Introduction Conclusions References

Food losses in field and store 5 cause outstanding losses in many crops. Because there are few trained nematologists, many other important nematode problems on key food crops such as rice and paddy remain uninvestigated. Because nematodes are soil organisms, control is especially difficult. Few satisfactory nematicides are known and these are too expensive for most agricultural crops in Europe....

Data on population movements can be helpful in designing targeted policy responses to curb epidemic spread. However, it is not clear how exactly leverage such data and valuable they might for the control of epidemics. To explore these questions, we study a spatial model that explicitly accounts propose an optimization framework obtaining policies restrict economic activity different neighborhoo...

The effects of Pratylenchus penetrans upon yields of 'Veebrite' tomato were studied at initial soil population densities (P(i)) of 360, 2,010, 4,580, and 14,360 nematodes/kg of soil in 20-cm (i.d.) clay-tile microplots. The lowest P(i) appeared to stimulate fruit production. Higher P(i)'s suppressed fruit production (total weight of marketable tomatoes and numbers of intermediate- and large-siz...

Crop losses to foraging elephants are one of the primary obstacles to the coexistence of elephants and people. Understanding whether some individuals in a population are more likely to forage on crops, and the temporal patterns of elephant visits to farms, is key to mitigating the negative impacts of elephants on farmers’ livelihoods. We used camera traps to study the crop foraging behaviour of...

Despite increased attention and demand for the adoption of agroforestry practices throughout the world, rigorous long-term scientific studies confirming environmental benefits from the use of agroforestry practices are limited. The objective was to examine nonpoint-source pollution (NPSP) reduction as influenced by agroforestry buffers in watersheds under grazing and row crop management. The gr...

Soil erosion, runoff and related nutrient losses are a big risk for soil fertility in Cabo Verde drylands. In 2012, field trials were conducted in two agro-ecological zones to evaluate the effects of selected techniques of soil-water management combined with organic amendments (T1: compost/manure + soil surfactant; T2: compost/animal or green manure + pigeon-pea hedges + soil surfactant; T3: co...

Meeting crop nitrogen (N) demand while minimizing N losses to the environment has proven difficult despite significant field research and modeling efforts. To improve N management, several real-time N management tools have been developed with a primary focus on enhancing crop production. However, no coordinated effort exists to simultaneously address sustainability concerns related to N losses ...

The population of Africa will double in the next 33 years to reach 2.5 billion by 2050. Although roughly 60% of the continent’s population is engaged in agriculture, the produce from this sector cannot feed its citizens. Hence, in 2013 alone, Africa imported 56.5 million tons of wheat, maize, and soybean at the cost of 18.8 billion USD. Although crops cultivated in Africa play a vital role in t...