Green manuring as sustainable management for southern Italy extensive cultivated areas

In the extensively-managed agricultural areas of Sicily, rainfall is often so limited that economically effective annual productions are not feasible. Bare fallow, the most extreme dry-farming technique, seems to be, under such conditions, the only suitable strategy. The introduction in these cropping systems of an annual legume to put early into the soil, as an alternative to bare fallow, may represent a technique able not only to prevent soil erosion, but also to improve the low soil organic matter reserves, with a direct benefit on the following yields and on the whole environment. The trial was aimed to verify the bioagronomical and qualitative behaviour of durum wheat managed under different cropping systems. Results, heavily influenced by very low rainfall (320 mm), stressed the extraordinary productive response of durum wheat cultivated after the green manure legume.