Year to year variation in yield is an inherent risk associated with crop production and many growers rely on intensive mechanical or chemical inputs to preserve crop yield in the face of fluctuating environmental conditions. However, as interest grows in alternative crop management systems which depend less on external inputs, determining the degree to which management systems can impact the te...

In the semi-arid tropics, over two-third’s of the world’s people depend on agriculture within which livestock play a major role in building rural livelihoods. Crop residues (fodder/stover) are important feed resources for ruminants. This review was undertaken with the objective of improving understanding of the role of various crop management factors in affecting the productivity and quality of...

Imagine there exist markets for yield futures contracts as well as ordinary price futures contracts. • Intuitively one would think that a combined use of yield futures contracts and price futures contracts ought to provide a reasonable strategy for insuring revenue. • In the paper this idea is made precise. It is shown that revenue can be secured in by a combined replication of these two contra...

This project aims to maximize the utility of plant lignocellulosic biomass as an abundant, sustainable, and carbon-neutral energy feedstock by optimizing both its yield and composition to facilitate downstream conversions to fuel and electricity. Working independently with different lignin-deficient mutants, the partners have discovered novel genes that mitigate the growth defects [so-called li...

A prospective audit of the diagnostic yield and management benefit of laparoscopy was undertaken in 220 consecutive patients. The procedure was performed electively in 180 patients and as an emergency in 40. The indications for laparoscopy in the elective group were suspected hepatic disease, staging of intra-abdominal malignancy, diagnostic problems, and chronic abdominal pain. Emergency lapar...

One of the fundamental concepts of integrated pest management is that each pest species has a definable relationship in terms of damage to the plant or animal host that it attacks. This relationship is often referred to as the damage curve (Fig. 1), which is often determined relative to yield loss. This damage curve can take several forms, but was summarized by Higley and Peterson as having a t...

in many crops, incorrect management of nitrogen and water is one of the most important factors in the resources productivity such as water and nitrogen. in order to evaluate the effects of different nitrogen levels (zero, 50, 100 and 150 kg ha-1) and irrigation application rates (100, 75 and 50% of water requirement per species) on corn, sesame and sugar beet, three separate experiments was con...

Yield monitors are a recent development in agricultural machinery that allow grain producers to assess the effects of weather, soil properties, and management on grain production. They are a logical first step for those who want to begin practicing sitespecific crop management or “precision agriculture.” The accuracy of these devices depends on appropriate installation, calibration, and operati...