Living Labs

Greece
Domokos
Wheat
Ilias Travlos (travlos@aua.gr)

Nikos Antonopoulos (nikolasantwno@gmail.com)
Most used practices:
Mechanical Control - Herbicides

Wheat Living Lab

In one of the two Greek Living Labs we are working on the wheat crop. Weed control in wheat is a challenging task. The widespread use of synthetic herbicides on wheat has numerous negative effects, such as the high persistence of herbicides in the environment and in the food chain and the development of highly resistant weed populations. The team of the Agricultural University of Athens is working intensively and purposefully to test and evaluate alternative solutions for both conventional and organic farming systems. The field trial in the LL began in September 2023 with the collection of a soil sample to identify and isolate beneficial microorganisms. After multiplication, these microorganisms will be used to treat the cover crop seeds for the next season to investigate the effects on growth stimulation. Three different cover crops were tested, including the two species as a monoculture (Trifolium alexandrinum, Lollium spp) and their mixture. After their termination, wheat was shown and different weed control methods are tested. Our aim is to evaluate and propose the most appropriate agroecological weed management methods to reduce the use of herbicides in cropping systems.