Molecular Pathogens, 2025, Vol.16, No.3, 100-110 http://microbescipublisher.com/index.php/mp 107 Figure 3 Average actual and wheat equivalent yield (WEY) of grain sorghum and winter wheat in in continuous annual wheat (WW), wheat–wheat–sorghum–fallow (WWSF), and wheat–sorghum–sorghum–fallow (WSSF) rotations from 1996 to 2015 at Tribune, KS (Adopted from Schlegel et al., 2017) Image caption: Within columns, means with the same letter are not significantly different (p = 0.05); HSD is the minimum difference between two treatments used to declare they are significantly different using Tukey’s HSD test (Adopted from Schlegel et al., 2017) 6.2 Empirical cases of application effectiveness in different regions The application effect of rotation modes in different countries and regions is affected by climate type, soil conditions, crop variety structure and management level. The following are several representative cases. (1) China's Huanghuaihai Plain: sorghum-soybean-wheat three-crop rotation. This region is an important sorghum production area, with serious typical continuous cropping obstacles. After the introduction of the three-cropping system, field pests and diseases have been significantly reduced. According to data from a test site in Shandong, after three consecutive years of rotation, the sorghum root rot index decreased by 56.8%, the soil organic matter content increased by 12.4%, and wheat ear rust was also suppressed (Sun et al., 2023). This rotation model optimizes the tillage layer structure and improves the utilization rate of agricultural time. It is a typical "high-efficiency-rotation-green" planting system. (2) Midwestern United States: two-year sorghum-corn rotation. The sorghum-corn rotation system promoted in the dryland corn areas of Iowa and Kansas has effectively reduced the population density of major pests such as corn rootworms and borers (Schlegel et al., 2017). It is reported that after two years of rotation, corn yield increased by 10%, the fluctuation range of sorghum yield was smaller than that of single cropping, and it integrated the advantages of mechanized sowing and harvesting, which was very popular among large-scale farmers (Bowles et al., 2020). (3) East Africa: Sorghum-legume rotation + push-pull technology. In Kenya and Uganda, local small farmers generally rotate sorghum with legumes such as horn beans and cowpeas, and combine it with the "push-pull technology", that is, planting attractant plants on the edge of the field to attract pests, and interplanting repellent plants in the field to reduce the damage caused by stem borers and cutworms (Khan et al., 2016). This combination has reduced pesticide use by nearly 60% and increased average crop income by more than 25% in the past 10 years of promotion. It is a model of green plant protection in developing countries. (4) Southwest China's mountainous areas: sorghum-potato rotation. In Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, due to the large amount of sloping farmland and shallow tillage layer, the soil fertility of traditional sorghum continuous cropping has declined rapidly. After adopting sorghum-potato rotation, the population density of underground pests (such as white grubs) was greatly reduced, the incidence of potato late blight decreased by 30%, the soil aggregate structure was significantly optimized in the third year after rotation, and surface runoff decreased by about 18% (Zhou et al., 2023). These cases show that the promotion of sorghum rotation mode should fully consider the local crop economy, pest spectrum, resource carrying capacity and farmers' acceptance, and achieve the dual goals of biological regulation of pests and diseases and improvement of soil functions while ensuring stable output.
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