Juniper Publishers Agricultural Research Journal

  Journal of Agriculture Research -  Juniper Publishers  Winter cover crops are used to protect soil from Nitrogen (N) loss in fallow periods of crop production. For sufficient N accumulation, it is essential to produce high amount of biomass, and therefore it is important to sow cover crop as early as possible after the main crop harvest. A two-year field experiment was carried out in northern climate to study the effect of sowing date on biomass and N accumulation of five winter cover crop species: winter rye (Secale cereale L.), winter turnip rape (Brassica rapa spp. oleifera L.), forage radish (Raphanus sativus L. var. longipinnatus), hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), and berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.). Cover crops were sown during a two-week period at four different dates in late summer. Biomass and accumulated N were measured at the end of the vegetation period in autumn and for overwintered species also in the following spring. Results show...

  Journal of Agriculture Research -  Juniper Publishers Rapid advances in sensor technology are enabling aggressive use of informatics in agriculture. This paper focuses on applying the newly developed soil electrical impedance spectrum sensor combined with artificial intelligence to predict soil fertility. The described method determines the type and amount of fertilizer to be used. The proposed sensor system is portable and fast enough for real-time measurements in the field using a slow-moving tractor. It is affordable, battery-powered and allows wireless data transmission to the farmer’s soil database. Such a database allows the farmer to create a reliable fertilizer plan. The crop is of better quality because fertilizer is applied only where it is needed on the plot. The use of fertilizer is optimized, costs are reduced, and the environment is preserved. Many papers report more or less credible results on this problem, but they lack verification of real condi...

  Journal of Agriculture Research -  Juniper Publishers Forest management system as a component of ungulate pest management. Wild ungulates are an important site factor in forests and landscapes. Impacts of ungulates on forest vegetation and the effect of hunting systems are often investigated and discussed. In contrast, the impact of silvicultural systems on forest damage by ungulates is much less conscious. Therefore, in a long-term research program in Central Europe since the 1990ies two questions were investigated additionally, (i) in which way can forest management systems and landscape structures influence the interactions between ungulates and forest vegetation, and (ii) how can silvicultural practices modify the susceptibility of forests to damage by ungulates. The results showed a strong impact of these factors on the emergence of game damage to forests. Factors that are often underestimated in practice. Recommendations for a coordinated management of dif...

  Journal of Agriculture Research -  Juniper Publishers The tomato Lycopersicum esculentum is one of the most studied, cultivated and consumed vegetables in the world. Studied from a physiological aspect of the plant system: roots, stem, leaves, flowers and fruits. Under different growing conditions are established: soil and hydroponics, and type of substrate. Its management in intensive cultivation systems in horticulture must include: mineral fertilizers, nutrient solution in fertigation, use of biostimulants, and nutritional diagnosis. Plants absorb water and nutrients from the roots, where they are in turn anchored to the soil, or some other means of support related to the root system. Once the variety of interest has been selected. The initial stage includes the germination of the seeds. The seedling length and stem diameter indicate good seedling vigor, in addition, this helps minimize stress during transplantation, especially in soil. Temperature monitor...

  Journal of Agriculture Research -  Juniper Publishers Forest management system as a component of ungulate pest management. Wild ungulates are an important site factor in forests and landscapes. Impacts of ungulates on forest vegetation and the effect of hunting systems are often investigated and discussed. In contrast, the impact of silvicultural systems on forest damage by ungulates is much less conscious. Therefore, in a long-term research program in Central Europe since the 1990ies two questions were investigated additionally, (i) in which way can forest management systems and landscape structures influence the interactions between ungulates and forest vegetation, and (ii) how can silvicultural practices modify the susceptibility of forests to damage by ungulates. The results showed a strong impact of these factors on the emergence of game damage to forests. Factors that are often underestimated in practice. Recommendations for a coordinated management of dif...

  Journal of Agriculture Research -  Juniper Publishers  Food production in industrial symbiosis is an R&D opportunity addressing the food-energy-water nexus and therefore sustainable development. The low-hanging fruit of this opportunity are already being developed in ongoing projects. The urgency of climate action as well as other sustainable development goals merits an accelerated effort to develop and deploy far greater variety and capacity for symbiotic, industrial-scale food production. Three points of departure collectively point to a potential opportunity to create sustainability and resilience with food production in industrial symbiosis: i. The water-energy-food nexus conceptualizes the “inextricable linkages between these critical domains” and is “central to sustainable development1”. ii. Parker & Svantemark (2019) concludes “distributed symbiotic food production can contribute to resilience to the most threatening of the relevant risk...

  Journal of Agriculture Research -  Juniper Publishers  Rice continues to be a primary food for the world’s population. Over its complex history, dating as far back as 8,000 B.C., there have been agricultural challenges, such as a variety of diseases. A consequence of disease in rice plants may lead to no harvest of grain; therefore, detecting disease early and providing expert remedies in a low-cost solution is highly desirable. In this article, we study a pragmatic approach for rice growers to leverage artificial intelligence solutions that reduce cost, increase speed, improve ease of use, and increase model performance over other solutions, thereby directly impacting field operations. Our method significantly improves upon prior methods by combining automated feature extraction for image data, exploring thousands of traditional machine learning configurations, defining a search space for hyper-parameters, deploying a model using edge computing field usabi...