Genetic engineering is an application of biotechnology involving the manipulation of DNA and the transfer of gene components between species in order to encourage replication of desired traits (OTA 1992). Although there are many applications of genetic engineering in agriculture, the current focus of biotechnology is on developing herbicide tolerant crops and on pest and disease resistant crops...

Wild bees provide a free and potentially diverse ecosystem service to farmers growing pollination-dependent crops. While many crops benefit from insect pollination, soft fruit crops, including strawberries are highly dependent on this ecosystem service to produce viable fruit. However, as a result of intensive farming practices and declining pollinator populations, farmers are increasingly turn...

The protection of biodiversity and of ecosystem services ought to be a top priority, taken into consideration in the course of all human activities, because we depend on it fully now and for the future. In this context, we note that the ecological problems related to the cultivation of GE crops fail to differ in any fundamental way from the ecological problems associated with agriculture in gen...

Large unheated greenhouse areas are located in the coastal lands of the Mediterranean Basin, based on low-cost structures covered with plastic. Water is a scarce resource in these areas and therefore it is necessary to optimise irrigation practice by applying the crop water needs, thus avoiding waste. This work was undertaken to determine the water requirements of four major horticultural crops...

Since transgenic, bromoxynil-resistant cotton and glufosinate-resistant canola were introduced in 1995, planting of transgenic herbicide-resistant crops has grown substantially, revolutionizing weed management where they have been available. Before 1995, several commercial herbicide-resistant crops were produced by biotechnology through selection for resistance in tissue culture. However, non-t...

In the framework of Geoland, Infoterra France has mapped with MERIS the distribution of annual crops surfaces in Belgium, Poland and Russia (Rostov oblast). The maps provided are the acreages of main groups of crops per administrative or agricultural circumscriptions unit. The groups are winter, spring and root crops (sugar beet, potatoes). The method for mapping exploits the MERIS capability t...

 In order to evaluate the effects of cover crops on reduced weed biomass in hybrid sunflower an experiment was carried in the research stations, Natural Resources Medicinal Plants (Samian_Ardabile) with 3 replicates in 1390-1391. The first factor was considered three type of cover crops, winter rye, spring barley, winter wheat with 2 control treatment, second factor was mulch management at two ...