Drought is a common occurrence in Nebraska and agriculture is the primary economic sector affected. Because of repeated and widespread severe drought impacts, more emphasis on drought risk management is warranted. This study develops an agricultural drought risk assessment model using multivariate techniques. The model is specific to corn and soybeans and is able to assess realtime agricultural...

Transgenic crops, a new product of agricultural biotechnology has its own share of environmental risks and benefits. Present agricultural management practices and new ecosystems have their own impacts on the environment and further any additional negative effect of transgenic crops may mitigate their positive impacts as well as increase the background value of negative impacts due to new agricu...

a Centre for Cropping Systems, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, PO Box 483, Northam, WA 6401, Australia; b Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2QJ, UK; c UMR d’Agronomie INRA/INA P-G, BP 1, 78850 Thiverval-Grignon, France; d Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia, Locked Bag 4, Bentley Delivery Centre, WA 6983, Australia; e School of Plant Bio...

An agricultural drought risk-assessment model was developed for Nebraska, USA, for corn and soybeans on the basis of variables derived from the standardized precipitation index and crop-specific drought index using multivariate techniques. This model can be used to assess real-time agricultural drought risk for specific crops at critical times before and during the growing season by retaining p...

As scientists involved in risk assessment of transgenic insecticidal plants, we are greatly concerned about the publication by Lövei et al. (2009) implying that insect-protected crops based on the Cry proteins of Bacillus thuringiensis may have substantial negative impacts on non-target organisms. We believe that Lövei et al. (2009) use inappropriate and unsound methods for risk assessment that...

While many ecosystem processes depend on biodiversity, the relationships between agricultural plant diversity and soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) dynamics remains controversial. Our objective was to examine how temporal plant diversity (i.e. crop rotation) influences residue decomposition, a key ecosystem function that regulates nutrient cycling, greenhouse gas emissions, and soil organic matt...

Pollination improves the yield of most crop species and contributes to one-third of global crop production, but comprehensive benefits including crop quality are still unknown. Hence, pollination is underestimated by international policies, which is particularly alarming in times of agricultural intensification and diminishing pollination services. In this study, exclusion experiments with stra...

(1 Structure Engineering Lab, Chongqing Jiaotong University, No.66 Xuefu Road Nan’an District Chongqing China ,China,400074) (2 School of Civil Engineering & Archtecture, Chongqing Jiaotong University, No.66 Xuefu Road Nan’an District Chongqing China ,China,400074) Abstract: This paper based on GIS land suitable assessment principle and method, use supermap to analysis suitability of crop land ...

ess as: A hnology Abstract This paper gives an overview of the wireless sensor network, studies its application in precision farming, and its importance for improving the agriculture in Egypt. An example for using wireless sensor network in cultivating the potato crop in Egypt is given, and it is shown that the cost of the system with respect to the yearly benefit from exporting potato crop aft...

Monitoring soil and crop condition is vital for the sustainable management of agricultural systems. Often, land management decision-making requires rapid assessment of conditions, which is difficult if samples need to be taken and sent elsewhere for analysis. In recent years, advances in field-based spectroscopy have led to improvements in real-time monitoring; however, the cost of equipment an...