Agronomic practices for reducing curculionid pest damage and improving faba bean yield: the role of tillage, crop rotation, plant density, and row spacing

This dataset contains the data supporting the article “Agronomic practices for reducing curculionid pest damage and improving faba bean yield: the role of tillage, crop rotation, plant density, and row spacing” (El Aalaoui M. and Sbaghi M., submitted to PLOS ONE). The field experiments were conducted over three cropping seasons (2022–2023, 2023–2024 and 2024–2025) at the INRA Experimental Domain in Zemamra–Sidi Bennour, Morocco (32°37′48″ N, 8°42′00″ W), under rainfed, semi-arid conditions. The design was a strip-plot randomized complete block design with two replications, using the faba bean variety ‘DeFes’ (Vicia faba L. var. major). Treatments (codes used in all sheets) Tillage: T1 = no-tillage with cover cropping; T2 = chisel plowing (15–20 cm); T3 = moldboard plowing (25–30 cm) Crop rotation: R1 = faba bean monoculture; R2 = faba bean after wheat; R3 = faba bean after barley Row spacing: S1 = 40 cm; S2 = 50 cm; S3 = 60 cm Seeding rate: D1 = 80 kg ha⁻¹ (≈20 seeds m⁻²); D2 = 110 kg ha⁻¹ (≈27 seeds m⁻²); D3 = 140 kg ha⁻¹ (≈34 seeds m⁻²) File content (results.xlsx)Each row is one observation, labelled with its treatment level. The seasons appear as 2022–23, 2023–24 and 2024–25, or as 2023, 2024 and 2025 (year of harvest). “Combined” columns give the mean across the three seasons. Plant density: plant stand density (plants m⁻²) at the 4–6 node stage, with 4 observations per treatment level for each season. Phenology: days from sowing to BBCH stages 50, 60, 70, 80 and 89 (full maturity), with 4 observations per treatment level. Damage: Sitona lineatus leaf notches per plant, clam-shell damage (%), nodule destruction (%), Lixus algirus adult leaf feeding (%) and L. algirus larvae per plant. There are 10 observations per treatment level for each season, plus combined means. Croissance and yield: plant height (cm), pods per plant, seeds per pod and 1000-seed weight (g). There are 10 observations per treatment level for each season, plus combined means. Grain yield: grain yield (kg ha⁻¹, dry matter basis), with 10 observations per treatment level for each season, plus combined means.