• Authors:
    • Pepo, P.
  • Source: 45th Croatian & 5th International Symposium on Agriculture
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: In non-irrigated treatment the maximum yields of winter wheat were 5590 kg ha -1 in biculture (maize-wheat) and 7279 kg ha-1 in triculture (peas-wheat-maize) in 2007 year characterized by water-deficit stress. In 2008 (optimum rain amount and distribution) the maximum yields were 7065 kg ha -1 (biculture) and 8112 kg ha -1 (triculture) in non irrigated conditions. The fertilization surpluses of wheat were 2853-3698 kg ha -1 (non-irrigated) and 3164-5505 kg ha -1 (irrigated) in a dry cropyear (2007) and 884-4050 kg ha -1 (non-irrigated) and 524-3990 kg ha -1 (irrigated) in an optimum cropyear (2008). The optimum fertilizer doses varied N150-200+PK in biculture and N50-150+PK in triculture depending on cropyear and irrigation. The optimalization of agrotechnical elements provides 7,8-8,5 t ha -1 yields in dry cropyear and 7,1-8,1 t ha -1 yields of wheat in good cropyear, respectively. Our scientific results proved that in water stress cropyear (2007) the maximum yields of maize were 4316 kg ha -1 (monoculture), 7706 kg ha -1 (biculture), 7998 kg ha -1 (triculture) in non irrigated circumstances and 8586 kg ha -1, 10 970 kg ha -1, 10 679 kg ha -1 in irrigated treatment, respectively. In dry cropyear (2007) the yield-surpluses of irrigation were 4270 kg ha -1 (mono), 3264 kg ha -1 (bi), 2681 kg ha -1 (tri), respectively. In optimum water supply cropyear (2008) the maximum yields of maize were 13 729-13 787 (mono), 14 137-14 152 kg ha -1 (bi), 13 987-14 180 kg ha -1 (tri) so there was no crop-rotation effect. We obtained 8,6-11,0 t ha -1 maximum yields of maize in water stress cropyear and 13,7-14,2 t ha -1 in optimum cropyear on chernozem soil with using appropriate agrotechnical elements.
  • Authors:
    • Siebert, S.
    • Portmann, F. T.
    • Doll, P.
  • Source: Global Biogeochemical Cycles
  • Volume: 24
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: To support global-scale assessments that are sensitive to agricultural land use, we developed the global data set of monthly irrigated and rainfed crop areas around the year 2000 (MIRCA2000). With a spatial resolution of 5 arc min (about 9.2 km at the equator), MIRCA2000 provides both irrigated and rainfed crop areas of 26 crop classes for each month of the year. The data set covers all major food crops as well as cotton. Other crops are grouped into categories (perennial, annual, and fodder grasses). It represents multicropping systems and maximizes consistency with census-based national and subnational statistics. According to MIRCA2000, 25% of the global harvested areas are irrigated, with a cropping intensity (including fallow land) of 1.12, as compared to 0.84 for the sum of rainfed and irrigated harvested crops. For the dominant crops (rice (1.7 million km 2 harvested area), wheat (2.1 million km 2), and maize (1.5 million km 2)), roughly 60%, 30%, and 20% of the harvested areas are irrigated, respectively, and half of the citrus, sugar cane, and cotton areas. While wheat and maize are the crops with the largest rainfed harvested areas (1.5 million km 2 and 1.2 million km 2, respectively), rice is clearly the crop with the largest irrigated harvested area (1.0 million km 2), followed by wheat (0.7 million km 2) and maize (0.3 million km 2). Using MIRCA2000, 33% of global crop production and 44% of total cereal production were determined to come from irrigated agriculture.
  • Authors:
    • Deka, S.
    • Kattarkandi, B.
    • Singh, S.
    • Choudhary, R.
  • Source: Current Advances in Agricultural Sciences
  • Volume: 2
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Global warming poses a potential threat to agricultural production and productivity. Maize ( Zea mays L.) is one of the most important cereals of the world and provides more human food than any other cereal. The study reported in this paper, uses field experiments and simulation models to understand the impact of changing climate on growth and yield of maize plant. In field environment, growth and yield of maize was greatly affected by temperature changes associated with sowing dates. Yield was reduced in late sown crops due to the harmful effect of chilling temperature. Application of irrigation had positive effect on crop growth. Biomass and grain yield as well as other yield attributes were higher in irrigated treatments than the rainfed one. InfoCrop model satisfactorily simulated crop phenology, leaf area index, dry matter production and yield of maize in Delhi. Impact assessment of maize yield to temperature rise showed reduction in yield in both Delhi and Patna with atmospheric temperature rise during the kharif season with percentage reduction was similar in both locations. In rabi crop, future temperature increase initially showed a positive response up to 2degreesC. Climate change is projected to reduce kharif maize yield in India, however, projected increase in rainfall may be beneficial in some locations during rabi season.
  • Authors:
    • Wrigley, C. W.
    • Batey, I. L.
  • Source: Cereal grains: assessing and managing quality
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: This book provides a convenient and comprehensive overview of academic research and industry best practice in the assessment and management of cereal grain quality. It includes 18 chapters and 2 appendices organized into 5 parts. Part I (3 chapters) introduces the themes of the book, reviews cereal grain morphology and composition, and discusses the diversity of uses of cereal grains. Part II (7 chapters) describes the characteristics and quality requirements of particular cereals, including wheat, rye, triticale, barley, oats, maize, rice, sorghum and millets. Part III (3 chapters) covers the use of analytical methods at different stages of the value-addition chain. It discusses the analysis of grain quality at receival, identification of grain variety and quality type, and food safety aspects of grain and cereal product quality. Part IV (5 chapters) reviews the factors affecting grain quality, such as breeding, storage and grain processing, and discusses possible future developments. Part V includes appendices on the composition of grains and grain products and the equivalence between metric and US units for the grain industry. This book will be a valuable reference for all those involved in the production and processing of cereal grains worldwide.
  • Authors:
    • Wang, L.
    • Chen, Z.
    • Chen, X.
    • Wan, Y.
    • Yang, W.
    • Gong, W.
    • Yan, Y.
  • Source: PLANT PRODUCTION SCIENCE
  • Volume: 13
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: The relay strip intercropping system of wheat-corn-soybean is widely used in southwest China. However, it is hard to obtain a stable production of soybean with this system, since soybean plants grow under shading by corn; the stems are thinner and susceptible to lodging. We examined the effects of seed treatment with uniconazole powder (0, 2, 4 and 8 mg kg -1 seed) on the growth of soybean seedlings under relay strip intercropping, some morphological characteristics and yield. The seedling height, first internode length, cotyledonary node height and leaf area per plant were decreased, while the stem diameter, root dry weight, shoot dry weight, root volume, leaf greenness and root to shoot dry weight ratio were increased by uniconazole treatment. The root vigor and root active absorption area were also increased significantly by uniconazole treatment. Moreover, 2 and 4 mg kg -1 uniconazole powder treatment increased shoot dry weight, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and seed yield significantly. Thus, the results suggested that seed treatment with uniconazole powder at a suitable concentration can improve soybean seedling growth, resist the lodging and also increase the seed yield under shading by corn in relay strip intercropping system.
  • Authors:
    • Huang, G.
    • Chai, Q.
    • Yang, C.
  • Source: Zhongguo Shengtai Nongye Xuebao / Chinese Journal of Eco-Agriculture
  • Volume: 18
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: A field experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of alternative irrigation on water consumption, yield and water use efficiency ( WUE) under wheat-maize intercropping in the oasis region of Shiyang River Basin, Gansu Province. The results indicate that evaporation for alternative irrigated intercropping system (AI) decreases by 44.0 mm compared to conventional irrigated intercropping system (CI). Water consumption under AI also increases by 15.4 mm while yield and WUE are respectively enhanced by 13.92% and 9.21% compared to CI. All these results show that alternative irrigation is an effective and practicable way to improve yield and WUE of wheat-maize intercropping. Although evaporation and water consumption in alternative irrigated intercropping system increase with increasing irrigation quota, overall WUE actually decreases.
  • Authors:
    • Yang,C. H.
    • Chai,Q.
    • Huang,G. B.
  • Source: Plant Soil and Environment
  • Volume: 56
  • Issue: 6
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: A field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of alternate irrigation (AI) on root distribution and yield of wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.)/maize ( Zea mays L.) intercropping system during the period of 2007-2009 in an oasis of arid north-west China. Five treatments, i.e. sole wheat with conventional irrigation (W), sole maize with alternate irrigation (AM), sole maize with conventional irrigation (CM), wheat/maize intercropping with alternate irrigation (AW/M), and wheat/maize intercropping with conventional irrigation (CW/M). The results showed that root growth was significantly enhanced by alternate irrigation (AI), root weight density (RWD), root length density (RLD) and root-shoot ratios (R/S) in AI treatments were all higher than those in conventional irrigation (CI) treatments. Moreover, intercropped wheat and maize also had a greater root development at a majority of soil depths than wheat and maize in monoculture. In three years, AW/M always achieved the highest total seed yield under different treatments. Higher yield and reduced irrigation resulted in higher water use efficiency (WUE) for the AW/M treatment. Our results suggest that AI should be a useful water-saving irrigation method on wheat/maize intercropping in arid oasis field where intercropping planting is decreased because of limited water resource.
  • Authors:
    • Dong, G.
    • Chen, Z.
    • Wu, Z.
    • Sun, C.
    • Chen, L.
    • Zhang, Y.
  • Source: Plant Soil and Environment
  • Volume: 56
  • Issue: 11
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Agricultural practices that reduce soil degradation and improve agriculture sustainability are important particularly for dry hilly land of Chaoyang County in the Liaoning Province, North-east China, where cinnamon soils are widely distributed and mainly for wheat production. The impacts of 10-year cropping systems (wheat-cabbage sequential cropping, wheat-corn intercrop, wheat-sunflower rotation, wheat-soybean rotation) on soil enzyme properties of surface-soil (0-20 cm) were studied. Total carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur, and nine soil hydrolases related to nutrient availabilities (beta-galactosidase, alpha-galactosidase, beta-glucosidase, alpha-glucosidase, urease, protease, phosphomonoesterase, phosphodiesterase, arylsulphatase) and five enzymes kinetic characters were examined. Wheat-corn intercrop systems had higher total C, total N, total P and total S concentrations than wheat-soybean and wheat-sunflower rotation systems. Most test enzyme activities (alpha-galactosidase, beta-galactosidase, alpha-glucosidase, beta-glucosidase, urease, protease, phosphomonoesterase and arylsulphatase) showed the highest activities under wheat-corn intercropping system. Urease, protease and phosphodiesterase activities of wheat-cabbage sequential cropping system were significantly higher than two rotation systems. The maximum reaction rates of enzymes ( Vmax) were higher than apparent enzyme activity, which suggests larger potential activity of enzymes, while not all kinetic parameters were adaptive as soil quality indicators in dry hilly cinnamon soil.
  • Authors:
    • Evansf, R.
    • Lartey, R.
    • Caesar, T.
    • Sainju, U.
    • Lenssen ,A.
    • Allen, B.
  • Source: Proceedings of the 19th World Congress of Soil Science: Soil solutions for a changing world, Brisbane, Australia, 1-6 August 2010. Division Symposium 3.2 Nutrient best management practices
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Available water and N fertility are primary constraints to crop production in the northern Great Plains of the USA. A field trial was initiated in 2004 to compare four crop rotations in a complete factorial of two tillage and two management systems. Rotations were continuous spring wheat (SW), pea-SW, barley hay-pea-SW, and barley hay-corn-pea-SW. Tillage systems were no till and field cultivator tillage, while management systems were conventional and ecological. Conventional management included broadcast nitrogen fertilizer, standard seeding rates, and short stubble height. Ecological management practices varied by crop, and included banded nitrogen fertilizer for cereals, increased seeding rate, delayed planting date for SW, and taller stubble height. Continuous SW grain yield was 26% lower than SW in more diverse rotations. Pea grain yield was 18% lower in 2-yr rotations than in more diverse rotations. Ecologically managed SW yielded 29% less than conventionally managed SW, presumably due to the delayed planting date. Ecological management of pea resulted in 12% greater yield compared to conventional management. Tillage system rarely impacted crop yield. Yield increases in SW were related to increased N use efficiency.
  • Authors:
    • Afshar, A.
    • Behrooz, M.
    • Aynehband, A.
  • Source: American-Eurasian Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Science
  • Volume: 7
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2010
  • Summary: Intercropping system of cereal with legume or some non-legume is a common practice in many developing countries because it may produce higher forage quantity and quality product than monocropping. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of mixture system and planting ratios on forage yield and yield components of two intercropping systems including maize:amaranth and maize:mung bean. This field study was conducted during 2008-09 under Mediterranean region in Ahvaz, Iran. The experimental design was split plot with three replications. Our results showed that both intercropping systems at the 75:25 mix-proportion had the highest intercropping dry matter yield. However, regardless of planting ratios, maize:amaranth had the highest intercropping dry matter. But, maize:mungbean at this condition was observed to be the most LER advantages. Furthermore, greater dry matter in maize:amaranth intercropping system mainly was due to higher leaf weight and stem weight values in this mixture than maize:mungbean systems. Means stem and leaf weights were higher in maize:amaranth than maize:mungbean mixture. However, yield of all maize intercropping systems were less that it was in monocropping. The ratio of proportion also seemed to had significantly affect on yield components of both intercropping systems and all crops. Despite of maize dry matter decrease in intercropping system as compared to sole stand, mixing of legume or some pseudocereal in cereal is a suitable alternative to increase the quality of cereal fodders.