctuation in NCER from Cambisols in Lithuania under moderate climatic conditions.

Conservation soil management strategies, particularly no-tillage and cropping strategies, have become an effective and widely adopted practice that has a direct influence on root parameters and mitigation of greenhouse gasses. However, the effect of different tillage and cropping strategies on root growth in field conditions is rarely studied. The study aimed to quantify and characterise the relationship between root network development and CO₂ emission and how these parameters are affected by different cropping and tillage strategies. Five different crop rotations were tested, with or without the inclusion of catch crops (CC), by growing them in the soil where different tillage practices were applied. Selected cropping strategies differed among themselves in terms of the frequency of CC grown per rotation. The data revealed that in NT treatments, the CO₂ emission (both autotrophic and heterotrophic simultaneously) was 25% higher than in CT. The cropping strategies were identified as an important factor influencing CO₂ emissions. An increase in CO₂ emission varied between 30 and 35% depending on the share of legume and CC inclusion. The frequency of CC grown per rotation has had an effect on the rate of CO₂ emission. The cropping strategy when CC was grown every year showed the lowest amount of CO₂ (by 26%), while in other cropping strategies, when CC was grown once or twice per rotation, significantly higher CO₂ emissions were observed. Root growth and their development were significantly affected (p < 0.05) by soil depth and cropping strategies concerning root length and root volume changes. The inclusion of CC into the rotations led towards a decrease in root volume (by 21%). Root length (R² = 0.45; p < 0.05) and root volume (R² = 0.82; p < 0.05) had a significant impact on soil CO₂ emissions. The results collected from 2021 to 2023 experiments indicated that cropping strategies and CC management areas are important tools not only for the improvement of root parameters but also for understanding how they affect CO₂ emissions. The main message for stakeholders is that the cropping strategies diversification with the inclusion of CC every year in a winter oil-seed rape, spring wheat and pea crop rotation (R/W/P + CC) had demonstrated the possibilities to reduce CO₂ emission and improve the root network parameters as compared to the monoculture strategy.

The aggregate stability of the soil is subject to the influence of anthropogenic factors and is of great interest all over the world. The research aimed to quantify the correlations between soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total potassium, soil macropore parameters and...

Field pea (Pisum sativum L.) is one of the most important grain legumes in European agriculture, having many benefits for agro-ecosystems and also one of the lowest carbon footprints of any crop. However, this crop has many more drawbacks when grown organically as opposed to conventionally. Therefore, our study aims to investigate the performance of newly bred field pea varieties and to test their differences of adaptivity to organic and conventional farming systems. Our study evaluated productivity, as well as the biological and nutritional parameters of the following four new field pea varieties: Lina DS, Egle DS, Ieva DS and Jura DS, all cultivated in the Nemoral climatic zone, where field peas are widely produced. The performance was compared with the long-term standard field pea variety Ingrid. Our study showed that all investigated new varieties had higher productivity compared to the long-term standard Ingrid. The organic cropping system limited the grain yield of field pea, and different varieties tended to respond differently to this type of crop management. Therefore, different varieties should be selected and suggested for organic and conventional cropping systems. Furthermore, with various different responses to the precipitation level, different varieties could be suggested for farming in different regions. The nutritional value (content of proteins and amino acids) also responded significantly to the management system and the selection of field pea variety. Newly bred variety Egle DS demonstrated the highest grain yields, and the highest content of proteins and essential amino acids in the seeds of field pea grown in an organic farming system. Egle DS accumulated 30 percent higher content of arginine compared to the standard variety.