• Authors:
    • Granier, M.
  • Source: Options Mediterraneennes. Serie A, Seminaires Mediterraneens
  • Issue: 96
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Continuous use, mostly by mono cultivation of cereal, of agricultural lands leads to soil degradation by tillage erosion, rain and wind - especially in the Mediterranean region - with consequences for the loss of organic matter, the destruction of the field and finally the gradual disappearance of topsoil. The creation of a permanent cover by implantation of a legume pioneer and rational exploitation of this system of crops allows the recovery of the biosphere and the return to productivity of the treated lands. An environmental management of degraded land under a rainfall less than 400 mm sets a positive development in these soils following a cultural practices described and implemented in Tunisia from 2003 to 2009 in the Goubellat region by AAG/SAG.
  • Authors:
    • Gupta, U. S.
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: This volume looks at the use of crops for a myriad of purposes, including the prevention and/or mitigation of various diseases, vaccine and antigen production, biofuel production, and the the suppression of weeds. It explores new emnphasis on medicinal properties of crops and examines the use of genetic engineering in crop production. The crops discussed include: rice, wheat, barley, oat, rye, maize, sorghum, potato, sweet potato, cassava, Phaseolus beans, Vigna sp., broad bean, chickpea, tomato, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bitter gourd, pumpkin, spinach, onion, soyabean, groundnut, oilseed Brassica, sunflower, sugarcane, cotton, and tobacco.
  • Authors:
    • Akmal, M.
    • Hassan, M. F.
    • Habib, G.
    • Ghufranullah
    • Ahmad, S.
  • Source: Pakistan Journal of Botany
  • Volume: 43
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: The experiment was conducted to compare Pigeon pea (PP) and Sesbania gentia (SG) legumes as catch crop in a permanent cereal based (Wheat-maize) rotation. The residual effect of legumes with or without added fertilizer (N) was studies on subsequent maize crop grown as fodder. The study aimed to evaluate catch crop response as manure or fodder on the following maize. The results showed that SG was higher in crude protein (p
  • Authors:
    • Rydberg, T.
    • Keller, T.
    • Arvidsson, J.
    • Håkansson, I.
  • Source: Acta Agriculturae Scandinavica, Section B - Soil & Plant Science
  • Volume: 61
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Rapid and uniform crop establishment is a prerequisite for efficient crop production and minimal environmental impact. Experiments were carried out in shallow plastic boxes placed directly on the ground in the field for studies of the effects of seedbed properties on emergence of various crops. This paper presents an analysis of the time required for germination and emergence under near-optimal seedbed conditions. The crops studied were barley, oats, wheat, pea, rape seed, white mustard, sugar beet, red clover and timothy. The time required for germination generally increased with size of the seeds, presumably because larger seeds needed more water to initiate germination. This applied both when comparing different crops and different seed sizes of the same crop. However, considerable differences occurred between seed lots of the same crop and there were greater differences between seed lots of the same crop than between the three small grain crops studied. Growth rate of the seedlings generally increased with seed size, presumably because of increased energy content in the seed. Consequently, the most rapid emergence was obtained from small seeds at shallow sowing and from large seeds at deep sowing. The crops studied had a minimum temperature for germination and seedling growth close to 0 degrees C. Under optimal seedbed conditions, thermal time required for 50% germination of barley was typically about 65 degrees C days over this base temperature and for seedling growth about 6 degrees C days cm(-1). From 4 cm sowing depth, about 80 degrees C days were required for emergence but with considerable variations between seed lots. For rape seed or white mustard about 40 degrees C days were required for germination and about 8 degrees C days cm(-1) for the seedling growth.
  • Authors:
    • Nascimento, J. J. V. R. do
    • Oliveira, G. dos S.
    • Silva, G. F. da
    • Pereira, R. G.
    • Paiva, M. R. de F. C.
  • Source: Revista Verde de Agroecologia e Desenvolvimento Sustentavel
  • Volume: 6
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: The planting of castor bean ( Ricinus communis L.) by seedlings can be an alternative for a better use of the short rainy season in the Brazilian semiarid, but in this region, irrigation water, almost always has a salt concentration that affects the quality of seedlings the vast majority of oil. In this context, this work was to study the effects of saline water at levels of 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5 and 5.5 dS m -1 and two volumes substrate: 1.0 and 2.5 L on the germination and early growth of two castor bean cultivars (BRS BRS Paraguacu and Northeast). The study was conducted in the open at the Experimental Station of Embrapa Cotton, in Barbalha, Ceara. Treatments were arranged in randomized blocks in five replicates, using the factorial 2*2*6. Regardless of cultivar, although the saline water inhibits germination and plant development, the effects were more pronounced in treatments with lower volume of substrate. Both cultivars have suffered more the action of salinity on growth during the initial seed germination.
  • Authors:
    • Williams, J. D.
    • Long, D. S.
  • Source: Crop Management
  • Issue: March
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: In the intermediate annual precipitation zone (14 to 18 inches) of northeastern Oregon, there is interest in increasing the intensity of cropping with spring crops. Mechanical tillage remains popular for seedbed preparation and weed control, but contributes to environmental problems and high labor and fuel cost. No-tillage (NT) crop production can reduce on site and off site problems and has lower labor and fuel costs, but soil-borne disease and weed control problems can limit yields. We compared crop yields, production costs, and economic returns of an intensive, four-year crop production rotation under two management systems: (i) minimum tillage (MT) with cultivation by chiseling, sweeping, and rod weeding; and (ii) NT with chemical weed control. The rotation was fallow-winter wheat-dry spring pea-winter wheat in which a spring broadleaf crop is included to aid in the control of winter annual weeds and reduce host pathogen levels of soil-borne cereal diseases. Four year averages of wheat yields in the NT treatment were equal to or greater than those in the MT treatment whereas dry green pea production was roughly equal in each treatment. Crop productivity differed significantly in each phase of the rotation in descending order from winter wheat following fallow [4,578 lb/acre (76 bu/acre)], winter wheat following dry spring pea [3,548 lb/acre (59 bu/acre)], to dry spring pea (1,505 lb/acre). Partial budget analysis shows that NT is substantially less costly than MT in terms of labor and fuel, potentially making NT economically viable for intensive cropping systems in the intermediate precipitation dryland region of northeastern Oregon.
  • Authors:
    • Jha, N.
    • Kundu, S. S.
    • Singh, S.
    • Gupta, A.
  • Source: The Indian Journal of Animal Sciences
  • Volume: 81
  • Issue: 11
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Seventeen feed ingredients comprising protein sources (linseed cake-LSC, mustard seed cake-MSC, cotton seed cake-CSC, soybean cake-SBC and groundnut cake-GNC), energy sources (deoiled rice bran-DORB, maize grain-MG, barley grain-BG and wheat bran-WB), legume roughages (berseem, cowpea hay-CH, Stylosanthes hamata-SH and Acacia catechu-AC) and non-legume roughages (ammoniated wheat straw-AWS, guinea grass-GG maize fodder-MF and sorghum fodder-SF) were evaluated for carbohydrate and nitrogen fractions as well as mineral contents. In CNCP system, crude protein content of feed is partitioned into 5 fractions (A, B 1, B 2, B 3 and C) and carbohydrate into 4 fractions (A, B 1, B 2 and C) according to degradation rates. The proximate composition, cell wall constituents, carbohydrate and nitrogen fractions of different feeds vary significantly amongst the groups. The CHO, C NSC, C B1, and Cc fractions of carbohydrate were higher in energy, while C A and C B2 fraction of CHO were more in protein sources. Total CHO and C B2 fraction of carbohydrates were more in non-legume while C A, C NSC and Cc fractions were higher in legume roughages. Amongst the studied feedstuffs P A and P B fractions of protein were higher in protein sources, while P B2, P B3 and P C fractions were higher in energy sources. Legumes exhibited higher contents of P B2, while non-legume had higher P A, P B1 and P B3 fraction of protein. Concentration of macro (%) and micro minerals (ppm) of feed stuffs differed across feeds (energy and protein) and roughages (legumes and non legumes). It is concluded from the present study that feedstuffs chemical properties for carbohydrate and nitrogen fractions are unique and different. Therefore feed ingredients selection based on CNCPS evaluation will be more logical for formulating efficient diets for livestock.
  • Authors:
    • Risede, J.-M.
    • Foster, J.
    • Rhodes, R.
    • Berry, S. D.
    • van Antwerpen, R.
  • Source: International Journal of Pest Management
  • Volume: 57
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: Plant-parasitic nematodes cause significant yield losses to sugarcane crops in South Africa. The currently available chemicals for nematode control are both expensive and potentially detrimental to the environment. Various alternative crops have been reported to reduce the numbers of plant-parasitic nematodes. Mindful of this, we evaluated 27 cover crops in pot trials to assess their host status to important plant-parasitic nematodes of sugarcane. All of the crops tested in pots hosted significantly lower numbers of Pratylenchus than did sugarcane. Crops such as cowpeas, tomato and grazing vetch were good hosts for Meloidogyne and would not be good choices as part of a sugarcane rotation system in heavily-infested soils. Conversely, crops such as oats, wheat, forage peanuts and marigolds reduced numbers of Meloidogyne. Velvet beans increased the abundance of Helicotylenchus, a beneficial nematode genus. A field trial was also conducted to study the effect of different cover cropping sequences. Our results show that changes in nematode communities occurred within three months of growing these crops and often remained low for the duration (the remaining 15 months) of the crops' growth. Nematodes such as Pratylenchus and Tylenchorhynchus were significantly lowered and remained so for the duration of the trial.
  • Authors:
    • Nogueira, C. C. P.
    • Veloso, M. E. da C.
    • Freire Filho, F. R.
    • Cardoso, M. J.
    • Blanco, F. F.
    • Dias, N. da S.
  • Source: Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira
  • Volume: 46
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2011
  • Summary: The objective of this work was to evaluate the response of green maize ( Zea mays) intercropped with cowpea ( Vigna unguiculata) to irrigation depths and phosphorus doses. The experiments were carried out in 2008 and 2009 in a randomized block design, with 25 treatments and four replicates. Treatments consisted of five irrigation depths at 70, 110, 140, 180 and 220% of the crop evapotranspiration, and of five doses of P 2O 5: 0, 50, 100, 150 and 200% of the recommended P dose. Maize was sown at 0.80*0.40 m spacing, and cowpea was planted inside the lines among maize plants. There was no effect of P 2O 5 doses, but the response to irrigation depths was quadratic for maize and linear for cowpea. The maximum technical yield of green ears of maize with straw (10.76 Mg ha -1) and without straw (7.62 Mg ha -1) was obtained with 530 mm depth, intermediary to the 180 and 220% of the crop evapotranspiration. The highest cowpea green grain (3.40 Mg ha -1) was obtained with the highest water depth, of 644 mm.
  • Authors:
    • Sainju, U. M.
    • Jabro, J. D.
    • Caesar-TonThat, T.
  • Source: Journal of Environmental Quality
  • Volume: 39
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Management practices are needed to reduce dryland sod CO(2) emissions and to increase C sequestration We evaluated the effects of tillage and cropping sequence combinations and N fertilization on dryland crop biomass (stems + leaves) and sod surface CO(2) flux and C content (0- to 120-cm depth) in a Williams loam from May to October, 2006 to 2008, in eastern Montana. Treatments were no-tilled continuous malt barley (Hordeum vulgaris L) (NTCB), no-tilled malt bailey pea (Pivot; sativum L) (NTB-P), no-tilled malt barley fallow (NTB-F), and conventional-tilled malt barley fallow (CTB-F), each with 0 and 80 kg N ha(-1) Measurements were made both in Phase I (malt barley in NTCB, pea in NTB-P, and fallow in NTB-F and CTB-F) and Phase II (malt barley in all sequences) of each cropping sequence in every year Crop biomass varied among years. was greater in the barley than in the pea phase of the NTB-P treatment, and greater in NTCB and NTB-P than in NTB-F and CTB-F in 2 out of 3 yr Similarly biomass was greater with 80 than with 0 kg N ha(-1) in 1 out of 3 yr. Soil CO(2) flux increased from 8 mg C m(-2) h(-1) in early May to 239 mg C m(-2) h(-1) in mid-June as temperature increased and then declined to 3 mg C m(-2) h(-1) in September. October Fluxes peaked immediately following substantial precipitation (>10 mm). especially in NTCB and NTB-P Cumulative CO(2) flux from May to October was greater in 2006 and 2007 than in 2008, greater in cropping than in fallow phases, and greater in NTCB than in NTB-F. Tillage did not influence crop biomass and CO(2) flux but N fertilization had a variable effect on the flux in 2008. Similarly, soil total C content was not influenced by treatments Annual cropping increased CO(2) flux compared with crop fallow probably by increasing crop residue returns to sods and root and rhizosphere respiration Inclusion of peas in the rotation wills malt barley in the no-till system, which have been known to reduce N fertilization rates and sustain malt barley yields, resulted in a CO(2) flux similar to that in the CTB-F sequence