Search results for "Hunger"
showing 10 items of 1353 documents
A priori parameterisation of the CERES soil-crop models and tests against several European data sets
2002
Mechanistic soil-crop models have become indispensable tools to investigate the effect of management practices on the productivity or environmental impacts of arable crops. Ideally these models may claim to be universally applicable because they simulate the major processes governing the fate of inputs such as fertiliser nitrogen or pesticides. However, because they deal with complex systems and uncertain phenomena, site-specific calibration is usually a prerequisite to ensure their predictions are realistic. This statement implies that some experimental knowledge on the system to be simulated should be available prior to any modelling attempt, and raises a tremendous limitation to practica…
Indicators of agricultural intensity and intensification: a review of the literature
2015
Since the 1960s, research has dealt with agricultural intensification (AI) as a solution to ensure global food security. Recently, sustainable intensification (SI) has increasingly been used to describe those agricultural and farming systems that ensure adequate ecosystem service provision. Studies differ in terms of the application scales and methodologies, thus we aim to summarize the main findings from the literature on how AI and SI are assessed, from the farm to global levels. Our literature review is based on 7865 papers selected from the Web of Science database and analysed using CorText software. A further selection of 105 relevant papers was used for an in-depth full-text analysis …
Effect of incorporation of Brassica napus L. residues in soils on mycorrhizal fungus colonisation of roots and phosphorus uptake by maize (Zea mays L…
2007
International audience; Plants in the Brassicaceae family are known to contain thioglucoside compounds that produce isothiocyanates when tissues are disrupted. These chemicals have a negative effect on soil-borne fungal pathogens, and possibly on vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. We investigated the effect of incorporation of Brassica napus L. residues in a soil on mycorrhizal colonisation of roots, P uptake and growth of following maize (Zea mays L.) crop. A pot experiment was carried out in a glasshouse with pre-inoculation with Glomus intraradices (+I and -I), incorporation of B. napus L. residues (+R and -R) and mineral P fertilization (+P and -P) as studied factors. The soil…
Dependence of seed nitrogen concentration on plant nitrogen availability during the seed filling in pea
1999
Abstract The final seed nitrogen (N) concentration of the pea ( Pisum sativum L.) varies greatly with environment. These variations seem to be related to N availability in the plant. To understand such an effect, the pattern of seed N concentration during seed filling was analysed at a given node as the ratio of seed N accumulation rate and seed dry matter accumulation rate. Three experiments were conducted in the field and glasshouse. Pea genotypes ‘Solara’, ‘Frisson’ and its non-nodulating mutant ‘P2’ were grown and different treatments were applied to manipulate N availability during seed filling. Treatments included N supply (addition of N fertiliser), depodding (removal of pods) and de…
: J. Sci. Food Agric.
2017
Background: The measurement of carbon isotopic discrimination in grape sugars at harvest (δ13 C) is an integrated assessment of water status during ripening. It is an efficient alternative to assess variability in the field and discriminate between management zones in precision viticulture, but further work is needed to completely understand the signal.; Results: This work, spanning over 3 years, performed in a hillslope toposequence in Burgundy, delineates the relationships between main soil properties (gravel amount, slope, texture) and the grapevine water status assessed by δ13 C. The highest δ13 C, indicating most severe water deficit, was recorded in gravelly soils on steep slopes. The…
Contamination of rapeseed harvest by volunteers of other varieties : a study of intergenotypic competition
2004
Rapeseed volunteers in rapeseed crops can cause contamination in harvest through pollen and seeds. The aim of the study was to predict pollen and seed production by volunteers in winter rapeseed crops according to the genotypes of the crop and the volunteers. Firstly an experimental analysis of intraspecific competition was carried out in 2000 and 2001 on two and six genotypes, respectively. The main competition period begins with vegetation onset and affects pollen and seed production of the volunteers. Relations between density, height, yield and number of flowers were developed based on results from experiments and literature. Knowing the densities and heights of volunteers and crop on t…
Assessing non-chemical weeding strategies through mechanistic modelling of blackgrass (Alopecurus myosuroides Huds.) dynamics
2010
; Because of environmental and health safety issues, it is necessary to develop strategies that do not rely on herbicides to manage weeds. Introducing temporary grassland into annual crop rotations and mechanical weeding are the two main features that are frequently used in integrated and organic cropping systems for this purpose. To evaluate the contribution of these two factors in interaction with other cropping system components and environmental conditions, the present study updated an existing biophysical model (i.e. AlomySys) that quantifies the effects of cropping system on weed dynamics. Based on previous experiments, new sub-models were built to describe the effects on plant survi…
Using cross-modal interactions to counterbalance salt reduction in solid foods
2011
International audience; We investigated odour-induced saltiness enhancement (OISE) in a solid model cheese with the aim of evaluating the influence of cross-modal interactions (odour-texture-taste) on saltiness perception and assessing the efficacy of using OISE to counterbalance salt reduction. Four model cheeses, varying in texture, were flavoured with three commercial tasteless aromas (comte cheese, sardine and carrot) differently associated with salty and cheesy food products. Twenty-seven consumers evaluated taste intensity, aroma intensity and its congruence with the product flavour, and the overall pleasantness of 12 flavoured and four unflavoured samples. The comparison of the perce…
Cropping system dynamics, climate variability, and seed losses among East African smallholder farmers: a retrospective survey.
2014
Abstract Climate variability directly affects traditional low input and rain-fed farming systems, but few studies have paid attention retrospectively to the cropping system’s ability to mitigate climate risk. This study analyzes the impacts of rainfall variability on farmers’ seed variety losses over time, considering changes in smallholder farming systems. The cropping system dynamics, in favoring maize at the expense of sorghum and pearl millet, have induced an increasing risk of seed loss during drought. Combining ecological anthropology and climatology, a retrospective survey asking farmers about the period 1961–2006 was carried out at three altitudinal levels (750, 950, and 1100 m) on …
[div]Long-term dynamics of the atrazine mineralization potential in surface and subsurface soil in an agricultural field as a response to atrazine ap…
2012
Abstract The dynamics of the atrazine mineralization potential in agricultural soil was studied in two soil layers (topsoil and at 35–45 cm depth) in a 3 years field trial to examine the long term response of atrazine mineralizing soil populations to atrazine application and intermittent periods without atrazine and the effect of manure treatment on those processes. In topsoil samples, 14 C-atrazine mineralization lag times decreased after atrazine application and increased with increasing time after atrazine application, suggesting that atrazine application resulted into the proliferation of atrazine mineralizing microbial populations which decayed when atrazine application stopped. Decay …