- Authors:
- Source: APANews
- Issue: 37
- Year: 2010
- Summary: The cultivation of vegetables under Dendrocalamus asper plantation in Jharkhand, India, is briefly described. The five-year old plantation was intercropped with potatoes, tomatoes, ginger and pea. The yield of potatoes, ginger and tomatoes decreased when cultivated in a bamboo plantation as compared to the data from the monoculture plantation. The performances of pea and ginger were found satisfactory.
- Authors:
- Pire, E.
- Boccanelli, S.
- Lewis, J.
- Source: CIENCIA E INVESTIGACION AGRARIA
- Volume: 37
- Issue: 2
- Year: 2010
- Summary: Agriculture has been practised in the Argentine Pampa Region for more than a century. This long history of disturbance has strongly modified the native vegetation of the region. Some original species have disappeared or its area has been remarkably reduced. The objective was to evaluate vegetation changes over time after the abandonment of agriculture practice. Our hypothesis was that over time vegetation in this region will evolve towards a "flechillar" ( Stipa spp. community) similar to the original vegetation. The experiment was conducted at Zavalla (Santa Fe) Argentina (33degrees01′S, 60degrees53′W and 50 m.a.s.l.). Vegetation evolution was studied during 15 years (1982-1997) after abandonment, considering four initial crop situations (i.e. wheat, soybean, pasture and tillage). Periodically, we measured species cover and abundance in 60 subplots. Data was analyzed using multivariate methods. We identified several groups corresponding to two very well defined successional stages. The first group was very small, and showed predominance of annual species; the second group showed a reduction or almost disappearance of annuals and an increase in perennials such as Baccharis salicifolia (Ruiz & Pav.) Pers. and Sorghum halepense (L.) Pers. accompanied by Carduus acanthoides L. Therefore, a secondary succession was developed, with a first stage of annual species dominance followed by long life cycle species. However, even after 15 years there was no reversion of the vegetation to the original community.
- Authors:
- Source: PESQUISA AGROPECUARIA BRASILEIRA
- Volume: 45
- Issue: 12
- Year: 2010
- Summary: The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of fall-winter and spring crops, cultivated under no-tillage system, on the aggregates and organic matter of a Rhodic Ferralsol. The experiment was performed in the 2006/2007, 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 growing seasons. Congo signal grass ( Urochloa ruziziensis), grain sorghum ( Sorghum bicolor) and sorghum mixed with brachiaria were cropped in the fall-winter to consist the main plots. In the spring, millet ( Pennisetum glaucum), 'Cober Crop' ( Sorghum bicolor * Sorghum sudanense) and Indian hemp ( Crotalaria juncea) were cultivated as subplots as well as a fallow treatment. Soybean was cropped in the summer, totaling 12 treatments. Cover crop dry matter and root growth were evaluated in 2006 and 2008. Soil samples were taken from 0-5 and 5-10 cm depths, after spring cover crops managing, in the first and third years. The mean weight diameter, geometric mean diameter, aggregate stability index, aggregates larger than 2 mm, organic matter and total organic carbon levels were evaluated in the samples of the third year. Millet and 'Cober Crop' showed higher dry matter production and root growth. The soil aggregation was improved by cover crop rotations before the summer growing season. The cultivation of 'Cober Crop' and millet influenced the macroaggregate formation in the superficial layers.
- Authors:
- Ghelfi,R.
- Armuzzi,M.
- Marchi,A.
- Source: Informatore Agrario
- Volume: 66
- Issue: 47
- Year: 2010
- Summary: This paper describes the yield and profitability of potato as an intercrop for cereals grown in Italy. Information on production costs based on the input requirements of production methods commonly used by growers in Emilia Romagna is included.
- Authors:
- Source: Electronic Journal of Environmental, Agricultural and Food Chemistry
- Volume: 9
- Issue: 3
- Year: 2010
- Summary: An investigation was conducted at Bangladesh Sugarcane Research Institute Farm to assess effects of irrigation on yield of potato and sunhamp as 1st and 2nd intercrops with Isd 31 variety of sugarcane by STP polybag settlings. There was remarkable increase in yield of potato, sunhamp and sugarcane by water application. The highest yield of potato, sunhamp and sugarcane obtained were 10.06 t/ha, 16.96 t/ha and 85.50 t/ha in T 3, T 2 and T 3 treatments and of that control treatments yield were 6.94, 12.69 and 71.48 t/ha respectively. Yield of potato, sunhamp and sugarcane reduced due to excess application of water in each T 4 treatment. Therefore, the profitability of intercropping potato and sunhamp with sugarcane significantly did not reduce the yield of the sugarcane compared to the alone cane.
- Authors:
- Silva, M.
- Goncalves, M.
- Souza, C.
- Souza, L.
- Marchetti, M.
- Mercante, F.
- Lourente, E.
- Source: SEMINA-CIENCIAS AGRARIAS
- Volume: 31
- Issue: 4
- Year: 2010
- Summary: Soil management practices exert important influence on biological and biochemical properties of soil. This work aimed to valuate the impact of crop rotation on soil biochemical and microbiological attributes, as well and influence on corn crop yield. The experiment was carried out during 2005/06 crop season, in Dourados - MS, Brazil. Experimental design was randomized blocks with treatments established in sub-divided plots with tree replications, which seasons were plots and management systems were sub-plots. Studied seasons were winter and summer and no tillage systems were represented by five crop rotation schemes, which involved the cultures of hairy vetch, bean, oat, forage turnip, soybean, crotalaria, corn, sorghum, pearl millet, sunflower and, in conventional tillage, with corn in winter and with soybean in summer. Native vegetation constituted one treatment and, with conventional tillage, it was used as ecosystem of reference as control for comparison between possible alterations in chemical and microbiological attributes with the establishment of a system more conservationist for soil management. There was a positive correlation among Norg, Corg, Porg and C-BMS contents with chemical attributes of soil fertility, which shows interdependence between chemical and biology of soil. The elimination of native vegetation and the substitution for cultivation system after that reduce the C-BMS. In Cerrado conditions, studied cultivation systems increased phosphorus content in soil. Crop rotation influenced corn yield after the cultivation of determined species as crotalaria and vetch in crop rotation.
- Authors:
- Rhykerd, R.
- Ossom, E.
- Mayisela, M.
- Source: Journal of Applied Sciences Research
- Issue: February
- Year: 2010
- Summary: A field investigation was conducted in Swaziland, in 2008/2009 cropping season, to evaluate effects that different groundnut populations could exert on growth indices and crop yields in a groundnut sweetpotato association. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block of five treatments: [1, pure sweetpotato (33,333 plants ha -1); 2, pure groundnut (200,000 plants ha -1); 3, pure groundnut (100,000 plants ha -1); 4, sweetpotato (33,333 plants ha -1) intercropped with groundnut (200,000 plants ha -1); and 5, sweetpotato (33,333 plants ha -1); intercropped with groundnut (100,000 plants ha -1)] and replicated four times. Results showed that intercropping sweetpotato (33,333 plants ha -1) with a high groundnut population (200,000 plants ha -1) significantly (P
- Authors:
- Source: Kormoproizvodstvo
- Issue: 12
- Year: 2010
- Summary: Continuous green fodder conveyor production system allows quality fodder supply during the grazing season. Field trials were conducted in Dagestan, the North Caucasus, Russia, with Red Steppe cattle. Data are tabulated on sowing dates and period of use of fodder crops, i.e. natural pastures, winter rape, winter rye + winter vetch, pea-oat + vetch-oat, regrowth of perennial grasses after hay cutting, Sudan grass, maize and maize + Sudan grass, sorghum, regrowth of Sudan grass and sorghum, maize sown after winter cereals grown for green fodder, maize and sorghum grown for silage for additional feed rations, winter rye after pea + oat, squash, pumpkin, fodder watermelon and fodder beet, and regrowth of natural pastures and meadows. The importance of natural pastures and drought resistant plants, such as sorghum crops, for production of high yield of fodder in dry conditions of Dagestan is considered.
- Authors:
- Source: Proceedings of the 19th World Congress of Soil Science: Soil solutions for a changing world, Brisbane, Australia, 1-6 August 2010. Congress Symposium 4: Greenhouse gases from soils
- Year: 2010
- Summary: Management strategies in agroecosystems may influence C balance in soil through variation in C input to soil and also by causing variation in C output from soil. In a two year study we evaluated the effect of application of soil inputs with varying resource quality viz: high quality (C:N 16; HQR), low quality (C:N 82; LQR) and mixed quality (HQR +LQR; MQR) inputs having equivalent amount of N, on the soil CO 2 flux, % C build-up, soil C balance and crop productivity in a tropical dryland rice-barley-summer fallow agroecosystem. Addition of LQR singly resulted in high probability of C retention capacity compared to other treatments, however lower levels of soil C build-up, and crop productivity was observed. On the other hand, although in HQR treatment the C balance approached almost unity, the C build-up and crop productivity was comparable to that of the LQR treatment. Combining the two inputs resulted in significant build-up of soil C and enhancement of crop productivity and also indicated high C sequestration capacity. It is concluded that for sequestration of C, the resource quality of the input i.e., the form of C, labile or recalcitrant, is more important than the absolute amount of C added to the soil through exogenous inputs.
- Authors:
- Source: Advances in Environmental Biology
- Volume: 4
- Issue: 2
- Year: 2010
- Summary: Intercropping is the growing of two or more crop species at the same time and in the same field. Sweetpotato [ Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] is receiving new attention as a life-saving food crop in developing countries. Jugo bean [ Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.] is a leguminous species similar to peanut ( Arachis hypogaea L.). Though leguminous crops have been associated with sweetpotato under intercropping systems, it is not known what effects different jugo bean populations could have under intercropping with a fixed population of sweetpotato. The objective of this experiment was to assess the effects of jugo bean plant population on physiological growth indices and crop yields under intercropping.
