The long-term agronomic performance of organic stockless rotations

This report was presented at the UK Organic Research 2002 Conference. Two long-term experiments were established with the aim of evaluating the agronomic and economic performance of organic stockless rotations. In total, four different rotations were evaluated at two sites in the south (Elm Farm Research Centre) and east (ADAS Terrington) of England. All of the rotations included either a one or two-year red clover green manure crop to provide nitrogen for subsequent crops and it was found that this was sufficient to support three or four years of arable cropping. Over a period of eleven years at EFRC and five years at ADAS Terrington, there was no evidence of a decline in crop yield, although there were significant year-to-year variations. Crop yields were generally equivalent to or greater than average organic yields. Levels of soil available P and K was maintained at both sites at non-limiting levels. Pest and diseases were not problematic, but perennial weeds posed the most significant problem

SUSTAVI OBRADE TLA U FUNKCIJI EKOLOŠKE STABILNOSTI

Stationary field experiment pertaining to the winter wheat in Croatia was performed during the three seasons. This study’s intention was to examine and diagnose the effect of tillage systems (TS) on soil chemical properties (soil acidity, phosphorus [P], potassium [K], and organic matter content). The TSs were as follows: CT — ploughing up to 30 cm depth, DT — disking up to 8-12 cm depth, LT — loosening up to 35 cm depth, and NT — no-tillage. The experimental design was a randomised block design in four repetitions, in which the basic TS plot amounted to 540 m2. Soil sampling for 0-30 cm soil layer was performed prior to setting up the experiment and subsequent to the three seasons with a total of 320 soil samples. Chemical analysis was performed according to standard pedological procedures. Economic indicators were calculated using economic equations and standards, whereas statistical analysis was performed with SAS 9.3 and Microsoft Excel 2016. Generated results indicate that the expressed accumulation of phosphorus and potassium appeared with a distinct vertical stratification in the systems with shallower tillage or no-tillage. At the same time, these TSs ensured the soil organic matter and soil fertility preservation. A conservable agricultural production of reduced soil tillage systems has its efficiency and vigor while providing soil degradation.Stacionarni poljski pokus za ozimu pšenicu u Hrvatskoj proveden je tijekom triju sezona . Namjera ovoga istraživanja bila je ispitati i dijagnosticirati utjecaj sustava obrade tla (TSs) na kemijska svojstva tla (kiselost tla, sadržaj fosfora, kalija i organske tvari. TSs-i su bili CT — oranje do 30 cm dubine; DT — tanjuranje do 8-12 cm dubine; LT — rahljenje do 35 cm dubine; NT — bez obrade tla. Eksperimentalni dizajn je bio randomizirani blok dizajn u četiri ponavljanja, u kojem je osnovna TSs parcela bila 540 m2 . Uzorkovanje za sloj tla 0-30 cm obavljeno je prije postavljanja pokusa i nakon triju sezona s ukupno 320 uzoraka tla. Kemijska analiza provedena jer prema standardnim pedološkim postupcima. Standardna statistička analiza provedena softverom SAS 9.3 i Microsoft Excel 2016. Dobiveni rezultati upućuju da se na sustavima s plićom obradom ili bez obrade javlja izražena akumulacija fosfora i kalija uz izraženu vertikalnu stratifikaciju. Istodobno ovi TSs-i osiguravaju konzervaciju organske tvari tla i očuvanje plodnosti tla. Poljoprivredna proizvodnja uz primjenu reduciranih sustava obrade tla ima svoju učinkovitost i snagu kroz sprječavanje degradacije tla

Potential and Advantages of Maize-Legume Intercropping System

Intercropping provides enough scope to include two or more crops simultaneously in same piece of land targeting higher productivity from unit area. Maize, a cereal crop of versatile use, as planted in wide rows offers the opportunity for adoption of intercropping. The intercropping system with maize and legume is beneficial in multifaceted aspects. The success of maize-legume intercropping system largely depends on choice of crops and their maturity, density, and time of planting. Advantage of maize-legume combination of intercropping system is pronounced in the form of higher yield and greater utilization of available resources, benefits in weeds, pests and disease management, fixation of biological nitrogen by legumes and transfer of N to associated maize, insurance against crop failure to small holders, and control of erosion by covering a large extent of ground area. Though maize-legume intercropping system exhibits limitations like less scope of farm mechanization, dependence on more human workforce, and chance of achieving less productivity from maize, the system implies more advantages for small holders in developing countries where human workforce is not a constraint. The chapter has focused on beneficial impacts of maize-legume intercropping system

Knowledge assessment and sharing on sustainable agriculture. Main lessons.

1 CD-ROM. Projeto DG-Research - Contract nº GOCE-CT-2004-505582

Protecting crop species from biotic and abiotic constraints in the era of global change: Are we ready for this challenge?

Reliable andaffordable supply of food is of crucial importance to the progress andstability of human societies. During the last century, we have assisted to anextraordinary increase of crop yields, especially for the most widespread andconsumed crop species, such as rice, wheat, corn and soybean. The Broadbalkexperiment, one of the oldest continuous agronomic experiments in the world,have showed how half of the increase of crop productivity is mainly due to the improvementsintroduced through plant breeding and half through to agronomical practices,although both are dependent on each other (Rasmussen et al., 1998). The development of a huge numbers of scientificplant breeding programs has been of vital relevance in improving crop varietiesand productivity. In addition, collection and spread of improved germplasmaround the world have ensured that all breeders could quickly benefit from theadvances obtained by others. On the other side, based on Lawes and Gilbert'swork in the previous century, the main advances in agronomy consisted on thecontinued use of fertilizers, the true value of which could only be realized inthe presence of suitable varieties and in the absence (or under controlledpressure) of competition from weeds, pest and diseases. Therefore, cropprotection became crucial and it was achieved by the improvements of theagrochemical industry, which has developed sophisticated, high-targeting andmore efficient agrochemicals. Taken together, the use of new high-yieldvarieties in association with chemical fertilizers and agrochemicals,controlled water-supply (irrigation), and new methods of cultivation, includingmechanization, are commonly identified under the term “Green Revolution” which wasconied between ’30 and ’60 and was responsible in some cases for doubling (oreven triplicating) the agricultural production for many crops species, inparticular cereals. The incremented crop productivity hasbrought many social gains, such as reducing the malnutrition, lowering foodprice, increasing food security. Moreover, since the economic sustainability isthe most important factor for the adoption of a crop for farmers (Sgroi et al., 2014; Testa et al., 2015), the increased crop productivity occurred in the lastdecades, has determined a positive impact on the development of several ruralareas. The increase of cropyield, has caused, on the other side, large changes in rural societies due tothe migration of population from the countryside (caused by the decrease ofmanpower needs) to towns and cities where the industrialization offered moreopportunities. The better living conditions lead to the highest increment ofword population that has ever been documented: from 2.5 b people to 5.2 b in 40years (1950-1990; UNR, 2004). Nowadays, word population is predicted toincrease from 7.4 b people (May, 2016), to 8.4 b in 2030 and 9.5 b in 2050 (U.SCensus Bureau). In addition, people rise out of poverty, higher livingstandards, such as greater meat consumption, and personal mobility will increaseeven more the demand on food production (and quality), animal feed, fiber, andfuels. Thus feeding, clothing and fueling a more densely populated planet isprobably the key challenge of our century. Industrializationand anthropic activities have also imposed profound alterations to theenvironment and, decade after decade, have contributed to alter dramaticallythe life conditions on Earth leading to the so called “Global Change” (alsoreferred as “Global Warming” or “Climate Change”), phenomenon from which we areactually trying to run for cover. Based on several reports produced by theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it emerges as the most hazardouseffects of Global Change, such as rising temperatures and heat waves, prolongedperiods of drought, and incremented levels of pollutants in all the compartmentsof biosphere can cause more frequent and severe fluctuations in cropproductivity, but also can seriously threaten the availability of arable land;for example increasing the amplitude of soil/water salinization or soilerosion. The total surface of arable soil is also undermined by the constantrequirement of lands for human activities that, beyond the direct effect ofoverbuilding, in many cases also increase the pollution of surrounding areas, forexample through the release of heavy metals, hydrocarbons, xenobiotics or otherpollutants in soil, water, and/or in the atmosphere. Global Change alsoinfluences the ecology of weeds, pests and disease, with possible implicationsfor crop protection and pesticide use. The ability of science to makepredictions on the impact of Global Change on ecosystem interactions is limitedbecause models that include multiple interactive effects of Global Change arestill relatively rare and the comprehension of results obtained from modelsystems results quite complicated. For this reason, despite the scientificcommunity concords on the dramatic impact of Global Change on cropproductivity, predictions may have sometimes-different facets depending on theinformation source. Some researchers reported however that in the time span1981-2001, changes in precipitation and increased temperatures have already inducedannual losses of wheat, maize and barley production of about 40 million tons peryear (Lobell and Field, 2007). Thus, beyond future prediction(s) of GlobalChange effect, humanity is still experiencing the effects this phenomenon forat least three decades. It is evident that in a near future akey challenge for humanity is to increase the productivity of crop specieswhile decreasing water supply, the use of fossil fuels, chemical fertilizer,pesticides (and more in general agrochemicals), and other negativeenvironmental inputs. On the other side, less clear is how agriculture’s outputcan increase so substantially without significantly increasing itsenvironmental footprint. Plant physiologyand biochemistry have developed as powerful disciplines during the 20thcentury, but only in a few cases they have led to relevant crop improvement,and in any case, nothing as compared to the amazing gains on crop productivityobtained through the classical genetic breeding from 1930 to 1960. This islikely because the links between the biochemistry and genetics of the processesdescribed were not established, but rather high-yield genotypes were selectedonly for this desired feature lacking to explore the reason on the bases ofthis gain. The situation has changed after the discovery of the DNA structureby Watson and Crick (1953) and even more after ’70, when the first positiveresults with transgenic plants were obtained. From that time onward, theability to control one or few genes has also deepened the knowledge on the biochemicalmechanisms underlying the genetic process that has been modified. This newapproach, associated with the rapid development of “omic” sciences, has thepotentiality to lead to significant advances either in crop yield, quality,and/or plant protection in a near future. The future need for higher cropproductivity must parallel with a reduction of agronomical inputs as in thepast high-yield genotypes have been selected for their performances with highinputs, especially fertilizers and pesticides. Agricultural emissions from cropand livestock production grew from 4.7 billion tons of carbon dioxideequivalents (CO2 eq) in 2001 to over 5.3 billion tons in 2011. Inthe same period, annual emissions from fertilizers increased by 37% and in 2011the world total annual emissions fromsynthetic fertilizers averaged 725 Mt CO2 eq, about 14% of total emissionsfrom agriculture in the same year (Tubiello etal., 2014). Advances in the basic knowledge of plant genetic, physiologyand biochemistry should thereby be address to increase the efficiency of inpututilization by plants in order to reduce the input level. Technologicaladvances on instrumentations, such as precision farming tools (such as GPStracking devices designed for farming), as well as agronomical practices (i.e.advanced organic farming, eco-friendly soil amendments) can also significant contributeto achieve this goal. The extensiveemploy of synthetic pesticides against pests of agricultural and veterinaryimportance, especially in developing countries, lead to important concerns forhuman health and the environment (Desneux etal., 2007; Hemingway and Ranson, 2000; Naqqash et al., 2016). In this scenario, the need for effective and eco-friendlycontrol tools has gained increasing attention in latest years (Benelli, 2015;2016). Besides this, a further challenge for crop and livestock protectionnowadays, is the improvement of the success of biological control programs,developing effective quarantine procedures and proper evaluation of thenon-target effects of biocontrol agents (Hajek et al., 2016). Furthermore, chemoecological knowledgeabout pests and biocontrol agents may represent a valid help to improve integratedpest management strategies. Indeed, foraging kairomones exploited bycarnivorous arthropods have been successfully tested as field lures to attractcarnivores in damaged agricultural habitats. However, practical applications offoraging kairomones seem to be restricted by major concerns including carnivorousarthropod habituation, carnivorous arthropod time-wasting on victim-free crops,exploitation of host-borne cues by hyperparasitoids and lack of foraging kairomones specificity due totri-trophic interactions sharing a given habitat that use identical chemicalsignals, thus confounding species-specific biological control agents (Kaplan,2012). Further research on new applications of physical and chemical signalsexploited by carnivorous arthropods is urgently required. Physical andolfactory cues can be used to experience mass-reared predators and parasitoids,via sensitization or associative learning practices (Giunti et al., 2016). This could help toovercome critical steps in mass rearing of biocontrol organisms and improvebeneficial performances of carnivorous arthropods in the field. In view of the growing scientificinterest on the effects of Global Changes factors on the relationship betweenplant-pest-environment, in this issue a collection of papers focused on thistopic are presented. Beyond awareness of the deleterious impact of GlobalChange, factor which should lead humanity to a wiser use Earth’s resources, we believethat only the in-depth comprehension of mechanisms adopted by crop species toendurance under stress (Landi et al.,2012; 2013; 2014; 2015; Pardossi et al.,2015; Penella et al., 2016; Tattini et al.,2014) associated with new eco-friendly methods to control crop pests anddiseases may represent a way to contrast the effect of Global Change meanwhilewe are attempting to increase crop productivity for supporting the needs of anincreasingly crowded planet

Review on Machine Learning Algorithms for Weather Forecasting Issues

Machine leaning is a ground of recent research that officially focuses on the theory, performance, and properties of learning systems and algorithms. It is particularly cross disciplinary field building upon ideas from many different kinds of fields such as artificial intelligence, optimization theory, information theory, statistics, cognitive science, optimal control, and many other disciplines of science, engineering, and mathematics. Since implementation in a wide range of applications, machine learning has covered almost every scientific domain, which has brought great impact on the science and society. Machine learning techniques has been used on a variety of problems, including recommendation engines, recognition systems, informatics and data mining, and autonomous control systems. This research paper compared different machine algorithms for classification. Classification is used when the desired output is a discrete label

USING DRONES IN AGRICULTURAL AREAS

When the world population has approached eight billion, the worldwide focus shifted to supply food for it in a sustainable way. A new grip on precision agriculture has been led. This was identified as a farm management. This emerging concept is established to observe, measure, respond the crops and their inter and intra-field variability and versatility. To gain yield in a maximum level from the limited sources of a farm, this notion can be an efficient way for farmers to reach this aim. Meantime, the outcomes in terms of crop yields, plant health and other data have to be observed constantly while having a real-time feedback. They also require an analysis to be done objectively and equitably. Drones are considerably convenient to the farmers for helping to optimize the use of inputs such as fertilizers, seed and water. They are helpful for them to react quickly and on time tothreats like weeds, pests and fungi. The farmers can also save time in treatment validation of the crop scouting, can improve the variable rate prescriptions in real time and can do an estimation about the yield to be given from a field in harvest seasons. Our environment and our food can be cleaned more and more from chemical load. The reduction of water use can be figured out more and better. Despite being a young technology, drone usage in agriculture is expected to increase significantly. Encouraging the farmers to use the drone with the aid of the government support and agricultural extension efforts, will help them to warm towards this technology and to become adherent to future technologies. In this paper, secondary data was used to show drone usage and benefits in agriculture and how it effects environment positively

The Role of Production Risk in Sustainable Land-Management Technology Adoption in the Ethiopian Highlands

This paper provides empirical evidence of production risk impact on sustainable land- management technology adoption, using two years of cross-sectional plot-level data collected in the Ethiopian highlands. We used a moment-based approach, which allowed a flexible representation of the production risk (Antle 1983, 1987). Mundlak’s approach was used to capture the unobserved heterogeneity along with other regressors in the estimation of fertilizer and conservation adoption. The empirical results revealed that impact of production risk varied by technology type. Production risks (variance and crop failure as measured by second and third central moments, respectively) had significant impact on fertilizer adoption and extent of adoption. However, this impact was not observed in adoption of conservation technology. On the other hand, expected return (as measured by the first central moment) had a positive significant impact on both fertilizer (adoption and intensity) and conservation adoption. Economic instruments that hedge against risk exposure, including downside risk and increase productivity, are important to promote adoption of improved technology and reduce poverty in Ethiopia.Production risk, sustainable land management technology adoption, moment based estimation, Ethiopia

DETEKSI Liberibacter spp. PADA JERUK SIAM BERGEJALA KLOROSIS DISERTAI BERCAK HITAM DENGAN Polymerase Chain Reaction

Liberibacter bacteria are one of the pathogenic bacteria in citrus plants. Siam Citrus Plant in Setapok Village, Singkawang City, suspected to be infected with Liberibacter spp. bacteria by showing patterns of symptoms of chlorosis accompanied by patches. This study aims to detect Liberibacter spp. on Siam Citrus leaves with symptomatic chlorosis with patches. Leaf sampling uses the roaming method in one of the citrus plantations in Setapok Village, Singkawang City. Detection of Liberibacter spp. done by PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) technique. Detection of bacterial DNA through several stages namely, isolation of bacterial plasmid DNA, 16S rDNA gene amplification with a thermocycler machine, and visualization using a set of electrophoresis devices. Electrophoresis results show the presence of DNA band lines, with a size of around 1100 bp for OI1 and OI2c primers, and DNA bands of 703 bp for A2 and J5 specifics. The results showed that there were Liberibacter spp. in the symptomatic chlorosis of Siam Citrus leaves accompanied by patches