Cover crops a potential water saver

This study investigates and evaluates the benefits brought by the use of cover crops in grapevine plantations and their impact on vegetative state as a result of increasing the amount of water present in the soil. Intensifying global warming phenomena has affected all ecosystems around the world, changing their specificity to new climate conditions. Due to extreme drought phenomena, the Balkan region is facing unprecedented water supply sortage, affecting both agricultural practices, including viticultural practices, and by default quality of life. The use of cover crops can become a viable choice for water resource conservation, assuring agricultural sustainability. Climate data, for 2024, analysis highlighted non-specific values for general and vine specific climate parameters. Due to extreme drought, cover crop experimental variants recorded limited vegetative growth and consequently had minimal effects on the soil water retention and vine plantation development. We aim at reestablishing experimental variants in the context of 2025 climate conditions, to obtain a positive impact regarding soil water reserves.