Maize originated under warm, seasonally dry conditions of Mesoamerica, and was by human selection converted from a low-yielding progenitor species into its modern form, with a large rachis (cob) of the female inflorescence bearing up to 1,000 seeds. Maize is a C4 plant and is very efficient in water use. If subjected to water stress, however, especially during the mid-season pollination process...

To break the yield ceiling of rice production, a super rice project was developed in 1996 to breed rice varieties with super high yield. A two-year experiment was conducted to evaluate yield and nitrogen (N)-use response of super rice to different planting methods in the single cropping season. A total of 17 rice varieties, including 13 super rice and four non-super checks (CK), were grown unde...

A field experiment was conducted to observe the influence of a cover crop (winter wheat, Triticum aestivum L.), and a perennial weed (dandelion, Taraxacum officinale Weber ex Wigg.), on vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza (VAM) inoculum potential, soil aggregation, and maize yield after one season. Mycorrhizal colonization of maize roots was higher following the autumn planting of either winter whe...

Large scale planting of Bt crops began in 1996 and grew quickly to more than 10 million ha per year. The cumulative area of Bt crops grown globally from 1996 to 2002 exceeded 62 million ha, enough to cover the states of California and Iowa. More than 99% of this area was planted with either Bt corn or Bt cotton producing Bt toxins Cry1Ab or Cry1Ac to kill larvae of lepidopteran pests. These Bt ...

Novel approaches are needed for overcoming barriers to successful association of herbaceous legumes with grasses in warm-climate pastures and to identify low-cost, long-term solutions to the problem of N limitation in low-input systems. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate defoliation management options during the year of establishment when rhizoma peanut (rp) (Arachis glabrata Bent...