Unlike the Central and Eastern U.S. Corn Belt where maize is grown almost entirely under rainfed conditions, maize in the Western Corn Belt is produced under both irrigated (3.2 million ha) and rainfed maize (4.1 million ha) conditions. Simulation modelling, regression, and boundary-function analysis were used to assess constraints to maize productivity in the Western Corn Belt. Aboveground bio...

Daily rainfall and evaporation data of 30 years (1969-1998) are analysed for prediction of hydrological events, such as occurrence of effective monsoon (EM) and withdrawal of monsoon (WM), for planning rainfed rice in Eastern India. Those hydrological events are treated with normal (ND), lognormal (LND), Pearson type 111 (PTD), and log-Pearson type 111 (LPTD) distributions. The historical data ...

The inconsistency of the Indian monsoon has constantly threatened country’s food production, especially key crops such as rice. Crop planning measures based on rainfall patterns during rice-growing season can significantly improve sustainable water usage for water-intensive This study examines variability monsoonal in rainfed and irrigated rice-cultivating regions to utilization irrigation wate...

The growth of organic farming practices in the last few decades is continuing to stimulate the international debate about this alternative food market. As a p art of a PhD project r esearch about embeddedness in Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), this paper focuses on the promotional aspects of organic farms websites from the Madrid region. As a theoretical tool, some knowledge categories drawn ...

A study was carried out over a two year period (2009/2010 and 2012/2013) on an experimental farm in the Alentejo region (Beja), in southern Portugal where rainfed malt barley (Hordeum distichum L.) is sown at the end of autumn or beginning of winter (November–December). The aim of this experiment was to study the efficiency of the herbicide iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium to control post-emergence b...

Despite great recent progress, hunger and poverty remain widespread and agriculturally driven environmental damage is widely prevalent. The idea of agricultural sustainability centers on the need to develop technologies and practices that do not have adverse effects on environmental goods and services, and that lead to improvements in food productivity. Here we show the extent to which 286 rece...

The study on ‘‘pro-poor intervention strategies in irrigated agriculture in Asia’’ by Hussain (2005) shows that, in 26 major and medium-size canal irrigation schemes in Asia, irrigated areas average 20% lower poverty than adjacent rainfed areas; gains are more with pro-poor management of water for farming (PPMWF) and where distribution of farmland or farm water is more equal. These findings, an...