Climate change has a strong influence on weather patterns and significantly affects crop yields globally. El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has a strong influence on the U.S. climate and is related to agricultural production variability. ENSO effects are location-specific and in southeastern U.S. strongly connect with climate variability. When combined with climate change, the effects on grow...

Few field studies examine greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from African agricultural systems, resulting in high uncertainty for national inventories. This lack of data is particularly noticeable in smallholder farms in sub-Saharan Africa, where low inputs are often correlated with low yields, often resulting in food insecurity as well. We provide the most comprehensive study in Africa to date, ex...

Most studies of the influence of weather and climate on food production have examined the influence on crop yields. However, climate influences all components of crop production, includes cropping area (area planted or harvested) and cropping intensity (number of crops grown within a year). Although yield increases have predominantly contributed to increased crop production over the recent deca...

The Plateau is located 4000 meters above sea level, and as such would not seem to be such an ideal place for crops to grow. The air is thin, the weather unpredictable and often extremely cold, and the local farmers have never employed any special techniques in their crop cultivation. Nevertheless, in terms of yield per unit, the area consistently outperformed the rest of China when it came to w...

Long-term yield performance and yield stability of common cropping systems needs to be simultaneously assessed at various fertility regimes. Based on a consecutive 19-year field trial, including eight fertilization treatments with different combinations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and recycled manure (RM), the effects of fertilization and crop rotation on corn (Zea mays L.) y...

Crop models are increasingly used to simulate crop yields at the global scale, but so far there is no general framework on how to assess model performance. Here we evaluate the simulation results of 14 global gridded crop modeling groups that have contributed historic crop yield simulations for maize, wheat, rice and soybean to the Global Gridded Crop Model Intercomparison (GGCMI) of the Agricu...

of Research Findings The project has now completed two crop-years of experimentation. Four more crop-years are required for all crop rotations to complete a full cycle. This report covers the 2004-05 cropyear results. CBARC experiment (Moro): Grain yields of winter wheat following fallow (conventional or chemical) produced significantly higher yields than yields of annual cropping systems invol...

Thoroughly tested simulation models are needed to help quantify the long-term effects of agriculture. We evaluated the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM) response to different N management strategies and then used the tested model with observed weather data from 1961– 2003 to quantify long-term effects on corn (Zea mays L.) yield and flow weighted nitrate-N concentration in subsurface “tile”...