Tillage and crop sequence effects on productivity and technological and nutritional quality of durum wheat

Abstract

We report data from two consecutive growing seasons {2012/13 and 2013/14, i.e., after 21-22 years of continuous application of the treatments) on grain yield and some technological and nutritional quality parameters of durum wheat. On average, grain yield was higher with CT than NT, but the effects of tillage varied greatly by crop sequence. On average, NT caused a decrease in both grain protein and gluten contents with respect to CT when wheat was grown after faba bean, whereas no differences between NT and CT were observed for these traits for continuous wheat or berseem clover. Significant interactions between tillage system and crop sequence were observed for alveographic parameters and for both polyphenols and carotenoids contents. On the contrary, no effect on ash content, yellow index, and betaglucans content was found due to the applied treatments.