The best way to organize the logistics of harvesting agricultural crops requires considering not only the fact that agricultural commodities in general are highly perishable, but also the fact that the organizational structure of the agricultural system in question can vary from crop to crop and from region to region within a single crop. This paper develops a model for planning the movement of...

Intercropping, which is the agricultural practice of growing two or more crops in the same land area, is not currently yielding adequate results in Africa. Despite the advantages of intercropping like improved soil fertility, protection against pests and diseases and eventual increase in farm yield, this farming practice is faced with challenges—inadequate planning, bad crop management and lack...

Intercropping, which is the agricultural practice of growing two or more crops in the same land area, is not currently yielding adequate results in Africa. Despite the advantages of intercropping like improved soil fertility, protection against pests and diseases and eventual increase in farm yield, this farming practice is faced with challenges—inadequate planning, bad crop management and lack...

Few universal trends in spatial patterns of wildlife crop-raiding have been found. Variations in wildlife ecology and movements, and human spatial use have been identified as causes of this apparent unpredictability. However, varying spatial patterns of spatial autocorrelation (SA) in human-wildlife conflict (HWC) data could also contribute. We explicitly explore the effects of SA on wildlife c...

Crop production models are highly developed to account for different nitrogen, light, temperature and water availability conditions and, in some species, disease or air pollutant effects. There is very limited knowledge on responses of many tropical crops, such as oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), to air pollutants although predictions of these effects are essential for industrial planning in sever...

Cropcheck developed following the identification of limitations to the Transfer of Technology (TOT) extension model which occurred through the 1970’s and into the early 1980’s (Lacy 2011). Irrigated wheat yields stagnated with high variability from year to year and no understanding as to why this occurred. This was despite several communication methods (farm visits, demonstrations, plot trials,...

Automation of agricultural harvesting equipment in the near term appears both economically viable and technically feasible. This paper describes the Demeter system for automated harvesting. Demeter is a computer-controlled speedrowing machine, equipped with a pair of video cameras and a global positioning sensor for navigation. Demeter is capable of planning harvesting operations for an entire ...

Regional planning should consider the impact of agricultural crops on housing value and leisure, as well as on the local environment. We designed an optimization model for allocating agricultural crops based on farmers profits as well as the impact on these three factors. Each crop creates a different landscape, as well as a different effect on shading and noise reduction. These in turn influen...

Intraseasonal water allocation to a single crop has been studied extensively. Previous studies have emphasized the need to coordinate irrigation scheduling with several factors including economic and physical constraints, amount of soil moisture available at the time of irrigations, growth stage of the plant, interactive effects from previous and/or subsequent irrigation, and the effect, timing...

Agricultural development is a leading cause of habitat destruction that increasingly threatens global biodiversity. To help understand the likelihood and implications of agricultural expansion in areas of high conservation importance, this article examines agricultural suitability in forested portions of biodiversity hotspots and tropical wilderness areas, regions with especially rich concentra...