Summary
This paper, published in Scientia Horticulturae in 2018, investigates how irrigation management and nitrogen fertilisation interact to influence both the productivity and nutritional quality of a horticultural crop. De Pascale and colleagues, based in Italy, likely employed a factorial field trial design to disentangle the relative contributions of water and nitrogen inputs. The findings are expected to contribute to understanding the trade-offs between maximising yield and optimising nutrient density under differing agronomic input regimes.
UK applicability
Although conducted in an Italian horticultural context, the findings are broadly relevant to UK protected and field horticulture, particularly given shared policy interest in reducing nitrogen inputs and improving water use efficiency under the post-CAP agricultural transition framework.
Key measures
Crop yield; nitrogen content; mineral concentration; potentially antioxidant capacity or vitamin content (mg/kg or g/100g fresh weight)
Outcomes reported
The study measured the effects of varying irrigation regimes and nitrogen fertilisation rates on crop yield and the nutrient composition of horticultural produce. Key nutritional parameters such as mineral content, antioxidants, or vitamins are likely to have been assessed alongside yield metrics.
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