Maize is one of the most important crops cultivated around the world and can be easily grown in various climate conditions, under conventional and organic system. Maize cultivation has many advantages, such as: high yield, strong stability, great potential for increasing yield, strong disaster resistance, wide application range, and high economic benefits. It plays an important role in food production, and it is also due to the growth of animal husbandry and the food processing industry. This article is an overview of global maize market and maize market and production in Romanian economy, related to trade indicators, with a special target on organic production and analysis on territorial profile of organic maize cultivation.

In the context of sustainable practices and European strategy to reduce the chemical inputs in agricultural conventional systems, on field crops there are approached agroecological practices that targets the performance growing through effective measures that adjust the biodiversity of agroecosystems. The study presents the results of a field experience developed in a farmer participative approach on two years (2021, 2022). In his farm - from Buești, Ialomița, România - were established 30 multifactorial testing varieties composed from treatment with a special product for maize crop (BioZeaFert: BF) from Bacillus subtilis ICCF 84: 25%; Bacillus subtilis 284: 25%; Trichoderma harzianum ICCF 179: 50%. The treatments have been applied on seeds (Untreated, BF 10%, BF 20%, BF 30%, CuSO4 10%) and on vegetation period (Untreated, BF 75g/ha, BF 112.5 g/ha, BF 225 g/ha, CuSO4 300g/ha) for 3 maize hybrids (Iezer, Felix, F 423). Also has been integrated in his crop technology cover crops and the using of organic agriculture inputs. The application of the product and agroecological measures had positive effects regarding the protection against pest Tanymecus dilaticollis. The damage degree was 16-19% in the untreated maize, while for the treated maize it was between 6-11%, the lowest values were observed for BF 30% on Iezer hybrid. The biostimulator had positive effects on plant growth and therefore on yield. The treatments or the type of hybrids did not influenced the weeding degree.

Cover crops had shown a potential to improving carbon sequestration in soil and environmental quality, but these beneficial effects can be modulated by precipitation conditions. In this paper was evaluated the effectiveness of three cover crops on soil chemical properties and weed suppression. The experiments were performed on cambic chernozem soil from NARDI Fundulea Romania in two contrasting years regarding the amount of precipitation. Three cover crops were studied. The cover crop consisting of peas + triticale has increased more soil carbon content and infestation with weeds were lower as compared with cover crop consisting of peas or triticale. The differences concerning carbon sequestration, soil organic carbon, carbon to nitrogen ratio, weed suppression were influenced also by level of precipitations from experimental site. Cover crops were slow to impact C/N ratio of soil. In contrast, the floristic composition, and the degree of weed infestation were very significantly influenced by the composition of the cover crops. The use of cover crop mixtures offered an additional benefit to weed suppression that of individual cover crops.

The demand for soybeans in Europe motivates breeders, researchers, and growers to find suitable cultivars to adapt and extend the soybean crop to improper climate areas. Weed control is a crucial aspect of crop technology in organic agriculture, but particularly for soybean crops. In laboratory conditions, the cumulative stress index for seedlings was determined to identify the susceptible cultivars. A field experiment with 14 soybean accessions and 2 sowing dates was conducted under organic farming conditions over the course of three years, from 2020 to 2022. Plant population density was found to be significantly (p < 0.01 and p < 0.1) negatively correlated to the degree of resistance to low temperature as well as infestation degree with weeds (for p < 0.05 and p < 0.1), with the exception of early sowing in 2021. Yield was significantly (p < 0.05, p < 0.01, p < 0.1) correlated with plant population density, with the exception of optimal sowing in 2022. Early sowing variants emerged with vigor in the first two years, breeding lines and registered varieties showed low input, and organic agriculture systems showed low yields in the drought years of 2020 and 2022. Although early sowing even in the first two years proved to be a practice that increased the cultivars’ performance, in 2022, due to the long period of chilling stress in the field, this option had negative effects on yield due to the high weed frequency. Therefore, the early sowing strategy for the soybean crop in this particular case of non-irrigated conditions in a temperate continental area proved to be a risky practice.

Helianthus annuus (sunflower) is an oilseed crop with multiple food and industrial uses, such as production of edible oil, the biofuel industry, the manufacture of soap and fodder production. Sunflower is the most important honey plant, considering the large areas cultivated with sunflower and the quality of nectar. Due to its ability to use soil moisture and soil nitrogen reserve better than other species, and to good productivity and the high quality of its by-products, sunflower crop is representing a good option for organic farming systems. This study presents an overview of organic production of sunflower in Romania, starting from a general analysis of the European Union organic production of sunflower and going to an in depth analysis of Romanian cultivation and production, presenting an up-to-date report on the dynamics of the sunflower cultivation, up to county level.