Multi-species intercropping is a sustainable agricultural practice worldwide used to utilize resources more efficiently. In intercropping systems, short crops often grow under vegetative shade of tall crops. Soybean, one important legume, is often planted in intercropping. However, little is known about the mechanisms of shade inhibition effect on leaf size in soybean leaves at the transcriptom...

Those involved with pollinator risk assessment know that agricultural crops vary in attractiveness to bees. Intuitively, this means that exposure to agricultural pesticides is likely greatest for attractive plants and lowest for unattractive plants. While crop attractiveness in the risk assessment process has been qualitatively remarked on by some authorities, absent is direction on how to refi...

Concerns have been raised in Europe about the efficiency, sustainability, and environmental impact of the first genetically modified crops. The committees and regulators in charge of approving procedures have encouraged a field trial approach for safety assessment studies under current agronomic conditions. We describe the gene flow from sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) in a multi-year and multi-c...

during 2005, in a faunistic survey of tachinidae associated with pests of field crops which carried out in shirvan region (north khorasan province), 3 adult tachinids emerged from agrotis sp. (lepidoptera: noctuidae) larvae collected in sugar beet field of agricultural college of shirvan. the specimens were identified as gonia ornata meigen 1826. this is the first record of the occurrence of th...

in semiarid regions of iran, one of the crop production management methods is delayed irrigation after emergence. this is due to simultaneous water requirement of cereal and spring season crops. a field study was conducted in kabootarabad research station to investigate the effect of delayed irrigation on root yield, quality and growth trend using a rcb with four replications. the irrigation tr...

In a field trial conducted with eight varieties in the north coast area of Natal ratoon stunting disease (RSD) caused increasing lossesin yieldsof cane and sucrosefrom the plant to the second ratoon crop. All the varieties suffered losses in yield but the degree of loss differed markedly among the varieties. The total yield of sugar from the three crops was reduced by 38% in varieties NCo 376an...

This paper analyses the economics of biofuel production and the implications that the accelerating growth in biofuel production in many countries could have on agricultural markets. It shows that production costs of ethanol and biodiesel differ significantly across countries and feedstock crops. These costs often exceed those of fossil fuels. In consequence, the economics of biofuel production ...

In an 11-week greenhouse study, caged queenright colonies of Bombus impatiens Cresson, were fed treatments of 0 (0 ppb actual residue I, imidacloprid; C, clothianidin), 10 (14 I, 9 C), 20 (16 I, 17C), 50 (71 I, 39 C) and 100 (127 I, 76 C) ppb imidacloprid or clothianidin in sugar syrup (50%). These treatments overlapped the residue levels found in pollen and nectar of many crops and landscape p...

Cotton varieties expressing Cry proteins derived from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are grown worldwide for the management of pest Lepidoptera. To prevent non-target pest outbreaks and to retain the biological control function provided by predators and parasitoids, the potential risk that Bt crops may pose to non-target arthropods is addressed prior to their commercialization. ...

Water is a key factor influencing the yield and quality of crops. Plants mainly adapt to water deficits by biochemical changes and osmotic adjustment (OA). Research on drought tolerance of field crops has been done intensively, but there is little work to be done in medical plants. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has a long history of several thousand years. TCM is playing an important role ...