Life Sciences Commons^™

Seed Yield Of Herbaceous Crops Under Agroforestry System, Sarmite Rancane, Dagnija Lazdina, Peteris Berzina, Vija Stesele

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Agroforestry is a perspective way of biomass production which combines simultaneous growing of woody plants with agricultural crops on the same area for different purposes (Reisner et al., 2007). Agroforestry like multifunctional agriculture has the objective of promoting economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable rural development (Leakey, 2012). It is more sustainable than the monocultures of forestry or agriculture separately. Agroforestry can be an appropriate technology in the areas with fragile ecosystems and subsistence farming.

The main advantage of this technology is improved efficiency of resource utilization and smaller competition of plants for nutrients (Bardule et al., 2013). Agroforestry has the …

Efficient Use Of Phosphorus In Temperate Grassland Systems, Richard J. Simpson, Alan E. Richardson, Shirley N. Nichols, James R. Crush

IGC Proceedings (1997-2023)

Phosphorus (P) fertilisers are important for high production in many grassland systems. However, there are increasing environmental, economic and strategic issues associated with using P, which is a non-renewable and “effectively finite” global resource. We review the P balance of temperate pastures to identify the factors that contribute to inefficient P use and discuss ways to improve P use efficiency. The most immediate gains can be made by ensuring that pastures are not over-fertilised. Plants with low critical P requirements, particularly as a result of better root foraging, will be important. Root traits such as fine roots (root diameter), branching, …