Dr. Ambrogio Costanzo

Job title

Principal Crops Researcher

Contact details

Email prefix: ambrogio.c (add suffix @organicresearchcentre.com)
Phone: +44 (0)1488 658298 - extn. 531
Postal address: Elm Farm, Hamstead Marshall, Newbury, Berkshire, RG20 0HR

Academic qualifications

PhD: ‘Increasing crop species and genetic diversity in organic wheat systems to improve weed reduction and yield’ 2014: PhD programme in AgroBioSciences, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy.

MSc in Agricultural Sciences 2009: University of Pisa, Italy.

Main roles and responsibilities

Managing the Crops programme

Research interests

Crop breeding and management for sustainable agroecosystems, including multi-actor, collaborative research and innovation in research approaches. Works so far have mainly focused genetically diversified crops and crop species mixtures and their outcomes in terms of weed suppressive ability, yield and resilience in arable systems.

Selected publications

Costanzo A & Bàrberi P (2016) Field scale functional agrobiodiversity in organic wheat: Effects on weed reduction, disease susceptibility and yield. European Journal of Agronomy 76: 1-16. DOI: 10.1016/j.eja.2016.01.012

Ranaldo M, Costanzo A, Carlesi S, Bàrberi P (2015) Can weed management in vegetable systems be improved by cover crop species mixture? Step 1: Screening of cover crop species and varieties. 17th European Weed Research Society Symposium ‘Weed management in changing environments’; 183-183

Lazzaro M, Costanzo A, Bàrberi P (2015) Traits relevant for crop-weed competition in single stands and varietal mixtures of common wheat. 17th European Weed Research Society Symposium ‘Weed management in changing environments’

Costanzo A & Bàrberi P (2014) Functional Agrobiodiversity and Agroecosystem Services in Sustainable Wheat Production. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 34: 327-348. DOI: 10.1007/s13593-013-0178-1

Costanzo A & Bàrberi P (2014) A functional agrobiodiversity approach to improve organic wheat production. Proceedings of the 4th ISOFAR Scientific Conference. ‘Building Organic Bridges’, at the Organic World Congress 2014, 13-15 Oct., Istanbul, Turkey. DOI: 10.13140/2.1.3086.3368

Costanzo A & Bàrberi P (2013) Diversity to improve wheat cropping systems: evidence from field trials in Italy using evolutionary populations. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Evolutionary Breeding in Cereals, Birmingham (UK) 21 January 2013

Costanzo A & Bàrberi P (2012) Exploiting diversity in crop management. 1st SOLIBAM Stakeholder Congress ‘Shaping the future of agriculture: The role of diversity in low input and organic cropping systems’ Grottaferrata (Italy) April 2012

Costanzo A, Bàrberi P, Meschinelli A (2008) Short-term solutions to improve land productivity – An action-research experience in the village of Saméné (Ségou region), Mali. 8th European IFSA Symposium, Clermont-Ferrand (France), July 2008.