Land management practices affect the long term sustainability of agricultural soils. Growing Forward, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s (AAFC) agricultural policy framework, has identified promoting environmentally responsible agriculture as one of the department’s priorities. Land management information requirements have become increasingly important to a number of programs and policies suppo...

Maintaining permanent coverage of the soil using crop residues is an important and commonly recommended practice in conservation agriculture. Measuring this practice is an essential step in improving knowledge about the adoption and impact of conservation agriculture. Different data collection methods can be implemented to capture the field level crop residue coverage for a given plot, each wit...

Background: Pistachio is one of the main nutrients, not only as a strategic crop but also as a main type of nut, in Iranians’ food cycle. The aim of this study was to measure the relative safety of Iranian pistachio based on the standard pesticide’s residue limits, which should be monitored and assessed in the cultivation of pistachio in order to confirm its public health. Method...

The identification of fungicide residues on crop foliage is necessary to make periodic pest management decisions. The determination of fungicide residue identities currently is difficult and time consuming using conventional chemical analysis methods such as gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy. Different fungicide types produce unique electronic aroma signature patterns when headspace volatile...

Perennial grain production will likely present unique challenges for managing diseases that affect the productivity and longevity of crops being considered. Typical cultural practices effective at reducing soiland residue-borne pathogens, such as annual crop rotations, delayed fall planting, and tillage, are not feasible in perennial systems. Consequently, soiland residue-borne pathogens, and p...

Enhancing carbon sequestration in soil is an important means to reduce net emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. The soil organic carbon (SOC) pool is the net result of carbon (C) input in the form of crop residue and biomass, and output including CO2 ̄ux and other losses. The objectives of this study were to: (1) determine the in ̄uence of known additions of crop residue in a no ...

Dryland wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) are often grown using a wheat–sorghum-fallow (WSF) crop rotation on the semiarid North American Great Plains. Precipitation stored during fallow as soil water is crucial to the success of the WSF rotation. Stubble mulch-tillage (SM) and no-tillage (NT) residue management practices reduce evaporation, but the sp...

The identification of herbicide residues on crop foliage is necessary to make crop-management decisions for weed pest control and to monitor pesticide residue levels on food crops. Electronic-nose (e-nose) methods were tested as a cheaper, alternative means of discriminating between herbicide residue types (compared with conventional chromatography methods), by detection of headspace volatiles ...