Conclusion
of Agronomy
and Plant Protection
Iwona Bartkowiak-Broda
Marek Wójtowicz
Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute
Poznań, Poland
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technique
 Soil nutrition
Oral presentations Posters
111
42
54
14
9
18
11
20
 Farming systems and Ecology
6
15
 Digital Agriculture
2
4
PLANT PROTECTION
43
34
81
57
 Pests
7
19
 Herbicides
2
5
 Crop Physiology
 Diseases
Authors represented 5 continents – 20 countries
Canada
Argentina China
Egypt
Iran
Australia
Korea
Europe
Czech Republic
France
Germany
Italy
Latva
Lithuania
Poland
Russia
Serbia
Spain
Switzerland
UK
Objects of investigations
 Brassica napus var.
oleifera f. annua
and f. biennis
 Sinapis alba
 Brassica campestris
 Raphanus sativus
 Brassica
tournefortii
 Eruca sativa
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
Presented works mostly concerned integrated
agrotechnical systems especially taking into account:
 dates of sowing
 rates of seed sowing
 levels and dates of fertilization
 weed controlling
 problem of irrigation — in the areas characterized
by considerable shortage in precipitation.
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
Many authors in their work made reference
to the ways of soil cultivation before sowing and
to the succession of plants in plant rotations.
In their reports authors often focused on seed sowing,
mainly on the dates and sowing rates, and to a lesser
degree on technology of sowing.
These issues were of interest first of all for authors
from India and China.
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
The influence of sowing dates on yield and elements
of its structure was variable and depended
on environmental conditions.
Besides the results which indicated a significant
dependence of the number of siliques on a plant
and on m2, of 1000 seed weight and number of seeds
in a silique at the date of sowing, there were also
such results which did not show this dependence.
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
Many authors emphasized how important it is to choose
a proper variety for cultivation in order to gain high yields.
Due to a higher yielding ability of hybrid varieties,
they are becoming especially attractive.
An unquestionable advantage of these varieties
is their fast development after germination.
It may improve the use of fertilizers and cut down losses
of nutritional components.
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
Over the last 5 years in Canada the area of cultivation
of hybrid varieties has increased by 15–70%.
At present in Canada, more than 90% of canola
production involve herbicide-resistant (HR) cultivars.
Combining hybrid cultivar with seeding rate
of 150 seeds/m2 and the earliest time of weed removal
(2 leaves) led to a 41% yield increase compared
to the combination of open pollinated cultivar,
seeding rate of 100 seeds/m2 and latest time of weed
removal (6 leaf).
Also the Czech scientists’ research confirmed
a diverse response of varieties to the level of applied
technologies.
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
Authors of many reports emphasized significant
differences among varieties in respect to yield height,
plant morphology, seed quality, and physiological traits
which are responsible for tolerance of rapeseed rosette
for low temperatures.
The results showed that rosette tolerance for cold
in some cultivars does not correlate with seed yield.
It was also showed that the cultivars producing
the highest seed yield may not necessarily show the best
Crown Cell Membrane Stability at rosette stage.
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
Presented work also elaborated on the issue
of the importance of agro-technological procedures
for the quality of seed yield.
Attention was paid, among others, to the influence
of sowing date on the synthesis of fatty acids,
as well as on oil, protein and glucosinolate content.
Also the dependence of seed quality on sowing amount
and date of N fertilization was shown.
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
Moreover, it was shown that the influence
of N fertilization on fat, protein and glucosinolate contents
depended on water deficiency in a flowering period.
Also cultivation systems influenced seed quality.
Lower fat content was observed in seeds from plants
coming from plots (fields) with simplified cultivation
technology in comparison to conventional cultivation.
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
The necessity to keep up the quality
of collected seeds was highlighted.
Research conducted in Switzerland on the influence
of cultivation on the maintenance of low content
of linolenic acid in HOLL varieties showed that:
beyond 50 meters of distance, a field of conventional
rapeseed caused only a minor increase in C18:3 content
of a neighbouring low-linolenic rapeseed field.
After 20 meters contamination estimated
from linolenic acid increase was about 1%.
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
According to simulation, the presence of volunteers
of conventional rapeseed in the low-linolenic field had
the most dramatic effect:
in a short crop rotation an important amount of volunteers
significantly increased the linolenic acid content.
In Switzerland, all oilseed rape is usually grown
with a longer interval than every four years in normal crop
rotations, which is usually enough to prevent major
contamination by volunteers if the latter are correctly
managed.
AGRONOMY
 Cultivation technology
Another important issue mentioned in the reports
was the influence of environment on plant development,
and yield height and quality.
The conditions throughout vegetation season determine
plant development from germination to crop.
AGRONOMY
 Soil nutrition
Fertilization — a lot of attention was paid to fertilization
with nitrogen, whose importance for yield quality
and quantity was investigated in differentiated
agrotechnical and environmental conditions.
The research projects also took into account interaction
between fertilization and the genotype.
Moreover, a negative influence of nitrogen fertilization
on environment was observed.
AGRONOMY
 Soil nutrition
In investigations on the possibility of limiting nitrogen
fertilization, and consequently, reducing the washing
out of nitrogen to ground waters, semi-dwarf varieties
of rapeseed were used.
It was assumed in a working hypothesis that semidwarf varieties may be characterized by a reduced
demand for nitrogen in comparison with conventional
varieties. However, all tested varieties needed similar
N fertilization for their maximum yield.
No interaction between genotype and N treatment was
stated.
AGRONOMY
 Soil nutrition
In the reports were investigated
also the problems related
to the influence of sulphur
fertilization on the attractiveness
of rapeseed for bees.
AGRONOMY
 Crop Physiology
 Influence of environmental conditions on seed
germination
CO and low temperature can accelerate seed germination
 Aspects of reaction of different varieties to drought
stress at different development stages

Influence of maturity regulators on microbiotical
population on the surface of seeds
 Phytoremediative potential of oilseed rape
AGRONOMY
 Farming systems and Ecology
Coexistence of conventional and GM crops
Coexistence in accordance with European regulation
between
GM and non GM crops is difficult at the farm level
in the case of oilseed rape.
Gene flow by:
 pollen
 seeds in time and in space
Importance of gene flow depends on:
 farm types
 landscape
 cropping systems
 design of grain collect
Management of coexistence varies between each
region
AGRONOMY
 Farming systems and Ecology
Influence of cultivation systems on seed quality
Problems of climate warming
The use of biological preparation in seed treatment
Sustainability of winter oilseed rape cropping system
Development computer model REPRO in Germany.
This model allows to quantify all major
energy and material flows on the farm
and in the field and to incorporate information
on economic effects of the different decisions
taken on the farm.
AGRONOMY
 Digital Agriculture
FRANCE
• The adoption of Genesys model to predict linolenic
acid content of low linolenic rapeseed harvest
in different management systems
• Farmstar — system used to determine
optimal N doses
on the basis of satellite data
AGRONOMY
 Digital Agriculture
CHINA
• IDSSRP — Inteligent Decission Support System
for Rapeseed Production
• Rapeseed CSODSS — Rapeseed Cultivation Simulation
— Optimalization DSS.
• Field experiments where IDSSRP was used showed
a possibility of 20% increase in income in comparison
with traditional cultivation methods. In experiments
where Rapeseed CSODSS was used, the yield could be
increased by 10–21%, N fertilization lowered by 18–28%
and costs lowered by 10%.
PLANT PROTECTION
 Diseases
Blackleg and Sclerotinia stem
rot are the two most important
diseases of oilseed rape
worldwide
Majority of papers are devoted
to investigations concerning:
 the genetic basis of resistance to these pathogens
 genetic and physical mapping
 functional genomic approaches for resistance gene
discovery
 variation of populations of pathogens
 variation of resistance to pathogens
 effects of fungicides
PLANT PROTECTION
 Diseases
Genetic basis
of resistance to blackleg
 new source of resistance introduced
from B. carinata
 investigations of resistance derived
from Sinapis arvensis. Coincya monensis,
Brassica juncea
PLANT PROTECTION
 Diseases
Other diseases
Fungus and mycotoxins contaminating
oilseeds during storage
Macrophomina phaseolina - causes new diseases
on Canola in Australia
Orobanche aegyptiaca Pers. severly
affects mustard crops
PLANT PROTECTION
 Diseases
 Epidemiological studies
 System of risk assessment of disease
occurrence
 Strategies to prevent spread of diseases
 Biocontrol e.g. MYR-GLs system
 EU project SECURE – Stem Canker
of oilseed rape: Molecular methods
and mathematical modeling to deploy
durable resistance
PLANT PROTECTION
 Pests
Presented papers mostly
concerned:
 occurrence and control




of pests in oilseed rape and in mustard
susceptibility of oilseed rape varieties
to the pests
resistance of pest insects to pyrethroid
insecticides
control of insect pest using systemic resistance
induced by bacterial strains and in organic
crop management
PLANT PROTECTION
 Pests
Investigations on predator species in oilseed rape crop
The effects of different crop management techniques
on key predators were investigated in 5 European
countries.
The effect of management has a considerable effect
on species composition:
— low species similarity of ICM and STN system.
In summer the number of dominant/subdominant species
decreased from the West of Europe to the East, in autumn
on the contrary.
Each country shows unique performance of the predator
species composition.
The majority of ground beetle species occure exclusively
in spring rape or in winter rape.
PLANT PROTECTION
 Pests
EU projects
 ENDURE – European network
for durable exploitation
of crop protection strategies
– aiming at the development and implementation
of sustainable pest management strategies
 MASTER – Integrated pest management
strategies incorporating bio-control
for European oilseed rape pest
PLANT PROTECTION
 Herbicides
Volunteer oilseed rape control
— post-emergence herbicides provide
excellent control at 3-leaf as well as 6-leaf
stage of plant development.
Ecology — mechanical weed control
an alternative or a complement to chemical
weed control
GENERAL INFORMATION
Presented reports also included information about:
 sowing area
 yield
 size of production.
China is the leading country with 10 million tons of oil
production, Canada is the second with 7.1 million tons
and India is the third with 6.1 million tons among
countries all over the world.
SUMMARY
A great number of papers and the variety
of discussed topics within the area of agronomy
and plant protection confirm its significance
in obtaining faithful and high yield of seeds
of required quality.
Getting to know how environmental conditions,
farming systems, cultivation technology
and plant protection influence quantity and quality
of seed yield of oilseed crops from Brassica genus
allows to estimate the range of variability of yield
and row material obtained for oil industry