Crop Science Articles
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Weekly Roundup of other biobased news
Reuters, “Genscape Says It Will Fight EPA Move to Boot It from Biofuels Program” University of Bath, “Scientists Make Plastic from Christmas Trees” Washington Examiner, “Energy, Farm Policy Collide in the New Congress” Growth Energy, “Poll: Trump Voters Overwhelmingly Support Ethanol” PETROSS, “Dual-Purpose Biofuel Crops Could Extend ...
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Impact of agricultural water reallocation on crop yield and revenue: a case study in China
Our study area in the People's Victory Canal Irrigation District of Henan Province in China has been transferring agricultural water to the city for municipal use. This study starts with an examination of the impacts of irrigation frequency, irrigation water sources, and irrigation water supply performance on crop yield and net crop revenue, using data from a survey of 182 households in the ...
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Using leaf area meters: Assessing roosting sites for Melon fly and Oriental fruit fly - Case study
Assessment of Attractiveness of Plants as Roosting Sites for the Melon Fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae, and the Oriental Fruit Fly, B. dorsalis. The Researcher Dr. Grant McQuate is a researcher with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in Hilo, Hawaii. With over 24 years of experience in research in insect ecology, Dr. McQuate has focused much of his work on the attraction, ecology, host ...
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USGS Study Points To Biofuel Crop Related Land-Use Change Reducing Honey Bee Habitat
On August 29, 2016, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) published a study on the result of land-use changes on North and South Dakota commercial honey bee colonies in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. USGS scientists found that grasslands and other landscape features favored by beekeepers were decreasing, with crops that are avoided by beekeepers, such as corn and ...
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Monthly rainfall forecasting using neural networks for sugarcane regions in Eastern Australia
Sugarcane is an important agricultural crop grown on the east coast of Australia. The timing and amount of rainfall is critical in determining both the yield of sugar and scheduling of harvesting operations. Rainfall forecasts issued through the Australian Bureau of Meteorology are based on general circulation models (GCMs) and have a poor skill levels. They are also limited in utility to ...
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Chelant-assisted accumulation of Cd, Cu and Zn in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) biomass as a renewable energy feedstock.
This article discusses the environmental concerns regarding soil contamination by heavy metals and the possibility of growing a high biomass-yielding crop (i.e., rapeseed) as a tool of phytoremediation. The aim of our research was to investigate the growth parameters and the capacity of rapeseed to accumulate Cd, Cu, and Zn from the contaminated soil and to investigate the effects of the chelants ...
By Biovala
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Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (GDAAS) - Case Study
There are 13 research institutes under the GDAAS, including specific foods and crops and fertilizer research. The main mission of the institution is to carry out non-profit research around agricultural science and techniques. As one of the most important agricultural crops institutions, the Crops Research Institute has been focusing on the development of new varieties of crops, cultivation ...
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Can genetic engineering help quench crops’ thirst?
Researchers around the world are exploring how GMO technology might boost food production under hot, dry conditions. Roger Deal is trying to figure out how plants remember drought. An assistant professor of biochemistry and genetics at Emory University, Deal says most plants have a kind of memory for stress. When experiencing water shortage, for example, plants close the holes in their leaves, ...
By Ensia
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Playing hide and seek below the soil
Below the soil of a diverse grassland area you’ll find a jungle of plant roots. It is also home to a wide variety of bacteria and fungi, of which some are pathogenic and looking for a host in the tangle of roots. It appears that this is much more difficult when there is a larger diversity of plants as the host plant is more able to hide among the varied crowd. Greater plant diversity ...
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Irrigation water requirements for seed corn and coffee under potential climate change scenarios
The impact of potential future climate change scenarios on the irrigation water requirements (IRRs) of two major agricultural crops (coffee and seed corn) in Hawai'i was studied using the Irrigation Management System (IManSys) model. In addition to IRRs calculations, IManSys calculates runoff, deep percolation, canopy interception, and effective rainfall based on plant growth parameters, site ...
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Extreme Makeover: Photosynthesis Edition
Plants are far better than humans at turning sunlight into food. But they’re not nearly as good as they could be: Thanks to quirks in the systems that have evolved to capture solar energy and use it to build sugars from carbon dioxide and water, the conversion efficiency of photosynthesis is but a few percent at best. With the need to produce more crops growing even faster than human ...
By Ensia
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Better photosynthesis for a better world?
There’s no question that plants are better than most other life forms at converting carbon dioxide and sunlight into the sugars that form the basis of our global food web — and eventually, humans’ entire food supply. But fact of the matter is, with conversion rates hovering around 2 percent for our best crop fields, they’re by no means great. Even a slight increase in the ...
By Ensia
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Marginal value of natural water in agriculture: a study in the suburbs of Mekelle City, Ethiopia
In areas where markets for natural water are lacking, information on its marginal value can be an important tool for proper pricing to achieve efficient allocation of the resource. This article investigates the marginal value of natural water (rainwater used as a proxy) in agricultural crop production in the suburbs of Mekelle City, Ethiopia, by econometrically estimating individual value ...
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USDA amends BCAP
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a final rule amending the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) to implement changes required by the 2014 Farm Bill. BCAP provides financial assistance to owners and operators engaged in biomass crops, including collection, harvest, storage, and transportation. The final rule does not alter the scope of the BCAP but does reduce the ...
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Monitoring greenhouse gases from biofuel crops - Case study
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 ...
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Monitoring greenhouse gases from biofuel crops
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 ...
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The cloud isn`t just for rain anymore
Precision agriculture has been a key enabling technology to achieve higher yields with lower cost and less environmental impact, while keeping the cost of food fairly stable Has global agricultural productivity increased or decreased in the last 25 years? It has, in fact, more than doubled since 1985. Next to advances in seed genetics, precision agriculture has been a key enabling technology to ...
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Analysis of price volatility of mineral fertilisers: possible issues for European farmers
European farmers are currently affected by an increase in the price of fertilisers (from an index of 100 in 2005 to 150 in 2012 after it peaked at almost 200 at the end of 2008) that calls into question the future availability of these kinds of inputs. Since 2007, the strong demand from emerging countries, geopolitical tensions over natural resources, and the rise in the price of energy have been ...
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Indian government still ‘flip flopping’ on GM trials
In August, India’s ruling nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stopped its legislators from accepting Monsanto sponsorship to attend a farm exhibition in the US state of Iowa. On the surface this might seem strange: attending the Farm Progress Show should be innocuous, as Monsanto routinely takes farmers, industry experts, media and MPs from various countries to visit the show and ...
By SciDev.Net
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Focal bird species and risk assessment approach for non‐agricultural grassland scenarios in Central Europe
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 ...
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