European arable farming, including Hungarian arable farming, faces a huge dilemma: how to contribute to and maintain the global food supply while reducing greenhouse gas emissions while main taining ...biodiversity, but reducing inputs that are potentially damaging to society and the environment while ensuring that no more land is taken out of production? Not to mention that the increasingly urgent need to tackle climate change is also placing additional demands on EU agricultural decision-makers. Under the European Green Deal (GD), the 'From Farm to Fork' (F2F) strategy will help achieve climate neutrality by 2050, with a target of a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Achieving this will require significant changes in food production, a shift in crop health strategies and accelerated innovation in the agricultural sector. The study addresses these issues. Our first hypothesis (A1) is that the GD and F2F strategies can be implemented without problems and without losses. Our second assumption (A2) is that the know-how solutions and the technological conditions for precision agriculture that are already available exist, and that all of these already justify the feasibility of A1. In order to prove this, we have reviewed recent and up-to-date literature on DG and F2F. For A1, we found that there are pro and con findings in the literature. However, the summary finding is not positive. The conclusion of the studies, based on data calculations, is that EU agriculture faces huge additional costs if it is to maintain production and reduce environmental pressures. Their calculations suggest that more people will be disadvantaged by the decisions, and that millions of euros could be lost to the public. However, the article also shows that there are many cases where positive results can be achieved even with reduced chemical use. Facts and figures from international and Hungarian technological and know-how solutions and their trials at plant level show that the DG's objectives are already partially achievable. It has been established that the systematic use of precision technologies allows to increase the natural and at the same time the economic efficiency. In our work we have used the results of primary and recent secondary research. We have shown the downsides of GD, but also that with targeted support, the objectives of sustainability and GD can be approached. Changes in 2022, drastic price increases for inputs including fertilizers and pesticides, inflation at a 20-year high, energy prices spiraling out of control, and an almost unprecedented drought affecting crop production and horticulture, point to the need for a radical change in technology, thinking and regulation. And all this to ensure that there is enough affordable food in Hungary, that there are export products within and outside the Community, and that those working in agriculture have a decent living.
HWSC systems that target weed seed production during harvest have been in use in Australian crop production systems for over 30 years. Until recently, though, grower adoption of these systems has ...been relatively low. It is now apparent with the introduction of a range of new weed seed targeting systems that there is renewed grower interest in the use of this approach to weed control. With the aim of determining the current adoption and use of HWSC systems, 600 crop producers from throughout Australia's cropping regions were interviewed on their adoption and use of these systems. This survey established that 43% of Australian growers are now routinely using HWSC to target weed seed production during grain harvest. The adoption of narrow-windrow burning (30%) was considerably greater than the other currently available techniques of chaff tramlining (7%), chaff carts (3%), bale-direct system (3%), and the Harrington Seed Destructor (HSD) (<1%). When growers were asked about their future use of these systems 82% indicated that they would be using some form of HWSC within five years. Grower preferences for future HWSC use were primarily for either narrow-windrow burning (42%) or the HSD (29%). This very high level of current and potential HWSC adoption signifies that HWSC is now considered an established weed control practice by Australian growers.
Agricultural ecosystems are facing increasing environmental changes. Revealing ecological stability of belowground organisms is key to developing management strategies that maintain agricultural ...ecosystem services in a changing world. Here, we collected soils from adjacent pairs of maize and rice fields along large spatial scale across Eastern and Southeast China to investigate the importance of core microbiota as a predictor of resistance of soil microbiome (e.g. bacteria, fungi and protist) to climate changes and nutrient fertilization, and their effect on multiple ecosystem functions, representing key services for crop growth and health in agro‐ecosystems. Soil microbiome in maize soils exhibited stronger resistance than that in rice soils, by considering multiple aspects of the resistance index, for example, community, phylogenetic conservation and network complexity. Community resistance of soil microbiome showed a geographic pattern, with higher resistance at lower latitudes, suggesting their stronger resistance in warmer regions. Particularly, we highlighted the role of core phylotypes in enhancing the community resistance of soil microbiome, which was essential for the maintenance of multifunctionality in agricultural ecosystems. Our results represent a significant advance in linking core phylotypes to community resistance and ecosystem functions, and therefore forecasting agro‐ecosystems dynamics in response to ongoing environmental changes. These suggest that core phylotypes should be considered a key factor in enhancing agricultural sustainability and crop productivity under global change scenarios.
Agricultural ecosystems are facing increasing environmental changes. In the present study, we revealed the importance of core phylotypes in community resistance of soil microbiomes, which were essential for the maintenance of multifunctionality in agricultural ecosystems. In addition, soil microbiome in maize soils exhibited stronger resistance than that in rice soils, by considering multiple aspects of resistance in soil microbiome. Our study represents a considerable advance in linking core phylotypes to community resistance and ecosystem functions, and therefore forecasting agro‐ecosystems dynamics in response to ongoing environmental changes, knowledge of which could be used to enhance agricultural sustainability and crop productivity.
Self-incompatibility (SI) mechanisms prevent self-fertilization in flowering plants based on specific discrimination between self- and non-self pollen. Since this trait promotes outcrossing and ...avoids inbreeding it is a widespread mechanism of controlling sexual plant reproduction. Growers and breeders have effectively exploited SI as a tool for manipulating domesticated crops for thousands of years. However, only within the past thirty years have studies begun to elucidate the underlying molecular features of SI. The specific
-determinants and some modifier factors controlling SI have been identified in the sporophytic system exhibited by
species and in the two very distinct gametophytic systems present in Papaveraceae on one side and in Solanaceae, Rosaceae, and Plantaginaceae on the other. Molecular level studies have enabled SI to SC transitions (and
) to be intentionally manipulated using marker assisted breeding and targeted approaches based on transgene integration, silencing, and more recently CRISPR knock-out of SI-related factors. These scientific advances have, in turn, provided a solid basis to implement new crop production and plant breeding practices. Applications of self-(in)compatibility include widely differing objectives such as crop yield and quality improvement, marker-assisted breeding through SI genotyping, and development of hybrids for overcoming intra- and interspecific reproductive barriers. Here, we review scientific progress as well as patented applications of SI, and also highlight future prospects including further elucidation of SI systems, deepening our understanding of SI-environment relationships, and new perspectives on plant self/non-self recognition.
Purpose
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) play important roles in agriculture because of their ability to improve plant resilience against abiotic and biotic stresses. AMF as a technology to promote ...a more sustainable agriculture holds great potential, yet many factors affect the efficiency of this plant-microbe symbiosis leading to inconsistency in performance. The beneficial symbiosis between plants and AM fungi, also-known-as the mycorrhiza is promoted by strigolactones (SLs), carotenoid derivatives active as phytohormones and rhizosphere signals. Natural SLs are effective at extremely low concentrations, however their bioavailability in soil is scarce because their biosynthesis and exudation are plant-regulated, their degradation is fast and their mobility in soil is limited.
Methods
Through a broad synthetic chemistry approach, we explored how structurally diverse SL derivatives could improve hyphal branching of
Gigaspora spp
AMF under laboratory conditions and thus possibly boost mycorrhization into soil.
Results
We tested twenty-six different derivatives and we could highlight structural enhancements to promote hyphal branching of in vitro germinated AMF spores at equal, and in some cases higher levels compared to natural SLs. A subset of these derivatives was tested for bioavailability, but no clear correlation was found with their activity on hyphal branching.
Conclusion
This study suggests that we could use a targeted, chemical-design approach to synthetize new SL derivatives to enable enhanced promotion of mycorrhization and potentially enhanced bioavailability compared to natural SLs. Due to the roles of AMF in crop production systems, these results highlight new innovative approaches to promote sustainable agriculture.
Pre-growing season prediction of crop production outcomes such as grain yields and nitrogen (N) losses can provide insights to farmers and agronomists to make decisions. Simulation crop models can ...assist in scenario planning, but their use is limited because of data requirements and long runtimes. Thus, there is a need for more computationally expedient approaches to scale up predictions. We evaluated the potential of four machine learning (ML) algorithms (LASSO Regression, Ridge Regression, random forests, Extreme Gradient Boosting, and their ensembles) as meta-models for a cropping systems simulator (APSIM) to inform future decision support tool development. We asked: (1) How well do ML meta-models predict maize yield and N losses using pre-season information? (2) How many data are needed to train ML algorithms to achieve acceptable predictions? (3) Which input data variables are most important for accurate prediction? And (4) do ensembles of ML meta-models improve prediction? The simulated dataset included more than three million data including genotype, environment and management scenarios. XGBoost was the most accurate ML model in predicting yields with a relative mean square error (RRMSE) of 13.5%, and Random forests most accurately predicted N loss at planting time, with a RRMSE of 54%. ML meta-models reasonably reproduced simulated maize yields using the information available at planting, but not N loss. They also differed in their sensitivities to the size of the training dataset. Across all ML models, yield prediction error decreased by 10%-40% as the training dataset increased from 0.5 to 1.8 million data points, whereas N loss prediction error showed no consistent pattern. ML models also differed in their sensitivities to input variables (weather, soil properties, management, initial conditions), thus depending on the data availability researchers may use a different ML model. Modest prediction improvements resulted from ML ensembles. These results can help accelerate progress in coupling simulation models and ML toward developing dynamic decision support tools for pre-season management.
Chitin and chitosan are natural polysaccharides with huge application potential in agriculture, such as promoting plant growth, eliciting plant resistance against biotic and abiotic stress, and ...activating symbiotic signaling between plants and beneficial microorganisms. Chitin and chitosan offer a sustainable alternative for future crop production. The bioactivities of chitin and chitosan closely depend on their structural factors, including molecular size, degree of acetylation, and pattern of acetylation. It is of great significance to identify the key fragments in chitin and chitosan chains that are responsible for these agricultural bioactivities. Herein, we review the recent progress in the structure–function relationship of chitin and chitosan in the field of agriculture application. The preparation of chitin and chitosan fragments and their action mode for plant protection and growth are also discussed.
Capsicum—An Abbreviated Compendium Jarret, Robert L.; Barboza, Gloria E.; Costa Batista, Fabiane Rabelo da ...
Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science,
01/2019, Volume:
144, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Pepper ( Capsicum L.) is a major vegetable and spice crop worldwide. Global production of both fresh and dried fruit continues to increase steadily in terms of area harvested and yield. Various ...topics are addressed in this review, including recent additions to and clarification of Capsicum taxonomy, genetic resources of Capsicum , cytogenetic studies, the current status of our understanding of the mechanisms affecting the biosynthesis of capsaicinoids, the use of gene mutations to elucidate carotenoid biosynthetic pathways and their regulation, and recent advances in whole-genome sequencing and assembly.
Abstract The use of herbicides has received attention due to its effects on human health, sustainability, and biodiversity due to toxic chemicals in herbicides. Repeated use of herbicide active ...ingredients over a long period of time can result in the emergence of resistant weeds. One strategy to reduce the herbicide use without decreasing productivity is integrated weed control. This study aims to compare the effectiveness of several weed control techniques in integrated weed control and their role in suppressing weeds and increasing maize crop production. This study used a Randomized Group Design with 2 factorials. The first factor was weed control technique (W) with levels: no control (W0), cover crop (W1), pre-emergent herbicide (W2), post-emergent herbicide (W3), and weed-free (with weeding) (W4). And the second factor was tillage technique (T), namely: no tillage (T0) and conventional tillage (T1). The results showed that post-emergent herbicides were more effective in controlling weeds and the highest crop production with weed control techniques with pre-emergent herbicides. The tillage technique had no significant effect on weeds and maize crop production.
Abstract
Sodium (Na
+
) toxicity is one of the major damages imposed on crops by saline-alkaline stress. Here we show that natural maize inbred lines display substantial variations in shoot Na
+
...contents and saline-alkaline (NaHCO
3
) tolerance, and reveal that
ZmNSA1
(
Na
+
Content under Saline-Alkaline Condition
) confers shoot Na
+
variations under NaHCO
3
condition by a genome-wide association study. Lacking of ZmNSA1 promotes shoot Na
+
homeostasis by increasing root Na
+
efflux. A naturally occurred 4-bp deletion decreases the translation efficiency of
ZmNSA1
mRNA, thus promotes Na
+
homeostasis. We further show that, under saline-alkaline condition, Ca
2+
binds to the EF-hand domain of ZmNSA1 then triggers its degradation via 26S proteasome, which in turn increases the transcripts levels of PM-H
+
-ATPases (
MHA2
and
MHA4
), and consequently enhances SOS1 Na
+
/H
+
antiporter-mediated root Na
+
efflux. Our studies reveal the mechanism of Ca
2+
-triggered saline-alkaline tolerance and provide an important gene target for breeding saline-alkaline tolerant maize varieties.
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