Justifiable usage of large-scale crop model simulations requires transparent, comprehensive and spatially extensive evaluations of their performance and associated accuracy. Simulated crop yields of a Pan-European implementation of the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) crop model were satisfactorily evaluated with reported regional yield data from EUROSTAT for four major crops, inc...

Maintaining crop production to feed a growing world population is a major challenge for this period of rapid global climate change. No consistent conceptual or experimental framework for crop plants integrates information at the levels of genome regulation, metabolism, physiology and response to growing environment. An important role for plasticity in plants is assisting in homeostasis in respo...

One of the most commonly seeded crops in Canada is canola, a cultivar of oilseed rape (Brassica napus). As a mass-flowering crop grown intensively throughout the Canadian Prairies, canola has the potential to influence pollinator success across tens of thousands of square kilometers of cropland. Bumble bees (Bombus sp.) are efficient pollinators of many types of native and crop plants. We measu...

A wide range of species can be sown as cover crops during fallow periods to provide various ecosystem services. Plant establishment is a key stage, especially when sowing occurs in summer with high soil temperatures and low water availability. The aim of this study was to determine the response of germination to temperature and water potential for diverse cover crop species. Based on these char...

Transgenic oilseed rape (Brassica napus) plants may remain as 'volunteer' weeds in following crops, complicating cultivation and contaminating crop yield. Volunteers can become feral as well as act as a genetic bridge for the transfer of transgenes to weedy relatives. Transgenic mitigation using genes that are positive or neutral to the crop, but deleterious to weeds, should prevent volunteer e...

Onattukara sandy loam tract an important agro ecological zone spread over the Karunagapally taluk of Kollam and Karthikapally and Mavelikara taluks of Alappuzha districts of Kerala. The soils are highly permeable, acidic in reaction and are extremely deficient in all the major plant nutrients. Sesamum is mainly grown in Kerala as a sole crop in the summer rice fallows of Onattukara tract. The c...