In intensive integrated crop-livestock farming systems, the surplus of N at the farm scale may be large and reflects on the N balance at the field scale. A study was conducted to assess the N fertilizer efficiency in four private farms in intensively cropped areas of NW Italy, and to monitor the effects of agricultural practices on the mineral N concentration of the soil solution, sampled every...

The study presented here considers the relative efficiency of planting tobacco and maize in the tobacco-producing Tabora region of Tanzania. The study used a 2013 survey that was conducted among smallholder farmers in the Tabora region. The aim was to investigate whether farmers are better off planting tobacco or maize. The paper briefly reviews the importance of agriculture in general and toba...

This study examined tobacco growers' knowledge of tobacco economics, particularly their knowledge of how tobacco revenue is distributed and their knowledge of the price of foreign tobacco. Tobacco growers (n = 1236) from 14 tobacco-dependent counties in North Carolina were interviewed by telephone and asked to estimate how much of a hypothetical $2.00 for a pack of cigarettes is received by eac...

Airborne remote sensing provides a viable option for high resolution mapping of nearsurface soil moisture that allows larger areas to be covered in greater spatial and temporal detail than has hereto been possible from traditional ground based techniques. However, the current retrieval algorithms require information on near-surface soil temperature and vegetation water content in order to estim...

Globally, there are a number of treatments indicated for the control of invasive alien plant species like parthenium. The production and use of vermicomposts from weeds or other wastes in agriculture is economical and eco-friendly. The unique advantage of using vermicomposting is that it helps to build and sustain soil condition and fertility for sustainable agricultural activities. The present...

Contamination of litter in a broiler grow-out house with Salmonella prior to placement of a new flock has been shown to be a precursor of the flock's Salmonella contamination further down the production continuum. In the southern USA, broiler grow-out houses are primarily built on dirt pad foundations that are placed directly on top of the native soil surface. Broiler litter is placed directly ...

Nematode occurrence at specific locations throughout a water catchment-irrigation system was determined. Soil samples were collected from five water source locations on the slopes of Olomana Mountain and Maunawili Valley and from about 40 plant species on 18 farms (56 ha of 480 ha irrigated by the reservoir). Water was sampled from the catchment reservoir at 0.3 m, 9 m, and 18 m (bottom). A far...

With the expansion of urban agriculture in many North American cities, there is a current need to evaluate the soil and urban environment to assess potential risks of metal contamination in urban grown food. In this study, a university farm, a community garden, and a brownfield located in Vancouver, BC were characterized with respect to soil metal concentrations, atmospheric deposition of metal...