Crop Monitoring News
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Have You Ever Wondered if What you Were Eating is What You Purchased?
EMSL Analytical provides food authenticity testing to confirm food products are what they claim to be. Cinnaminson, NJ, June 2nd, 2010 Earlier this year students at a New York City’s Trinity High School began a science project to test food items to determine if they were actually what the food labels claimed them to be. Working with scientists from the American Museum of Natural History ...
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Mixed crop-livestock farming could help adaptation in Africa
According to new research, African farms with both crops and livestock could be more resilient to climate change than farms that only grow crops. The research suggests that policy makers should support farmers in making the switch to integrated farming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has indicated that agriculture in tropical under-developed countries is the most vulnerable ...
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Fertiliser can offset heat for African farmers
[NAIROBI] African smallholders in dry areas can overcome climate change and even double crop yields if they invest in fertiliser use and harvest rainwater, researchers have found. Farmers in arid and semi-arid areas usually protect themselves from climate-related losses by investing as little as possible in farm inputs such as fertilisers. But in doing so they fail to grab opportunities for ...
By SciDev.Net
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Barren middle east fights water shortfall
Seven Middle-Eastern countries have joined forces to share ideas about how farmers can get the most out of water resources in the region's driest areas. Launched in Jordan last week (1–4 February) at an international conference on food security and climate change, The Water and Livelihood Initiative (WLI) will involve rural communities in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, Iraq and ...
By SciDev.Net
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Nitrogen soil tests - Do they always reflect what is going on?
Do soil tests always reflect what’s going on? Emphatically, NO. The usefulness of nitrogen (N) soil testing is frequently a topic of discussion in both academic and farming circles. Those for the negative generally cite variability involved in sampling, lack of analytical laboratory accuracy and/or precision and lack of response calibration as factors that influence their position. While they ...
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Better water management could improve global crop production
A new global study is the first to quantify the potential of water management strategies to increase crop production. It indicates that a combination of harvesting run-off water and reducing evaporation from soil could increase global crop production by 20 per cent. The EU has recognised the impact of climate change on water and the subsequent effects on agriculture in its white paper on ...
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International crop breeding programme needed for African farming
Climate change poses a large threat to African agriculture, but there is little research on how to respond. A recent study indicates that traditional adaptation methods are not enough and international collaboration is needed in 'planned adaptation' by collecting and conserving certain crops for the future. A large proportion of the African population - mainly the poor - depend on agriculture ...
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Squeezing more crop out of each drop of water
Studies in China and Colorado by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators have revealed some interesting tactics on how to irrigate with limited water, based on a crop’s critical growth stages. Laj Ahuja, research leader at the ARS Agricultural Systems Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colo., and colleagues conducted the studies. As one example, with wheat in China, they ...
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SA growers advised to monitor crops as stem rust emerges
South Australian grain producers are encouraged to closely monitor wheat crops following the emergence of both stem and leaf rust on the West Coast and in the Lower North. Stem rust has been found in an area of about 16 kilometres in diameter near Kalanbi, north-west of Ceduna. Crops of Yitpi have been mostly affected. SARDI senior plant pathologist Dr Hugh Wallwork said that a single ...
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Flow4 sap flow logger from Dynamax press release
Flow4 Sap Flow Logger - Irrigation Control from Dynamax Inc (281-564-5100), is a stand-alone water balance measurement system for irrigation automation based on plant transpiration. Four Dynagage sap flow sensors read crop water consumption. These measurements are compared to rainfall, soil moisture and irrigation water supplied. The water balance or water deficit then determines the amount of ...
By Dynamax Inc
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How much water is needed to grow bioenergy crops?
A Dutch study has assessed the water requirements of 13 bioenergy crops across the world. The findings could help select the best crops and locations to produce bioenergy. The EU climate action and renewable energy package has set a target of increasing the share of renewable energy to 20 per cent of energy used by 20201. This includes a minimum 10 per cent share for transport, which could ...
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SA growers advised to monitor crops as stripe rust emerges
South Australian grain producers are encouraged to closely monitor wheat crops following the first reports of stripe rust for the season. ‘Hot spots’ of stripe rust have been found in several paddocks of Wyalkatchem wheat near Balaklava and Dublin and in crops of Kukri and Marombi wheat near Roseworthy. SARDI senior plant pathologist Dr Hugh Wallwork said the rust had probably blown in from ...
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Nitrogen recommendations based on crop reflectance
Nitrogen fertilizer is usually applied in greater quantities to corn than almost any other crop. But when it’s applied in excess of requirements, loss of the excess fertilizer to the environment can contribute to degraded water quality. One of the challenges to making an appropriate nitrogen fertilizer recommendation is the potential variability in soil nitrogen availability that may occur ...
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Soil Moisture Probes as a management tool for broadacre cropping enterprises
Are you interested in being involved in a 'Cutting Edge' Agronomic Project and Discussion Group? SANTFA and Rural Directions Pty Ltd, are kicking off a project focussing on Soil Moisture Probes as a management tool for broadacre cropping enterprises, which will run from July 2009 through to May 2010. The project is about using soil moisture monitoring as a guide for making informed decisions in ...
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Crop water use efficiency
Crop water use efficiency (WUE), or yield per unit of water used, can be improved through irrigation management and methods, including deficit irrigation (irrigating less than is required for maximum yields) and supplemental irrigation (irrigating to supplement precipitation so as to avoid crop failure or severe yield decline). Thus, WUE is key for agricultural production with limited water ...
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Czech and Korean researchers clinch biomass patent
A Czech-South Korean research team has obtained a patent on a new method supporting plant biomass production which will also allow the cultivation of plants with a bigger biomass production. Both the food-processing and pharmaceutical industries can, in theory, use the patent, according to the team. 'The invention, which enables the cultivation of plants with an increased production of mass, ...
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Czech and Korean researchers clinch biomass patent
A Czech-South Korean research team has obtained a patent on a new method supporting plant biomass production which will also allow the cultivation of plants with a bigger biomass production. Both the food-processing and pharmaceutical industries can, in theory, use the patent, according to the team. 'The invention, which enables the cultivation of plants with an increased production of mass, ...
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Satellites help keep Chesapeake Bay clean
Space-age technologies to help Maryland implement and monitor an expanded winter cover crop program that is vital to the Chesapeake Bay's health are being developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Beltsville, Md. Soil scientist Gregory McCarty and colleagues Dean Hively, Ali Sadeghi and Megan Lang with the ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville are ...
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Renewed cooperation between CIHEAM and FAO
The International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) based in Paris and FAO will strengthen their cooperation under an agreement signed at FAO's Rome headquarters this week. The Agreement of Cooperation was signed by Bertrand Hervieu, Secretary General of CIHEAM and Hervé Lejeune, FAO Assistant Director-General and Directeur de Cabinet. In it, both organizations agreed ...
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Measuring calcium in serpentine soils
Serpentine soils contain highly variable amounts of calcium, making them marginal lands for farming. Successful management of serpentine soils requires accurate measurement of the calcium they hold. Research published this month in the Soil Science Society of America Journal shows that multiple measurement techniques are needed to accurately measure calcium content in serpentine soils. To make ...
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