Intercropping is regarded as an important agricultural practice to improve crop production and environmental quality in the regions with intensive agricultural production, e.g., northern China. To optimize agronomic advantage of maize (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) intercropping system compared to monoculture of maize, two sequential experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 was to s...

The food supply is being increasingly challenged by climate change and water scarcity. However, incremental changes in traditional cropping systems have achieved only limited success in meeting these multiple challenges. In this study, we applied a systematic approach, using model simulation and data from two groups of field studies conducted in the North China Plain, to develop a new cropping ...

Drought has been a major cause of agricultural disaster, yet how it affects the vulnerability of maize and wheat production in combination with several co-varying factors (i.e., phenological phases, agro-climatic regions, soil texture) remains unclear. Using a data synthesis approach, this study aims to better characterize the effects of those co-varying factors with drought and to provide crit...

A potted experiment was conducted to explore the accumulation of arsenic (As) and predict uptake As by a wheat-maize rotation system in calcareous soil with different rates sewage sludge (SS) amendment over two consecutive years. The SS decreased pH value but increased cation exchange capacity (CEC), calcium carbonate (CC), organic carbon (OC) crops increasing addition. bioconcentration factor ...

Viral determinants and mechanisms involved in extension of host range of monocot-infecting viruses are poorly understood. Viral coat proteins (CP) serve many functions in almost every aspect of the virus life cycle. The role of the C-terminal region of Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV) CP in virus biology was examined by mutating six negatively charged aspartic acid residues at positions 216, 28...

Targeted mutagenesis using programmable DNA endonucleases has broad applications for studying gene function in planta and developing approaches to improve crop yields. Recently, a genetic method that eliminates the need to emasculate the female inbred during hybrid seed production, referred to as Seed Production Technology, has been described. The foundation of this genetic system relied on cla...

Sixteen rams (mean age: 13 mo; mean live weight: 40.0 ± 2.4 kg) were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design (4 rams per treatment). Diets (dry matter basis) contained 65% concentrate and 35% alfalfa hay (control diet, T1), 35% wheat straw (T2), 35% barley straw (T3) or 35% maize straw (T4). Total-tract apparent digestibility for dry matter, organic matter...

A field experiment, laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with split plot arrangement having four replications, was conducted at the south edge of Loess Plateau, Shaanxi, China to evaluate the responses of winter wheat and summer maize to different water saving management practices involving four mulching and irrigation treatments, i.e., plastic mulch ridge and straw mulch furrow ...

The aim of this work was to study the allelopathic effect of 3 extracts viz 3%,5% and 10% prepared from leaves of GM (insect resistance) and non GM maize on physiology of succeeding crop wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The extracts prepared from GM maize significantly decreased chlorophyll a content but significantly increased chlorophyll b content as compared with untreated control. Content of c...

Wheat crop has a major role in current food system and global security. Beyond doubt, wheat production increased substantially, however, there been increase world’s population also, thereby, leading to supply demand. To fulfil this demand, science today needs more efficient new technologies for breeding with faster pace. Conventional is time consuming as it requires the selfing from F1 generati...