Plant Pathology Commons^™

Livestock Farmers And Researchers Perceptions About Ecosystem Services Provided By Rio De La Plata Grasslands, Daniela Schossler, Carlos Nabinger, Pablo Boggiano, Diana L. Restrepo-Osorio, Claudio Ribeiro

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The perception and valuation that livestock farmers have about ecosystem services provided by natural pastures is of fundamental importance to their management decisions and the conservation of this resource. This work aims to reveal results of a project carried out in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay using the TESSA (Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment) methodology to compare the perceptions of different ecosystem services among livestock farmers and researchers. The methodology was participatory workshops, two by country, one with livestock farmers participating in the Grassland Alliance (at least 50% of natural grassland in the livestock production system) and another with …

Factors Influencing Adoption Of Rangeland Rehabilitation Technologies By Agro-Pastoralists In The Arabian Peninsula: Evidence From Analysis In Saudi Arabia And Qatar, Boubaker Dhehibi, Arash Nejatian, Abdul Aziz Niane, Azaiez Ouled Belgacem

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Rangelands are the main land use in the Arabian Peninsula and cover about 50% of total area. They are under continuous heavy grazing pressure due to underlying social and economic causes as well as institutional effects. ICARDA in collaboration with the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) has developed and introduced different rehabilitation techniques including resting, planting native range species and water harvesting in different countries of the AP such as Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia (KSA) and Yemen. However, the adoption of these techniques by end users was not evaluated. In this context, a research has been conducted in Saudi Arabia …

Effectively Reaching The Equine Community In Kentucky, S. L. Musen, Krista L. Lea, S. Ray Smith, R. J. Coleman

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Since 2009, Extension Specialists and County Extension Agents from the University of Kentucky in the Southeast United States have conducted an annual educational event; the Kentucky Equine Farm and Facilities Expo field-day. These annual field-days have provided practical, hands-on demonstrations and seminars for 135-250 members of the equine community per event. Participants have been a mix of horse owners in relation to farm size, number of horses and business vs. recreation. Many participants have not been previous consumers of Extension educational programming. One of the major draws of the Farm and Facility Expo field days has been the host sites, …

Application Of The Tessa Methodology In A Pilot Protocol For Participatory Evaluation Of Ecosystem Services And Agents Of Change In The Pampa Grasslands. Method Description And Lessons Learned, Daniela Schossler, Carlos Nabinger, Pablo Boggiano, Diana L. Restrepo-Osorio, Claudio Ribeiro

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The Toolkit for Site-Based Assessment (Landscape) of Ecosystem Services (TESSA) is intended to be an accessible guide for low-cost methods to assess the benefits that people receive from nature at particular sites in order to generate information that can be used to influence decision-making (Pehl et al 2015). However, TESSA does not have defined protocols for grasslands ecosystems. This article focuses on the description and discussion of the lessons learned in the participatory workshops that include engaging with policy and decision-making actors. The work consisted of identifying 1) the area occupied by each coverage or use, 2) the threats and …

Analysis Of The Attitude Of Farmers Towards Innovations In The Management Of Grasslands In Poland, P. Goliński, A. Van Den Pol-Van Dasselaar, A. Paszkowski, B. Golińska

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Innovations in the management of grasslands in Poland are important to preserve them as a source of different ecosystem services. In the farmers point of view the most promising is forage production for herbivores, particularly dairy cows. Individual farmers have different opinions about innovations. To stimulate innovations in grassland-based farming systems in Poland, it is important to determine the drivers for their promotion and to define the barriers to overcome problems by their implementation. Analysis of the attitude of Polish farmers towards innovations on grasslands were conducted within the H2020 Inno4Grass project. The majority of respondents were young and had …

Adaptive Rotational Grazing And The Story Of The Regrazed Grass Plant, L. M. Porensky, H. Wilmer, D. J. Augustine, J. D. Derner, M. Fernández-Giménez, David D. Briske, Carm Stakeholder Group

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Livestock stocking rates and decisions about how to move animals in time and space impact plant responses to livestock grazing. We report on a ranch-scale collaborative experiment comparing adaptive rotational grazing management to season-long continuous grazing during a 4.5-month grazing period during the growing season. As part of this project, stakeholders and scientists worked together to articulate their hypotheses about the mechanisms linking rotational grazing with expected vegetation outcomes. Several stakeholders expected rotational grazing to enhance the production and diversity of grazing-sensitive perennial grass species. The main hypothesized mechanism underlying this expectation was that rotation grazing should reduce regrazing of …

Ecology And Diversity Of Culturable Fungal Species Associated With Soybean Seedling Diseases In The Midwestern United States, Mirian F. Pimentel, Ali Y. Srour, Amanda J. Warner, Jason P. Bond, Carl A. Bradley, John Rupe, Martin I. Chilvers, J. Alejandro Rojas, Janette L. Jacobs, Christopher R. Little, Alison E. Robertson, Loren J. Giesler, Dean Malvick, Kiersten Wise, Albert Tenuta, Ahmad M. Fakhoury

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

Aims: To isolate and characterize fungi associated with diseased soybean seedlings in Midwestern soybean production fields and to determine the influence of environmental and edaphic factors on their incidence.

Methods and Results: Seedlings were collected from fields with seedling disease history in 2012 and 2013 for fungal isolation. Environmental and edaphic data associated with each field was collected. 3036 fungal isolates were obtained and assigned to 76 species. The most abundant genera recovered were Fusarium (73%) and Trichoderma (11.2%). Other genera included Mortierella, Clonostachys, Rhizoctonia, Alternaria, Mucor, Phoma, Macrophomina and Phomopsis. …

A Scalable And Participatory Sustainable Rangeland Management Toolkit With A Holistic And Multidisciplinary Approach To Rehabilitate Degraded Rangelands, Mounir Louhaichi, Mouldi Gamoun, Sawsan Hassan

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Rangelands contribute significantly toward improving livelihoods, offering food security, trade and tourism for pastoral communities. Numerous challenges include poor government policies, loss of indigenous knowledge and top-down approaches toward sustainable rangeland rehabilitation that often fail to consider local development adoption and sustainability. In such situations, effective management is needed for sustainable rangeland ecosystem goods and services in a context characterized by rainfall unreliability, poor soil nutrient status and high uncontrolled grazing. This paper presents a new comprehensive toolkit for identifying and combining suitable and site-specific interventions aimed at reversing the trend of degraded arid rangelands. This toolbox is founded on …

Pastoralist Use Of Reseeded Fields For Additional Resilience To Climate Variability Through Alternate Livelihood Activities, D. W. Githu, J. S. Fehmi, M. Mcclaran, M. Elizabeth, A. Josephson

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Land degradation, climate variability, socio-economic changes and population increase are some of the factors that shrink grazing lands making forage availability less predictable and affecting the resilience of pastoralists communities. Reseeding as an intervention can rehabilitate degraded lands for profitable use through offering pastoralists alternative sources of livelihood and encourage livelihood diversification. This study evaluated two pastoral communities, the Tugen and the Njemps from Baringo County, Kenya, who have owned, managed and used reseeded fields to study the dynamics of reseeding land. A total of 193 pastoralist households were interviewed. These two pastoral communities used their fields for: dry season …

Utilizing Perennial Grass Species’ Population Patterns To Detect Looming Desertification Tipping Points In Semi-Arid Regions, F. Munyebvu-Chambara, W. C. Nesongano, M. C. Bilton, A. Linstädter

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Namibia is one of the global dryland regions facing desertification threats due to overgrazing and recurrent drought. This has disastrous effects on forage provision and consequently on local livelihoods. Unfortunately, the mechanisms underlying sudden shifts of rangeland ecosystems towards a desertified state are still poorly understood. The ability to predict desertification tipping points with the aid of suitable ecological indicators is critical to ensure sustainable management of rangeland resources, which are a backbone of rural livelihood in drylands worldwide. Accordingly, we aimed to identify key perennial grass species that can be used as early-warning indicators for desertification tipping points; and …

The Role Of Improved Forages In Solving The Water Scarcity Issue Of 4 Billion People, S. Douxchamps, A. Notenbaert, J. A. Cardoso, M. Romero, M. Peters

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Global animal production requires about 2422 Gm³ of water per year. Most of this volume is used by cattle, with 30% used in the beef sector and another 19% in the dairy sector. At the same time, four billion people suffer from severe water scarcity, raising the flag on diverting an important part of the water globally to livestock production. Livestock-water interactions have therefore gained a prominent profile and fuelled discussions on the water footprint of livestock. A series of studies on the most important components of the livestock water footprint have shown that globally more than 90% of …

Spring Forage Stash Module To Prevent Forage Crisis On Uruguayan Livestock Systems: An Evaluation Based On Model Simulations, M. Pereira Machín, F. Dieguez Cameroni

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

In Uruguay, rangeland cattle production systems support national economy by beef exportation chain and economic inputs to the country. Soil hydric stress episodes results to forage crisis on grassland-based production systems, having high impact on its trajectory and leaving sequels at several farm levels mainly on rearing cattle systems in drought sensitive regions of the country. In that context, the proposal is to create a spring forage stash module, with a simple management rules as a mechanism to build stability to farms and to buffering drought impact. The concept is to differ spring forage (season with low variation coefficient on …

Species Richness Increased Yield Stability In Intensively Managed Grasslands Subjected To Experimental Drought, J. A. Finn, M. Suter, E. Haughey, D. Hofer, A. Lüscher

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Climate change is expected to cause an increase in the frequency and intensity of drought events. Over two years we investigated the effects of experimentally imposed drought on intensively managed grassland communities (5 m x 6 m plots) of varying richness (1, 2 and 4 species), and comprising four species (Lolium perenne L., Cichorium intybus L., Trifolium repens L., Trifolium pratense L.). In each year a summer drought period of nine weeks with complete exclusion of precipitation was simulated, inducing severe drought stress at Reckenholz (Zürich, Switzerland), and extreme drought stress at Wexford (Ireland). Mean yield and plot-to-plot variance …

Soil Nitrous Oxide (N2O) Emission From Integrated Soil Fertility Management In Maize (Zea Mays L.) Cropping Systems, R. Rogito, N. Karanja, L. Merbold, M. Necpalova, J. Six

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) has been recommended to address challenges of low soil fertility by incorporating locally available organic resources (ORs) together with inorganic nitrogen (N) fertilizers. Despite ISFM success in field trials, there is limited information on ORs contribution to atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations through N₂O emission. A short-term field study was conducted at two sites with different soil types; silt loam (Aludeka) and silty-clay soil (Sidada) to assess the influence of selected ORs on soil N₂O emissions. The ORs treatments included; Calliandra carothyrsus (CL), farmyard manure (FYM) and maize stover (MS) with (+N) …

Response Of Soil Respiration To Precipitation Variation In Alfalfa Grassland On The Western Loess Plateau: Hysteresis And Diel Q10, H. K. Chu, H. Ni, J. Y. Ma, Yuying Shen

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Soil respiration (Rs) plays an important role in the terrestrial carbon cycle, but how precipitation variation affects Rs in alfalfa grassland is poorly understood. To explore the effects of precipitation variation on Rs, this experiment was conducted by using rainfall shelters to simulate 30% precipitation reduction (P-30), normal precipitation (CK) and 30% precipitation increase (P+30) for an alfalfa (Medicago sativa) grassland in the Qingyang city, Gansu province, China. Rs was measured continuously using an automated soil respiration system (model LI-8100A with an LI-8150 multiplexer, LI-COR, Nebraska, USA) during the overwintering preparation period of alfalfa. The results showed that …

Soil Carbon Accumulation Under Perennial Forage Grasses In The Southern Highlands Of Tanzania, S. S. Nyawira, P. Birthe, M. J. Korir, B. Nzogela, A. O. Notenbaert

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Land degradation caused by the loss of SOC in continuously cultivated agricultural systems is a major problem in many sub-Saharan Africa countries. The integration on perennial forage grasses in cropping systems has the potential to enhance SOC sequestration. The main objective of this study is to compare soil organic carbon (SOC) under perennial forages with SOC under annual food crops, specifically maize (Zea mays). A survey was conducted in Njombe district in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania to identity farmers with planted forages that are more than five years old and with neighbouring maize plots. Survey results identified …

Perennial Forage Grasses Response To Deficit Irrigation As An Alternative For Water-Limited Conditions Of Southern Chile, Rafael López-Olivari, Fernando Ortega-Klose

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Perennial grasses are an important pasture forage source for the animal production industry around the world. However, the lack of available water limits the use and efficiency of the water resource for maximizing the forage yield. Furthermore, the highest perennial grasses production is obtained in southern Chile, where the frequency and intensity of the rainfalls has been significantly diminished in the main growing period. Thus, the purpose of this research was to evaluate the responses of forage yield (FY) and irrigation water use efficiency (I_WUE) under different levels of water stress on perennial grasses sown …

Quantification Of Methane Emissions From Indoor-Fed Fogera Dairy Cows Using Laser Methane Detector, N. Kobayashi, F. Hou, A. Tsunekawa, Tianhai Yan, F. Tegegne, A. Tassew, Y. Mekuriaw, S. Mekuriaw, B. Hunegnaw, W. Mekonnen, T. Ichinohe

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Portable laser methane detectors (LMDs) may be an economical means of estimating CH₄ emissions from ruminants. Here, we validated an LMD-based approach and then used that approach to evaluate CH₄ emissions from indigenous dairy cows in a dryland area of Ethiopia. First, we validated our LMD-based approach in Simmental crossbred beef cattle (n = 2) housed in respiration chambers and fed either a high- or low-concentrate diet. We found that the exhaled air CH₄ concentrations measured by LMD were linearly correlated with the CH₄ emissions determined by infrared-absorption-based gas analyzer (r² = 0.55). …

An Ecophisiological Proposal To Manage Natural Grasslands: A Long Term Trial, F. L. F. De Quadros, D. Roberti, L. Marin, B. Kuinchtner, P. L. Nascimento

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Natural grasslands on Southern Brazil comprise the so called “Rio de La Plata Grasslands” in South America. They are an important fodder source for ruminant pastoral systems and contribute to regional ecosystem services. Strength of these grasslands is its floristic diversity that poses a dilemma to farmers: how to choose management protocols that could be applied for hundreds of species. We propose to use a functional ecophysiological approach based on groups of grasses, the most abundant on aerial biomass of this natural grasslands. We clustered the most frequent grasses in two groups based on its leaf traits (leaf dry matter …

When The Natural Toxin Concentration In Crotalaria Increase In Japan?, M. Kaneko, N. Kato, I. Hattori

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

A green manure crop, sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea L.), legumes, has a nematode-suppressive effect. It is also used as feed in India. However, it is not used as feed in Japan because it contains natural toxins: Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs). PAs has the negative effects for not only livestock but also human health. The PAs, which are abundant in sunn hemp seeds and which are contained only slightly in leaves and stems. Therefore, if sunn hemp harvested before flowering, then no poison problem is posed by PAs. However, if it is harvested at the podding stage, a poisonous concentration of …