Agriculture Commons^™

Rooting For Food Security In Sub-Saharan Africa, Nicolas Guilpart, Patricio Grassini, Justin Van Wart, Haishun Yang, Martin K. Van Ittersum, Lenny G.J. Van Bussel, Joost Wolf, Lieven Claessens, Johan G.B. Leenaars, Kenneth G. Cassman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

There is a persistent narrative about the potential of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to be a ‘grain breadbasket’ because of large gaps between current low yields and yield potential with good management, and vast land resources with adequate rainfall. However, rigorous evaluation of the extent to which soils can support high, stable yields has been limited by lack of data on rootable soil depth of sufficient quality and spatial resolution. Here we use location-specific climate data, a robust spatial upscaling approach, and crop simulation to assess sensitivity of rainfed maize yields to root-zone water holding capacity. We find that SSA could …

Supplemental Material For: Multi-Site Evaluation Of Apex For Water Quality: Ii. Regional Parameterization, Nathan O. Nelson, Claire Baffaut, John A. Lory, G.M.M.M. Anomaa Senaviratne, Ammar B. Bhandari, Ranjith P. Udawatta, Daniel W. Sweeney, Matt J. Helmers, Mike W. Van Liew, Antonio P. Mallarino, Charles S. Wortmann

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Model performance was assessed using Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency (NSE), coefficient of determination (r²), and percent bias (PBIAS) as defined by Moriasi et al. (2007 and 2015). Threshold values indicating acceptable model performance based on these statistics are dependent on the spatial and temporal scales of the data, water quality constituents of interest, and the modeling objectives (Moriasi et al., 2015). Although some standard values have been suggested (Moriasi et al., 2007 and 2015), considerable variability exist in the published literature. For instance Ramanarayan et al. (1997) considered r² >0.5 and NSE >0.40 as satisfactory for simulation of …

Author Correction: Genome-Guided Phylo-Transcriptomic Methods And The Nuclear Phylogenetic Tree Of The Paniceae Grasses, Jacob D. Washburn, James C. Schnable, Gavin C. Conant, Thomas P. Brutnell, Ying Shao, Yang Zhang, Martha Ludwig, Gerrit Davidse, J. Chris Pires

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The original version of this Article contained an error in the title of the paper, where the word “Phylogenetic” was incorrectly given as “Phylogentic”. This has now been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the Article, and in the accompanying Supplementary Information file.

Lettuce Learn: Student Reflections On Building And Sustaining A Community Donation Garden, Hannah Dankbar, Emily K. Zimmerman, Carrie Chennault, Andrea D. Basche, Jacqueline Ann Nester, Maritza Pierre, Gabrielle Roesch-Mcnally

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

This article emerged from conversations that we and fellow graduate students have had in building a community donation garden. We created the garden with a vision of enacting food justice in our community, but over the past four years we have experienced complexities with our vision. In this article, we share the complexities with which we have wrestled, how we have encouraged thoughtful dialogue among fellow scholars about these shortcomings and the intricate workings of the agrifood system, and the lessons we have learned through these experiences as early-career scholar-activists. This article represents our collective and individual voices as graduate …

Leveraging Agroecology For Solutions In Food, Energy, And Water, Marcia Delonge, Andrea D. Basche

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Global agriculture is facing growing challenges at the nexus of interconnected food, energy and water systems, including but not limited to persistent food insecurity and diet-related diseases; growing demands for energy and consequences for climate change; and declining water resources, water pollution, floods and droughts. Further, soil degradation and biodiversity loss are both triggers for and consequences of these problems. In this commentary, we argue that expanding agroecological principles, tools, and technologies and enhancing biological diversity can address these challenges and achieve better socioeconomic outcomes. Agroecology is often described as multi- or transdiscplinary, and applies ecological principles to the design …

Improving Water Resilience With More Perennially Based Agriculture, Andrea D. Basche, Oliver F. Edelson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Land conversion from natural to managed ecosystems, while necessary for food production, continues to occur at high rates with significant water impacts. Further, increased rainfall variability exposes agricultural systems to impacts from flood and drought events. In many regions, water limitations are overcome through technological approaches such as irrigation and tile drainage, which may not be sustainable in the long term. A more sustainable approach to combat episodes of floods and droughts is to increase soil water storage and the overall green water efficiency of agroecosystems. Agricultural practices that promote “continuous living cover,” such as perennial grasses, agroforestry and cover …

The Impact Of Continuous Living Cover On Soil Hydrologic Properties: A Meta-Analysis, Andrea D. Basche, Marcia Delonge

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Increased rainfall variability due to climate change threatens the efficacy of critical soil ecosystem services. One strategy to negate effects of too much or not enough rainfall is to improve soil water properties. Practices that offer “continuous living cover” can enhance soil water storage and other soil hydrologic properties relative to annual crop systems, but to what extent such benefits can accrue, under different conditions, remains under-quantified. To address these uncertainties, we conducted a meta-analysis that included 27 studies representing 93 paired observations measuring two soil hydrologic properties: porosity and the water retained at field capacity. All experiments compared the …

Research Topics To Scale Up Cover Crop Use: Reflections From Innovative Iowa Farmers, Andrea D. Basche, Gabrielle E. Roesch-Mcnally

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Cover crops as a conservation practice continue to receive attention from farmers, researchers, media, and policy makers, given their ability to effectively reduce water pollution and improve soil quality. Recent estimates of cover crop use across the midwestern Corn Belt, as well as the United States, demonstrate large acreage increases over the last number of years. The annual Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education–Conservation Technology Information Center (SARE– CTIC) survey found that nationally cover crop acreage doubled from 2011 to 2016, based on farmers self-reporting cover crop planting (CTIC 2016). However, the total cover crop acreage based on 2012 Census of …

Genotyping-By-Sequencing Derived High-Density Linkage Map And Its Application To Qtl Mapping Of Flag Leaf Traits In Bread Wheat, Waseem Hussain, P. Stephen Baenziger, Vikas Belamkar, Mary J. Guttieri, Jorge P. Venegas, Amanda Easterly, Ahmed Sallam, Jesse Poland

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Winter wheat parents ‘Harry’ (drought tolerant) and ‘Wesley’ (drought susceptible) were used to develop a recombinant inbred population with future goals of identifying genomic regions associated with drought tolerance. To precisely map genomic regions, high-density linkage maps are a prerequisite. In this study genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) was used to construct the high-density linkage map. The map contained 3,641 markers distributed on 21 chromosomes and spanned 1,959 cM with an average distance of 1.8 cM between markers. The constructed linkage map revealed strong collinearity in marker order across 21 chromosomes with POPSEQ-v2.0, which was based on a high-density linkage map. The reliability …

Genomic-Enabled Prediction Accuracies Increased By Modeling Genotype × Environment Interaction In Durum Wheat, Sivakumar Sukumaran, Diego Jarquin, José Crossa, Matthew Reynolds

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Genomic prediction studies incorporating genotype × environment (G×E) interaction effects are limited in durum wheat. We tested the genomic-enabled prediction accuracy (PA) of Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Predictor (GBLUP) models—six non-G × E and three G × E models—on three basic cross-validation (CV) schemes— in predicting incomplete field trials (CV2), new lines (CV1), and lines in untested environments (CV0)— in a durum wheat panel grown under yield potential, drought stress, and heat stress conditions. For CV0, three scenarios were considered: (i) leave-one environment out (CV0-Env); (ii) leave one site out (CV0- Site); and (iii) leave 1 yr out (CV0-Year). The …

Validation Of Qtl Mapping And Transcriptome Profiling For Identification Of Candidate Genes Associated With Nitrogen Stress Tolerance In Sorghum, Malleswari Gelli, Anji Reddy Konda, Kan Liu, Chi Zhang, Thomas E. Clemente, David R. Holding, Ismail M. Dweikat

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Background: Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) detected in one mapping population may not be detected in other mapping populations at all the time. Therefore, before being used for marker assisted breeding, QTLs need to be validated in different environments and/or genetic backgrounds to rule out statistical anomalies. In this regard, we mapped the QTLs controlling various agronomic traits in a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population in response to Nitrogen (N) stress and validated these with the reported QTLs in our earlier study to find the stable and consistent QTLs across populations. Also, with Illumina RNA-sequencing we checked the differential expression of …

Evaluation Of Jules-Crop Performance Against Site Observations Of Irrigated Maize From Mead, Nebraska, Karina Williams, Jemma Gornall, Anna Harper, Andy Wiltshire, Debbie Hemming, Tristan Quaife, Tim Arkebauer, David Scoby

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The JULES-crop model (Osborne et al., 2015) is a parametrisation of crops within the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES), which aims to simulate both the impact of weather and climate on crop productivity and the impact of croplands on weather and climate. In this evaluation paper, observations of maize at three FLUXNET sites in Nebraska (US-Ne1, US-Ne2 and US-Ne3) are used to test model assumptions and make appropriate input parameter choices. JULES runs are performed for the irrigated sites (US-Ne1 and US-Ne2) both with the crop model switched off (prescribing leaf area index (LAI) and canopy height) and with …

Science In The Supply Chain: Collaboration Opportunities For Advancing Sustainable Agriculture In The United States, Allison M. Thomson, Stewart Ramsey, Ed Barnes, Bruno Basso, Marlen Eve, Sasha Gennet, Patricio Grassini, Brandon Kliethermes, Marty Matlock, Eileen Mcclellen, Ed Spevak, Clifford S. Snyder, Mark D. Tomer, Chris Van Kessel, Tristram West, Grant Wick

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Consumers and corporations are increasingly interested in understanding the sustainability of agricultural supply chains and reducing the environmental impacts of food, fiber, feed, and fuel production. This emerging need to quantify environmental impacts from agricultural production creates an opportunity for collaboration with the scientific community. Without such collaboration, sustainability efforts risk failure by adopting unrealistic goals or misguided approaches. This commentary explores the role of science in Field to Market, a nonprofit organization developing a sustainability program for US commodity crops, and highlights opportunities to address emerging science challenges. We evaluate changes over the past 35 years in key environmental …

Genetic Characterization Of The Soybean Nested Association Mapping Population, Qijian Song, Long Yan, Charles Quigley, Brandon D. Jordan, Edward Fickus, Steve Schroeder, Bao-Hua Song, Yong-Qiang Charles An, David Hyten, Randall L. Nelson, Katy Rainey, William D. Beavis, Jim Specht, Brian Diers, Perry Cregan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

A set of nested association mapping (NAM) families was developed by crossing 40 diverse soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] genotypes to the common cultivar. The 41 parents were deeply sequenced for SNP discovery. Based on the polymorphism of the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and other selection criteria, a set of SNPs was selected to be included in the SoyNAM6K BeadChip for genotyping the parents and 5600 RILs from the 40 families. Analysis of the SNP profiles of the RILs showed a low average recombination rate. We constructed genetic linkage maps for each family and a composite linkage map based on …

Editorial: Genomic Approaches For Improvement Of Understudied Grasses, Keenan Amundsen, Gautam Sarath, Teresa Donze-Reiner

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Grasses are diverse, spanning native prairies to high-yielding grain cropping systems. They are valued for their beauty and useful for soil stabilization, pollution mitigation, biofuel production, nutritional value, and forage quality; grasses encompass the most important grain crops in the world. There are thousands of distinct grass species and many have promiscuous hybridization patterns, blurring species boundaries. Resources for advancing the science and knowledgebase of individual grass species or their unique characteristics varies, often proportional to their perceived value to society. For many grasses, limited genetic information hinders research progress. Presented in this research topic is a brief snapshot of …

Expression Of The Maize Dof1 Transcription Factor In Wheat And Sorghum, Pamela A. Pena, Truyen Quach, Shirley Sato, Zhengxiang Ge, Natalya Nersesian, Taity Changa, Ismail M. Dweikat, Madhavan Soundararajan, Tom E. Clemente

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Nitrogen is essential for plant growth and development. Improving the ability of plants to acquire and assimilate nitrogen more efficiently is a key agronomic parameter that will augment sustainability in agriculture. A transcription factor approach was pursued to address improvement of nitrogen use efficiency in two major commodity crops. To this end, the Zea mays Dof1 (ZmDof1) transcription factor was expressed in both wheat (Triticum aestivum) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) either constitutively, UBI4 promoter from sugarcane, or in a tissue specific fashion via the maize rbcS1 promoter. The primary transcription activation target of ZmDof1 …

2017 Weed Science Research Report – White Section, Ndsu Weed Science, Dept. Of Plant Sciences

Plant Sciences Weed Science Reports

The Weed Science team at North Dakota State University conduct field research in the State of North Dakota. This specific document provides environmental, indexes, abbreviations and collaborators in 2017.

Evaluation Of The Brazilian Agrarian Reform Objective: Agricultural Production Yield Change, Tiffany Kwader Harbour

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Brazil has an active agrarian reform policy program, publicly organized by the federal government and publicly administered at the state level by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform. The objective of the agrarian reform policy program is to retitle unproductive and underproductive rural lands to increase agricultural production and land use. Previous agrarian reform researchers have examined quantities of land redistributed, rural technology developments, and the impact of social movements on land redistribution, but a knowledge gap remains regarding the correlation of agricultural production yields in rural municipalities before and after policy program participation. The State of Ceará …

Perceived Threats To Food Security And Possible Responses Following An Agro-Terrorist Attack, Lamesha Lashal Craft

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks exposed vulnerabilities to U.S. homeland security and defense, leading U.S. officials to analyze threats to domestic and international interests. Terrorist attacks against food and water supplies (agro-terrorism), were deemed a national security threat because of the assessed fear, economic instability, and social instability that could occur following a food shortage. Research indicated a comprehensive response plan does not exist across the federal, state, and local levels of government to mitigate the public's possible responses to a perceived threat to food security and food shortages following an agro-terrorist attack. This ethnographic case study analyzed the …

Subsistence Farmers' Perceptions Of Pluralistic Agriculture Extension In Northern Ghana, Amos Kwame Egyir Baah

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 2013, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of the Republic of Ghana implemented a reformed food and agriculture sector development policy (FASDEP II) to reduce poverty among the poorest subsistence farmers in the nation. These extension efforts have been unsuccessful. The purpose of this ethnographic case study was to understand the perceptions of subsistence farmers in the Savelugu-Nanton District (SND) who participated in FASDEP II on how the program had affected their ability to meet their subsistence needs. The theoretical framework of collaborative advantage was used to analyze farmers' opinions of how the decentralized, pluralistic extension policy did or …

Effect Of The National Accelerated Agricultural Inputs Access Subsidy Program On Fertilizer Usage And Food Production In Kakamega County, Western Kenya, Abednego Kiwia Mavuthu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite 25 years of concerted efforts by African governments to adopt consistent policies for increasing food production, hunger and poverty are still prevalent in the continent. Using Bernanke's conceptualization of the credit channel theory of monetary policy, the purpose of this correlational study was to investigate whether a subsidy program, the National Accelerated Agricultural Inputs Access Program (NAAIAP), affected the rates of fertilizer usage and food production in Kakamega County, Western Kenya. Purposive stratified sampling was used to select 114 participants consisting of 72 farmers in each of the 2 groups: NAAIAP beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries. Participants completed a survey on …

Strategies For Preventing And Mitigating The Effects Of Agro-Food Supply Chain Disruptions, Everjoyce Muzvondiwa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Supply chain disruptions are detrimental to the performance of companies due to the associated loss of profitability and reduced sustainability. In 2016, organizations lost at least $1.2 million in a single supply chain disruption. Guided by the contingency theory of fit, the purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was to explore the strategies agribusiness managers use to prevent and mitigate the effects of disruptions in the agro-food supply chains. A total of 5 purposefully-selected agribusiness managers from Harare, Zimbabwe participated in semistructured interviews. Participants were senior agribusiness managers who implemented successful strategies for preventing and mitigating the effects of …

Food Waste Reduction Strategies In Supermarkets: The Lived Experiences Of Perishable Food Managers In Michigan, Kelly K. Zimmermann

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At the retail level, 25% of sellable food is wasted, and perishable foods account for 72% of food waste in the United States. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the food waste reduction strategies used by supermarket perishable food department managers, which are covered under the Good Samaritan Food Donation Acts (state and federal). The participant population was comprised of 17 managers who are responsible for perishable foods departments (bakery, deli, meat, dairy, and produce) at local, regional, and national supermarkets in Midland, Michigan. Goal systems theory served as the conceptual framework lens for which the …

Education And The Development Of On-Farm Identity: Dairy Farm Women's Experiences, Amy Leigh Spangenberg

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Women throughout the world have found emancipation through education. Yet, there has been no research on the role that education plays in dairy farm women's primary, on-farm identity development and how farm women's identities develop. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine dairy farm women's perceptions of previous learning (education) and its influence on their primary, on-farm identity development. The feminist standpoint theory provided the framework for this study. A homogeneous, purposeful sample of 10 active dairy farm women were interviewed using individual, face to face, semistructured questions to answer the question: What are dairy farm women's perceptions …

Equine Infectious Anemia, Karl H. Hoopes

All Current Publications

This fact sheet gives information on equine infectious anemia, a blood-borne infectious viral disease of horses, donkeys, and mules. It describes transmission, clinical disease, diagnosis and control.

Caseous Lymphadenitis Management In Goats, C. Kim Chapman, Matthew J. Kennedy

All Current Publications

This fact sheet describes Caseous Lymphadenitis, an infectious disease of sheep and goats and gives information on managing the disease.

Southeastern Utah Small-Scale Mixed Vegetable Production Costs And Returns - 2 Acres, 2016, Kynda Curtis, Jacob Rudd

All Current Publications

Sample costs and returns to produce mixed vegetables under drip irrigation and sold through direct markets in Southeastern Utah are presented. This publication is intended to be a guide used to make production decisions, determine potential returns and prepare business and marketing plans.

Weaning Strategies In Beef Cattle To Reduce Stress, Matthew Garcia, Kerry Rood, Clark Israelsen

All Current Publications

This fact sheet considers weaning strategies for beef cattle, including the advantages and disadvantages of fenceline weaning, and twostep weaning.

Evaluating The Long Term Effects Of Continuous Broiler Litter Applications On Residual Soil Fertility And Yields Of Corn And Soybean Crops, And A Side Experiment Studying The Residual Copper Fertilization Effects On These Crops, Jesse Lee Gray Mr.

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The increasing cost of commercial fertilizers and the availability of animal waste that has high nutrient content have led to producers utilizing animal waste such as poultry litter in their fertility programs. This increased use has raised concerns as to what are the optimum rates to apply to meet crop needs and how will long term use at high rates of litter effect soil test levels of nutrients such as phosphorus and potassium. The objective of this study was to address these concerns. This study has been ongoing since 1997 with treatments of zero to seven tons of litter …

A Performance Study Of Apis Mellifera With Dietary And Forage Restrictions During Spring Colony Establishment In Lyon County, Kentucky, Dominique Wood

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

One-third of our worldwide fruit, nut and vegetable production is completely dependent on the existence of pollinators. Commercial honey bees, Apis mellifera, have an annual economic value of $15 billion in the U.S. Additionally, their honey is valued at $150 million annually. In Fall 2006, commercial beekeepers observed sudden mass disappearances of whole colonies. By Spring 2007, the condition, dubbed Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), raised environmental and fiscal concerns while the cause(s) continued to be sought. Forensic examinations of hive samples did not reveal a singular cause of CCD. The results pointed to a collection of detrimental factors affecting …