The frequency and timing of nitrogen (N) application on corn strongly influences environmental N losses and yield, particularly in different weather. Split N application is a 4R (Right Source, Right Rate, Right Time, Right Place) nutrient management practice that ensures sufficient N supply when the crop needs it most, minimizing N losses to the environment, while allowing N rate adaptations as the

Identifying approaches to producing greater amounts of rice with higher water productivity (WP) and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is a major challenge for economical, environmentally friendly rice production. Despite the advantages of controlled-release N fertilizers, few studies have investigated their effects on rice agronomic performance, grain yield, NUE and WP under different irrigation regimes

Sweet potato is a tuberous root with versatility in food products, but also with applications in the energy industry, such as in ethanol production. Developing mechanisms to assess the performance of this crop is important, difficult, and costly, as its commercial product grows below ground. The use of remote sensing to evaluate the development of sweet potato has not yet been reported in the literature

Olive orchards represent a key agricultural system with high economic and environmental prominence. Expected future climate tendencies over the Mediterranean could threaten the sustainability of such strategic tree crop. This study evaluates the productive and environmental performance of olive orchards under different climate change scenarios and management strategies across the main olive-farming

The crop growth model (CGM) widely contributes to studying the impacts of regional climate change on crop growth status and yield. However, it requires high-quality daily weather data for the model establishment and verification, and the low data availability limits the application of CGM at the regional scale. With the rapid development of machine learning techniques, adapting data-driven machine

In the next decades, the population is expected to rise by more than two billion people, and the projections of climate change have been considered as one of the greatest future challenges for world food security. Soybean represents more than 60 % of all plant protein produced in the world, and Brazil is the largest world exporter and the second-largest producer. In this paper, we simulated soybean

Branched broomrape (Phelipanche ramosa (L.) Pomel) is a parasitic plant, which causes severe yield losses in major crops worldwide. Because of its broad host range, including numerous non-parasitic weed species, the persistence of its seeds in the soil, and the poor efficiency of available management techniques, broomrape management is complex. The objective of the present paper was to develop a broomrape-dynamics

Cover crops have a high potential to manage weeds through competition for shared resources in tropical agrosystems. Assessing the abilities of a large number of different plant species to compete with weeds requires experiments in different pedo-climatic environments. Our study was based on a set of 10 trials including 46 species of cover crops performed from 2016 to 2018 in three sites in Reunion

The productivity of permanent temperate cut grasslands is mainly driven by weather, soil characteristics, botanical composition and management. To adapt management to climate change, adjusting the cutting dates to reflect earlier onset of growth and expansion of the vegetation period is particularly important. Simulations of cut grassland productivity under climate change scenarios demands management

Critical nitrogen (Nc) dilution curves have been widely used for the plant N status diagnosis, N management, crop modeling, and remote sensing. Wheat is a major crop worldwide whose Nc dilution curves developed under different conditions (genotype × environment × management) show large parameter variations. Herein, a dataset of 19 nitrogen fertilizer experiments (n = 656) from five wheat planting sites

Soil acidity is one of the major drivers of yield-limited crop productivity, particularly when combined with dry spells during crop development. Liming is a widely used strategy for alleviating the negative effects of soil acidity, ensuring greater crop root development to assist the plant in periods of low water availability, promoting full photosynthetic activity and, consequently, increasing crop

Common vetch (Vicia sativa L.)-oat (Avena sativa L.) intercropping is widely used for forage production, especially in alpine regions. To understand the effects of row configuration on radiation interception and productivity in common vetch-oat strip intercropping under low-input conditions, a field experiment with seven treatments of different numbers of rows for common vetch and oat [1:1 (RI), 2:1

Interactions between neighbouring plants in an ecosystem can lead to competition, even in single-species stands. Genetic selection of perennial plants based on the individual values of genotypes does not usually take into account interactions that develop over time. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether the effects of competition might affect the performance of cacao genotypes tested over

The use of forage legumes and herbs in temporary grassland swards is a promising strategy to enhance productivity, protein supply, herbage quality and species diversity in forage-based low input dairy production. Species containing plant specialized metabolites (PSM; e.g. tannins or polyphenol oxidase) are associated with positive effects on ruminants’ health, performance and nitrogen use efficiency

Entomopathogenic fungi (EF), which are widely used as biological insecticides, have been shown to colonize a wide range of plants influencing their performance. Also, recent studies under controlled conditions have revealed that EF can additionally act as plant growth promoters and nutritional enhancers. In this work, we examined the effects of the EF species Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium brunneum

Identifying locally adapted and adopted efficient practices can be a step towards the agroecological transition of irrigated plains of the Southern Mediterranean region. However, these types of practices - often little known - are drowned within a wide range of practices. The objective of this study was, first, to elaborate a method to describe this diversity in a semi-arid irrigated landscape, at

Little is known about optimising the productivity of intercropping through exploiting differences between genotypes. Our study evaluates the performance of three winter wheat cultivars and eight winter faba bean genotypes (experimental inbred lines) sown as replacement row intercrops with sole cropping comparisons. Detailed agronomic, physiological and soil-based measurements were taken over three

Peanut-maize intercropping is known to alleviate iron deficiency in peanut on calcareous soils by belowground interspecific interactions. However, the underlying mechanisms of these interactions are not fully understood. A two-year field experiment with two nitrogen fertilizer levels was performed on a calcareous soil, to study Fe and N nutrition and yield of a peanut-maize intercrop (IC). In order

Current environmental concerns, the rising economic and environmental costs of mineral fertilizers and the need to respond to the limitations of N fertilization in organic farming motivate the search for alternative sources of N in maize cropping. Forage legumes used as winter cover crops may improve soil N fertility and offer benefits to the environment. The aim of this study was to examine the effects

Nitrogen (N) fertilization management plays an important role in optimizing crop growth and yield. Concerns over environmental risk require a quick, accurate, non-destructive determination of the N status of crops. Hyperspectral remote sensing allows a timely monitoring of the in-season crop N status. Although many spectral indices for assessing the N status of crops have been proposed, it is still

Sulfur (S) deficiency has been recently reported in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] producing regions across the United States. However, field studies have often failed to demonstrate a strong relationship between yield and S fertilization and generally attributing the lack of yield response to unfavorable weather and high soil S supply. In addition, only a few reports described seed composition changes

Understanding how the spatial organization of diversified plant communities alters their performance is an important step in designing and managing diversified agroecosystems. The high level of spatial heterogeneity in tropical agroforests makes this task challenging. In 19 agroforestry plots in Talamanca (Costa Rica), we analyzed the effect of the structure of the plant community in the neighborhood

A major path helping agriculture achieve the dual challenges of production and environmental preservation, consists of transitioning from the current, external input-based, conventional farming systems to a biodiversity-based agricultural system that rely more on ecosystem services. One lever of this transition consists of diversifying agri-food systems using practices such as rotation extension, intercropping

Estimation of crop nutrient demand, seed nutrient removal, and nutrient use efficiency (yield to nutrient uptake ratio) are crucial for pursuing both balanced nutrition and more sustainable farming systems. However, the estimation of the nutrient requirements as the nutrient uptake per unit of seed yields is impaired in many situations due to the narrow variation of the dataset used to obtain these

Relay strip intercropping systems have the advantage of increasing land yield, but there are few studies on how pre-crops affect the grain yield and phosphorus (P) use of subsequent crops in such systems. Field experiments were carried out for four consecutive years, covering two complete cycles of the crop sequence, to evaluate the effects of pre-crops on crop yield, P uptake, and topsoil P balance

Roots play major roles in plant anchorage, water and nutrient uptake, crop growth and yield. Knowledge regarding yield responses to root spatial distribution is still limited in maize. Here we designed three plant densities in the tube and in the field, respectively. The tube study included plant densities of 1, 2, and 3 plants tube–1 and field study included 50025 (D50025), 67500 (D67500), and 100050

Short dry spells are an important grain yield constraint in tropical regions. Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) and their metabolites can mitigate the impact of drought stress by promoting changes in plant metabolism, physiology, and biochemistry. However, the effects of PGPB on soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merril] under drought stress in tropical regions have not been established. The experiments

Remote sensing is a valuable tool for reducing the environmental impact of agricultural practices by detecting crop nitrogen (N) and water status for site-specific N fertilization and irrigation. The interaction between N and water status may produce confounding effects in the acquired spectral reflectance, making it difficult to separate crop deficiencies. The objective of this study was to evaluate

The decreasing mineral concentrations in the grains of cereals have recently stimulated research to better understand the cropping determinants of grain mineral composition. This study aimed to analyze the effects of liming on the mineral concentrations in the grains of three cereal crops: barley, oat, wheat. The hypothesis tested was that soil pH is the main driver of the grain nutrient concentrations

A multi-model inter-comparison study was conducted to evaluate the performance of ten potato crop models to accurately predict potato yield in response to elevated CO2 (Ce) when calibrated with ambient CO2 data (Ca). Experimental data from seven open-top chambers (OTC) and free-air−CO2-enrichment (FACE) facilities across continental Europe were used. Model ensemble percent errors averaged over all

Winter cover crops, used as green manure, can supply up to 45 units of nitrogen per hectare to the following summer crops. In order to contribute to the establishment of the nitrogen balance sheet for fertilisation recommendation of subsequent main crop at field scale, this supply is currently derived from the biomass production, classically estimated visually using 3 classes: 0–1, 1–3, 3+ tons of

Increased interest in managing agroecosystems for soil health has led to adoption of conservation management practices such as cover cropping and no-tillage. There is a dearth of knowledge surrounding cover crop residue N cycling and release, impacting subsequent N availability for the cash crop after cover crop termination. The microbial degradation of plant material and subsequent nutrient release

Optimizing the use of phosphorus (P) fertilizers is essential considering the environmental issues linked to over fertilization and the limited rock phosphate reserve. Diagnosing the crop P status by calculating a phosphorus nutrition index (PNI) based on the plant critical P concentration (Pc) could help determine the minimum amount of P fertilizer to ensure maximum crop yield. This study investigated

The pseudocereal buckwheat (Fagopyrum species) has a wide range of agronomic and health benefits that make it a promising crop for sustainable agricultural production. Buckwheat is gluten free and has been shown to provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition. This study examined the effect of sowing date on growth, development, yield and nutritional quality of the varieties Bamby and Čebelica over

Nitrogen (N) fertilization plays a pivotal role in canopy photosynthetic capacity and yield formation of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.), but the interaction effects with consecutive straw returning remain poorly understood. A field experiment was conducted (2015–2018) to examine the effects of N fertilization (0, 75, 150, and 300 kg N ha−1) coupled with or without barley and cotton straw supplementation

Growth and yield can be decoupled in lentil whereby excessive vegetative growth leads to self-shading, reduced pod and seed set, low harvest index and higher risk of disease and lodging. We evaluated the degree of coupling between growth and yield in 20 lentil lines grown in eight environments varying in water and photothermal conditions returning a 10-fold yield range, from 21 to 221 g m−2. Calibration

Previous research has found that, based on Taylor’s Power Law (TPL), the coefficient of variation (CV) of yield data may functionally be related to the mean, with an exponential mean yield decline with increasing CV. Recent proposals have been made how this scale-dependency can be removed in order to allow a scale-independent assessment of stability. The theoretical background of the hypothesis was

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer is commonly applied to wheat crops (Triticum aestivum L.) during the vegetative growth to meet crop requirements. Current decision rules for N application result in N losses to the environment, and thus to low N use efficiency, due to excess of N fertilizer and/or poor synchrony between soil supply and crop N demand. Despite existing tools and methods to manage N fertilization

Drought stress affects yield formation of sugar beet. Under climatic changes with longer periods of drought, the development of sugar beet varieties with a higher drought stress tolerance is gaining importance. Objectives of the study were to investigate genotypic differences in the response to different environments, especially drought stress, to define conditions in which sugar beet can best be selected

Developing more sustainable forage systems requires efficient decision support tools for fertilization management. Soil phosphorus (P) tests have long been used as decision support tools for fertilization management but, more recently, plant nutrition indices using the P concentration of shoot biomass were developed to assess the P nutrition status of grasslands. The objectives of this study were to

Phosphorus fertilization and liming are alternatives used to increase forage production in Southern Brazil grasslands (Pampa grasslands) and to avoid its replacement by cultivated exotic crops. However, changes in natural soil fertility can significantly affect the equilibrium of natural vegetation communities. We hypothesized that triple and simple superphosphate and limestone using would lead to

Reports on the effectiveness of Fusarium head blight (FHB) control measures do not follow the same pattern in different regions, and the combined effects of abiotic and biotic factors on FHB are not fully understood. Consequently, the main objective of this study was to examine divergence in susceptibility reactions of winter wheat genotypes to FHB when exposed to the combined effects of cultivation

The yield of cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) can be effectively maximized through high planting density. Estimating the yields from single-leaf photosynthesis under various plant densities is difficult as the source-sink relationship of cotton is complicated. By considering the boll-leaf system (BLS: including the main-stem leaf, sympodial leaf and non-leaf organs) as the basic unit of the cotton canopy

Accurate assessments of the yield potential of cassava are needed to analyse yield gaps, define yield targets and set benchmarks for actual yields in Nigeria. This study evaluated the crop model LINTUL-Cassava under assumed potential growth and water-limited conditions in Nigeria. On-farm experiments were conducted at six locations across the three major cassava growing agro-ecologies of Western Africa

Frost during stem elongation is one of the most destructive disasters in China, which has a significant impact on the production of winter wheat. Automatic monitoring of frost injury to canopy is of vital importance to the early prediction of yield loss. This study investigated the potential of hyperspectral techniques in predicting the Percent Yield Difference (PYD) of frost-damaged winter wheat.

Nitrogen (N) is significantly related to crop photosynthetic capacity. Over-and-under-application of N fertilizers not only limits crop productivity but also leads to negative environment impacts. With such a dilemma, a feasible solution is to match N supply with crop needs across time and space. Hyperspectral remote sensing has been gradually regarded as a cost-effective alternative to traditional

Arable land is subjected to the difficulties of increased social development and environmental anomalies. Therefore, these critical problems can impact food security. Future food security would depend on an improved yield per unit area. Thus, breeding varieties that are high-yield, stable-yield, and resilient to climate change are critical to increase or maintain rice yields. The effects of variety

Average grain weight (AGW) is a major component of wheat yield. When attempting to elucidate mechanisms behind treatments effects on AGW, the distribution of the weight of individual grains may be critical. Determining the individual weight of thousands of grains in each sample would be unmanageable. Then, when individual sizes must be considered, researchers either weigh individually a very minor

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of agroforestry systems with narrow rows on microclimate, crop quality, productivity, and revenue when compared with that in sole-cropping in drylands. Therefore, two-year field experiments were conducted to determine the characteristics of two types of agroforestry systems in drylands of Xinjiang including photosynthetically active radiation

Adequate fertilization strategies are paramount to fulfill increasing demands for food, feed and fiber while reducing environmental impacts. However, their optimization under Mediterranean no-till systems has received little attention. The objective of this work was to assess winter cereal yield and water and N use efficiencies in a rainfed semiarid Mediterranean climate under (i) a range of pre-plant

A high recovery of applied fertilizer nitrogen (N) is required to minimize the environmental impact and to achieve high grain protein concentrations (GPC). Based on a long-term field trial (1976–2018) with winter wheat in northern Germany with 64 N fertilizer treatments differing in amount (0–360 kg N ha−1) and distribution, the effects of N fertilizer amount and variety on the apparent fertilizer

Sustainable management of intensively managed agricultural land requires high productivity with low environmental impacts. There is a lack of understanding concerning the effectiveness of early sowing of winter cereals compared with catch crops for reducing nitrogen (N) leaching losses. To test this, an experiment was conducted over three years (2016–2019) with different crop rotations and increasing