ABSTRACT
A. Expanse, Agroclimate, Soils and Cropping Systems Expanse: Geographically, the European wheat agroecosystem spreads across vast areas, which can be classified into five major regions. They are: northern Europe, northwestern and western Europe, central Europe, Russia and eastern Europe, southern Europe and Mediterranean Europe. Among these, north and northwestern Europe is a major wheat producing zone of the world. Intensive cultivation of wheat on the central European Plains extends into European Community nations such as United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France (Spiertz et al., 1992). Wheat production in central Europe occurs between 41° 41' and 54° 54' N latitude, and 9° 54' and 28° 37' E longitude. The central European wheat based cropping ecosystem extends into Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and parts of eastern Germany. These were formerly called, the Eastern Block countries (Nalborczyk and Czember, 1992). Within the former Soviet Union, wheat cultivation extends into 188 m ha, between 45 and 56° N latitude (Gataulina, 1992). The sub-agroecological zones identified are the nonChernozem zones of European Russia, the central Chernozem; middle and lower Volga territory; northern Caucasus; Ukraine; northern Kazakhstan and Steppe Siberia. The central Chernozems, Ukraine and parts of Volga territory which are predominantly wheat producing zones constitute the 'Bread basket' of former Soviet Union'. The European wheat also extends well into the mildly temperate and Mediterranean areas in southern France, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Italy (Lopez-Bellido, 1992).
