Observations of fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), larvae infesting plots of Miscanthus giganteus Greef and Deuter ex Hodkinson and Renvoize prompted laboratory-based tests of survival, development, and feeding preferences on leaf tissue fromM. giganteus and switchgrass, Panicum virgatum L. Survival from hatch to pupation was 70 and 50% for fall armyworm...

The present work has developed a methodology based on thermography and sonic anemometry for studying the microclimate in Mediterranean greenhouses equipped with air heaters and polyethylene distribution ducts to distribute the warm air. Sonic anemometry allows us to identify the airflow pattern generated by the heaters and to analyze the temperature distribution inside the greenhouse, while the...

BACKGROUND By example of a region in Northern Germany (County of Uelzen), this study investigates whether climate change is likely to require adaption of agricultural practices such as irrigation in Central Europe. Due to sandy soils with low water retention capacity and occasional insufficient rainfall, irrigation is a basic condition for agricultural production in the county of Uelzen. Thus, ...

Aggregation methods are the most common way of upscaling land cover maps. To analyze the impact of land cover mapping error on upscaling agricultural maps, we utilized the Cropland Data Layer (CDL) data with corresponding confidence level data and simulated eight levels of error using a Monte Carlo simulation for two Agriculture Statistic Districts (ASD) in the U.S.A. The results of the simulat...

A t the risk of some simplification, it is possible to identify four periods of intense study of cities by economists. Each of these has led to an increased understanding of the economics of urban areas and the unique role played by cities in the modern economy. The first of these periods occurred in the decade after World War I—only about ten years after the truck revolutionized the transport ...

Genetically-modified (GM) crops increased their share in EU agriculture, so the adventitious presence of GM varieties in non-GM seeds and crops has become an issue and poses the problem of their co-existence with conventional and organic crops. Therefore, there is a need to propose appropriate measures at the farm and regional levels to minimize adventitious presence of GM crops. Outputs from t...

Crop landraces are managed populations that evolve in response to gene flow and selection. Cross-pollination among fields, seed sharing by farmers, and selection by management and environmental conditions play roles in shaping crop characteristics. We used common gardens to explore the local adaptation of maize (Zea mays ssp. mays) landrace populations from Chiapas, Mexico to altitude. We sowed...

An autonomous vehicle has been developed for precision application of treatment on outdoor crops. This document details a new vision algorithm to aid navigation and crop/weed discrimination being developed for this machine. The algorithm tracks a model of the crop planting pattern through an image sequence using an extended Kalman lter. A parallel update scheme is used to provide not only navig...

A water reuse system in wetland paddy was simulated to supply water for industrial in this paper. A two-tank model was employed to represent the return flow of the wetland paddy. Historical data were performed for parameter estimation and model verification. With parameters estimated from the data, the model was then used to simulate a reasonable return flow rate from the wetland paddy. The sim...

The successful development of modern agricultural industries in most regions of South Australia could not have been achieved without the discovery and correction of trace element deficiencies in crops, pastures, horticultural tree and vegetable crops, plantation forests and livestock. Over the past eight decades, the low trace element status of many SA agricultural soils has been demonstrated r...