Search results for "Crop production"
showing 10 items of 21 documents
CLIMATE CHANGES AND NEMATODES: EXPECTED EFFECTS AND PERSPECTIVES FOR PLANT PROTECTION
2011
Some factors interfering with plant protection from phytoparasitic nematodes are reviewed in the light of changes brought about by the global warming in action. The mechanisms mainly concern changes in temperature and water regimes. The effects of climate changes on the epidemiology and management of the main phytoparasitic species occurring in Mediterranean environments include the alteration of the reproductive cycles due to plants productivity, the geographic dispersion by more northern or higher altitude shifts, the spread of vectors. Other related indirect mechanisms are feedback effects due to the reactions of cultivated species or weeds, and those related to natural enemies. The pote…
Identification of Volatile Compounds in Blackcurrant Berries: Differences Among Cultivars
2021
Berries of blackcurrant are known to produce a strong flavor. Some previous studies have reported that a given cultivar of blackcurrant can produce berries with a specific profile of volatile compounds. For the Burgundy region in France, the Noir de Bourgogne cultivar is especially important because it is the main ingredient of a liquor with a designation of origin. The aim of the present study was to characterize the volatile fractions of berries from 15 cultivars in order to explore the possibility of using different cultivars for liquor production. The plants were cultivated under the same conditions and harvested in the same year. The volatile fractions of the harvested berries were ana…
Adapting to High Temperatures: Effect of Farm Practices and Their Adoption Duration on Total Value of Crop Production in Uganda
2021
In this article, we use spatially granular climate data merged with four waves of household survey data in Uganda to examine empirically the relationships among high temperatures, total value of crop production, and the adoption and adoption duration of two sustainable agricultural practices (organic fertilizer adoption and maize–legume intercropping). We do this using a fixed-effect model with instrumental variables to address potential endogeneity issues. Our findings indicate that the adoption of these practices has a positive effect on the total value of crop production, and such effect increases monotonically as temperatures increase from long-term averages. Moreover, the number of yea…
A Basic View on Models of Nature and the Concept of “Sustainability”
2010
The discussion below is primarily connected to the challenge of agricultural crop production in western and northern Europe by the global change of climate (Box IV.3), but the ideas are of a general character and could therefore be extended outside this geographical area. We believe that strategic thinking and strategic decisions on agriculture and the way of preparing tactical decisions have to be reconsidered everywhere.
Combined Stress Conditions in Melon Induce Non-additive Effects in the Core miRNA Regulatory Network
2021
Climate change has been associated with a higher incidence of combined adverse environmental conditions that can promote a significant decrease in crop productivity. However, knowledge on how a combination of stresses might affect plant development is still scarce. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have been proposed as potential targets for improving crop productivity. Here, we have combined deep-sequencing, computational characterization of responsive miRNAs and validation of their regulatory role in a comprehensive analysis of response of melon to several combinations of four stresses (cold, salinity, short day, and infection with a fungus). Twenty-two miRNA families responding to double and/or triple …
Mycorrhizae in crop production
2007
International audience; It has been a revelation that, strictly speaking, most plants do not have roots but rather mycorrhizae, a fact that has had tremendous consequences on the life of plants and the evolution of soil-plant systems. The research on arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbioses has been intensive over the past forty years and we have learned a lot on the physiology, biology, ecology, and genetics of the symbiosis and the fungi involved in it. Most important, it appeared that cropping systems could be more sustainable with the management of AM fungi and reduced reliance on agrochemicals. The extraradical mycelia of AM fungi are an essential link between the plants, which are the co…
Simulation study of the effects of intensified crop management in genetically manipulated maize on arable weed flora and associated fauna
2014
International audience; Cultivation of GM crops with herbicide tolerance is mostly associated with changes in crop and weed management, like simplified rotations, simplified tillage and change from selective herbicides to the broadband glyphosate. All of these management practices decrease weed densities in crops and change their composition. Although weeds cause yield loss and harvest problems, they are an important part of arable biodiversity and offer food and habitat for different groups of animals. A simulation study was conducted to analyse indirect effects of intensified cropping in GM maize on biodiversity. The dynamic crop: weed model FlorSys was used to simulate weed densities and…
Hop (Humulus lupulus L.): Suitability of Traditional Cultivars to a Low-Trellis Farming System in a Semiarid Environment
2022
Humulus lupulus is a dioecious twining herb, with an outstanding vertical development capacity. Hop plants are usually grown on trellises up to 4.5 to 6.0 m high, whose management requires intense use of water, fertilizers, pesticides, and labor. In semiarid Mediterranean areas, where native resources are often scarce, the adoption of low-trellis farming systems could be a sustainable option for hop cultivation. With the aim of evaluating hop suitability to low-trellis cultivation in a Mediterranean environment, in 2018 and 2019 three traditional hop genotypes (‘Cascade’, ‘Chinook’, and ‘Nugget’) were grown, and their development rate was evaluated and put in relation with the plants’ cone,…
Two-stage procedure based on smoothed ensembles of neural networks applied to weed detection in orange groves
2014
The potential impacts of herbicide utilization compel producers to use new methods of weed control. The problem of how to reduce the amount of herbicide and yet maintain crop production has stimulated many researchers to study selective herbicide application. The key of selective herbicide application is how to discriminate the weed areas efficiently. We introduce a procedure for weed detection in orange groves which consists of two different stages. In the first stage, the main features in an image of the grove are determined (Trees, Trunks, Soil and Sky). In the second, the weeds are detected only in those areas which were determined as Soil in the first stage. Due to the characteristics …
Reduced herbicide use does not increase crop yield loss if it is compensated by alternative preventive and curative measures
2018
Herbicide use must be reduced because of environmental and health issues. This raises the question of whether weeds and the resulting crop yield loss will increase. Previous studies analysing relationships between herbicide use intensity, weeds and yield loss suffer from methodological shortcomings in terms of weed flora and farm diversity as well as temporal scales. Here, we collected data on 272 arable cropping systems from one Spanish and six French regions, from farm surveys, the Biovigilance-Flore network, expert opinion, cropping system trials, crop advisors and scientists. Each system was simulated over 27 years and with 10 weather repetitions, using the virtual-field model FlorSys. …