Crop Response To Density Optimization Of Resource Use To Promote Sustainability

Crop Response to Density: Optimization of Resource Use to Promote Sustainability

Principles of Agronomy for Sustainable Agriculture

This textbook explains the various aspects of sustainable agricultures to undergraduate and graduate students. The book first quantifies the components of the crop energy balance, i.e. the partitioning of net radiation, and their effect on the thermal environment of the canopy. The soil water balance and the quantification of its main component (evapotranspiration) are studied to determine the availability of water to rain fed crops and to calculate crop water requirements. Then it sets the limitations of crop production in relation to crop phenology, radiation interception and resource availability (e.g. nutrients). With that in mind the different agricultural techniques (sowing, tillage, irrigation, fertilization, harvest, application of pesticides, etc.) are analyzed with special emphasis in quantifying the inputs (sowing rates, fertilizer amounts, irrigation schedules, tillage plans) required for a given target yield under specific environmental conditions (soil & climate). For all techniques strategies are provided for improving the ratio productivity/resource use while ensuring sustainability. The book comes with online practical focusing on the key aspects of management in a crop rotation (collecting weather data, calculating productivity, sowing rates, irrigation programs, fertilizers rates etc).

Advances in Parasitic Weeds Research

Parasitic weeds are severe constraint to agriculture and major crop production, and the efficacy of available means to control them is minimal. Control strategies have centred around agronomic practices, resistant varieties and the use of herbicides. Novel integrated control programmes should be sympathetic to agricultural extensification while exerting minimal harmful effects on the environment. This eBook covers recent advances in biology, physiology of parasitism, genetics, population dynamics, resistance, host-parasite relationships, regulation of seed germination, etc., in order to offer an outstanding windows to these enigmatic plants, and contribute to their practical management.