crop rotation affect on crop nitrogen uptake and nitrogen use efficiency (nue). crop rotations with high nue decrease energy use and increase level of sustainability in agro ecosystems. the objectives of this research were to determine the suitable double cropping system for enhancing nue and evaluate the effects of crop rotation, n fertilizer rate and return of crop residue on nue. this study ...

Green manure could improve soil nutrients and crop production, playing a significant role in sustainable agriculture. However, the impacts of green manure on crop health and the roles soil microbial communities play in the process haven’t been clarified clearly yet. In this study, we investigated soil microbial community composition and structure in four tobacco farmlands, which were treated wi...

Soil N is a major factor limiting crop production in maize-based agriculture in the tropics. In this study, soil N dynamics and efficiency of N use by maize was investigated in five cropping systems (CSs) over two annual cropping phases. The CSs comprised cereal-legume (CS1, CS2, CS3), cereal-cereal (CS4) and cereal-bare fallow (CS5) rotations with three rates of N fertiliser application to mai...

Nutrient management plans (NMPs) for application of wastewater from concentrated animal feeding operations are designed to meet crop water and nutrient requirements, but implicitly assume that pathogenic microorganisms in the wastewater will be retained and die-off in the root zone. A NMP was implemented on a field plot to test this assumption by monitoring the fate of several fecal indicator m...

Introduction Soil organisms facilitate key ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and organic matter decomposition, and also influence soil porosity and water infiltration through the production of bacterial polymers and fungal hyphae that hold soil particles together to form aggregates [1, 2]. Rhizosphere microorganisms can greatly influence the ability of a plant to acquire macroand mic...

Perennial grasses are the backbone of the U.S. livestock industry and are widely recognized as a key in conserving soil. Certain government programs require perennial grasses such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) as a way to enhance and protect soil quality while setting aside land from production. Perennial grasses are used along roadsides all across the country to provide stable slop...