Agricultural intensification has increased crop yields, but at high economic and environmental cost. Harnessing ecosystem services of naturally occurring organisms is a cheaper but under-appreciated approach, because the functional roles of organisms are not linked to crop yields, especially outside the northern temperate zone. Ecosystem services in soil come from earthworms in these cooler and...

Sugarcane productivity is cyclical in India and Tamil Nadu. The post-Green Revolution phase is characterized by high input-use and decelerating total factor productivity growth. Sugarcane productivity attained during the 1980s has not been sustained during the1990s and early 21 st century and has posed a challenge for the researchers to shift production function upward by improving the technolo...

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the productivity change for agricultural cooperatives in Japan measured by nonparametric output-oriented Malmquist indices of total factor productivity (TFP)┻ The productivity change is decomposed into technical change and technical efficiency change┻ Linear programming techniques are used to calculate the productivity change using a panel data set for 44...

Analysis of functional genomics (transcriptomics and proteomics) datasets is hindered in agricultural species because agricultural genome sequences have relatively poor structural and functional annotation. To facilitate systems biology in these species we have established the curated, web-accessible, public resource 'AgBase' (www.agbase.msstate.edu). We have improved the structural annotation ...

As a natural engineer, Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) play an important role in increasing plant growth, yield and enhancing tolerance to stressful conditions. These beneficial bacteria take up their position the rhizosphere, around plants’ root tissues. They may be in, or on host tissues help provide nutrients plants. For sustainable agriculture, PGPR transmit extensive assistance...

Three-dimensional (3D) printing technology has revolutionized tissue engineering field because of its excellent potential of accurately positioning cell-laden constructs. One of the main challenges in the formation of functional engineered tissues is the lack of an efficient and extensive network of microvessels to support cell viability. By printing vascular cells and appropriate biomaterials,...

A review of recent literature pertaining to organic and functional food was conducted according its conceptual background. Functional and organic food both belong to fast growing segments of the European food market. Both are food according to the European food regulations, but organic food is further regulated by the European regulation for organic agriculture and food production. This regulat...

Tropical smallholder agriculture is undergoing rapid transformation in nutrient cycling pathways as international development efforts strongly promote greater use of mineral fertilizers to increase crop yields. These changes in nutrient availability may alter the composition of microbial communities with consequences for rates of biogeochemical processes that control nutrient losses to the envi...