Traditional agriculture in rainfed uplands of India has been experiencing low agricultural productivity as the lands suffer from poor soil fertility, susceptibility to water erosion and other external pressures of development and climate change. A shift toward more sustainable cropping systems such as conservation agriculture production systems (CAPSs) may help in maintaining soil quality as we...

in order to study the intercropping effects of maize (zea mays l.) and bean (phaseolus vulgaris l.) and evaluating effect of intercropping on weed biomass, a field experiment was conducted at the agricultural research station, payamenoor university of nagadeh,west- azarbayjan, iran during growing season of 2009-2010. the experiment was laid out as randomized complete block design with three rep...

Resource-poor farmers who are living in the harsh environments of West African Sahel (WAS) depend on subsistence orientated, low-input farming systems for meeting their livelihood needs. These largely extractive have resulted nutrient depletion, soil fertility decline, low productivity and land degradation. A study conducted over 25 years Niger, aimed to evaluate long-term effects organic miner...

Cowpea is a multifaceted crop; however, considerable challenges affect the production of this crop despite its comparatively better adaptation to harsh environments. Most smallholder farmers in West Africa cultivate intercropping systems where low plant population does not allow full expression cultivars’ yield potential. This because most varieties currently grown intercrop have been developed...

Site-specific weed management requires sensing of the actual weed infestation levels in agricultural fields to adapt the management accordingly. However, sophisticated sensor systems are not yet in wider practical use, since they are not easily available for the farmers and their handling as well as the management practice requires additional efforts. A new sensor-based weed detection method is...

Mycorrhizal associations contribute to the sustainability of crop production systems through their roles in nutrient cycling and other benefits in the soil-plant ecosystems. A two-year study was conducted on the Alfisols of Lilongwe and Dowa districts, Central Malawi, to assess the vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) fungal colonisation levels in pigeon pea, cowpea, and maize grown in sole c...

in order to study of nitrogen effect on critical period of weed control in sunflower (helianthus annuus l.) in birjand region, a split plot experiment based on randomized complete block design was conducted with 24 treatments and 3 replications in research farm of college of agriculture of birjand university in 2010. the main factor was three levels of nitrogen (0, 100 and 200 kg.ha-1) and the ...