The CRSP will not be distributing this publication. Copies may be obtained by writing to the authors. A pilot study on the spatial and temporal soil moisture distribution in integrated crop-fishwetland and crop-wetland agroecosystems in Zomba-East, Malawi Daniel Jamu International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management P.O. Box 229, Zomba, Malawi Integration of aquaculture into existing...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of soil moisture condition and irrigation regime on the bioelectric potential of crops with different growth stages. The bioelectric potential of broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) plants at the initial and mid-growth stages was measured under different soil moisture conditions and irrigation regimes using pot experiments. The result...

Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important oilseed crop grown in our country. Majority of crop is under rainfed conditions and as a post rainy season (Rabi) crop in Andhra Pradesh. Several models are available to predict the phenology, growth and yield of groundnut crop. However, no precise models are available to validate the effects of moisture stress on groundnut and their subsequent im...

Open sun drying (OSD) is the most common method of crop drying in developing countries. Despite several disadvantages, it is widely practiced because it is a simple way of drying. Crop temperature, temperature around the crop, solair temperature, and rate of moisture evaporation are the important parameters in OSD. The thermal behavior of OSD of green chillies, green pea, white gram (kabuli cha...

An outdoor crop-bed was prepared to observe scatterometer response in the angular range of 20◦ to 70◦ at VVand HHpolarization. The soil moisture and crop variables like plant height, leaf area index and biomass of crop ladyfinger were measured at different growth stages of the crop ladyfinger. Temporal variation in scattering coefficient was found highly dependent on crop variables and observed...

Timely and accurate monitoring of global weather anomalies and drought conditions is essential for assessing global crop conditions. Soil moisture observations are particularly important for crop yield fluctuations provided by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Production Estimation and Crop Assessment Division (PECAD). The current system utilized by PECAD estimates soil moisture from a 2-...

Cropping systems in Western Australia (WA) are strongly dominated by cereals (wheat, barley and oaten hay) and are inextricably linked to soil quality and moisture supply. So a major research challenge is to devise cropping systems that improve soil health and maximise water-use efficiency. For a profitable and sustainable production system there is a clear need for ‘break crop’ to provide a pe...

The design and operation of supplementary irrigation schemes are dependent upon an accurate estimation of the "total available moisture" in the soil. This has been defined as the amount of water held between the limits of field capacity and wilting point in the effective rooting depth of the crop. Under irrigated conditions the effective rooting depth is that depth of soil from which the crop c...

Different techniques for estimating seasonal water use from soil profile water depletion frequently do not account for flux below the root zone. Shallow water table contribution to supply crop water use may be important in arid and semi-arid regions. Development of predictive root uptake models, under influence of shallow water table makes it possible for planners to incorporate interaction bet...

Biophysical crop simulation models are normally forced with precipitation data recorded with either gauges or ground-based radar. However, ground-based recording networks are not available at spatial and temporal scales needed to drive the models at many critical places on earth. An alternative would be to employ satellite-based observations of either precipitation or soil moisture. Satellite o...