Effects of Crop Rotation on Potato Production in the Temperate Zones
Effects of Crop Rotation on Potato Production in the Temperate Zones

Author: J. Vos

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9400924747

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This volume contains the Proceedings of the International Conference on Effects of Crop Rotation on Potato Production in the Temperate Zones. This conference was held in the International Agricultural Centre at Wageningen, The Netherlands, August 14 - 19, 1988, under the auspices of the European Association for Potato Research (EAPR), the Potato Association of America (PAA) and the Dutch National Council for Agricultural Research (NRLO). The length of rotations affect the performance of potato crops and yields are often reduced if rotations are too short. The kinds of crops within a rotation will also affect potato performance, especially those grown in the previous season. It was a major aim of the conference to bring together specialists of various disciplines to examine these determinants of potato yield. The Organizing Committee is glad that all relevant aspects of the theme are highlighted in these proceedings. The contents of the contributions are primarily left to the responsibility of the authors. J. Vos C.D. van Loon G.J. Bollen ORGANIZATION OF THE CONFERENCE The European Association for Potato Research (EAPR) and the Potato Association of America (PAA) nominated representatives in the Conference Committee. PAA was represented by prof. dr E.E. Ewing (Ithaca, USA) and by dr R.E. Thornton (Pullman, USA); EAPR was represented by prof. dr J.C. Holmes (Edinburgh, UK), ir C.D. van Loon (Lelystad, NL), and dr ir J. Vos (chairman; Wageningen, NL).

Alleviating Soil Fertility Constraints to Increased Crop Production in West Africa
Alleviating Soil Fertility Constraints to Increased Crop Production in West Africa

Author: A. Uzo Mokwunye

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9401132240

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Tropical Africa escaped from the glaciers that covered the temperate parts of the world during the Ice Age. The legacy is that most of the parent materials of the soils of tropical Africa are old, highly weathered and devoid of bases and phosphate-bearing minerals. Traditional farming systems which were relatively stable and sustainable relied on long fallow periods after one to two years of cropping to maintain the productive capacity of the soils. In recent times and especially in densely populated areas, a sizeable class of 'landless' farmers have begun to cultivate marginal lands or to invade the 'forest reserves' thereby exacerbating the problems of land and environ mental degradation. of soil fertility that will facilitate the production of adequate quantities of the principle Maintaining a level staples has become a major challenge to agricultural scientists in tropical Africa. To increase the nutrient supplying power of soils requires the inputs of fertilizers. These can be organic or inorganic. The efficiency with which these externally supplied inputs can increase agricultural production and reduce soil and environmental deterioration is dependent on the ability of scientists to determine the right types and quantities of the products to apply to each soil, crop and cropping system as well as the ability of farmers to acquire requisite farm manage ment skills.

Biotic Interactions and Soil-Borne Diseases
Biotic Interactions and Soil-Borne Diseases

Author: A.B.R. Beemster

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2012-12-02

Total Pages: 447

ISBN-13: 0444599258

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This volume contains a collection of all the papers presented at the founding conference of the European Foundation for Plant Pathology, held from 26th February to 2nd March 1990 at Wageningen, The Netherlands. It focusses on the theme of "Biotic Interactions and Soil-Borne Diseases", on which there are contributions from leading European scientists in the field of soil-borne diseases. Ways of exploiting biotic processes and phenomena which result in plant production harmless to the environment are explored.

Soil Fertility Evaluation and Control
Soil Fertility Evaluation and Control

Author: Charles A. Black

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2013-12-29

Total Pages: 761

ISBN-13: 1482247887

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Soil Fertility Evaluation and Control presents the theoretical background for practical applications of scientific work on soil fertility. The book emphasizes the use of response curves as the basic biological standard for both evaluation and control, and it discusses soil testing and plant analysis as secondary standards. The principal application

Perspectives for Agronomy
Perspectives for Agronomy

Author: M.K. van Ittersum

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 1997-12-11

Total Pages: 381

ISBN-13: 0080538665

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During the 4th ESA-Congress, held in the Netherlands, 7-11 July 1996, a new perspective for agronomy emerged. Various contributions demonstrate the need for a new role of agronomy and its tools. In recent decades, agriculture has evolved from an activity with mainly productivity aims, into an issue conciliating environmental, agricultural, and economic and social objectives. Placing agriculture in such a broadened perspective requires a different agronomy, with new tools and approaches at a range of aggregration levels. It calls for detailed knowledge concerning the functioning, productivity and ecological relationships of agricultural plants and crops. In addition, it calls for a constant update and synthesis of existing and newly generated knowledge, the design of new ideotypes and genotypes, new production technologies, cropping systems, farming systems and agro-ecological land use systems. This proceedings book presents a set of case studies illustrating the various agronomic tools that can be used for specific agronomic questions. The case studies are grouped in sections illustrating relevant subquestions in developing an agriculture with broadened objectives. The book starts with an introductory paper on the role of agronomy in research and education in Europe. The second section deals with agricultural land use, food security and environment. This is followed by a set of papers describing experimental research and modeling approaches used to design new ideotypes of crops, including physiological properties in relation to growth factors such as radiation, CO2, temperature and water. Sustained soil fertility directly links to nutrient cycling and soil organic matter. A selected set of papers addresses the improvements in resource use efficiency and as such their contribution towards economic, environmental and agricultural objectives. The final section addresses the design of integrated and ecological arable farming systems. It highlights the role of prototyping interaction with leading-edge farmers, as promising tools to design, implement and test new farming systems. It is hoped that the activities of the European Society for Agronomy and the Proceedings of its 4th Congress will stimulate to serve the new perspectives of agronomy, i.e. to adopt ecological principles, to optimally manage the use of resources and to meet social and economic objectives.

Plant Nutrition for Sustainable Food Production and Environment
Plant Nutrition for Sustainable Food Production and Environment

Author: Tadao Ando

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 975

ISBN-13: 9400900473

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In the history of the International Plant Nutrition Colloquium from its first meeting in 1954, this meeting, the 13th Colloquium, is the first to be held in Asia and will be the last in the 20th century. The 20th century has seen huge changes in the number and activities of mankind. Our population has increased from around 1. 7 billion to more than 5. 8 billion and technological innovations have completely altered our way of living. As a consequence of such rapid change, we are facing many problems including changes in our environment of a global scale. But, while food shortage has been a serious concern to mankind throughout our history, serious food shortages in the 20th century have been confined to limited times and areas. As Lester Brown discusses in this volume, farmers have increased food production heroically on demand. We, the plant nutritionists should be proud of our support to the world's farmers which has helped them make their achievement possible. During the 20th century, the science of plant nutrition also has achieved great progress as described by Jack Loneragan; it became established as a discipline firmly based in science, defined the chemical elements supporting plant growth, and has contributed to improvements in plant production and environmental quality, as readers will find in many contributions in this volume.

Nitrogen Turnover in the Soil-Crop System
Nitrogen Turnover in the Soil-Crop System

Author: J.J. Groot

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9401134340

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In the Netherlands the Institute for Soil Fertility Research plays a major role in soil biological, soil physical and plant nutritional research on the availability of nitrogen to crops. Main subjects of research are nitrogen turnover in the crop-soil ecosystem through biological transformations, nitrogen transport through the soil and nitrogen losses by leaching, denitrification and volatilization, and nitrogen use efficiency of various crops and cropping systems. The current knowledge in the different fields of research is integrated in simulation models. Simulation models not only make it possible to summarize and structure knowledge, but also, after verification, to extra- late the knowledge to situations different from the situations that have actually been studied. Such research is also carried out in other European and non-European countries. To compare the various simulation models currently in use, a workshop was organized by the Institute for Soil Fertility Research on 5-6 June 1990 on the occasion of its centennial. The title of the workshop was 'Nitrogen turnover in the soil-crop ::cosystem: modelling of biological transformations, transport of nitrogen and nitrogen use efficiency'. The 40 Jarticipants, who came from Canada and various European countries, were requested to run their model with data Jrovided by the Institute prior to the workshop. Data from 18 cases were made available to the participants: three ocations, three treatments, and two seasons.