Viviana Florencia Bondaruk - Services crops to promote multifunctionality in agosystem in Argentina.

SUMMARY OF THE WORKSHOP:

Cover crops, incorporated into agricultural rotations along with cash crops, are known as service crops (SC). These crops play a crucial role in providing a range of specific ecosystem services and promoting the multifunctionality of agricultural landscapes.

Among the main ecosystem services, they offer are biological pest and disease control, as well as weed suppression by increasing diversity, plant competition, and providing a longer soil cover compared to fallow periods. SC also contribute to improving soil quality and nutrient availability, managing water more efficiently, and increasing pollination. SC can also be used as a forage resource for livestock. In addition, they reduce the dependence on external inputs, their costs, and greenhouse gas emissions.

Recently, in Argentina, the use of SC has received growing attention, although their incorporation is still in its early stages. In this context, the use of SC emerges as a proposal to address environmental sustainability and food security by improving soil health, increasing the resilience of agricultural systems, and promoting biodiversity. 

 ABOUT THE SPEAKER:

Viviana Florencia Bondaruk is an agronomic engineer from the Faculty of Agronomy, University of Buenos Aires (2017). She got her PhD in Agricultural Sciences from the Graduates School of the University of Buenos Aires in 2023. In the present she is doing a post doc fellowship sponsored by the National Council of Science and Technology of Argentina. In the University she works in the Chair of Ecology of the Faculty of Agronomy as a teaching assistant (from 2016 to the Present) imparting classes of Ecology and Biodiversity for undergraduate students.

Her interests are mainly based in studying different alternative ways to produce in agricultural systems, the application of ecological intensification in agroecosystems and the integration of livestock production with croplands. Also, she is interested in how to redesign landscapes in order to improve biodiversity whereas having human activities.