Agriculture Monitoring Articles

Abstract Agribotix conducted a post hoc test of two vegetation indices, VARI and TGI, that used only the three visible-band signals from an unmodified CMOS camera. The results were compared to NDVI, which is generally considered to be a reliable measure of field health and the underlying RGB image. While the results are somewhat encouraging in limited cases, it is clear that neither VARI nor ...

Apr. 30, 2017

By Agribotix LLC

For three weeks every month, Ray Archuleta captivates audiences with a few handfuls of soil. He begins with two clumps, dropping them into water. The soil from a farm where the soil isn’t tilled holds together, while the tilled soil immediately disperses, indicating poor soil structure. Next, volunteers from the audience — mostly farmers and ranchers — pour water over a soil ...

Apr. 10, 2017

By Ensia

Environmental risk assessment is a step towards identification, analysis, and classification of risk factors and thus reduction of the possibility of adverse consequences. In this research, a novel approach for environmental risk assessment on groundwater pollution is applied. By combination of aquifer vulnerability DRASTIC map, pollution severity and prioritizing of the plain regions by the ...

Jan. 24, 2017

By IWA Publishing

Sentera Launches Disruptive Technology: Omni UAV Sentera, LLC brings game-changing aerial data-capture capabilities to the industry with the revolutionary Omni™ Quad-Rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The Omni naturally partners with a gimbaled Sentera Double 4K Sensor, creating an easy-to-use, precise ...

Oct. 27, 2016

By Sentera, LLC

Water is an important factor of production and livelihood support in rural communities. Meanwhile, water shortage is a virtually common feature in many arid and semi-arid countries. It is also projected that water stress will be exacerbated in such regions because of climate change. The cumulative effects of these stressors can potentially increase agricultural water vulnerability (AWV). ...

Nov. 25, 2015

By IWA Publishing

The potential effect of manure management from livestock production on groundwater quality is an issue of concern. Groundwater sampling from a regional transect in southern Alberta, Canada, was conducted to determine changes in groundwater quality with time. The study area has extensive irrigation and a high density of confined feeding operations. Nitrate-N (NO3−-N) and chloride ...

Nov. 20, 2015

By IWA Publishing

This study aimed to find key factors influencing the decisions of farmers regarding the adoption of water-saving practices including the rice-controlling irrigation technique, drip irrigation under plastic film, and sprinkling irrigation in Heilongjiang Province, China. It was found that reliability of the water source and government promotion had very significant and positive associations with ...

Aug. 6, 2015

By IWA Publishing

A large number of farmers' livelihoods are susceptible to cyclones and floods, and farmers are taking up several adaptation mechanisms. Previous studies, therefore, have examined determinants of various adaptation options and provide policy suggestions to promote a specific one. However, options are undertaken at different points depending on the nature and intensity of extreme events. ...

Aug. 6, 2015

By IWA Publishing

This study investigates incentives and disincentives regarding adoption of controlled tile drainage (CTD) in a region of eastern Ontario, Canada, where CTD could be used prolifically from a biophysical standpoint, but is not. Irrespective of documented environmental and agronomic benefits of CTD, adoption remains low. Surveys and semi-structured interviews with producers and drainage ...

Jul. 22, 2015

By IWA Publishing

1. Introduction Due to dramatically increment of human population, many countries realized that food insufficiency will be a big issue during the next decade. To improve agriculture and livestock, they started producing genetically modified organisms (GMO) with high productivity of yield and a resistance to insects and pathogenic ...

Jun. 9, 2015

By Analytik Jena AG

Saline lakes are widespread throughout the arid and semi-arid regions of the world and have considerable ecological importance. They are also very vulnerable to climatic changes or changes in their hydrological regimes. Most saline lakes of Turkey are close to the verge of extinction due to natural and anthropogenic impacts. This study analyzes the spatial and temporal changes at a relatively ...

May 11, 2015

By IWA Publishing

The Client Challenge Engineers at CNH, a large manufacturer of agricultural equipment, were tasked with examining each part in CNH's equipment and reducing costs - without sacrificing product life or durability. The supplying distributor relied on Diversified Plastics to help them meet the challenge. The Diversified Plastics Solution We sat down with both the ...

Apr. 10, 2015

By Diversified Plastics, Inc.

This article employs the case of China to address questions concerning the proper design and implementation of Water Rights Trading (WRT) and its applicability in developing countries. The article relies on key-informant interviews and Chinese-language sources to explain the development of China's water markets to date, and to assess their future prospects for expansion. The article ...

Apr. 8, 2015

By IWA Publishing

Our study area in the People's Victory Canal Irrigation District (PVCID), which is downstream of the Yellow River in China, has been undergoing agricultural water transfer to the city for municipal uses. Water supply condition data from PVCID are used to analyze the impacts of water reallocation on agricultural water supply quality, and field survey data in PVCID are used to examine the ...

Mar. 24, 2015

By IWA Publishing

A recent survey of over 6,000 public and private sector leaders in 21 countries reveals strong confidence in sustainable growth opportunities during 2015. The Global Opportunity Report from DNV GL,  ...

Jan. 23, 2015

By Ensia

Global issues such as climate change and energy security have driven rapid growth in renewable energy production - wind, solar, tidal, geothermal, hydro, biofuels etc. However, logically, each of these methods should deliver a net benefit in terms of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction, so researchers in the United States have employed portable FTIR analysers to study the GHG emissions of biomass ...

Jan. 10, 2015

By Gasmet Technologies Oy

The municipality of Santa Cruz del Quiché, located in the Quiché Department of Guatemala, is characterized by degraded natural resources and a population highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. As part of the Partners for Resilience programme, Guatemalan Red Cross and Wetlands International conducted a study to map the forest cover and ecosystems of the Cucubá river ...

Aug. 18, 2014

By Wetlands International

The European Food Safety Authority guideline on risk assessment identifies pesticide exposure scenarios for non‐target wildlife, however this scheme is not applicable to non‐agricultural grassland. For example, different habitats and human utilisation on golf courses attract bird communities that differ from those found in agricultural fields with annual crop cycles. The present study ...

May 31, 2014

By John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Many researchers have been investigating factors that influence farmers' adoption of soil conservation practices. This paper presents an exhaustive review of the empirical literature since 1980. It reviews and meta–analyses 69 empirical studies on the adoption of soil conservation practices. The main results prove disappointing for nation–wide policy arrangements, as there are almost no universal ...

May 27, 2014

By Inderscience Publishers

Plant expression of thermostable endoglucanase (E1) [pdb:1ECE] has been proposed for improved conversion of lignocellulose to ethanol for fuel production. Residues of E1‐expressing maize may effect ecological services (e.g., C mineralization and biogeochemical cycling) on soils where they occur. Therefore, the activity of residual E1 was investigated using soils amended with bacterial and ...

May 26, 2014

By John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.