A five year Joint Project between SASEX and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs was initiated in 1996, aimed at improving the crop production capabilities of small scale cane growers. As part of this Project, research trials were conducted to investigate the economics and practicalities of intercropping cane with food crops. Results from the first two years of ...

A recently completed (Nov. 2009), Cornell University project that focused on controlling weeds in strawberries during the establishment year by transplanting dormant berry plants into a killed cover crop showed great promise, but revealed a barrier. Most growers had difficulty planting through the cover crop. This resulted in slower establishment during the first month and possibly caused skips...

Modelling crop evapotranspiration (ET) response to different planting scenarios in an irrigation district plays a significant role in optimizing crop planting patterns, resolving agricultural water scarcity and facilitating the sustainable use of water resources. In this study, the SWAT model was improved by transforming the evapotranspiration module. Then, the improved model was applied in Qin...

Phytophagous stink bugs are economically important pests of annual and perennial crops in the southeastern United States. Because of insecticide resistance and risk of secondary pest outbreaks, there is interest in identifying cultural practices that could lead to reduced insecticide applications. The objective of this project was to assess the importance of cotton planting date on stink bug da...

This study examines the factors that determine the likelihood of submitting a potentially fraudulent prevented planting claim. A theoretical model is developed and the theoretical predictions are empirically verified by utilizing a binary choice model and crop insurance data from the southern United States. The empirical results show that insured producers with higher prevented planting coverag...

This paper demonstrates the potential of using Web search volumes for generating crop specific planting and harvesting dates in the USA integrating climatic, social and technological factors affecting crop calendars. Using Google Insights for Search, clear peaks in volume occur at times of planting and harvest at the national level, which were used to derive corn specific planting and harvestin...

without any scientific basis. About 20 years ago, researchers In response to requests by small scale cane growers of KwaZulu-Natal for advice on i~nproving their system of crop production, a Joint Project between SASEX and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agricul~ure was started in 1996. Trials were initiated to investigate the practicalitics of intercropping rainfed and irrigated cane with food...

The effect of crop sequence on parasitism of second-stage juveniles (J2) of Heterodera glycines by Hirsutella rhossiliensis was investigated. Data were collected from plots of a long-term crop rotation experiment established in 1982. Crop sequences included (i) continuous monoculture of corn and soybean; (ii) annual rotation of the two crops; and (iii) 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 years of each crop follow...

This paper presents a method used in China Agriculture Remote Sensing Monitoring System (CHARMS) for automatically identifying crop planting areas and monitoring crop growth conditions at a large scale based on time-series of MODIS NDVI Datasets. In doing that, the characteristics of NDVI time series of spring wheat, spring maize, soybean and rice in Northeastern China were firstly analyzed to ...