Cropping sequence and length of rotation play an important role in potato production. Too often, growers are forced to base their cropping system decisions on short-term economic survival. Our market-based economy rewards economic efficiency and has helped push the trend to larger farms with lower production costs. Improving economic efficiency, with large, specialized potato equipment, means f...

Pesticides are essential for agricultural and horticultural crops production. Pesticides are commonly classified as insecticide, fungicide, herbicide, rodenticide, etc. These pesticides act against insects, rodents, weeds which are harmful in agricultural or horticultural planting. Normally, farmers use the pesticides following the instruction written in the package. In most cases, the pesticid...

The choice of formulation is influenced by the following factors: the physical properties of the pesticide (melting point, solubility, and volatility), the chemical properties of the pesticide (hydrolytic stability, thermal stability, and irradiation stability), the mode of application of the formulation (soil, foliar), the crop to be treated and the agricultural practices, the biological prope...

The present study aimed to assess the environmental fate of the insecticide and nematicide ethoprophos in the soil-water interface following the pesticide application in simulated maize and potato crops under Mediterranean agricultural conditions, particularly of irrigation. Focus was given to the soil-water transfer pathways (leaching and runoff), to the pesticide transport in soil between pes...

Genetic engineering is an application of biotechnology involving the manipulation of DNA and the transfer of gene components between species in order to encourage replication of desired traits (OTA 1992). Although there are many applications of genetic engineering in agriculture, the current focus of biotechnology is on developing herbicide tolerant crops and on pest and disease resistant crops...

The production of synthetic pesticides is energy intensive and can emit even more greenhouse gases (GHG) per kg than the fertilizers. However, this aspect largely neglected when it comes to agriculture’s contribution GHG emissions. Using official pesticide sales data from Austria 2000 2019, we analyzed (i) trends in insecticide, fungicide, herbicide use calculated production-related emissions, ...

An approach for estimating human exposure to pesticides via consumption of six important food crops is presented that can be used to extend multimedia models applied in health risk and life cycle impact assessment. We first assessed the variation of model output (pesticide residues per kg applied) as a function of model input variables (substance, crop, and environmental properties) including t...

Information on dissipation kinetics of pesticides in food crops and other plants is a key aspect in current risk and impact assessment practice. This is because human exposure to pesticides is predominantly caused by residues in agricultural crops grown for human and animal consumption. However, modeling dissipation of pesticides in plants is highly uncertain and therefore strongly relies on ex...

This paper updates previous assessments of important environmental impacts associated with using crop biotechnology in global agriculture. It focuses on the environmental impacts associated with changes in pesticide use and greenhouse gas emissions arising from the use of GM crops since their first widespread commercial use in the mid 1990s. The adoption of GM insect resistant and herbicide tol...

This paper updates previous assessments of how crop biotechnology has changed the environmental impact of global agriculture. It focuses on the environmental impacts associated with changes in pesticide use and greenhouse gas emissions arising from the use of GM crops since their first widespread commercial use in the mid 1990s. The adoption of GM insect resistant and herbicide tolerant technol...