This paper summarizes a series of field experiments that investigated the effects of organic and inorganic nutrients on sweet potato tuber yield in the humid lowlands of Papua New Guinea. In the first experiment, plots were planted with Piper aduncum, Gliricidia sepium and Imperata cylindrica, which were slashed after one year, whereafter sweet potato was planted. Sweet potato yield was lowest ...

Global warming affects not only rice yield but also grain quality. A better understanding of the effects of climate factors on rice quality provides information for new breeding strategies to develop varieties of rice adapted to a changing world. Chalkiness is a key trait of physical quality, and along with head rice yield, is used to determine the price of rice in all markets. In the present s...

Four studies were conducted in Georgia during spring 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002 to evaluate various management tactics for reducing thrips and thrips-vectored tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) in tomato and their interactions relative to fruit yield. Populations of thrips vectors of TSWV, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) and Frankliniella fusca (Hinds), were determined using flower and stic...

Abstract Background Food quality of agricultural crops depends on environmental conditions, production system and cultivation method. A plant-based nutrition with food rich in vitamins, minerals secondary plant compounds antioxidative properties promotes human health. This investigation was inspired by an increasing global issue how to improve product while using alternative preparations. The m...

Agriculture in urban and urbanizing areas will be increasingly critical to enhancing food security sovereignty, creating income, strengthening social interactions, improving health outcomes cities. We used three roofs, a hydroponic system, an aquaponic field rows environment grow six dwarf tomato cultivars: ‘Micro Tom’, ‘Red Robin’, ‘Sweet ‘n’ Neat’, ‘Terenzo’, ‘Tiny Tim’, ‘Tumbler.’ measured t...

The aim of this study was the determination of the level of ochratoxin A (OTA) in cocoa beans and derived products along with the estimation of the dietary intake in adults. Throughout harvesting seasons from 2005 to 2009, as many as 1895 samples of cocoa beans were collected at ports and areas of cocoa production and thereafter analyzed. OTA concentrations were determined by HPLC according to ...

The most effective soil fumigant for the past 40 years for preplant chemical control of nematodes, weeds, and fungal pathogens in Florida vegetable production has been methyl bromide (MBr). Unfortunately, MBr has been implicated in depletion of stratospheric ozone, and is slated to be banned in the United States. A possible alternative replacement to MBr is metam sodium (MS, sodium N-methyl dit...

Narrow plant spacing reduced bacterial bulb decay by 53 to 64% Do you know how easy this is? A simple modification to adjust your planting configuration is all it would take to drastically reduce losses from bacterial bulb decay. Our studies showed that when plant spacing was reduced from 6 or 8 inches to 4 inches with 3 or 4 rows per 3-foot plastic mulch bed (row spacing: 4 rows = 6 inch; 3 ro...

for maximum impact, high yielding improved varieties with significant yield advantages must be targeted to farmers and localities that value this trait most. explaining farmers’ demand for yield can serve as a means of targeting the development and dissemination of high yielding varieties. this paper analyzes data collected from 395 farmers in northern ethiopia using a zero-limit tobit regressi...