Many important cell-to-cell communication events in multicellular organisms are mediated by peptides, but only a few peptides have been identified in plants. In an attempt to address the difficulties in identifying plant signaling peptides, we developed a novel peptidomics approach and used this approach to discover defense signaling peptides in plants. In addition to the canonical peptide syst...

Demand for bioenergy is increasing, but the ecological consequences of bioenergy crop production on working lands remain unresolved. Corn is currently a dominant bioenergy crop, but perennial grasslands could produce renewable bioenergy resources and enhance biodiversity. Grassland bird populations have declined in recent decades and may particularly benefit from perennial grasslands grown for ...

During the twentieth century, agricultural production strived to achieve increased food production in order to satisfy both local and export demands. In many cases, this led to increased farm sizes and an operational separation of crop and livestock production. Society fears that the trend of increasing centralization and industrialization of agriculture, specifically animal agriculture, has re...

Changes in soil microbiotic properties such as microbial biomass and community structure in response to alternative management systems are driven by microbial substrate quality and substrate utilization. We evaluated irrigated crop and forage production in two separate four-year experiments for differences in microbial substrate quality, microbial biomass and community structure, and microbial ...

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/...

One of the main manifestations of climate change will be increased rainfall variability. How to deal with this in agriculture will be a major societal challenge. In this paper we explore flexibility in land use, through deliberate seasonal adjustments in cropped area, as a specific strategy for coping with rainfall variability. Such adjustments are not incorporated in hydro-meteorological crop ...

The paper surveys the price competitiveness of agricultural production in Central and East European Countries (CEECs). It draws together empirical work conducted by the authors and other studies that have estimated domestic resource cost (DRC) ratios for agriculture in various CEECs. The paper identifies that in general CEEC crop production is more internationally competitive than livestock far...

Expansion of commercial vegetable production in Kentucky prompted the updating of the 1998 commercial vegetable budget estimates for Kentucky’s major commercial vegetables in 2000. Updates continued throughout subsequent seasons. These estimated returns to land, labor, and management sought to convey a conservative profitability estimate for comparative purposes among existing and potential com...

The potato-cyst nematodes Heterodera rostochiensis and H. pallida are important pathogens of potatoes, a basic food crop. When soil populations of either species are high, potato yields are often less than the seed planted. Apparently, these nematodes originated in the Andean mountains of South America, the home of the potato. One or both species have spread from this region to approximately 47...

Nepal is small geographically, but is an important centre of agricultural biodiversity. The rich Nepalese agro-biodiversity has evolved over time and space due to extreme variations in altitude and environmental conditions. Crop production takes place between 70 to 3000 m elevation where a wide range of micro-ecological niches are found, and varied crop production systems are being practiced by...