Precision Agriculture Technology for Crop Farming

This book provides a review of precision agriculture technology development, followed by a presentation of the state-of-the-art and future requirements of precision agriculture technology. It presents different styles of precision agriculture technologies suitable for large scale mechanized farming; highly automated community-based mechanized production; and fully mechanized farming practices commonly seen in emerging economic regions. The book emphasizes the introduction of core technical features of sensing, data processing and interpretation technologies, crop modeling and production control theory, intelligent machinery and field robots for precision agriculture production

Precision Agriculture Technology for Crop Farming

This book provides a review of precision agriculture technology development, followed by a presentation of the state-of-the-art and future requirements of precision agriculture technology. It presents different styles of precision agriculture technologies suitable for large scale mechanized farming; highly automated community-based mechanized production; and fully mechanized farming practices commonly seen in emerging economic regions. The book emphasizes the introduction of core technical features of sensing, data processing and interpretation technologies, crop modeling and production control theory, intelligent machinery and field robots for precision agriculture production

Compost and digestate: sustainability, benefits, impacts for the environment and for plant production

This proceedings volume contains the papers presented at the CODIS 2008 congress held on 27 - 29 February 2008 in Solothurn (Switzerland).The composting and digestion of biogenic waste materials and the subsequent application of compost and digestate to soil contributes to nutrient recycling and renewable energy production. Moreover, compost and digestate can improve soil fertility and suppress plant diseases. On the other hand, compost and digestate may also contain a variety of pollutants hazardous to soil, such as heavy metals and organic contaminants.Compost and digestate have been thoroughly investigated in the framework of two associated projects entitled Organic Pollutants in Compost and Digestate in Switzerland and Effects of Composts and Digestate on the Environment, Soil Fertility and Plant Health. These projects yielded new insights into the properties of compost and digestate, mainly with regard to biological parameters and the occurrence of both classic and emerging organic pollutants.The CODIS 2008 congress was the final event of these two projects

Agricultural Diversification

Agricultural diversification can occur in many forms (e.g., genetic variety, species, structural) and can be created temporally and over different spatially scales (e.g., within crop, within field, and landscape level). Crop diversification is the practice of growing more than one crop species within a farming area in the form of rotations (two or more crops on the same field in different years), multiple crops (more than one crop in the same season on the same field) or intercropping (at least two crops simultaneously on the same field).Various cropping strategies and management practices, such as diversification of cropping systems by crop rotation, conservation tillage, and the use of cover crops, have been promoted to enhance crop productivity and ecosystem services. However, the opportunities and means differ among regions and the actual effects of diversification on cropping system sustainability still need more investigation.This Special Issue covers the state-of-the-art and recent progress in different aspects related to agricultural diversification to increase the sustainability and resilience of a wide range of cropping systems (grassland, horticultural crops, fruit trees) and in a scenario of environmental challenges due to climate change: Crop production and quality; Impact of crop diversification on soil quality and biodiversity; Environmental impact and delivery of ecosystem services by crop diversification

Sustainable Production in Food and Agriculture Engineering

This book is a collection of original research and review papers that report on the state of the art and recent advancements in food and agriculture engineering, such as sustainable production and food technology. Encompassed within are applications in food and agriculture engineering, biosystem engineering, plant and animal production engineering, food and agricultural processing engineering, storing industry, economics and production management and agricultural farms management, agricultural machines and devices, and IT for agricultural engineering and ergonomics in agriculture