Agroforestry is a young science in need of theories and methods providing predictive understanding. The present study is an attempt to contribute to the development of a general agroforestry theory and accessory methods. A tree-environment-crop interaction equation is derived in which the overall tree effect on crop production is explained as a balance of (positive and negative) relative net tr...

Official crop progress, condition and production estimates for the United States are responsibilities of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). In addition to weekly and monthly survey-based data, biweekly composite maps of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from the NOAA AVHRR sensor (1 km resolution) are produced by NASS’s Researc...

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the demand for timely, comprehensive global agricultural intelligence. Timely information on global crop production is indispensable for combating the growing stress on the world’s crop production and for securing both short-term and long-term stable and reliable supply of food. Global agriculture monitoring systems are critical to providing...

Interactions between plants and insect herbivores are important determinants of plant productivity in managed and natural vegetation. In response to attack, plants have evolved a range of defenses to reduce the threat of injury and loss of productivity. Crop losses from damage caused by arthropod pests can exceed 15% annually. Crop domestication and selection for improved yield and quality can ...

The 1996 Farm Bill was debated and passed during one of the best of times in U.S. agriculture and has presided over one of the worst of times in terms of crop prices, market incomes, and government payments. While it is not fair to lay all of crop agriculture’s price and income problems at the feet the 1996 legislation, it is fair to assign it much of the blame. Expectations were that the passa...

Traditional decision support systems based on crop simulation models are normally site-specific. In policy formulation, however, spatial variability of crop production often need to be evaluated due to different soil conditions, weather conditions and agricultural practices within a target-region. To address the spatial variability, a spatial model “Spatial EPIC” was developed based on a crop s...

The concept of precision agriculture, which proposes farming management adapted to crop variability, has emerged in recent years. To effectively implement precision agriculture, data must be gathered from the field in an automated manner at minimal cost. In this study, a small autonomous field inspection vehicle was developed to minimise the impact of the scouting on the crop and soil compactio...

A 3- years (2015, 2016 and 2017) field study was carried out at National Wheat Research Program, Bhirahawa, Rupandehi, Nepal to evaluate the influence of crop residues and nitrogen levels on rice. The experiment was conducted in split plot design with three replications. Main plots were two crop residue levels (with crop residues of 30 cm wheat stubble and without crop residues) and sub plots c...

Evaluation of crop N status will assist optimal N management of intensive vegetable production. Simple procedures for monitoring crop N status such as petiole sap [NO 3--N], leaf N content and soil solution [NO 3-] were evaluated with indeterminate tomato and muskmelon. Their sensitivity to assess crop N status throughout each crop was evaluated using linear regression analysis against nitrogen...

There is a growing need to increase global crop yields, whilst minimising use of resources such as land, fertilisers and water. Agricultural researchers use ground-based observations to identify, select and develop crops with favourable genotypes and phenotypes; however, the ability to collect rapid, high quality and high volume phenotypic data in open fields is restricting this. This study dev...