Endophytes are microbes that inhabit internal plant tissues without causing disease. Some endophytes are known to combat pathogens. The corn (maize) landrace Chapalote has been grown continuously by subsistence farmers in the Americas since 1000 BC, without the use of fungicides, and the crop remains highly valued by farmers, in part for its natural tolerance to pests. We hypothesized that the ...

Sustainable feed formulation (defined here as nutritional and economic feed optimization) is substantial in feed chain production from crop farmers to livestock producers. Diet formulation employing a static linear programming (LP) approach, which is widely used in trading firms and feed production facilities, does not allow for intertemporal flexibility. Our approach allows the interaction bet...

Atrazine, an herbicide used on most of the US corn (maize) crop, is the subject of ongoing controversy, with increasing documentation of its potentially harmful health and environmental impacts. Supporters of atrazine often claim that it is of great value to farmers; most recently, Syngenta, the producer of atrazine, sponsored an "Atrazine Benefits Team" (ABT) of researchers who released a set ...

One of the agricultural sub-sectors is food crops, such as rice and corn which main sources carbohydrates. The factor productivity’s crops due to use seeds. Raman Utara a region that has potential have high productivity in corn. However, quality seeds problem an impact on low Superior seed best solution increase but price will make it difficult for farmers buy them. So farmers' willingness pay ...

Agricultural production in the Midwestern US is highly concentrated with 85% percent of cropland acreage planted to only corn and soybeans (NASS, 2006). Crop specialization has improved the productivity and market efficiency of grain based commodity crops, but maintaining profitability has become increasingly difficult as input prices continue to rise while grain prices fluctuate substantially ...

Organic farming has increased to a $4.2 billion industry in the U.S. and continues to expand approximately 20% annually. In Iowa alone, organic acreage for all crops has increased from 13,000 in 1995 to 120,000 in 1998. Organic corn production in 1997 was reported at 9,920 acres. International demand for organic products, particularly from the Japanese and European markets, is also on the rise....