Indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers in the agricultural production systems to keep pace with the food and nutritional demand of the galloping population had an adverse impact on ecosystem ...services and environmental quality. Hence, an alternative mechanism is to be developed to enhance farm production and environmental sustainability. A nanohybrid construct like nanofertilizers (NFs) is an excellent alternative to overcome the negative impact of traditional chemical fertilizers. The NFs provide smart nutrient delivery to the plants and proves their efficacy in terms of crop productivity and environmental sustainability over bulky chemical fertilizers. Plants can absorb NFs by foliage or roots depending upon the application methods and properties of the particles. NFs enhance the biotic and abiotic stresses tolerance in plants. It reduces the production cost and mitigates the environmental footprint. Multitude benefits of the NFs open new vistas towards sustainable agriculture and climate change mitigation. Although supra-optimal doses of NFs have a detrimental effect on crop growth, soil health, and environmental outcomes. The extensive release of NFs into the environment and food chain may pose a risk to human health, hence, need careful assessment. Thus, a thorough review on the role of different NFs and their impact on crop growth, productivity, soil, and environmental quality is required, which would be helpful for the research of sustainable agriculture.
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•Nanofertilizers (NFs) are the best alternative to traditional chemical fertilizers.•Nutrients use efficiency of NFs is higher than the conventional chemical fertilizers.•NFs can increase the tolerance of plants against biotic and abiotic stresses.•Supra optimal dose of NFs had a negative impact on crops, soil, and the environment.
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•Soil erosion intensity increased from North to South in the Wangdonggou watershed.•The soil erosion intensity varied with land use, vegetation coverage and slope.•Woodland and ...grassland in the study area caused more than 50% soil erosion.•Converting sloping woodland and grassland to terraces effectively control soil erosion.
Soil is an essentially limited natural resource that natural and human-induced processes have both generated and damaged. Soil degradation has become one of the most crucial socio-economic and environmental problems since it produces deterioration in productivity and quality of soil resources. Soil erosion, a natural phenomenon that causes degradation of soil and, curves the soil surface away from natural physical forces. To reveal the main factors influencing the spatial distribution of soil erosion in the small watershed of the Loess Plateau, the present study has investigated the synergistic as well as the independent influence of land use, vegetation coverage, and slope on the spatial distribution characteristics of soil erosion in the Wangdonggou watershed in 2015. Soil samples have been collected and analyzed in the laboratory together with high-resolution satellite imagery and meteorological data and derived data from digital elevation model (DEM). The results have shown that soil erosion in Wangdonggou watershed in 2015 has been characterized by a slight erosion, highlighting a gradually increased intensity from North to South. Among different land-uses, woodland and grassland have caused more than 50% soil erosion in the study area, and the areas with vegetation coverage of ≥ 50% have been the main source of soil erosion, and they have been all affected by slope. Furthermore, the practice of expanding vegetation presence on the lower coverage of woodland and grassland, particularly where the slope is between 15°∼45°, and converting sloping woodland and grassland to the terrace have seemed to be effective strategies for controlling soil erosion in the Wangdonggou watershed. Finally, the current study has revealed that the RUSLE-GIS integrated model could be a useful tool to quantitatively and spatially map soil erosion at the watershed scale in the Loess Plateau, taking into account the provision of landscape services.
Due to complexity of smallholder farms, many times technologies with great potential fail to achieve the desired impact in leveraging productivity and profitability of the farming community. In the ...Indo-Gangetic Plains there is an urgent need to understand the diversity of farm households, identifying the main drivers deciding their system thus, classifying them into homogenous groups. In the present study, the diversity of smallholder farms was assessed using crop, livestock and income related characteristics and associated farm mechanization. Using principal component analysis and cluster analysis for 252 farm households, 4 farm types were identified i.e. Type 1. Small Farm households with cereal-based cropping system and subsistence livestock (39%), Type 2. Small Farm households with diversified cropping system dominated by cereal and fodder crops with only cattle herd (9%), Type 3. Marginal Farm household with diversified cropping system dominated by cash crop and herd comprising of only cattle (39%), Type 4. Marginal Farm household with diversified cropping system dominated by cereal crops and herd dominated by small ruminants (12%). Based on the constraints identified for different components of farming systems, low-cost interventions were planned for each farm type. These interventions have resulted in 84.8-103.2 per cent increase in the income of the farm HH under study suggesting usefulness of typology-based intervention planning in increasing income of small farm holders.
Appropriate land configuration and assured nutrient supply are prerequisites for quality organic baby corn (Zea mays L.) production in high rainfall areas of the delicate Eastern Himalayan Region of ...India. A long term (5-year) study was conducted during 2012-2016 on a sandy loam soil in the mid attitude of Sikkim, Eastern Himalayan Region of India to evaluate the productivity, produce quality, the profitability of baby corn, and soil properties under different land configurations comprising flatbed, ridge and furrow, and broad bed and furrow, and organic nutrient management practices comprising un-amended control, farmyard manure 12 t ha
, vermicompost 4 t ha
and farmyard manure 6 t ha
+ vermicompost 2 t ha
. The baby corn sown on broad bed and furrow had the tallest plant (149.25 cm), maximum dry matter (64.33 g plant
), highest leaf area index (3.5), maximum cob length (8.10 cm), cob girth (6.13 cm) and cob weight (8.14 g) leading to significantly higher fresh baby corn yield (1.89 t ha
), and net returns (US$ 906.1 ha
) than those of other treatments. Mineral composition (phosphorus, potassium, iron, and zinc), protein, and ascorbic acid content were also the highest in baby corn grown under the broad bed and furrow system. The soil of broad bed and furrow had a higher pH, organic carbon content, organic carbon pools, microbial biomass carbon, and enzymatic activities (dehydrogenase, fluorescein diacetate, and acid phosphatase) compared to soils of other land configurations. A combined application of farmyard manure (6 t ha
) + vermicompost (2 t ha
) improved the crop growth and produced 117.8% higher fresh baby corn and 99.7% higher fodder yield over control (0.9 t fresh corn and 13.02 t fodder yield ha
), respectively. This treatment also registered significantly higher gross return (US$ 1746.9 ha
), net return (US$ 935.8 ha
), and benefit-cost ratio (2.15) than other nutrient management practices. Fresh cob quality in terms of protein (22.91%) and ascorbic acid content (101.6 mg 100 g
) was observed to be significantly superior under combined application of farmyard manure (6 t ha
) + vermicompost (2 t ha
) than those of other nutrient management systems. However, fresh baby corn cobs produced with vermicompost 4 t ha
had the highest concentration of phosphorus, potassium, iron, and zinc. Application of farmyard manure 12 t ha
registered the maximum increment in soil organic carbon content (1.52%), its pool (40.6 t ha
) and carbon sequestration rate (0.74 t ha
year
) followed by integrated application of farmyard manure (6 t ha
) and vermicompost (2 t ha
). The maximum soil microbial biomass carbon and enzymatic activities dehydrogenase (22.1 µg TPF g
soil h
) and fluorescein diacetate (67.1 µg FDA g
soil h
) were noted with the combined use of farmyard manure (6 t ha
) + vermicompost (2 t ha
). Thus, the study suggests that the broad bed and furrow land configuration along with the combined application of farmyard manure + vermicompost could be an economically feasible practice for quality organic baby corn production and soil health improvement in the Eastern Himalaya and other similar eco-regions elsewhere.
Nitrogen (N) is an essential element required for the growth and development of all plants. On a global scale, N is agriculture's most widely used fertilizer nutrient. Studies have shown that crops ...use only 50% of the applied N effectively, while the rest is lost through various pathways to the surrounding environment. Furthermore, lost N negatively impacts the farmer's return on investment and pollutes the water, soil, and air. Therefore, enhancing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) is critical in crop improvement programs and agronomic management systems. The major processes responsible for low N use are the volatilization, surface runoff, leaching, and denitrification of N. Improving NUE through agronomic management practices and high-throughput technologies would reduce the need for intensive N application and minimize the negative impact of N on the environment. The harmonization of agronomic, genetic, and biotechnological tools will improve the efficiency of N assimilation in crops and align agricultural systems with global needs to protect environmental functions and resources. Therefore, this review summarizes the literature on nitrogen loss, factors affecting NUE, and agronomic and genetic approaches for improving NUE in various crops and proposes a pathway to bring together agronomic and environmental needs.
Distributing calculations of a central Kalman filter requires subsystem level expressions for the propagation and update steps of the Kalman filter. It is difficult to obtain subsystem level ...expressions due to the inverse term present in the update step. In this manuscript, a non‐iterative way of decomposing the inverse of a matrix is presented. This decomposition allows rewriting the update equations of the Kalman filter subsystem‐wise. Subsequently, a Co‐acting Kalman Filter (CoKF) is proposed using these decomposed central Kalman filter equations to perform distributed state estimation. The convergence of the CoKF algorithm is established under the assumption that each subsystem is observable. Two variants of the proposed CoKF, namely (m‐CoKF and p‐CoKF), suitable for applications on opposite ends of computation and communication resource spectrum, are presented along with the trade‐offs involved. A comparison of the proposed method with existing distributed Kalman filters is also presented. The proposed CoKF algorithm is implemented on a standard wireless sensor network example with 200 nodes. The simulation results demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed CoKF algorithm relative to the central Kalman filter.
Field experiments were conducted to evaluate eight different integrated crop management (ICM) modules for 5 years in a maize-wheat rotation (M
); wherein, ICM
-'business-as-usual' (conventional ...flatbed maize and wheat, ICM
-conventional raised bed (CT
) maize and wheat without residues, ICM
-conservation agriculture (CA)-based zero-till (ZT) flatbed maize and wheat with the residues, and ICM
CA-based ZT raised bed maize and wheat with the residues. Results indicated that the ICM
produced significantly (p < 0.05) the highest maize grain yield (5 years av.) which was 7.8-21.3% greater than the ICM
. However, across years, the ICM
gave a statistically similar wheat grain yield and was 8.4-11.5% greater than the ICM
. Similarly, the CA-based residue retained ICM
modules had given 9.5-14.3% (5 years av.) greater system yields in terms of maize grain equivalents (M
) over the residue removed CT-based ICM
. System water productivity (S
) was the highest with ICM
, being 10.3-17.8% higher than the ICM
. Nevertheless, the highest water use (T
) was recorded in the CT flatbed (ICM
), ~ 7% more than the raised bed and ZT planted crops with or without the residues (ICM
). Furthermore, the ICM
had produced 9.54% greater variable production costs compared to the ICM
, whereas, the ICM
gave 24.3-27.4% additional returns than the ICM
. Also, different ICM modules caused significant (p < 0.05) impacts on the soil properties, such as organic carbon (S
), microbial biomass carbon (S
), dehydrogenase (S
), alkaline phosphatase (S
), and urease (U
) activities. In 0.0-0.15 m soil profile, residue retained CA-based (ICM
) modules registered a 7.1-14.3% greater S
and 10.2-17.3% S
than the ICM
. The sustainable yield index (S
) of M
was 13.4-18.6% greater under the ICM
compared to the ICM
Hence, this study concludes that the adoption of the CA-based residue retained ICMs in the M
could sustain the crop yields, enhance farm profits, save water and improve soil properties of the north-western plans of India.
One of the biggest challenges to be addressed in world agriculture is low nitrogen (N) use efficiency (<40%). To address this issue, researchers have repeatedly underlined the need for greater ...emphasis on the development and promotion of energy efficient, and environmentally sound novel fertilizers, in addition to improved agronomic management to augment nutrient use efficiency for restoring soil fertility and increasing farm profit. Hence, a fixed plot field experiment was conducted to assess the economic and environmental competency of conventional fertilizers with and without nano-urea (novel fertilizer) in two predominant cropping systems viz., maize-wheat and pearl millet-mustard under semi-arid regions of India. Result indicates that the supply of 75% recommended N with conventional fertilizer along with nano-urea spray (N75PK+nano-urea) reduced the energy requirement by ~8-11% and increased energy use efficiency by ~6-9% over 100% nitrogen through prilled urea fertilizer (business as usual). Furthermore, the application of N75PK+ nano-urea exhibited ~14% higher economic yields in all the crops compared with N50PK+ nano-urea. Application of N75PK+nano-urea registered comparable soil N and dehydrogenase activities (35.8 μg TPF g-1 24 hrs-1 across all crops) over the conventional fertilization (N100PK). This indicates that application of foliar spray of nano-urea with 75% N is a soil supportive production approach. More interestingly, two foliar sprays of nano-urea curtailed nitrogen load by 25% without any yield penalty, besides reducing the greenhouse gases (GHG) emission from 164.2 to 416.5 kg CO2-eq ha-1 under different crops. Therefore, the application of nano-urea along with 75% N through prilled urea is an energy efficient, environmentally robust and economically feasible nutrient management approach for sustainable crop production.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•Effective conservation tilling and diversified cropping improves soil C buildup.•Zero tilling had the highest SOC pool (25.24 Mg ha−1 at 0–10 cm depth).•Zero tilling reduced bulk density by 2.2 % at ...0–10 cm soil depth over CT.•Maize-black gram-buckwheat recorded a maximum SOC pool (24.98 Mg ha−1).
Ecological indicators are herculean contrivance for assessing management practices' impacts on environmental changes. Soil organic carbon (SOC) potentially regulates the agricultural sustainability. Unfortunately, the SOC has been widely degraded through unsustainable land uses and agricultural practices. Hence, the efficacy of conservation tilling and diversified cropping were assessed in terms of restoration of SOC and associated soil properties in fixed plots, which are related with farm productivity and other ecosystem services under organic production systems of the Indian Himalayas. Three tillage management were selected as treatments of the study: i) conventional tilling (CT), ii) reduced tilling (RT), and iii) Zero tilling (ZT) applied to four diversified cropping systems CS1- maize–black gram–toria, CS2 maize–black gram–buckwheat, CS3- maize–rajmash–toria and CS4 maize–rajmash–buckwheat. The ZT had the highest SOC content (19.58 g kg−1) as well as the C pool (25.24 Mg ha−1) at a soil depth of 0–10 cm. On the contrary, ZT had the lowest ρb (1.29 Mg m3) and soil penetration resistance (1.32 MPa) at 0–5 cm and 5–10 cm soil depth. Concerning SOC partitioning, regardless of soil depth, it had been evident that more SOC were allocated in the active pool over the passive pool. Out of the diversified cropping systems, the CS2 produced a considerably higher total carbon pool of 24.98, and 23.0 Mg ha−1 at 0–10 cm, and 10–20 cm soil depths, respectively, and active and passive C pools. Hence, abolition of tillage and cultivation of legume embedding cropping systems resulted as a sustainable management system under organic farming for SOC restoration and soil quality improvement in the Himalayan ecosystem. Thus, the study suggested that the cultivation of CS2 under ZT may be promoted for efficient land resource management planning in the study region of the Indian Himalayas.
•Significant variation was found in the seasonal and annual litterfall biomass of the three types of forest stands.•The seasonal dynamics of litterfall biomass of twigs, leaf and fruits exhibited a ...‘unimodal pattern’ with a peak in October.•Temperature played a key role in the climatic factors affecting forest litterfall processes.
Litterfall is a link in the energy flow and material cycling of ecosystems, which maintain the primary productivity of forests. However, there is no consensus regarding the factors driving for the litterfall biomass dynamics because of the high spatial–temporal heterogeneity. Herein, we investigated and compared the stand litter biomass, litterfall biomass, including its components in the pure Robinia pseudoacacia forest (RL), pure Platycladus orientalis forest (PL), and mixed forest of Robinia pseudoacacia and Platycladus orientalis (ML) from 2020 to 2022 in the gully erosion area of the Loess Plateau. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to study the relationships among the amount of stand litter, litterfall biomass, and seasonal temperature and precipitation. Significant variation was found in the seasonal and annual litterfall biomass of the three types of forest stands. Annual stand litter biomass was in the order PL > RL > ML, whereas the annual litterfall biomass was in the order RL > ML > PL. The seasonal dynamics of litterfall biomass of twigs, leaf and fruits exhibited a ‘unimodal pattern’ with a peak in October. Annual leaf litterfall biomass formed, the main body of litter in all the components, accounting for 57.14–67.05 % of the total litterfall biomass. The correlation and regression analysis results showed that the stand litter biomass was primarily affected by the average temperature. Total litterfall biomass and twigs, leaf, and fruits were significantly affected by the precipitation and the maximum temperature, however, flower litterfall biomass was mainly affected by the average temperature. Overall, our results indicated that temperature plays a key role in the climatic factors affecting forest litterfall processes, while different climatic conditions and biological characteristics probably caused the differences in litterfall biomass. In the long term, temperature will potentially play a leading role in altering carbon storage and nutrient cycling as the climate warms.
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