• Authors:
    • Singh, U. P.
    • Punia, M.
    • Gupta, R.
    • Sidhu, B. S.
    • Chandna, P.
    • Ladha, J. K.
  • Source: Applied Geography
  • Volume: 32
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2012
  • Summary: Satisfying the food demands of an ever-increasing population, preserving the natural resource base, and improving livelihoods are major challenges for South Asia. A large area of land in the Middle and Lower Gangetic Plains of South Asia remains either uncultivated or underused following the rice harvest in the kharif (wet) season. The area includes "rice-fallow," estimated at 6.7 million ha, flood-prone riversides (" diara lands," 2.4 million ha), waterlogged areas (4.9 million ha), and salt-affected soils (2.3 million ha). Bringing these lands under production could substantially improve the food supply and enhance livelihoods in the region. This paper describes a methodological case study that targeted resource-conserving technologies in underused lands of the Ballia District of eastern Uttar Pradesh (India) using multispectral remote-sensing images. Classification of temporal satellite data IRS-P6 in combination with Spot VGT 2 permitted the identification of all major categories of underused land during the post-rainy rabi/winter season, with an average accuracy of 89%. Based on three-year averages of field demonstrations, farmers gained an additional income of $63 ha -1 by introducing raised beds in salt-affected soils; $140 and $800 ha -1 by introducing deepwater rice varieties (monsoon) and boro rice (winter) in waterlogged areas; and $581 ha -1 by introducing zero-till lentil (winter) in rain-fed fallow lowland. Timely wheat planting through zero-tillage implies an additional income of $147 ha -1 and could increase wheat production by 35,000-65,000 tons in the district. The methodologies and technologies suggested in the study are applicable to more than 15 million ha of underutilized lands of the Indo-Gangetic Plains of South Asia. If the technologies are precisely applied, they can result in more than 3000 million US $ of additional income every year to these poverty prone areas.
  • Authors:
    • Seufert, V.
    • Ramankutty, N.
    • Foley, J. A.
  • Source: Nature
  • Volume: 485
  • Issue: 7397
  • Year: 2012
  • Summary: Numerous reports have emphasized the need for major changes in the global food system: agriculture must meet the twin challenge of feeding a growing population, with rising demand for meat and high-calorie diets, while simultaneously minimizing its global environmental impacts. Organic farming - a system aimed at producing food with minimal harm to ecosystems, animals or humans - is often proposed as a solution. However, critics argue that organic agriculture may have lower yields and would therefore need more land to produce the same amount of food as conventional farms, resulting in more widespread deforestation and biodiversity loss, and thus undermining the environmental benefits of organic practices. Here we use a comprehensive meta-analysis to examine the relative yield performance of organic and conventional farming systems globally. Our analysis of available data shows that, overall, organic yields are typically lower than conventional yields. But these yield differences are highly contextual, depending on system and site characteristics, and range from 5% lower organic yields (rain-fed legumes and perennials on weak-acidic to weak-alkaline soils), 13% lower yields (when best organic practices are used), to 34% lower yields (when the conventional and organic systems are most comparable). Under certain conditions - that is, with good management practices, particular crop types and growing conditions - organic systems can thus nearly match conventional yields, whereas under others it at present cannot. To establish organic agriculture as an important tool in sustainable food production, the factors limiting organic yields need to be more fully understood, alongside assessments of the many social, environmental and economic benefits of organic farming systems.
  • Authors:
    • Chapagain, T.
    • Riseman, A.
  • Source: American Journal of Plant Sciences
  • Volume: 3
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2012
  • Summary: A cultivar trial, including commercial and heirloom cultivars of major cereals and grain legumes was conducted in Vancouver, BC, under low input organic conditions. We assessed 19 wheat (6 commercial and 13 heirloom), 17 barley (8 commercial and 9 heirloom), 5 pea, 5 favabean, 5 kidneybean, 2 lentil, and 2 soyabean cultivars for plant performance metrics, and their potential in a small grain:legume intercropping system. Heirloom wheat cultivars showed notable response in a number of parameters including late maturity, taller plants, greatest number of spikes per m 2, longest spike, highest number of seed per spike, greater seed weight to volume ratio, and resistance to stripe rust compared with commercial cultivars. For the heirloom-type, 6 of 14 wheat cultivars, ( i.e., "Reward", "Glenn", "Cerebs", "Red Bobs", "Sounders" and "Black Bearded") produced yields comparable to the commercial cultivars ( i.e., nearly 5 t/h or higher). Also, heirloom cultivars typically contained higher protein levels most suitable for baking and blending purposes with "Einkorn" displaying the highest level (16.2%). Heirloom and commercial barley cultivars did not differ significantly with respect to plant height, spike length, and seed weight to volume ratio. However, a number of heirloom cultivars (e.g., "Jet", "Dolma", "Andie" and "Himalayan") displayed greater responses on earliness, number of spikes per m 2, grain yield, protein content and seed weight to volume ratio. Pea and lentil yielded lower than the national average under trial conditions. However, heirloom peas "Corgi", "De Grace", "Snowbird", and "Golden" were earlier compared to the commercial cultivar "Reward". All kidney bean cultivars yielded ~3 t/h with the highest yield from "Red Kidney" (3.8 t/h). Fava and soyabean appeared as promising crops as the cultivars produced good growth and yields. Neither lentil ("Crimson" and "Essex") produced satisfactory responses though they had excellent vegetative growth and flowered. Therefore, significant variation was observed including several heirloom cultivars displayed great potential in terms of yield, protein content, and disease resistance and that specific cultivars were better suited for an intercropping system.
  • Authors:
    • Ercoli, L.
    • Masoni, A.
    • Mariotti, M.
    • Arduini, I.
  • Source: Grass and Forage Science
  • Volume: 67
  • Issue: 2
  • Year: 2012
  • Summary: Intercropping (IC) cereals and legumes could be an option for obtaining forage suitable for ensiling and enabling reduced N fertilization. Two experiments were performed in central Italy with durum wheat ( Triticum durum Desf.) and field bean ( Vicia faba L. var. minor) grown for forage production in IC and as sole crops (SC) with different N rates (20 and 50 kg ha -1) and row ratios (1:1 and 2:1 cereal/legume). The aims were to assess (i) whether IC is a feasible option to reduce N fertilization; (ii) the best combination of practices to obtain forage suitable for ensiling; and (iii) competition/facilitation effects exerted by field bean on durum wheat. Results showed IC allowed fertilizer-N reduction and led to improved forage yield with better quality, compared with SC. Land equivalent ratio indicated a high efficiency of the IC, by up to 26% with respect to SC. Field bean was the dominant species of IC, but N fertilization reduced its competitive ability and enhanced that of wheat. In the intercrop fertilized with 50 kg N ha -1, the proportion of the wheat in the herbage (0.34-0.41 of the total dry matter) was sufficient for ensiling of the forage mass. Field bean exerted both competition and facilitation effects on the cereal. N uptake of durum wheat was greater under IC with beans than as wheat SC.
  • Authors:
    • Asselt, E.
    • Eitzinger, J.
    • Brisson, N.
    • Siebert, S.
    • Ewert, F.
    • Trnka, M.
    • Borjesson, T.
    • Peltonen-Sainio, P.
    • Skjelvag, A.
    • Rotter, R.
    • Palosuo, T.
    • Elsgaard, L.
    • Borgesen, C.
    • Olesen, J.
    • Oberforster, M.
    • Fels-Klerx, H.
  • Source: Food Additives and Contaminants Part A-Chemistry Analysis Control Exposure & Risk Assessment
  • Volume: 29
  • Issue: 10
  • Year: 2012
  • Summary: The phenological development of cereal crops from emergence through flowering to maturity is largely controlled by temperature, but also affected by day length and potential physiological stresses. Responses may vary between species and varieties. Climate change will affect the timing of cereal crop development, but exact changes will also depend on changes in varieties as affected by plant breeding and variety choices. This study aimed to assess changes in timing of major phenological stages of cereal crops in Northern and Central Europe under climate change. Records on dates of sowing, flowering, and maturity of wheat, oats and maize were collected from field experiments conducted during the period 1985-2009. Data for spring wheat and spring oats covered latitudes from 46 to 64°N, winter wheat from 46 to 61°N, and maize from 47 to 58°N. The number of observations (site-year-variety combinations) varied with phenological phase, but exceeded 2190, 227, 2076 and 1506 for winter wheat, spring wheat, spring oats and maize, respectively. The data were used to fit simple crop development models, assuming that the duration of the period until flowering depends on temperature and day length for wheat and oats, and on temperature for maize, and that the duration of the period from flowering to maturity in all species depends on temperature only. Species-specific base temperatures were used. Sowing date of spring cereals was estimated using a threshold temperature for the mean air temperature during 10 days prior to sowing. The mean estimated temperature thresholds for sowing were 6.1, 7.1 and 10.1°C for oats, wheat and maize, respectively. For spring oats and wheat the temperature threshold increased with latitude. The effective temperature sums required for both flowering and maturity increased with increasing mean annual temperature of the location, indicating that varieties are well adapted to given conditions. The responses of wheat and oats were largest for the period from flowering to maturity. Changes in timing of cereal phenology by 2040 were assessed for two climate model projections according to the observed dependencies on temperature and day length. The results showed advancements of sowing date of spring cereals by 1-3 weeks depending on climate model and region within Europe. The changes were largest in Northern Europe. Timing of flowering and maturity were projected to advance by 1-3 weeks. The changes were largest for grain maize and smallest for winter wheat, and they were generally largest in the western and northern part of the domain. There were considerable differences in predicted timing of sowing, flowering and maturity between the two climate model projections applied.
  • Authors:
    • Gaillard, B.
    • Foissy, D.
    • Dorvillez, D.
    • Carrouee, B.
    • Boucheny, P.
    • Biarnes, V.
    • Bedoussac, L.
    • Baranger, E.
    • Al-Rifai, M.
    • Naudin, C.
    • Corre-Hellou, G.
    • Makowski, D.
    • Bazot, M.
    • Pelzer, E.
    • Guichard, L.
    • Mansard, M.
    • Omon, B.
    • Prieur, L.
    • Yvergniaux, M.
    • Justes, E.
    • Jeuffroy, M.
  • Source: European Journal of Agronomy
  • Volume: 40
  • Year: 2012
  • Summary: Intensive agriculture ensures high yields but can cause serious environmental damages. The optimal use of soil and atmospheric sources of nitrogen in cereal-legume mixtures may allow farmers to maintain high production levels and good quality with low external N inputs, and could potentially decrease environmental impacts, particularly through a more efficient energy use. These potential advantages are presented in an overall assessment of cereal-legume systems, accounting for the agronomic, environmental, energetic, and economic performances. Based on a low-input experimental field network including 16 site-years, we found that yields of pea-wheat intercrops (about 4.5 Mg ha -1 whatever the amount of applied fertiliser) were higher than sole pea and close to conventionally managed wheat yields (5.4 Mg ha -1 on average), the intercrop requiring less than half of the nitrogen fertiliser per ton of grain compared to the sole wheat. The land equivalent ratio and a statistical analysis based on the Price's equation showed that the crop mixture was more efficient than sole crops particularly under unfertilised situations. The estimated amount of energy consumed per ton of harvested grains was two to three times higher with conventionally managed wheat than with pea-wheat mixtures (fertilised or not). The intercrops allowed (i) maintaining wheat grain protein concentration and gross margin compared to wheat sole crop and (ii) increased the contribution of N 2 fixation to total N accumulation of pea crop in the mixture compared to pea sole crop. They also led to a reduction of (i) pesticide use compared to sole crops and (ii) soil mineral nitrogen after harvest compared to pea sole crop. Our results demonstrate that pea-wheat intercropping is a promising way to produce cereal grains in an efficient, economically sustainable and environmentally friendly way.
  • Authors:
    • Torrallardona, D.
    • Geraert, P.
    • Devillard, E.
    • Badiola, I.
    • Willamil, J.
  • Source: Journal of Animal Science
  • Volume: 90
  • Issue: 3
  • Year: 2012
  • Summary: Thirty-six pigs (22 kg of BW) were used to evaluate a carbohydrase preparation, with xylanase and beta-glucanase as main activities, added to either wheat-barley-rye- (WBR) or corn-based diets on performance, intestinal environment, and nutrient digestibility. Pigs were offered 1 of 4 different dietary treatments for 27 d according to a factorial arrangement of treatments (a 2*2) with 2 cereal types (WBR or corn) and 2 levels of supplemental carbohydrase (0 or 0.01%). Pig growth and feed intake were individually measured every week until the end of the experiment when pigs were slaughtered to obtain samples of digesta and tissues. Cereal type affected performance only during wk 1, in which WBR improved ADG (590 vs. 440 g/d; P=0.008) and G:F (0.61 vs. 0.43; P=0.045) compared with corn. The WBR also increased the viscosity of the digestive contents in stomach (1.95 vs. 1.23 mPa.s; P=0.001) and ileum (6.53 vs. 2.80 mPa.s; P=0.001) and resulted in greater cecal starch digestibility (95.7 vs. 93.9%; P=0.012). However, trends for a reduction in digestibility were observed for glucose in the nonstarch polysaccharide (NSP) fraction in the ileum (64.4 vs. 75.8%; P=0.074) and galactose in the NSP fraction in the cecum (1.4 vs. 1.8%; P=0.055). The use of the enzyme preparation increased ADFI during wk 2 (1,328 vs. 1,215 g/d; P=0.028), and increased villus height (423 vs. 390 m; P=0.045) and tended to reduce relative pancreas weight (0.16 vs. 0.17% BW; P=0.079) at d 27. The enzyme also improved cecal starch digestibility (95.5 vs. 94.1%; P=0.043) and tended to improve ileal energy digestibility (61.3 vs. 53.7%; P=0.090) and cecal glucose digestibility in the NSP fraction (76.0 vs. 54.5%; P=0.055). However, it reduced the cecal digestibility of mannose in the NSP fraction (27.0 vs. 50.5%; P=0.016). Interactions ( P
  • Authors:
    • Dramicanin, T.
    • Lenhardt, L.
    • Zekovic, I.
    • Dramicanin, M.
  • Source: Food Analytical Methods
  • Volume: 5
  • Issue: 5
  • Year: 2012
  • Summary: Synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy, a technique that measures both the absorption and the emission properties of a sample in a single measurement, was used for the analysis and classification of intact cereal flours (wheat, corn, rye, buckwheat, rice, and barley). Total synchronous fluorescence spectra recorded in constant wavelength mode show clear differences in the emission spectra of different flours due to variances in intrinsic fluorophore concentrations and their microenvironments. Principal component analysis, cluster analysis, and partial least squares discriminant analysis are used to assess the ability of synchronous fluorescence measurements to differentiate and classify intact samples of different flour types. The flour specimens were obtained directly from a market in Belgrade and had different expiration dates to provide a more representative set of samples. The results of the current analysis suggest that chemometric methods applied on synchronous fluorescence data can discriminate and classify flour types and that the best results are achieved using a combination of synchronous fluorescence measurements at synchronous intervals of 7 and 20 nm. The quality of results, the high speed of measurements, and the avoidance of extensive sample preparation make synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy a promising technique for cereal research.
  • Authors:
    • Baraibar, B.
    • Torra, J.
    • Atanackovic, V.
    • Westerman, P.
  • Source: IOBC/WPRS Bulletin
  • Volume: 75
  • Year: 2012
  • Summary: In dryland cereals in NE Spain, the harvester ant, Messor barbarus L., is responsible for a high percentage of seed removal. A direct density dependent response of seed predators to seed patches may help regulate weed populations. In this study, we investigated if seed removal rate by harvester ants is influenced by weed seed density. For this reason, 60 circular areas of 1 m 2 were created inside four 50*50 m blocks after cereal harvest Lolium multiflorum L. seeds were applied at 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000 or 20000 seeds/m 2, in ten randomly selected areas each; the remaining 10 were used to test the methodology used to retrieve the seeds. After 24h, the remaining seeds were collected using vacuum cleaners or a D-vac and seed removal rates were estimated. In three of the four blocks, seed removal was extremely high (99-100%), and the response was therefore density independent Here, nests densities ranged from 468 to 900 nests/ha. In the fourth block seed removal was 91%, and here nest density was lower (284 nests/ha).
  • Authors:
    • Burke, I.
    • Snyder, A.
    • Pittmann, D.
    • Gallagher, R.
    • Koenig, R.
    • Borrelli, K.
    • Hoagland, L.
    • Fuerst, E.
  • Source: Journal of Sustainable Agriculture
  • Volume: 36
  • Issue: 4
  • Year: 2012
  • Summary: The nitrogen (N) dynamics of nine rotation systems designed to transition dryland cereal to organic production in eastern Washington State were examined. Systems combined cereal and legumes for grain, forage (FOR), and green manure (GRM). Few differences in N balances and soil inorganic N levels were found among transition systems when poor spring crop establishment resulted in competition from weeds. However, FOR and winter GRM crops produced adequate stands that were competitive with weeds and increased residual soil inorganic N in the final year of the transition. Winter legumes and continuous FOR systems demonstrated the greatest potential to provide a sustainable inorganic N source to subsequent organic cereal crops.