in the vast rainfed regions, diminishing returns from the public irrigation systems, climate change induced chaotic fluctuations in the hydrologic regimes and a large demand-supply gap in non-cereal food items are all compelling reasons for the need to realise the production potential of rainfed farming areas. Little control over the rainfall and absence of suitable mechanisms for storing or co...

in this study, farm level technical efficiency (te) and its determinants were investigated. a stochastic cobb-douglas (cd) production frontier was used to provide estimates of input-oriented te for a sample of 100 rain fed farms in two palestinian governorates. empirical findings showed that the estimated te of the farms in the pooled sample ranged from 35.7 to 95.6%, with a mean value of 72.2%...

In order to assist in high-yield agricultural management multiple cropping systems, it is essential understand the link between rainy season onset and crops sowing dates, since considerably affects management, yield output. We built crop calendars derived from remote sensing products investigated dates of irrigated rainfed agriculture Western Bahia, a new important frontier Brazilian Cerrado. C...

EPTD Discussion Papers contain preliminary material and research results, and are circulated prior to a full peer review in order to stimulate discussion and critical comment. It is expected that most Discussion Papers will eventually be published in some other form, and that their content may also be revised. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to thank Susanne Neubert and John Pender for h...

While wind farms have no inherent storage to supply power in calm conditions, this paper demonstrates that large tidal turbine farms in channels have short-term energy storage. This storage lies in the inertia of the oscillating flow and can be used to exceed the previously published upper limit for power production by currents in a tidal channel, while simultaneously maintaining stronger curre...

The role of urban agriculture in global food security is a topic of increasing discussion. Existing research on urban and peri-urban agriculture consists largely of case studies that frequently use disparate definitions of urban and peri-urban agriculture depending on the local context and study objectives. This lack of consistency makes quantification of the extent of this practice at the glob...

Potato productivity in the northeastern US has been relatively constant for over 50 years, raising questions about what factors are limiting productivity. Research was initiated in 2004 to identify key constraints to potato productivity by evaluating Status Quo (SQ), Soil Conserving (SC), and Soil Improving (SI) cropping systems under both rainfed and irrigated management, and it was found that...

Background: Cotton with coevolving pests has been grown in India more than 5000 years. Hybrid cotton was introduced in the 1970s with increases in fertilizer and in insecticide use against pink bollworm that caused outbreaks of bollworm. Hybrid Bt cotton, introduced in 2002 to control bollworm and other lepidopteran pests, is grown on more than 90 % of the cotton area. Despite initial declines,...