Understanding of crop lodging and agronomic strategies to improve the resilience of rapeseed production to climate change

Crop lodging has long been recognized as one of the severe yield limiting constraints for rapeseed (Brassica napus) production worldwide. Lodging directly impairs seed yield and quality by interfering with photosynthesis, dry matter accumulation and distribution, or indirectly affects these traits by causing difficulties during the harvest and postharvest stages. Environmental factors, as well as the crop growth stage at which lodging occurs, primarily influence the severity of lodging and the associated yield loss. In general, favorable growing conditions promote crop development and also stimulate lodging susceptibility. Thus, achieving the goal of higher grain yields without increasing crop lodging is very challenging as there is often a close relationship between lodging risk and yield potential. Therefore, it is imperative to explore the underlying mechanisms of the trade-off between lodging resistance and yield performance. In this regard, several classic reviews have been published since 1973, with a particular focus on small grain cereal crops. The main themes of these review papers were deciphering mechanisms of plant stem buckling and root anchorage failure; assessing and evaluating the effects of environmental and crop management factors on crop lodging (in terms of stem and root lodging), and associated yield performance. This review focuses on unraveling the lodging mechanism in rapeseed crop and attempts to explore the key environmental cues and agronomic approaches to achieve higher yields while sustaining lodging resistance. After critical and in-depth evaluation of the existing literature, we reached the conclusion that lodging resistance and seed yield of rapeseed plants can be significantly improved simultaneously through exploiting various morphological and biomechanical parameters with appropriate agronomic strategies.