• Authors:
    • Verma, R. P. S.
    • Sharma, R. K.
  • Source: Cereal Research Communications
  • Volume: 38
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: A study was undertaken at the Directorate of Wheat Research experimental station, Karnal, India, to evaluate the effect of nitrogen (30, 60 and 90 kg/ha) and irrigation (one, two and three) on yield and grain quality traits of two and six row type malt barley genotypes. The mean grain yield significantly increased from 41.9 to 45.8 q/ha with increase in nitrogen dose from 30 to 90 kg/ha and 41.8 to 45.9 q/ha with increase in irrigations from one to three. The two and six row barleys had almost similar yield potential at higher nitrogen application and irrigation frequency but the six-row type had advantage at lower nitrogen and irrigation. Varietal effects were significant for all the traits, while N significantly affected only grain yield, spikes per unit area, 1000-grain weight and husk content. Irrigation effects were significant for bulk density, grain yield, spikes per unit area, and grains per spike. Traits like grain bulk density, proportion of bold and thin grains and husk content are mainly affected by variety and less affected by management practices.
  • Authors:
    • Singh, B. K.
    • Singh, D. K.
    • Yadav, V. P. S.
    • Singh, L.
  • Source: Indian Research Journal of Extension Education
  • Volume: 10
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: The cultivation of vegetables, which is done mainly for economic gain or for marketing purpose, is known as Commercial Vegetable Cultivation. India is one of the largest producer of raw materials for the food processing industries in the world (only 2%). The value addition in food sector is as low as 7 percent and will go up to 35 percent. There is need for increasing food processing from 2 percent to 10 percent by 2010 which will be reflected, in the corresponding increase in Gross National Product. Vegetable cultivation has great potentiality and scope for improving socio-economic condition of small and marginal farmers since it provides higher yield and high economic return in short time as compared to food grains. It is an indispensable part of balanced diet and according to Indian Council of Medical Research recommendation; average person should consume nearly 300 g of vegetable daily. Growing of vegetables is 4 to 8 times more remunerative than cereals and it also generate employment in the rural areas. Commercial vegetable cultivation is not getting as popular as it should be among growers because of high input costs, lack of irrigation facilities and difficulties in their marketing and storage. It is estimated that by 2010 country's vegetable demand would be around 135 million tonnes. There is an urgent need to increase the productivity of vegetable in order to provide nutritional security to increasing population of India. Uttar Pradesh is second largest producer state of vegetable. Due to its proximity to National Capital Territory of Delhi, Ghaziabad has a great potential for commercial vegetable cultivation. Hence, the study was carried out in eight blocks of this district. In this study adoption level refers to the level of adoption of recommended cultivation practices of cabbage by the respondents. Fifteen recommended practices included in the package of practices in vegetable cultivation were used for measuring this adoption. The findings of this study highlighted that about 85 percent of the vegetable growers had low or medium adoption of commercial cabbage cultivation practices meaning there by medium adopters were more energetic, knowledgeable, dynamic and having more interest in adopting modern vegetable technologies.
  • Authors:
    • Thenua, O. V. S.
    • Sharma, U. C.
    • Abraham, T.
    • Shivakumar, B. G.
  • Source: The Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences
  • Volume: 80
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: A field experiment was conducted during winter ( rabi) season of 2005-06 and 2006-07 in the Agronomy Research Farm of Amar Singh College, Lakhaoti, Uttar Pradesh to study the effect of levels of irrigation and fertility on chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.) and mustard ( Brassica juncea L. czernj & coss.) in sole and intercropping systems. The experiment was conducted in split-plot design with 3 replications. The combination of treatments consisted of 3 cropping systems, namely sole mustard (C 1), sole chickpea (C 2) and chickpea+mustard intercropping (C 3) (4:1 raw ratio) and 4 irrigation levels [no irrigation (I 0), irrigation at pre-flowering (I 1), at pod formation (I 2) at both pre-flowering and pod formation (I 3)] for chickpea allotted to main plots and 3 fertility levels [F 1 (20:40:10 kg N, P 2O 5 and S/ha) F 2 (40:60:20 kg N, P 2O 5 and S/ha) and F 3 recommended dose of fertilisers (RDF)] for both the crops on row length basis to sub-plots. The sole Indian mustard recorded higher seed yield compared to intercropping. The yield reduction in mustard was to the tune of 58.9% and 60.0% in the first and second year, respectively, due to intercropping chickpea. Irrigation, on an average increased the mustard yield by 6.47% (I 1), 12.18% (I 2) and 13.18% (I 3) compared to no irrigation (I 0). Similarly fertilizer treatments F 2 and F 3 on an average increased mustard yield by 10.17% and 18.46%, respectively, over the F 1. The intercropping of chickpea and mustard in 4:1 raw ratio was significantly superior to sole crops of either chickpea or mustard in terms of yield and economics. Between the sole crops, chickpea was better as compared to mustard. Application of recommended dose of fertilizers (20:60:20 kg, N, P 2O 5 and S/ha) on area basis was superior.
  • Authors:
    • Acko, D. K.
  • Source: Acta agriculturae Slovenica
  • Volume: 95
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: A number of factors influenced the increased number of crops on Slovenian farms legal limitation of maize production to two years on the same field, introduction of integrated crop production and certain measures of the Slovene Agri-Environmental Programme. Crop rotation on hop fields that has already been analyzed on 22 hop growing and livestock farms in Spodnja Savinjska dolina in 2008 show that the maize monoculture has been supplemented by some other crops like wheat, barley, lucerne, clover-grass mixtures and high beans; compared to the conventional production in the past, the crop rotation is now longer. Phytosanitary adequacy of two- and three-year rotation could be improved with supplementary crops, that is with fodder crucifers (fodder rapeseed and rape, forage kale), green manure (white mustard, oil radish), legume crops (soya, peas, vetch, field bean, white lupin, crimson clover, Persian clover, Egyptian clover) and compound fodders like Landsberger mixture and mixtures of vetch with oat or barley. Prohibition to sow broad-leafed plants in the quarantine rotation due to hop wilting limits the selection of crops to grasses (Italian rye-grass) and fodder grains (maize, barley), but the farmers could increase the selection of grains with oats, rye, triticale, mixture of wheat and rye, millet, sorghum and Sudan grass. With the use of recommended crop rotations in two-, three- and four-year rotation, we can expect the increased influence of crop rotation on improved health condition of the new hop plantations in the future with simultaneous reduction of the use of pesticides as well.
  • Authors:
    • Kelley, J.
    • Oliver, D.
    • Gbur, E. E.
    • Brye, K. R.
    • Amuri, N.
  • Source: Weed Science
  • Volume: 58
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Management practices and cropping systems that serve as integrated weed management practices, and at the same time can contribute to improved soil quality, will be important for the sustainability of agricultural production systems. The objective of this study was to assess weed species population density under contrasting tillage (conventional tillage [CT] and no tillage [NT]), residue burning (burn and no burn), and residue level (low and high) treatments after 5 and 6 yr of consistent management in a wheat-soybean double-crop production system. A field experiment was conducted from fall 2001 to fall 2007 in the Mississippi River Delta region of eastern Arkansas on a Calloway silt-loam. Weed assessments were conducted twice during the soybean growing season, before (early season) and after herbicide application (late season) in 2006 and 2007. Total weed density was greater under CT (513 plants m(-2)) than under NT (340 plants m(-2)) early in the growing season in 2006, but was greater under NT than CT late in the season in 2007, suggesting that the effectiveness of glyphosate on total weeds differs between CT and NT. Averaged across residue levels, grass species density was greatest in the NT burn (68 to 167 plants m(-2)) combination and lowest in the NT no-burn (41 to 63 plants m(-2)) early in the growing season in both years. Broadleaf density was greater early (200 to 349 plants m(-2)) than late (18 to 20 plants m(-2)) in the growing season under both CT and NT in 2006, but in 2007 broadleaf density did not differ by tillage treatment between seasons. Perennial weed density was greater in the burn (99 plants m(-2)) than in the no-burn (59 plants m(-2)) treatment in 2006. No tillage, no burning, and a high residue level appeared to contribute to the suppression of most weed species without reducing herbicide efficiency.
  • Authors:
    • Basso, F. C.
    • Montanari, R.
    • Passos e Carvalho, M. de
    • Andreotti, M.
    • Pariz, C. M.
    • Azenha, M. V.
    • Vercese, F.
  • Source: Ciência Rural
  • Volume: 40
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: The variation and the spatial dependence attributes of the following plant and soil characteristics: soyabean yield (SY) in no-till and irrigated soil; the macroporosity (MA); microporosity (MI); total porosity (TP); and bulk density (BD), in depths of 1 (0-0.10 m), 2 (0.10-0.20 m) and 3 (0.20-0.30 m), were studied in a Red Latosol of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, were analysed during 2004/05, to study the variation and the linear and spatial correlations among the attributes (plant and soil) and select an index of soil physical quality with good capacity to represent the soyabean yield. A geostatistical grid to collect soil and plant data was installed, with 124 sample points, in an area of 4000 m 2. The linear relationship between soyabean yield and physical attributes of soil studied was low. So, there was a direct spatial relationship between SY and MA1 (0-0.10 m), as well as between SY and MA2 (0.10-0.20 m). The MA1 showed its best index of the soil physical quality, when it was destined to estimate the soyabean yield in no-till soil.
  • Authors:
    • de Cara Garcia, M.
    • Roubtsova, T.
    • Antonio Lopez-Perez, J.
    • Ploeg, Antoon
  • Source: Journal of Nematology
  • Volume: 42
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Broccoli (Brassica oleracea), carrot (Daucus carob), marigold (Tagetes patula), nematode-resistant tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), and strawberry (Fragaria ananassa) were grown for three years during the winter in a root-knot nematode (Meloidogyne incognita) infested field in Southern California. Each year in the spring, the tops of all crops were shredded and incorporated in the soil. Amendment with poultry litter was included as a sub-treatment. The soil was then covered with clear plastic for six weeks and M. incognita:susceptible tomato was grown during the summer season. Plastic tarping raised the average soil temperature at 13 cm depth by 7 degrees C. The different winter-grown crops or the poultry litter did not affect M. incognita soil population levels. However, root galling on summer tomato was reduced by 36%, and tomato yields increased by 19% after incorporating broccoli compared to the fallow control. This crop also produced the highest amount of biomass of the five winter-grown crops. Over the three-year trial period, poultry litter increased tomato yields, but did not affect root galling caused by M. incognita. We conclude that cultivation followed by soil incorporation of broccoli reduced M. incognita damage to tomato. This effect is possibly due to delaying or preventing a portion of the nematodes to reach the host roots. We also observed that M. incognita populations did not increase under a host crop during the cool season when soil temperatures remained low (< 18 degrees C).
  • Authors:
    • Hoffmann, A. A.
    • Umina, P. A.
    • Weeks, A. R.
    • Arthur, A. L.
  • Source: Experimental and Applied Acarology
  • Volume: 52
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Balaustium medicagoense and Bryobia spp. have recently been identified as emerging pests of winter crops and pastures in Australia. These mites have a high natural tolerance to currently registered pesticides, highlighting the need to develop alternative control strategies such as cultural controls which require an understanding of plant associations. In shade-house experiments, Bryobia spp. survived and reproduced successfully on pasture, lupins and oats, but progeny failed to reach the adult stage on canola and wheat. Balaustium medicagoense progeny failed to produce a generation on any crop but parental adults survived a few months on all crops, particularly wheat. Bryobia spp. damaged canola, pasture and lupins, but caused minimal damage to oats and wheat, whereas Ba. medicagoense caused considerable damage to wheat and lupins, but only moderate damage to canola, oats and pasture. Field survey data, taken from approximately 450 sites across southern Australia, combined with analysis of historical pest reports, suggest broadleaf crops such as canola, lucerne, lupins and weeds appear particularly susceptible to attack by Bryobia species. Balaustium medicagoense was more commonly found on cereals and grasses, although they also attacked broadleaf crops, particularly canola, lucerne and lupins. These findings show that the mites have the potential to be an important pest on several winter grain crops and pasture, but there are important differences that can assist in management strategies such as targeted crop rotations.
  • Authors:
    • Bartosik, R.
  • Source: Julius-Kühn-Archiv
  • Issue: 425
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Concerning grain production, South America is divided in two main regions: (1) the Mercosur region (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay) which produces more than 250 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds, and (2) the Andes Mountain region countries, which are net importers of these products. The main challenges related to grain postharvest that South America is facing are to minimize the quality and quantity losses; improve the food safety; enhance the capability for segregation and traceability of identity preserved (IP) grains; and incorporate technology to maintain the overall efficiency of the postharvest system. Among the critical points affecting the efficiency of the system are the shortage of permanent storage capacity; large storage structures which affects the segregation of IP grains; deficient transportation system (roads and railroads); poor management of integrated pest control system; and unsatisfied demand of formal and informal education in suitable grain postharvest technologies and practices. However, the region remains highly competitive in producing and delivering food for the rest of the world and it has demonstrated high capacity for incorporating cost efficient grain handling technologies. As a result, one of the main changes in the region was the appearance of the silobag system for temporary storage of dry grain and oilseeds. Each silobag can hold approximately 200 tonnes of wheat and with the available handling equipment is quite simple to load and unload. During the 2008 harvest season, more than 33 million tonnes of grain were stored in these plastic bags in Argentina (including corn, soybean, wheat, sunflower, malting barley, canola, cotton seed, rice, lentils, sorghum, beans and even fertilizers). The silobag technology is also being adopted not only in neighbor countries, but also in countries around the world such as the USA, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, Russia and Ukraine, among others.
  • Authors:
    • Frederick, J. R.
    • Fortnum, B. A.
    • Bauer, P. J.
  • Source: Agronomy Journal
  • Volume: 102
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Longer rain-free periods are predicted to occur more often in the southeastern United States as a result of global climate change. This nonirrigated field study was conducted from 1997 through 2002, which coincided with the 1998-2002 drought that affected most of the United States. The objective was to determine the effect of rotation and tillage on cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) productivity. Treatments in the study were rotation [cotton rotated with corn (Zea mays L.), cotton planted after a rye (Secale cereale L.) winter cover crop, and continuous cotton with no cover crop] and tillage system (conventional tillage and conservation tillage). Two levels of aldicarb [2-methyl-2-(methylthio)propanal O-{(methylamino)carbonyl}oxime] (0 and 1.18 kg a.i. ha(-1)) were also included because of known soil management effects on thrips (Frankliniella sp.) and root-knot nematodes (Meloidigyne incognita). The predominant soil types were Bonneau loamy sand (loamy, siliceous, subactive, thermic Arenic Paleudult) and Norfolk loamy sand (fine-loamy, kaolinitic, thermic Typic Kandiudult). Rotation did not affect cotton yield in any year. Tillage did not affect cotton yield in 1997. Conservation tillage resulted in an average 25% yield increase in cotton lint yield over conventional tillage during the 5-yr drought. Tillage and aldicarb affected both thrips and root-knot nematodes, but lack of interaction among these factors for lint yield suggested that management of these pests was not the predominant cause for the cotton yield increase with conservation tillage. Conservation tillage for cotton production could be an important method to help mitigate the effects of climate change in the region if change occurs as predicted.