After a decade of transgenic crop production, the dynamics of gene introgression into wild relatives remain unclear. Taking an ecological genetics approach to investigating fitness in crop-wild hybrid zones, we uncovered both conditions and characteristics that may promote introgression. We compared diverse crop-wild hybrid genotypes relative to wild Helianthus annuus under one benign and three...

Results of more than 130 field trials with nematicides, principallyaldicarb, weregroupedaccordingto the claycontent and parent material of the soil on which the trials were conducted. An estimate of loss in yield due to nematodes was obtained by extrapolating from the results of the field trials to the total area under sugarcane on each soil group. Crop loss per unit area was greatest on the Re...

Asian countries strongly depend on rice production for food security. The major rice-growing season (June to October) is highly exposed to the risk of tropical storm related damage. Unbiased and transparent approaches to assess the risk of rice crop damage are essential to support mitigation and disaster response strategies in the region. This study describes and demonstrates a method for rapid...

Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) microbial pesticides have a 50-year history of safety in agriculture. Cry proteins are among the active insecticidal ingredients in these pesticides, and genes coding for Cry proteins have been introduced into agricultural crops using modern biotechnology. The Cry gene sequences are often modified to enable effective expression in planta and several Cry proteins have...

This Article contains errors arising from misuse of the terms ‘‘substantial equivalence’’ and ‘‘equivalence’’. In the Abstract, ‘‘An important aspect of GM crop adoption is to demonstrate safety and equivalence with respect to conventional crops. Untargeted metabolomics has the ability to profile diverse classes of metabolites and thus could be an adjunct for GM crop substantial equivalence ass...

Monitoring crop condition and production estimates at the state and county level is of great interest to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducts field interviews with sampled farm operators and obtains crop cuttings to make crop yield estimates at regional and state levels. NASS needs supplemental sp...

年次的な収量変動に関するリスクマネジメントの手法の一つとして，複数作物の栽培や気候条件の異なる土地での栽培によるリスクの分散がある．しかしながら，作物や地域の網羅的な収量変動リスクの解析事例は報告がない．本研究では，農林水産省による作物統計の長期的な収量データを解析し，47都道府県における160作物の収量変動リスクをそれぞれ定量化した．各年の平年収量と実際の収量の差（平年を100とした場合の作況指数として示す）は，ある確率分布の下でランダムに発生すると仮定し，その分布の平均値と変動の大きさ（標準偏差）をリスク指標とした．また，作況指数の変動パターンとして，気温などの気象要因との関係や，都道府県別の水平分布，水稲の年次変動パターンとの類似性，ハイリスク・ハイリターン度合いなどの観点から整理した．さらに，収量の年次変動パターンに差がある作物や地域を複数組み合わせて栽培することによるリスク...

In this paper, an approach to assessing ecological suitability of crop growth was developed using GIS, through a case study of maize planting in Jilin Province, in the northeast China, in order to improve the accuracy and objectivity of the evaluation, promote the rationality of crop distribution, and increase the efficiency of the agro-resource utility. Climate and soil conditions in the regio...

Plant protection product (PPP) applications to isolated olive trees are commonly performed with regular air-assisted sprayers, which not adapted their particular characteristics. Whilst strong efforts have been undertaken over the last years improve technical aspects like canopy detection and automated proportional dosing, nearly no made regarding sprayer adaption crop. For this reason, three p...

The loss caused by the so-called minor diseases is not usually considered of sufficient importance to warrant the adoption of control measures such as those used in combating major diseases; nevertheless it has frequently been asserted that if the total loss due to the activities of all minor diseases could be estimated it would probably amount to more than is imagined. Further, a disease which...