Biomass crops are being promoted as environmentally favorable alternatives to fossil fuels or ethanol production from maize (Zea mays L.), particularly across the Corn Belt of the United States. However, there are few if any empirical studies on inorganic N leaching losses from perennial grasses that are harvested on an annual basis, nor has there been empirical evaluation of the hydrologic con...

Perennial cellulosic feedstocks may have potential to reduce life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by offsetting fossil fuels. However, this potential depends on meeting a number of important criteria involving land cover change, including avoiding displacement of agricultural production, not reducing uncultivated natural lands that provide biodiversity habitat and other valued ecosystem se...

B ioenergy production—either for fuels or electricity—is the most land intensive form of energy production (1). The consequences of increased demand for land associated with bioenergy crops initially gained attention because of the implications for carbon emissions associated with land clearing (2, 3), but, more recently, the potential impacts of bioenergy’s land demand on biodiversity have gai...

Most important food and feed crops in the world belong to the C3 grass family. The future of food security is highly reliant on achieving genetic gains of those grasses. Conventional breeding methods have already reached a plateau for improving major crops. Genomics tools and resources have opened an avenue to explore genome-wide variability and make use of the variation for enhancing genetic g...

The global agricultural economy is changing. Commodity prices are declining, and producers increasingly supply complex value chains. There is growing interest in how farmers can benefit from emerging market opportunities. Farmers are encouraged to produce high value crops and engage in value-adding activities such as agro-processing. Farmer organization and collective action are often seen as k...

Peasant agriculture has been neglected as modern farming occupied its space in the production of basic foods. Exclusion of smallholders in LDCs is the outcome of declining prices for basic foods now produced and marketed globally by developed countries. This is an effect of globalization: it responds to advances in information technologies, communications, and biotechnology. Productivity gains ...

The oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is one of the major cultivated crops among economically important species. It mainly for its edible oil. For a perennial crop like palm, use Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) techniques helps to reduce breeding cycle and improve economic products. Genetic physical maps are sequencing experiments since they show exact positions genes other distinctive feature...

There is evidence that pollinators are declining as a result of local and global environmental degradation [1-4]. Because a sizable proportion of the human diet depends directly or indirectly on animal pollination [5], the issue of how decreases in pollinator stocks could affect global crop production is of paramount importance [6-8]. Using the extensive FAO data set [9], we compared 45 year se...

Perennial grasses are the backbone of the U.S. livestock industry and are widely recognized as a key in conserving soil. Certain government programs require perennial grasses such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) as a way to enhance and protect soil quality while setting aside land from production. Perennial grasses are used along roadsides all across the country to provide stable slop...