• Authors:
    • Kumar, K. A. B.
    • Karthikeyan, K.
    • Jyothi, S. H.
    • Rana, B. S.
    • Rao, B. D.
    • Seetharama, N.
  • Source: Common Fund for Commodities, CFC Technical Paper No. 34 Alternative Uses of Sorghum and Pearl Millet in Asia
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: The relative importance of sorghum and pearl millet as food grains in Asia is decreasing in terms of cultivated area and production. The same trend is in India except that the productivity of pearl millet is increasing. Generally the above changes can be explained in terms of increasing incomes, change in consumers' preferences and tastes, subsidized supply of wheat and rice through the Public Distribution System (PDS), etc. Despite the decline in their consumption, food use still accounts for a major share, especially of pearl millet. Sorghum is passing a transition stage from mere food and fodder crop to a valued industrial raw material such as feed (in India), sweet sorghum alcohol (in China and Thailand) and forage (in Pakistan). Cotton, groundnut, pulses and castor are the major crops replacing sorghum in many areas. Soyabean is the competing crop, especially in central and western India replacing sorghum. Cotton, sunflower, maize, groundnut, pulses and soyabean are replacing pearl millet. Some factors responsible for replacement of sorghum and pearl millet by these competing crops are low productivity and profitability of sorghum and pearl millet vis-a-vis competing crops, increased irrigation availability and price support to other cash crops. The net returns from irrigated sorghum are up to five times that of dryland sorghum in India, making a pathway for its future commercialization. The investment in R&D and outcome of research from private sector is growing at a faster rate than the public sector. Industrial uses such as animal feed, alcohol production (grain and sweet sorghum), jaggery and syrup (sweet sorghum), processed foods, malt/brewing and red sorghum exports will be the driving forces for commercialization of sorghum and pearl millet. Productivity enhancement (maximization of yields) is the alternative in the absence of prospects of any increase in real prices of output. This will result in lowering per unit cost of production. Thus, yield improvements and value-addition through industrial utilization may enhance the profitability and alleviate rural poverty. Marketing, contract farming and farmer-industry linkages are the niches for commercialization of these crops.
  • Authors:
    • Tiefenthaler, A. E.
    • Goldman, I. L.
    • Tracy, W. F.
    • Schaber, M. A.
  • Source: Plant Breeding Reviews: Long-term Selection: Crops, Animals, and Bacteria
  • Volume: 24
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: This review covers some long-term trends of the Illinois Long-term Selection Experiment and offers some perspectives on the impact of long-term selection on productivity of crops (lucerne, oats, rye, barley, winter wheat, spring wheat, soyabeans, groundnuts, sweetcorn, sweet potato, cotton, green peas, sorghum, maize, rice and potato) in the USA. Discussions on the crop productivity, variability of crop productivity and causes of increased productivity, are provided.
  • Authors:
    • Zakharenko, V. A.
  • Source: Zashchita i Karantin Rastenii
  • Issue: 12
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: Wild oat (Avena fatua) is widely spread in cereals, particularly wheat, barley and oat, in many regions of Russia, causing up to 40% losses of crops, and a decrease of quality of seed material, and food and feed grains. Investigations carried out in the Orlov region, European Russia, revealed significant infestations of agricultural crops, particularly winter and spring wheat, and pea, with wild oat. Data are tabulated on herbicides effective against Poaceae weeds including A. fatua in sugarbeet, sunflower, soyabean, rape, potato and vegetable crops. Strategies for prevention and control of A. fatua are discussed. Data are also tabulated on herbicides showing activity against Poaceae and dicotyledonous weeds, as well as A. sativa in maize, sugarbeet, sunflower, soyabean, rape, potato and vegetable crops.
  • Authors:
    • Bunce, J. A.
  • Source: Oecologia
  • Volume: 140
  • Issue: 1
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: Reductions in leaf stomatal conductance with rising atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration ([CO 2]) could reduce water use by vegetation and potentially alter climate. Crop plants have among the largest reductions in stomatal conductance at elevated [CO 2]. The relative reduction in stomatal conductance caused by a given increase in [CO 2] is often not constant within a day nor between days, but may vary considerably with light, temperature and humidity. Species also differ in response, with a doubling of [CO 2] reducing mean midday conductances by 50% in others. Elevated [CO 2] increases leaf area index throughout the growing season in some species. Simulations, and measurements in free air carbon dioxide enrichment systems both indicate that the relatively large reductions in stomatal conductance in crops would translate into reductions of
  • Authors:
    • Cannon, S. B.
    • Silverstein, K. A. T.
    • Graham, M. A.
    • VandenBosch, K. A.
  • Source: Plant Physiology
  • Volume: 135
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: We used BLAST [basic logical alignment search tool] algorithms to compare unigene sets from Medicago truncatula, Lotus japonicus [ L. japonicus var. corniculatus] and soyabean ( Glycine max and Glycine soja) to nonlegume ( Hordeum vulgare, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Gossypium sp., Vitis vinifera, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, Lactuca sativa, Pinus sp., Solanum tuberosum, Secale cereale, Sorghum bicolor, Helianthus annuus and Triticum aestivum) unigene sets, to GenBank's nonredundant and expressed sequence tag (EST) databases, and to the genomic sequences of rice ( Oryza sativa) and Arabidopsis thaliana. As a working definition, putatively legume-specific genes had no sequence homology, below a specified threshold, to publicly available sequences of nonlegumes. Using this approach, 2525 legume-specific EST contigs were identified, of which less than 3% had clear homology to previously characterized legume genes. As a first step toward predicting function, related sequences were clustered to build motifs that could be searched against protein databases. Three families of interest were more deeply characterized: F-box related proteins, Pro-rich proteins and cysteine cluster proteins (CCPs). Of particular interest were the >300 CCPs, primarily from nodules or seeds, with predicted similarity to defensins. Motif searching also identified several previously unknown CCP-like open reading frames in A. thaliana. Evolutionary analyses of the genomic sequences of several CCPs in M. truncatula suggest that this family has evolved by local duplications and divergent selection.
  • Authors:
    • Australia, Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics
  • Source: Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics
  • Issue: 132
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: An overview of crop production in Australia in 2004 is presented. The crop conditions in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia are described. Cropping areas and yields of winter crops (wheat, barley, oats, rape, lupins, field peas, chickpea, faba beans, lentils, triticale, safflower and vetch) and summer crops (cottonseed, sorghum, rice, maize, sunflowers, soyabeans, groundnuts, mung beans and navy beans) are compared with previous years. Various crop production, precipitation and pricing data are also tabulated.
  • Authors:
    • Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics
  • Source: Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics
  • Issue: 132
  • Year: 2004
  • Summary: An overview of crop production in Australia in 2004 is presented. The crop conditions in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia are described. Cropping areas and yields of winter crops (wheat, barley, oats, rape, lupins, field peas, chickpea, faba beans, lentils, triticale, safflower and vetch) and summer crops (cottonseed, sorghum, rice, maize, sunflowers, soyabeans, groundnuts, mung beans and navy beans) are compared with previous years. Various crop production, precipitation and pricing data are also tabulated.
  • Authors:
    • Merrill, S.
    • Tanaka, D.
    • Anderson, R.
  • Source: Agricultural Water Management
  • Volume: 58
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2003
  • Summary: The predominate crops grown in the northern Great Plains of the United States are cereal grains, which are well adapted to the region's semiarid climate and short growing season. However, rotations are changing because minimum- and no-till production systems improve precipitation-use-efficiency. Therefore, producers are seeking diversity in crop choices to improve the design of their rotations. Our objective with this study was to examine water relations and agronomic performance of seven broadleaf crops that may be suitable for a semiarid climate. Dry pea ( Pisum sativum L.), dry bean ( Phaseolus vulgaris L.), and sunflower ( Helianthus annuus L.) were the most favorable for this region considering crop yield and water-use-efficiency (WUE). Soybean ( Glycine max L.), crambe ( Crambe abyssinica Hochst), canola ( Brassica rapa L.), and safflower ( Carthamus tinctorius L.) were less successful. Water use for grain production ranged from 23 to 37 cm among crops whereas water-use-efficiency varied three-fold. Soil water extraction patterns differed between sunflower and dry pea, with sunflower extracting more water as well as accessing water deeper in the soil profile. Integrating oilseed and legume crops with cereal grains in a cycle-of-four rotation will aid producers in managing diseases and weeds, as well as improve grain yield due to the rotation effect.
  • Authors:
    • Thottappilly, G.
    • Loebenstein, G.
  • Source: Virus and virus-like diseases of major crops in developing countries
  • Issue: xlvii + 800 pp
  • Year: 2003
  • Summary: This book is a comprehensive up-to-date treatise on virus and virus-like diseases of the major crops (cassava, potatoes, sweet potato, yam, rice, maize, sorghum, other cereal crops, cowpea, soyabean, groundnut, common bean, other legumes, banana, pawpaw, cocoa, sugarcane, coconut, palm trees, citrus, tomato, cucurbits, other vegetables, cotton, sunflower and spices) in developing countries and their detection, isolation, biological and molecular characterization, transmission and possible approaches for their control. Also included are chapters on the general impact of these diseases, epidemiology, quarantine and technology transfer.
  • Authors:
    • Norman, J. M.
    • Morgan, C. L. S.
    • Lowery, B.
  • Source: Soil Science Society of America Journal
  • Volume: 67
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2003
  • Summary: The variability of crop yield in dryland production is primarily affected by the spatial distribution of plant-available water even for seemingly uniform fields. The most productive midwestern soils, which are loess caps over glacial till or outwash, can have a wide range of water-holding capacities in individual fields because of landscape processes and management. An inverse yield model was created as a robust method to quantify the spatial and temporal role of plant-available water on large agricultural fields to improve management options in precision agriculture. Plant-available water maps for a field were estimated from yield maps using inverse water-budget modeling based on measurements of solar radiation, temperature, precipitation, and vapor pressure deficit. The model presented in this paper was applied to 5 yr of corn ( Zea mays L.) yield-monitor data from a field in Waunakee, WI, having three soil mapping units, Plano silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, mesic Typic Argiudoll), St. Charles silt loam (fine-silty, mixed, mesic Typic Hapludalf), and Griswold loam (Fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Argiudoll). The comparison of measured and inverse-modeled plant-available water suggests that the simple inverse yield model produces reasonable results in drier years with uncertainties of about 28 mm of plant-available water. The model helped to quantify the role of plant-available water in determining crop yield. Because of limited input requirements, the model shows promise as a practical tool for using precision farming to improve management decisions, and as a tool to obtain input for landscape-based models.