a long-term rotation experiment was established in 2001 to compare conservation or reduced tillage systems (shallow rototiller and chisel tillage) with conventional tillage system using mouldboard plough in a semi-arid region with mediterranean climate. field experiments were conducted to determine weed density and profitability of cropping systems in a crop rotation of winter wheat (triticum a...

Despite the resurgence of parastatal marketing boards and strategic grain reserves over the last decade in eastern and southern Africa, there is little empirical evidence about how their activities affect smallholder input use and cropping decisions. This paper uses panel survey data from 1997-2007 on Kenyan smallholders to investigate the effect of Kenya’s National Cereal Produce Board activit...

khorasan province in iran with a diverse climatic conditions has accommodated a wide range of plant communities particularly herbs, spices and medicinal plants. among these saffron (crocus sativus l.), has been the most cultivated plant for thousands of years. these crop deliver unique interests and applications. the novel use of saffron in recent years in cancer cure have been promenaded and s...

The challenge of managing agroecosystems on a landscape scale and the novel structure of soil communities in agroecosystems both provide reason to focus on in-field management practices, including cover crop adoption, reduced tillage, and judicial pesticide use, to promote soil community diversity. Belowground and epigeal arthropods, especially exotic generalist predators, play a significant ro...

Introduction Making N rate recommendations for corn has been one of the most economically important goals of publicly funded crop production and soil fertility personnel and programs over the past five decades. Changes in cropping systems, hybrids, tillage, and other management practices, along with opportunities in site-specific inputs and awareness of the need to minimize the amount of N that...

Pseudomonas syringae is a bacterial plant pathogen that can lead to heavy losses in crop production. Th is bacteria is a very good model to study the infection processes, as it can cause disease in Arabidopsis thaliana, a well-studied plant model. Th is text presents an overview of the bacterial pathogenesis from a molecular biology perspective, and explains the role of plant responses in stopp...

Ideal fertilizer management to optimize plant productivity and quality is more relevant than ever, as global food demands increase along with the rapidly growing world population. At the same time, sub-optimal or excessive use of fertilizers leads to severe environmental damage in areas of intensive crop production. The approaches of soil and plant mineral analysis are briefly compared and disc...