in order to evaluate the effect of different crop management practices on corn (zea mays l.) net primary productivity (npp) and relative carbon allocation coefficients, a field experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized block design with four replications in the agricultural research station, ferdowsi university of mashhad, iran during two growing season 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. ...

Despite improvements in the use of soil conservation practices, crop rotation and nutrient management programs, significant concern still exists regarding soil erosion and nutrient losses in runoff from row crop production. In the US, states are required to implement water quality standards based on USEPA guidelines or other scientifically defensible methods (Ice and Binkley, 2003). Agroforestr...

The current standard treatment for management of soilborne pests in some high-value crop production systems is preplant fumigation with mixtures of methyl bromide and chloropicrin. With the impending phase-out of methyl bromide, the agricultural industries that rely on soil fumigation face the need for development of alternative pest management strategies. To maintain farm productivity, immedia...

A computer-based decision support system is described which aims to encourage and enhance sound environmental management within agriculture. Part of the system focuses on the management of pesticides on the farm, and can help to ensure that the farmer adopts practices which maximise crop production and profitability without jeopardising the environment. The approach taken looks at all aspects o...

Crop yield is influenced over time and space, namely, by a wide range of variables linked with crop genetics, agronomic management practices and the environment under which the crop dynamically responds to maximize growth potential and survival. Such variability can pose substantial uncertainty and risks in the use of agricultural sustainability decision-making frameworks that include crop yiel...

Past agricultural management practices have contributed to the loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) and emission of greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide). Fortunately, however, conservation-oriented agricultural management systems can be, and have been, developed to sequester SOC, improve soil quality, and increase crop productivity. Our objectives were to (i) review literature...

Preventing a pest population from damaging an agricultural crop and, at the same time, preventing the development of pesticide resistance is a major challenge in crop protection. Understanding how farming practices and environmental factors interact with pest characteristics to influence the spread of resistance is a difficult and complex task. It is extremely challenging to investigate such in...

An inventory of topsoil soil organic carbon (SOC) content in household farms was performed in a village from a red earth region in Jiangxi Province, China in 2003. In this region, the farmland managed by each household is fragmented, consisting of several plots of land that are not necessarily adjacent to each other. A statistical analysis of SOC variation with land use and household management...