Agriculture is the process of managing plant communities to obtain useful materials from the small set of species we call crops. Weeds comprise the “other” set of plant species found in agroecosystems. Although they are not intentionally sown, weed species are well adapted to environments dominated by humans and have been associated with crop production since the origins of agriculture (Harlan,...

The prospect of immigration reform has renewed farmers’ concerns of serious labor shortages and cost increases, which may urge highly labor-intensive specialty crop farmers to switch to less-labor-intensive technology. The large-scale mechanization of the Florida sugarcane harvest during the 1970s/80s serves as an historical example of how technologies evolved due to changes in local labor mark...

The role of tomatoes as nutritive vegetable crop in the diet of most humans has been stressed or advanced by many scientists. This study therefore, assessed the profitability of tomato production using organic and inorganic fertilisers on a typical irrigated soil in Hong Local Government Area, Adamawa State, Nigeria, with the intent of ensuring a more acceptable measure of sustainability among ...

In the ear’ly 1980s, however, it became evident that farm exports would decline and that farm income growth would fall short of earlier expectations. From 1980 to 1986, farmers lost $293 billion in equity as farm real estate values declined to r’eflect the lower’ earning potential. Moreover, as crop prices fell by 14,4 percent from 1980 to 1986, many farmers were unable to meet their debt oblig...

Under price ceilings and quality floors for agricultural inputs in cash crop sectors in developing countries where credit markets are weak, imperfect information on the ability of farmers to pay for their inputs at the end of the cropping season may lead the decentralized production of those inputs by risk averse private input providers to be inefficient. A coordinating agency and/or subsidies ...

Because of climatic constraints, agriculture in temperate areas of India is mostly limited to a single grain crop. During winters vegetable or oilseed crops may be cultivated at the lower altitudes but the higher altitudes remain barren due to snow cover. Horticulture, another important pursuit of farmers is again limited to summers. In order to supplement their income, the farmers in these are...

the study examined the sources of informal finance in aiding climate change adaptation in south eastern nigeria. random sampling was adopted in the selection of 6 out of the 9 communities in the study area. from each of these selected communities, 10 crop farmers were randomly selected giving a total number of 60 respondents. descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequency, as well as ...

The prudent peasant mitigated the risk of crop failures by scattering his arable land throughout his village, Deirdre McCloskey argued, because alternative risksharing institutions did not exist. But, alternatives did exist, this essay concludes. Medieval English peasants formed two types of farmers’ cooperatives. Fraternities protected members from the perils of everyday life. Customary poor l...

The objective of the study is to explore the scope for water productivity enhancement in irrigated agriculture in India through: i] water control; ii] optimizing nutrient input to crop; iii] improving the quality and reliability of irrigation water; and, iv] growing crops in regions where climate is favourable. The study is based on data from three important river basins in India, viz., Indus, ...

In this study, the WOFOST crop simulation model was used together with comprehensive empirical databases on barley Hordeum vulgare L. to study the contributions of different yield-determining and -limiting factors to observed trends of barley yield in Finland from 1988 to 2008. Simulations were performed at 3 study sites representing different agro-ecological zones, and compared with the data f...