Greater precipitation use efficiency (PUE) and economic returns by increasing cropping frequency through the addition of summer crops to the dryland winter wheat-fallow (WF) cropping system have been reported in the semiarid Central Great Plains of USA. However, due to the highly variable nature of precipitation and uncertain water availability, selection of a crop with assured positive net ret...

Farming activities practiced on many Australian soils have resulted in substantial losses of soil organic matter (SOM), nutrient loss, soil structural degradation and declines in cereal yield and quality. Field trials, consisting of a legume or fallow phase followed by three wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crops, were established on a degraded Ferric Luvisol (Red Earth) soil in New South Wales to ...

Rotation with dicotyledonous crops to break cereal monoculture has proven to be beneficial to successive cereals. In two fields where the soil had been subjected to prolonged, continuous cereal production, two 3-year rotation trials were established. In the first year, faba bean, turnip rape and barley were grown, as first crops, in large blocks and their residues tilled into the soil after har...

Challenged by population increase, climatic change, and soil deterioration, crop improvement is always a priority in securing food supplies. Although the production of grain legumes is in general lower than that of cereals, the nutritional value of grain legumes make them important components of food security. Nevertheless, limited by severe genetic bottlenecks during domestication and human se...

Grain yield is one of the most important and complex trait for genetic improvement in crops; it is known to be controlled by a number of genes known as quantitative trait loci (QTLs). In the past decade, many yield-contributing QTLs have been identified in crops. However, it remains unclear whether those QTLs confer the same yield performance in different genetic backgrounds. Here, we performed...

Wheat, oats, barley, rye, rice, and millet are all considered small grains. These small grains are carbohydrate and vitamin rich and have become food staples for humans and animals worldwide. Small grains have been cultivated by man for thousands of years and through selective breeding, they have become one of the most productive crops grown by man. Small grains have been adapted to grow in nea...

Grain production is one of the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex main branches. An indicator of the grain production efficiency is its profitability. It is characterized by significant annual fluctuations that induce risk. Redistribution of existing grain crops areas taking into consideration their profitability can bring to increase of production efficiency. The paper observes Markowitz’s opti...

Crop rows oriented at a right angle to sunlight direction (i.e., east–west within the winter cropping system in Western Australia) may suppress weed growth through greater shading of weeds in the interrow spaces. This was investigated in the districts of Merredin and Beverley, Western Australian (latitudes of 31u and 32uS) from 2002 to 2005 (four trials). Winter grain crops (wheat, barley, cano...

Grain weight is one of the most important components of grain yield and is controlled by quantitative trait loci (QTLs) derived from natural variations in crops. However, the molecular roles of QTLs in the regulation of grain weight have not been fully elucidated. Here, we report the cloning and characterization of GW2, a new QTL that controls rice grain width and weight. Our data show that GW2...