Abstract To assess the level of producers’ exposure and the health risk in relation to phytosanitary practices in cashew crops in Côte d’Ivoire, a descriptive longi tudinal toxicological study was conducted in 2018-2019 with 76 cashew pro ducers in the areas of Mankono, Dabakala and Bondoukou. The data col lected permitted the assessment of phytosanitary risks on the health of pro ducers according to the Quebec-IRPeQ pesticide risk indicators. Field obser vations translated into scenarios were used to determine the exposure levels of producers via the UK-POEM predictive model. The main active substances used were glyphosate, 2,4-D, cypermethrin, acetamiprid, lambdacyhalothrin,profenofos, imidacloprid, deltamethrin, mancozeb and metalaxyl. The risk indicators showed that 2,4-D (TRI = 1332.25; SRI = 432.98), profenofos (TRI =2550.25; SRI = 637.56) and mancozeb (TRI = 841; SRI = 147.18) among her bicides, insecticides and fungicides respectively could have more adverse health effects after exposure. These findings translated into scenarios specifi cally showed high exposure of producers to herbicides, with exposure levels ranging from 1.31 mg/kg bw/day to 1.67 mg/kg bw/day, well above the ac ceptable operator’s exposure levels (AOEL). These health risks could be sig nificantly reduced if the required personal protective equipment is worn. But,recommended doses of pesticides should be reconsidered, because in some cases, applicators exposure remained high despite the protective equipment.

Abstract Fire is regarded as management practice for maintaining grasslands and sa vannas. The vegetation occurring in fire prone areas becomes highly adapted to fire occurrences in savannas and grasslands. However, documentation on the influence of burning on vegetation is still limited in an albany thicket bi ome. The aim of the study was to evaluate the short-term influence of burn ing on species abundance, biomass production, wood plant density and brows ing unit. Six plots (2500 m2) were demarcated; in each plot two parallel tran sects of 120 m2 with 5 m distance apart were measured. Three plots were burned in spring season, while no burning was done on the other remaining plots. Forty points per plot were obtained using step-point method to deter mine the relative abundance at burned and unburned plots. Woody plants occurred within a transect were identified, counted and recorded to deter mine density and browsing unit. Three quadrats (i.e. 0.25 m2) per plot were randomly laid within the transect; aboveground plant material within a quadrat were harvested. A total of 18 samples were harvested and oven dried at 60˚C for 48 hours to determine biomass production. The results showed that Themeda triandra (14%) and Panicum maximum (10%) were most abun dant grass species at the burned plots. Burned plots had significantly higher biomass production (4804 kg/ha) compared to unburned plots (3641 kg/ha). Vachellia karoo (burned: 65.85% & unburn: 13.70%) and Searsia pallens(burned: 26.83% & unburned: 6.85%) were most dominant wood plant spe cies at both burned and unburned plots. Burned plots had the highest brows ing unit (3221 BU/ha) compared to unburned plots (2058 BU/ha). The de crease of woody plants at the burned plots proved that fire has a tremendous potential for anaging woody plants. This study provided information on short-term influence of burning, however further long-term trials are re quired to determine the effects of burning.

Abstract The experiment was conducted at the Regional Spices Research Center, BARI, Gazipur during June 2016 to October 2017 to evaluate the effect of genotype and growth regulator (IBA) on the success and performance of plum air layering. Air layering was done on two plum varieties (BARI Alubokhara-1 and PD Gaz 004) using seven levels of IBA concentration (viz. 0, 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000 and 6000 ppm) under a complete randomized (factorial) de sign (CRD). Significant variation was observed on rooting, establishment and death of layers due to variety and IBA concentrations except rooting and se paration time. The un-fruiting line PD Gaz 004 showed outstanding perfor mance in rooting and survivability of layers over BARI Alubokhara-1. Poor rooting and lower establishment caused very high mortality of layers in BARI Alubokhara-1. Rooting and survivability, number of roots, length of roots and leaf production increased with the increasing levels of IBA concentration up to 5000 ppm. The maximum (10 out of 10) rooting success of layer with 65.83%and 59.17% establishment from PD Gaz004 was obtained when 3000 and 4000ppm IBA was used, respectively. In BARI Alubokhara-1, the highest rooting success (3.08), establishment rate (29.42%), number of root (4.28/layer) and root length (5.08 cm) were recorded with 4000 ppm IBA concentration.

Abstract In Benin, the preservation of maize is a real problem involving important physical and chemical properties losses. Physical losses are due by rodents, pests and insects and chemical losses are mainly due to fungal infection. Sev eral methods, products and practices are used by farmers to overcome these problems. The methods used do not always control the losses caused by fun gal infection. The objective of the study was to make a bibliographic synthesis of the impacts induced by the items, practices and methods used to overcome the chemical losses of maize. In the search for information, the library of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries was consulted; the archives of the library of the University of Abomey-Calavi and the National Institute of Agricultural Research of Benin were also consulted. Thus, chemicals such as sofagrain, Pyrimiphos-Methyl, Thiamethoxam, Pyrimiphos-Methyl, Per methrin, Deltamethrin, fumigant are used to control physical attacks on ma ize. Ash and plants species such as neem tree (Azadirachta indica) are gener ally used for the preservation and storage of maize seeds. In addition, chemi cals such as arsenious anhydride and zinc phosphide are used for the preser vation of corn. The use of these molecules and chemical products has nega tive impacts on human health and the environment. Of all the methods used, no treatment is still popularized for the reduction of the chemical losses caused by the fungal infection in corn storage.

Abstract This study was executed to offer the basis for optimized profit from fertilizer use for sorghum yield and to determine robust crop nutrient response func tion and economic rate for the production of sorghum at Miesso Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia. Trails were conducted at six experimental sites, sorghum yield response to N and P fertilizers application and economically optimum rates of nitrogen (EONR) and phosphorus (EOPR) were evaluated on a ver tisols within the semi-arid Miesso districts west Hararge zone of Oromia re gion. The nutrient rates in 2014 cropping season four levels of Nitrogen (N) alone, these levels with 20 kg·ha−1 Phosphorus (P) and without N, 69 kg·ha−1 N with three levels of P treatments including the zero control were evaluated.In 2015, cropping season similar rates of N alone, the same rate N with 20 kg·ha−1 P, 92 kg·ha−1 N with three rates of P including the zero control were evaluated. The treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block with three replications in factorial design. Nutrient responses of sorghum were determined using asymptotic quadratic plateau functions. The signifi cantly highest nitrogen rate was 46 kg·ha−1 alone in 2014 season, which gave grain yield of 2.56 Mg·ha−1 with a maximum yield advantage of 43%. P rates in both seasons and combined (sites + seasons) were not significantly influ enced sorghum yield. Nitrogen agronomic and partial factor productivity peaked at 23 kg N ha−1 but declined with increasing N rate. The EONR com bined (sites + seasons) were 37, 45, 52 and 60 kg·ha−1 and for the profit to cost ratio (PCR) were 2.43, 3.65, 4.86 and 5.79 at difference cost to grain price ra tios (CP) = 3.6, 2.3, 1.6 and 1.2 respectively at Miesso Ethiopia. Nitrogen ap plication had economically profitable than P. The study concluded that the application of N at 37 or 60 kg N ha−1 to sorghum production could be eco nomically profitable for those economically constrained farmers or economi cally not constrained farmers. Validation should be farther conducted on farmers’ fields for refining the results obtained.

Abstract Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] is an important grain legume mainly grown in tropical and subtropical regions for vegetables, grains, and fodder. The crop is grown predominantly in the dry savannahs to the Sahel in the fringes of the Sahara Desert where the annual rainfall is around 300 mm or less. Cowpea provides shelter as a cover crop and improves soil fertility by fixing atmospheric nitrogen. Its grain is preferred for high levels of protein, energy, micro-and macronutrients. Cowpea belongs to the family Fabaceae and sub-family Faboidea, and it is a self-pollinating crop with low and narrow genetic diversity, making it susceptible to various environmental factors. Various research projects have been established on cowpea, and as a result, various cowpea germplasm is stored at Africa International Institute of Trop ical Agriculture (IITA)—Nigeria, the USDA repository in Griffin, GA (USA), the University of California, Riverside, CA (USA), and at the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR) in New Delhi, India. Despite the availa ble germplasms, cowpea productivity remains very low in many countries due to a wide array of abiotic and biotic stresses and socio-economic constraints. This review summarizes some aspects of cowpea, including origin and histo ry, challenges, economic importance, and constraints to production, provid ing possible useful information for cowpea researchers, agronomists, and pro ducers in SSA .

Abstract The use of wastewater in urban agriculture has been promoted as an alterna tive to water scarcity and as a means to increase soil fertilizer. However, the use of wastewater in urban agriculture raises major public health concerns, mainly due to the often high concentration of pathogenic micro-organisms. Waterborne parasites are a major health concern in this regard, especially in endemic areas, mainly due to the high environmental resistance of eggs/cysts combined with a low infectious dose. In this study, the parasitological risk to vegetables producers in Ouagadougou using polluted water was evaluated through the quantitative microbiological risk analysis method. For this pur pose, the search for and quantification of viable parasite eggs and cysts in ir rigation water was coupled with epidemiological surveillance of vegetables producers in Ouagadougou. Protozoa and helminths belonging to 9 species were recorded and samples analyzed. These include Ancylostoma sp., Ascaris lumbricoides, tapeworm’s sp, Strongyloides stercoralis, Entamoeba histolyti ca, Giardia lamblia. Despite the variability of isolated parasitic species, Ancy lostoma sp. eggs were common and severe to all types of water. Moreover, epidemiological approach showed that there were more parasitic species found in irrigation water and also other parasitic species circulating among vegetable farmers. In addition, there is no statistical significant association between the type of water used for irrigation and the carried parasites by veg etable gardeners. However, ontamination of the groups using the raw waste water is once higher than those using well water. When one is interested in the groups using treated wastewater as a source of irrigation, these risks of contaminations are halved. These contaminations are halved when one looks at groups using treated wastewater as a source of irrigation water. Still, what ever the type of water used by the gardeners, they have a probability of infec tion with Ancylostoma sp. of around 9.83 × 10−1 pppy.

Abstract In biological controls using Bacillus spp., cyclic lipopeptides play a role as eli citors to induce disease resistance on various host plants. However, it is still unclear the specificity between cyclic lipopeptides and host plants to induce disease resistance. In this study, we aimed to clarify the specificity to induce disease resistance among cyclic lipopeptides on various host plants. Our data clearly showed both cyclic lipopeptides conferred disease suppression on most of host plants, but at different range of cyclic lipopeptide concentration. Our findings contribute to understanding the complex on the specificity of cyclic lipopeptide derived induced disease resistance.

Abstract In the world at large, while agricultural yields are increasing with constant land area, in Sub-Saharan Africa, more land is needed to increase production. In this region of Africa, agriculture therefore remains essentially extensive and contributes to environmental degradation, especially deforestation. Thus, the objective of this research is to assess and compare the quantities of greenhouse gases produced by multiple and mono-specific cropping systems. To this end, the quantity of greenhouse gases (GHG) produced by several cropping systems installed on an experimental farm in Kpotomey in the municipality of Abomey-Calavi (Benin) was estimated. The estimation of GHG quantities was made on the basis of IPCC work and data from the experiments carried out. Comparisons were made between mono-specific crops and multiple crops. The results show that the quantities of GHG emitted per ton of production are more or less identical and vary on average from 0.6 to 0.11 teqCO2. However, the advantage of multiple cropping systems is that they reduce the clearing of new land and thus avoid about 31.5 tons of CO2 if the plant formation to be replaced was a forest. Multiple cropping with moderate fertilization in the presence of organic matter increases production while preserving the environment.

Abstract “Rice transplanter” has brought a radical change in the method of rice seedlings transplanting in Bangladesh. The machine is gaining popularity with the increase of labor crisis during the peak period of transplanting, reduction time of in-between crops, rapid urbanization and industrialization, and changing socio-economic status of the farmers. Alternatively, the traditional way of rice transplanting is labor-intensive and involves high drudgery. Mechanical rice transplanter is cost-effective and operation-friendly. It is suitable to plant young seedlings maintaining plant to plant and line to line distance which plays an important role in increasing yield. Moreover, it is easy to take care of the crops planted in rows. It helps in maintaining soil physical properties and is considered to be better from a crop management and productivity point of view. In malignancy of having an edge over the traditional broadcasting, the adoption rate of mechanical transplanters is low due to high primary investment, lack of knowledge in growing mat type nursery, lack of repair and maintenance facility to the end-users, and unavailability of spare parts. Imparting these, available supply, entrepreneurship development, and encouraging custom hire services may be some of the practical results for adding the rice area under mechanical transplanting. This review summarizes the problems and prospects associated with seedling rice transplanting, technological gaps in the adoption of mechanical transplanters in a sustainable manner, and future ways to make transplanters more user-friendly and cost-effective.

Abstract Sodic soils are typically located in semi-arid to arid climates. However, sodic soils in continental humid climates are rare. As with sodic soils in dry climates, sodic soils in wetlands pose management difficulties for agriculture, forestry, or wild-life habitat. The typical practice of gypsum application is problematic given inability to provide drainage. Natraqualfs located in southeastern Missouri present an acid argillic horizon superimposed on a natric horizon, where the exchangeable sodium percentage and an alkaline reaction are characteristic attributes. Ferrolysis is an active soil process that is slowly degrading the natric horizon because of exchangeable Al3+ and H+ generation and re-stabilization of the soil structure, permitting leaching of the sodium.

Abstract Aromatic rice lines were examined for 2-Acetyl-1-Pyrroline (2AP) content in leaf tissue at five different growth stages (tillering, panicle initiation, 50% heading, booting, and maturity). A small plot trial with plot size of 1.42 m × 4.88 m (7 row-plots) was arranged in completely randomize design with three replications. Dry-seeded, delayed flood cultural practice was used in this study. The experiment was conducted at three locations. The average 2AP concentrations in leaf tissue at tillering stages were higher than the other four growth stages. 2AP levels were declined when rice plant reached booting. AP levels decreased slightly at heading stage and decreased significantly at maturity. There was no significant different between 2AP in leaf at 50% heading from three locations as well as the 2AP content in rice grain. Correlations between 2AP in leaf and 2AP in grain were significantly in all five growth stages. The highest correlation coefficient was found between 2AP in leaf at booting and grain (r = 0.811**) and lowest was in the leaf at harvest (r = 0.564**). Results indicated that 2AP could be determined in leaf tissue at early growth stage.

Abstract Agriculture in the Texas High Plains (THP) is in a transition phase of producing crops with a diminishing supply of irrigation-water from the Ogallala aquifer to dryland production systems. This shift is driven by the fact that the depth to the water table of the Ogallala aquifer continues to increase. Dryland cotton production systems are prevalent in the southern counties of the THP and our purpose was to use the long-term dryland cotton lint yields from these counties as precursors of the future cotton production patterns that will emerge in this region. For this purpose, from 1972 to 2018, we calculated the ratio of dryland cotton lint yield per unit of annual rainfall at the county level. This ratio is called crop water productivity (CWP) and has units of mass per unit volume (g/m3). In our analysis, we used cotton lint yield data provided by the National Agricultural Statistics and rainfall data provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Our results indicated that the three datasets used in our analysis, i.e., cotton lint yield, rainfall and CWP were all normally distributed. In this time period, 1972 to 2018, only one year 2011—a year with a record drought of 179 mm of rain failed to produce a dryland cotton crop in all the counties used in our analysis. The mean cotton lint yield ± standard deviation ranged from a high of 400 ± 175 kg/ha in Lubbock County to a low of 252 ± 144 kg/ha in Andrews County. However, the counties with the largest CWP > 90 g/m3 were Glasscock, Midland and Martin County. The importance of this result is that these counties are in the southern region of the THP and are subject to extreme environmental conditions and yet cotton producers manage to produce a cotton crop in most years. We conclude that management production methods used by these dryland producers represent the future schemes that will need to be adopted in other counties to sustain the emerging dryland cropping systems across the THP.

Abstract Bangladesh, a country with 87% of rural households that depend on agriculture and rice dominated diets (70%), engages the country’s food security. Therefore, there is strong advocacy for a mechanized paddy harvesting system for food security in South Asia, mainly Bangladesh. Some harvesting machinery is available; however, the precise roles of a combine harvester during this process are little. This study attempts to understand the consequences of combining harvesters for paddy harvesting and compare them with hand harvesting. For comparison of field performance of combine harvester with traditional harvesting, the experiment was conducted at Gazipur District, Bangladesh, in 2016. Results showed that the labor required for harvesting unit area 283, 15 and 9.87 man-h∙ha−1 for T1 (Sickle + Head carry + Beating + Kula), T2 (Reaper + Trolley carry + Close drum thresher + winnower), T3 (Combine harvester) system, respectively. Likewise, the harvesting costs were 1.84 (T2) and 2.5 (T1) times higher than the combine harvester (T3). Also, the postharvest loss can be saved 1.84%, to use combine harvester over manual harvesting of paddy. The above result revealed that the semimechanized and mechanized harvesting system is a time, labor and costsaving system; however, the manual reaping system is concerned with more postharvest losses (3.09%). This study highlights the importance of combine harvester; however, further research is required in other places with large and mini-combine harvesters under diverse cropping areas and to test a combine harvester’s detailed potentiality.

Abstract This paper describes the design and evaluation of a user interface for a remotely supervised autonomous agricultural sprayer. The interface was designed to help the remote supervisor to instruct the autonomous sprayer to commence operation, monitor the status of the sprayer and its operation in the field, and intervene when needed (i.e., to stop or shut down). Design principles and guidelines were carefully selected to help develop a human-centered automation interface. Evaluation of the interface using a combination of heuristic, cognitive walkthrough, and user testing techniques revealed several strengths of the design as well as areas that needed further improvement. Overall, this paper provides guidelines that will assist other researchers to develop an ergonomic user interface for a fully autonomous agricultural machine.

Abstract Food production remains one of the main challenges for humankind in this century, and Brazil is one of the largest food-producing countries that have yet some land for economically or technically profitable farming expansion. Moreover, knowing which areas constitute the Brazilian agricultural frontier is crucial for improving public policies and logistics infrastructure decisions. Data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics from 1995 to 2019 were used in this study. We aimed to map and measure the expansion of agricultural areas in Brazil from 1995 to 2019 for temporary crops according to their mesoregions. We used a four-stage methodology, compared the results of two agglomerative clustering methods, and identified similar mesoregions based on their share trends in the Brazilian agricultural seeded area. Some mesoregions had higher positive trend values for their share of the Brazilian agricultural seeded area: Mato-grossense North (MT), Mato-grossense Northeast (MT), Mato Grosso do Sul Southwest (MS), Goiano South (GO), Extreme West Bahia (BA), Maranhense South (MA), Piauiense Southwest (PI), and Tocantins Eastern (TO). As a second leading group, the Paranaíba Upstream (MG), São José do Rio Preto (SP), Mato-grossense Southeast (MT), and Goiano East (GO), must be emphasized. Further research is ecommended, including extending the study to permanent crops and applying top-down analysis targeting microregions or municipalities in the identified mesoregions.

Abstract Whole-plant soybean ensiling has limitations and challenges that affect silage fermentation patterns and reduce ruminal nutrient degradation. Perhaps either the addition of molasses at ensiling or harvesting at different henological stages has the potential to enhance whole-plant soybean silage (WSS) ruminal degradation. This experiment was a completely randomized design with a 3 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments evaluating the effects of molasses (0 and 40 g/kg fresh forage) and phenological stage (R5: beginning seed, R6: full seed, and R7: beginning maturity) on ruminal in situ degradation. Molasses increased effective ruminal degradability (ERD) of dry matter (DM) regardless of the phenological stage and increased ERD of crude protein at R5 and R6. The addition of molasses at later phenological stages increased ERD of neutral detergent fiber (NDF). There was a molasses × phenological stage interaction effect with greater fractions A and B of NDF at R7 and R5, respectively, but lower undegraded NDF at R5 and R6 with molasses addition. Although the benefits of adding molasses were more pronounced in R5 and R6, adding molasses to whole-plant soybean at ensiling is recommended regardless of phenological stage. Increasing the proportion of digestible nutrients at harvesting either by harvesting at later phenological stages or the addition of molasses is a powerful strategy to manage ruminal degradation of DM and nutrients in WSS.

Abstract Water hyacinth has ecological significance in addition to its agricultural and energy uses. Lower quality silage is defined in this paper as requiring nitrogen supplementation and treatment to improve nutritive value (NV). Ensilage of water hyacinth as a test case centers largely around the process to optimize protein nitrogen retention in silage-based regimens. A previous hypothesis proposed earlier by the author of that of functional amino acid ratios [tyrosine (TYR): large neutral amino acids (LNAA), tyrosine (TYR): phenylalanine (PHE)] were subsequently found to be counter to what the given schemata predicts. And subsequently with another study there was no corroborative evidence for it to support the espoused hypothesis using the same schemata. The role of N status is still the most viable option among factors from studies continuing how amino acids like histidine (HIS) and arginine (ARG) and their growth-related endocrine functions play a role. There are other schemas illustrating non-homeostatic type regulation with protein intake. To focus on molecular-level mechanisms to ruminal protein digestion it is becoming clear what factors in feed and microbial cell fermentation contribute to optimizing microbial cell protein (MCP) synthesis from ATP with organic matter (OM) digestibility and preformed amino acids (PFAA) from peptides and free amino acids in addition to non-protein nitrogen (NPN), the former more efficiently assimilated in MCP than NPN in the rumen. Accordingly, it has been recommended that soluble proteins fed to dairy cows not exceed microbial requirements along with high dietary escape protein fed with a sufficient amino acid profile to meet dairy production.

Abstract The persistent rise in concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the earth’s atmosphere is responsible for global warming and climate change. Besides the known source of GHGs emissions like energy, industry, and agriculture, intrinsic emissions from natural inland water bodies like wetland, rivers, reservoirs, estuaries, etc. have also been identified as other hotspots of GHGs emission and gaining the attention of the scientific communities in recent times. Inland fisheries in India are threatened by climate changes such as a change in temperature, precipitation, droughts, storm, sea-level rise, saltwater intrusion, floods that affect mostly the production, productivity and ultimately affect the fishers’ livelihood. There are, however, different mitigation and adaptation strategies to cope with the effects of climate change. Carbon sequestration and other related management interventions are one of the options available for minimizing GHGs emissions from inland open waters, particularly the wetlands and coastal mangroves which are well known worldwide for their significant role in the storage of carbon. Assessment of C efflux from exposed sediments in dry streams, reservoirs, lakes, rivers, and ponds into the atmosphere can be considered imperative for a better understanding of their role as a C-sink or as a C-source to the atmosphere.