an artificial neural network (ann) approach was used to model the wheat production. from an extensive data collection involving 40 farms in canterbury, new zealand, the average wheat production was estimated at 9.9 t ha-1. the final ann model developed was capable of predicting wheat production under different conditions and farming systems using direct and indirect technical factors. after exa...

this study assessed of youth involvement in agricultural production in sabon gari local government area. the data used for this study were collected using interview schedule administered to 112 respondents who were selected through multi-stage sampling procedure. descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentages and means were used to analyze the data. the result revealed that majority (95....

Agricultural production is not keeping up with the world demand for food because the human population is increasing faster than agriculture’s food production capability (Pimentel et al., 1999). Uneven distribution of food, the inability of the poor to purchase food, and political unrest also threaten world food security for human society. Currently, more than 3 billion humans worldwide are maln...

Several studies have shown that global crop production needs to double by 2050 to meet the projected demands from rising population, diet shifts, and increasing biofuels consumption. Boosting crop yields to meet these rising demands, rather than clearing more land for agriculture has been highlighted as a preferred solution to meet this goal. However, we first need to understand how crop yields...

The goal of microbiome engineering is to manipulate the microbiome toward a certain type of community that will optimize plant functions of interest. For instance, in crop production the goal is to reduce disease susceptibility, increase nutrient availability increase abiotic stress tolerance and increase crop yields. Various approaches can be devised to engineer the plant-microbiome, but one p...

The Florida vegetable industry relies heavily on plasticulture technologies from the transplant nursery through the packing house and market chain. The value of the Florida vegetable industry has consistently risen while the acreage has declined for many commodities. The use of greenhouse technologies for high-valued crops is an alternative method of crop production that would compliment the cu...

Between 1906 and 1917 China (under the Imperial and then Republican regimes) enacted a highly effective intervention to suppress the production of opium. Evidence from British Foreign Office records suggest that the intervention was centred, in many areas, upon a highly repressive incarnation of law enforcement in which rural populations had their property destroyed, their land confiscated and/...

The Green Revolution, through the adoption of new crop varieties, irrigation, and agrochemicals, saved about 1 billion people from famine by increasing global food production (FAO 2011). We now recognize that these enormous gains in agricultural production were accompanied by harm to agriculture’s natural resource base, jeopardizing our future ability to meet human food, fuel, and fiber needs f...