Field experiments were conducted in 2006 to investigate the impacts of modified rice cultivation systems on: grain yield, N uptake, ammonia volatilization from rice soil and N use efficiency (ANUE, agronomic N use efficiency; and PFP, partial factor productivity of applied N). The trials compared rice production using modified methods of irrigation, planting, weeding and nutrient management (th...

Rice, being a major staple crop in South Asia carries its importance in ensuring food security of the region, including in India and Bangladesh. Both the countries have agriculture-based economies where more than 50 percent of the active working population is engaged in agricultural activities. As per UN data, agriculture contributed 17.1 and 18.3 percent, in 2011, in the gross domestic product...

Baligang is a Neolithic site on a northern tributary of the middle Yangtze and provides a long archaeobotanical sequence from the Seventh Millennium BC upto the First Millennium BC. It provides evidence for developments in rice and millet agriculture influenced by shifting cultural affiliation with the north (Yangshao and Longshan) and south (Qujialing and Shijiahe) between 4300 and 1800 BC. Th...

Obtaining local soil-to-crop transfer factor (TF) is important because climates, soil types and vegetations influence on the factor. In this study, analyses of stable isotopes and natural radioisotopes in rice and wheat grains and the associated soils collected throughout Japan were carried out in order to obtain TF under equilibrium conditions. The studied samples had been collected for the me...

Incorporation of plant residues in soil affects N and C content and dynamics. This studydetermined the effects of short-term alternative rice (Oryza sativa L.) residue management on Nmineralization and uptake by rice. Pot and laboratory incubation experiments were established byincorporating 15N-labeled rice straw and rice straw compost in paddy soil. The 15N recovered by riceaveraged 16.6%; mo...

Laboratory tests of fipronil and its degradation products have revealed acute lethal toxicity at very low concentrations (LC50) of <0.5 microg/L to selected aquatic macroinvertebrates. In streams draining basins with intensive rice cultivation in southwestern Louisiana, USA, concentrations of fipronil compounds were an order of magnitude larger than the LC50. The abundance (rho=-0.64; p=0.015) ...

The aim of our experiment was to determine the effect of heating oil application on the count of microorganisms and some physico-chemical properties of limed and lime-free soil and soil sown with yellow lupine of the Markiz variety and unsown soil. The results obtained indicate that heating oil deteriorated the physico-chemical properties of the experimental soil (acidification, decrease in the...

The demand for high quality rice represents a major issue in rice production. The primary components of rice grain quality include appearance, eating, cooking, physico-chemical, milling and nutritional qualities. Most of these traits are complex and controlled by quantitative trait loci (QTLs), so the genetic characterization of these traits is more difficult than that of traits controlled by a...

Since rice is a staple food most consumed world-wide, there have been increasing health concerns regarding exposure to arsenic through rice consumption. Several studies have reported the accumulation of arsenic in rice grains cultivated in regions with elevated levels of arsenic in groundwater or contaminated soil. Therefore the principal aim of this study was determining the amount of arsenic ...