In this paper, a partial least square regression (PLSR) and fuzzylogic based smart decision support system (DSS) for crop-specific irrigation notification and control in precision agriculture is proposed, and this can be implemented in farm land, green-house and poly-house. The proposed DSS model continuously acquires real-time soil and environmental data using Zigbee wireless sensor network (W...

Proper N fertilizer and irrigation management can reduce nitrate leaching while maintaining crop yield, which is critical to enhance the sustainability of vegetable production on soils with poor water and nutrient-holding capacities. This study evaluated different methods to measure nitrate leaching in mulched drip-irrigated zucchini, pepper, and tomato production systems. Fertigation rates wer...

Nitrous oxide is an important greenhouse gas and contributes to stratospheric ozone destruction, but still little is known about emissions of this trace gas from soils in semiarid environments and how emissions are affected by irrigation. Therefore, nitrous oxide emissions from a runoff-irrigated and rainfed endosodi-calcaric Fluvisol in the semiarid northwest of Kenya were measured using the c...

The influence of seven rates of Sugar mill effluent (viz. 0, 5, 10 25, 50, 75 and 100 ml/kg soil) along with control (Bore-well water, BWW) on the physical and chemical properties of soils revealed that among various concentrations of the effluents, the irrigation with 100% effluent concentration decreased moisture content (20.44%),WHC (13.80%), BD (4.14%) and increased pH (9.56%), EC (64.28%),...

Geostatistics and GIS were used to analyze the spatial variability of the soil water characteristics in western semiarid area of Heilongjiang province. Irrigation management zone was established based on spatial distribution of the soil water characteristics and actual condition of the study area. Sampling by layered sampling method and calculating of the rational sampling number by best distri...

In a variety of agricultural activities, such as irrigation scheduling and nutrient management, soil water content is regarded as an essential parameter. Either power supply or long-distance cable is hardly available within field scale. For the necessity of monitoring soil water dynamics at field scale, this study presents a wireless soil moisture sensor based on the impedance transform of the ...

Pollination in crops, as in native ecosystems, is a stepwise process that can be disrupted at any stage. Healthy pollinator populations are critical for adequate visitation, but pollination still might fail if crop management interferes with the attraction and retention of pollinators. Farmers must balance the direct benefits of applying insecticide and managing irrigation rates against their p...

Microplot and field experiments were used to examine the plant-growth stimulation frequently associated with the use of aldicarb on tobacco in the absence of major pests. Aldicarb rates of 1.5-4.5 kg a.i./ha enhanced tobacco growth and yield in most experiments, but higher rates (>/= 4.5 kg) usually resulted in a neutral to negative effect. Tobacco cultivars NC 82 and Speight G-28 were more res...