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1 2025

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Agroforestry conservation agriculture based cropping systems an alternative to improve performance, resilience and adaptation to climate change in mediterranean drylands

El Mzouri Mohamed Amine, El Mzouri El Houssine, Samir Karima

Ecological Engineering & Environmental Technology

2025

Vol. 26, iss. 1

68--70

In the arid areas of Morocco, where sheep based faming systems dominate, traditional agriculture is vulnerable to climate change effects and harmful to the natural resources (soil, water and biodiversity). Sheep herders in these areas are facing increased forage and grazing feed shortages as they rely on extensive barley monocropping systems and overgrazed weedy fallow. The aim of this work is to evaluate the agroforestry cropping system based on annual fodder crop/pasture associations with fodder shrubs (Atriplex nummularia Lindl.), and to compare the agronomic performance of agroforestry-based conservation agriculture with that of local farmers' practices. A set of experiment trials were installed on 4.5 ha at four farmers' sites and monitored over three cropping seasons (2019-2022) in the arid sheep-farming zones of Central Western Morocco. The treatments consisted of three intercrop association options (annual crops + fodder shrubs), improved barley monocropping and farmers' extensive barley monocropping. The experimental protocol adopted is a Randomized Complete Block design with 5 treatments and 4 replications. data collection covered: stand density, canopy height, biological yield, grain yield, and calculated Land Equivalent Ratio. Results showed that the average herbaceous stand density, the botanical composition of the total biomass and the height of the herbaceous and shrubby strata were remarkably influenced by the climatic conditions of the different cropping years. The canopy height of annual herbaceous crops and shrubs was significantly improved under the agroforestry cropping system because of the favorable conditions created by the shrubs, such as improved rainwater infiltration, wind protection and reduced evaporation. The agroforestry cropping systems produced significantly higher total forage biomass yields than the improved barley monoculture and the barley grown by local farmers. The local control monoculture remains the least productive, with only an average of 1016 kg DM/ha. The agricultural land equivalence ratio (LER) was significantly improved by the agroforestry system. It reached an average of 2.4 for barley biomass production, 2.7 for fodder mix Pea/Barley biomass production and 1.8 for pasture fallow improved by NPK fertilization. In conclusion, the adoption of agroforestry as a sustainable approach of conservation agriculture improves the cropping systems performance, farming resilience and farms’ adaptation to climate change in marginal arid Mediterranean climate areas.