In recent years, agricultural growth in China has accelerated remarkably, but most of this growth has been driven by increased yield per unit area rather than by expansion of the cultivated area. Looking towards 2030, to meet the demand for grain and to feed a growing population on the available arable land, it is suggested that annual crop production should be increased to around 580 Mt and th...

In recent years, agricultural growth in China has accelerated remarkably, but most of this growth has been driven by increased yield per unit area rather than by expansion of the cultivated area. Looking towards 2030, to meet the demand for grain and to feed a growing population on the available arable land, it is suggested that annual crop production should be increased to around 580 Mt and th...

Viral diseases in crop plants constitute a major obstacle to food security in the developing world. Subsistence crops, including cassava, sweetpotato, potato, banana, papaya, common bean, rice and maize are often infected with RNA and/or DNA viruses that cannot be controlled with pesticides. Hence, healthy planting materials and virus-resistant cultivars are essential for high yields of good qu...

The tulip is a good example of a flower bulb crop that can be adapted to hydroponic culture. In Holland, approximately 30-35% of the cut tulip crop is forced hydroponically, and we have been evaluating this production method at Cornell over the past two seasons. While our experiences have been very positive, there are several important details to be understood and acted upon before a high quali...

MetaCrop is a manually curated repository of high quality information concerning the metabolism of crop plants. This includes pathway diagrams, reactions, locations, transport processes, reaction kinetics, taxonomy and literature. MetaCrop provides detailed information on six major crop plants with high agronomical importance and initial information about several other plants. The web interface...

Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) remains an important agronomic crop in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. In recent years, the value of Alabama’s 190,000-acre peanut crop has exceeded $120 million annually. However, the diseases early leaf spot, late leaf spot, and southern stem rot may greatly reduce the profitability of Alabama’s peanut crop due to lower yields and poorer nut quality (7). Also, fung...

With current trends of converting grasslands to row crop agriculture in vulnerable areas, there is a critical need to evaluate the effects of land use on groundwater quality in large river floodplain systems. In this study, groundwater hydrology and nutrient dynamics associated with three land cover types (grassland, floodplain forest and cropland) were assessed at the Cedar River floodplain in...