Trachyandra divaricata (Sandkool) is one of the most abundant wild edible inflorescence vegetables in South Africa. The dearth of literature on its edibility, nutrient composition, and conservation has contributed to its underutilisation. This study investigated mineral and proximate content, phytochemical compositions, and growth response of T. divaricata to light intensity and soilless media. Treatments comprised four media (LECA clay, silica sand, peat, and vermiculite) which were subjected to different shade levels (no shade, 20, 40, 60, and 80%) created from a factory-made 20% density net by doubling (40%), tripling (60%), and quadrupling (80%). All treatments were irrigated with a standard nutrient solution. The results showed that the treatments impacted the yield of T. divaricata significantly in terms of biomass and flower buds, especially in plants cultivated in peat under normal greenhouse lighting (no shade). Conversely, plants developed significantly more specific leaf size and total chlorophyll content under shade levels (20, 40, 60, and 80%) in different growth media, even though the values were comparable among treatments. The highest Ca, Mg, Cu, Fe, and Mn levels were consistently recorded in flowers of T. divaricata grown in LECA clay under 80% shade level, while other minerals varied in tested treatments. The peat medium under 20% shade optimised the neutral detergent fibre (NDF) and acid detergent fibre (ADF) content of the flowers, whereas both fat and protein contents were greatly enhanced by peat and vermiculite, respectively, under the 80% shade. Consistently, the lowest phytochemical contents were recorded in LECA clay subjected to 80% shade, whereas the highest polyphenols and DPPH antioxidants were produced by silica sand medium treated with 20% shade. Both TEAC and FRAP antioxidants were improved significantly in LECA clay under no shade and the 60% shade level. However, both 20% and 60% shade levels enhanced the flavonol content significantly. On the basis of these findings, T. divaricata is a promising inflorescent vegetable that may be considered for domestication and further research due to its potential pharmacological and nutraceutical values. Full article

Tedera is a valuable high-quality forage for sheep during summer–autumn. There is evidence that prior grazing experience of novel forages influences preference and haymaking of tedera improves preference by goats. In the first experiment, it was hypothesised that the voluntary feed intake (VFI) of fresh leaves and stems of tedera by sheep would be greater for experienced vs. naïve sheep. In the second experiment, it was hypothesised that the VFI of naïve sheep fed wilted leaves and stems of tedera would be greater than fresh leaves and stems of tedera. To test these hypotheses, adult Merino sheep were fed seven accessions of tedera, in two outdoor pen feeding experiments conducted consecutively. Each of six pens had 14 feeders, two for each accession, and two sheep. In experiment 1, three pens had sheep that had previously grazed tedera (experienced) and three pens had sheep with no experience (naïve), and all were fed fresh leaves and stems of the seven tedera accessions. Experiment 2 involved only naïve sheep, with three pens fed fresh leaves and stems and three pens fed wilted leaves and stems of the seven tedera accessions. Preference was measured each day for six days in experiment 1; and for five days in experiment 2 by calculating the average differences of feed offered and feed remaining from the feeders. In experiment 1, experienced sheep showed no difference in preference (average percentage eaten) in the first hour of each day compared to naïve sheep (70% vs. 56% DM intake (kg), p = 0.27). There was an increase in the amount eaten from the first to the last day for both groups, except for the intake of one accession that was reduced for the experienced sheep. In experiment 2, there was no statistical difference in preference between accessions. However, when the average percentage eaten by the experienced and naïve groups are combined, they are strongly correlated, with significant differences between accessions. Sheep did not eat more wilted tedera compared to fresh, which did not support our hypothesis. The only differences we found in sheep preference for tedera accessions occurred in experiment 1. Further studies to investigate seasonal differences in sheep preference between accessions is required and increased replication is needed to better determine the effect of prior grazing experience on the preference for tedera accessions. Full article

Clubroot disease is a kind of soil-borne disease that seriously infects Brassica species. In this study, we collected 121 varieties of non-heading Chinese cabbages. In order to better understand the genetic variation and to screen suitable clubroot disease-resistant parental material, we re-sequenced them to examine the population genetic structure, population genetic diversity, population differentiation index, and selective sweep based on SNPs. The mapping rate with the reference genome was high, and data quality analysis revealed that the sequencing quality was good. The annotated data indicated that intronic and intergenic areas held the majority of SNPs and indels. Four subgroups of 121 non-heading Chinese cabbages were identified using principal component analysis, phylogenetic tree, and genetic structure analysis. An examination of genetic diversity revealed that while selfing may happen in subgroups C and D, heterozygosity may exist in subgroups A and B. In subgroup B, self-fertilization is not possible. There was a moderate degree of genetic differentiation between subgroups B and C (Fst = 0.0744347). For genes in certain sweep regions, we also ran GO enrichment and KEGG enrichment analysis. Two disease resistance-related genes, BraA01g042910.3.5C and BraA06g019360.3.5C, were examined. These findings will serve as a theoretical foundation for developing novel, clubroot disease-resistant types of non-heading Chinese cabbages. Full article

The production of crops in greenhouses will ensure the demand for food for the world’s population in the coming decades. Precision agriculture is an important tool for this purpose, supported among other things, by the technology of wireless sensor networks (WSN) in the monitoring of agronomic parameters. Therefore, prior planning of the deployment of WSN nodes is relevant because their coverage decreases when the radio waves are attenuated by the foliage of the plantation. In that sense, the method proposed in this study applies Deep Learning to develop an empirical model of radio wave attenuation when it crosses vegetation that includes height and distance between the transceivers of the WSN nodes. The model quality is expressed via the parameters cross-validation, R² of 0.966, while its generalized error is 0.920 verifying the reliability of the empirical model. Full article

Maize silage is fundamental for high milk production in dairy farming. The incorporation of new genetic diversity into temperate maize germplasm has the potential to improve adapted cultivars, and it could be especially useful for improving the nutrition of silage varieties. The goal of this study is to assess the potential for lines from the Germplasm Enhancement of Maize (GEM) project to compete with commercial silage hybrids when crossed with elite temperate-adapted testers. We examined 35 GEM-derived hybrids along with five commercial checks in seven environments across three years in trials that were arranged in randomized complete block designs. Hybrids were compared based on their potential for conversion into animal productivity units: milk yield per hectare (Milk ha⁻¹) and milk yield per ton of silage (Milk t⁻¹). Broad phenotypic variation was observed for both traits, and the broad-sense heritability of Milk ha⁻¹ and Milk t⁻¹ were 0.24 and 0.31, respectively. Five out of six hybrids in the top 15%, based on a multi-trait stability index, were GEM-derived hybrids. The large proportions of phenotypic variance attributed to genotype by environment interactions (GEI) for quality traits suggests that local adaptation should be leveraged for silage breeding that make use of GEM-derived materials. Full article

$Fusarium$ head blight (FHB) is one of the most detrimental wheat diseases. The accurate identification of FHB severity is significant to the sustainable management of FHB and the guarantee of food production and security. A total of 2752 images with five infection levels were collected to establish an FHB severity grading dataset (FHBSGD), and a novel lightweight GSEYOLOX-s was proposed to automatically recognize the severity of FHB. The simple, parameter-free attention module (SimAM) was fused into the CSPDarknet feature extraction network to obtain more representative disease features while avoiding additional parameters. Meanwhile, the ghost convolution of the model head (G-head) was designed to achieve lightweight and speed improvements. Furthermore, the efficient intersection over union (EIoU) loss was employed to accelerate the convergence speed and improve positioning precision. The results indicate that the GSEYOLOX-s model with only 8.06 MB parameters achieved a mean average precision (mAP) of 99.23% and a detection speed of 47 frames per second (FPS), which is the best performance compared with other lightweight models, such as EfficientDet, Mobilenet-YOLOV4, YOLOV7, YOLOX series. The proposed GSEYOLOX-s was deployed on mobile terminals to assist farmers in the real-time identification of the severity of FHB and facilitate the precise management of crop diseases. Full article

Folate deficiency is a significant global health issue that affects millions of people and causes severe adverse effects. Major staple crops, which provide significant amounts of calories, often contain inadequate folate levels. Synthetic fortification has contributed to a reduction in low-folate populations, but a more sustainable solution is needed. Biofortification, or the breeding of crops to naturally increase their nutrient content, is a promising alternative. Soybean is a highly nutritious crop and a good candidate for folate biofortification. However, studies on folate have been limited due to the challenges in folate analysis. The development of sensitive and selective tools, reference materials, and studies on the stability of folate vitamers in crops has facilitated the development of improved folate determination methods. Additionally, the soybean folate biofortification program can be improved by leveraging previous studies in major cereals, common bean and pea, as well as combining conventional breeding with new genomics approaches. In this review, we discuss the folate content, composition, and analytical challenges in soybean and suggest possible frameworks and strategies for folate biofortification in soybean. We also conducted an in silico analysis of key folate biosynthesis enzymes in soybean. Full article

Agricultural activities are important contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in southern Chile. Three types of agricultural systems coexist within this region: traditional, conventional and agroecological. Historical changes in agricultural practices were identified from bibliographic sources and field surveys of 10 farms of each system type. A similarity analysis between systems was carried out using the survey data, which were also input to the Cool Farm Tool software to estimate GHG emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. The main historical changes identified were: (i) replacement of organic inputs by chemical products, (ii) replacement of workforce by agricultural machinery, (iii) decrease in crop diversity and (iv) decrease in total agricultural area. A multivariate analysis showed that agroecological systems are different from the traditional and conventional systems mainly because of the land use and the amount of organic fertiliser applied. However, no significant differences were found in the GHG emissions, which on average were 2999 ± 1521, 3443 ± 2376 and 3746 ± 1837 kg CO₂-eq ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ (traditional, conventional and agroecological, respectively). Enteric fermentation was the main source of emissions in all agricultural systems, therefore methane was the most important GHG. Identifying the sources and practices that produce more emissions should help to improve management to reduce GHG emissions. Full article

Strawberry crown rot is a serious fungal disease that poses a great threat to strawberry production in the growth cycle. The dominant pathogens of strawberry crown rot pathogens were different in different periods. The main pathogen of strawberry crown rot at the seedling stage is unclear. In this study, 74 Colletotrichum spp. were isolated from 100 strawberry plants at the seedling stage. Based on the morphological observations and phylogenetic analysis of multiple genes (ACT, CAL, CHS, GAPDH, and ITS), all 74 tested isolates were identified as C. gloeosporioides species complex, including 69 isolates of C. siamense and 5 isolates of C. fructicola. Colletotrichum siamense is the main pathogen of strawberry crown rot at the seedling stage in Zhejiang, China. The sterol demethylation inhibitors (DMIs) were used to control strawberry crown rot, and their target was the CYP51 gene. The role of the homologous CYP51 gene in growth, reproduction, pathogenicity, and sensitivity to DMI fungicides in C. siamense has not been determined. Our study found that the pathogenicity of CsCYP51A deletion mutants to strawberry leaves and stems was weakened. The hyphae growth rate of CsCYP51B deletion mutants was significantly slower than that of the wild type, but the sporulation and appressorium production rates increased. CsCYP51B deletion mutants had significantly increased pathogenicity to the stem. Deletion of CsCYP51A led to increased sensitivity to prothioconazole, ipconazole, hexaconazole, triadimefon, prochloraz, tebuconazole, metconazole, propiconazole, and difenoconazole. CsCYP51B deletion mutants were more insensitive. Our results indicate that the effect of the homologous CsCYP51 gene on hyphae growth, pathogenicity, and sensitivity to DMI fungicides differs. Full article

The main objective of this work was to determine the optimum level of pruning in pitaya. In addition, we want to establish the relationship between pruning levels and the intensity of flowering, and between flowering levels and heavy flower bud drop that affects this species. With these aims, two experiments were performed on Hylocereus undatus [(Haw.) Britton and Rose] cultivated in greenhouses and trained in a trellis system. Our results conclude that cane pruning leaving 15 cladodes per meter in a trellis system is the most productive, as it yielded more fruit of similar weight. Positive relationships between flowering and setting, regardless of pruning levels, justify less severe pruning. Fruit set and size did not depend on pruning levels, although we found a fruit weight reduction when a single cladode developed more than one fruit. Flower buds drop was proportionally higher in cladodes forming more flowers, suggesting that bud competition plays a role in their drop. However, flower bud thinning seems unnecessary, although if a flower is to be chosen, it is better to select those formed at the apex of the cladode since they produce larger fruits. Full article

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is mainly cultivated in marginal land in the south of China where seasonal drought stress occurs frequently and the soil becomes more compact year by year. The study aimed to explore the effect of Fenlong tillage (FLT) combined with nitrogen applications on cassava rhizosphere soil particle composition and fungal community diversity. Conventional tillage (CT) was set as the control. The results indicated that the contents of clay and silt of the cassava rhizosphere soil were influenced by the tillage method, nitrogen (N), and their interaction. There was no difference in the richness and diversity of rhizosphere soil fungal communities among all treatments in 2019, while the richness of FLT was lower than that of CT in 2020. FLT caused a stronger influence on the community structure of rhizosphere fungi than N applications in the first year. The differences in the community structure of all treatments were reduced by continuous cropping of cassava in the second year. The top 10 dominant rhizosphere fungi at the class level of cassava found in 2019 and 2020 were Sordariomycetes, Dothideomycetes, Eurotiomycetes, Agaricomycetes, Intramacronucleata, norank_p__Mucoromycota, unclassified_p__Ascomycota, unclassified_k__Fungi, Pezizomycetes, and Glomeromycetes, which had an important relationship with soil pH, activity of urease, available nitrogen, available phosphorus, organic matter, and clay. These results indicated that FLT created a better soil environment for cassava growth than CT, thus promoting the formation of more stable rhizosphere fungal community structures. Full article

Dendrobium catenatum is a valuable Chinese herbal medicine that naturally grows on cliffs and tree trunks and is often threatened by adverse environmental conditions. The bZIP transcription factor is known to play a critical role in the response of plant to stress. However, the functions of the bZIP gene family in D. catenatum are poorly understood. In this study, 62 bZIP genes were identified from D. catenatum, which encoded proteins with an amino acid number of 130~692, a molecular weight of 15.24 to 74.94 kDa, and an isoelectric point of 5.13 to 11.58. The bZIP family can be divided into 10 subgroups by evolutionary tree analysis, and the conserved motifs of each protein subgroup were similar. The exon number of bZIP genes ranged from 1 to 12 as shown by gene structure analysis. DcbZIP promoter prediction analysis identified 21 cis-acting elements. The expression of DcbZIP genes under drought treatment was analyzed using the public RNA-seq data, and 33 upregulated genes were further screened. A co-expression network analysis revealed that 17 core genes were closely correlated with other genes and their expression was measured using RT-qPCR. The results showed that DcbZIP6, DcbZIP34, DcbZIP42 and DcbZIP47 are the main contributors to drought tolerance in D. catenatum. In summary, we identified candidate bZIP genes in D. catenatum with a apotential contribution to drought stress response, and this study lays the foundation for exploring the functions of bZIP and provides a theoretical basis for improving the drought tolerance of D. catenatum. Full article

To optimize a suitable fertilization method needed for high nitrogen utilization and growth of mung bean in the black soil of Northeast China, a field experiment was carried out with 10 treatments based on isotope-tracing technology. The nitrogen fertilizer utilization, residual, loss and dry-matter transportation, leaf area, photosynthetic potential, and wet-basis moisture content of mung bean were discussed. The results showed that the total utilization rate of nitrogen fertilizer under different treatments was 34.75~47.71%, while in the 0~15 cm soil layer, the total residual rate was 11.36~33.69%, and the loss rate was 21.03~53.89%. The T1 treatment had the lowest total nitrogen fertilizer utilization rate and the greatest loss rate. The leaf area and photosynthetic potential at the seedling stage in the T9 treatment, the branching stage in the T2 treatment, and the flowering stage in the T4 and T9 treatments were 5.11~31.82% higher than those in the CK treatment, and the values at the drumming and maturing stages were significantly lower than those in the CK treatment (p < 0.05). The total wet-basis water content of the root, stem, leaf, and pod in the whole stages compared with the CK treatment increased by 3.35~7.41% in T4, T5, T7, and T8. In the T6 and T9 treatments, the output rate of stem-sheath storage matter and the transformation rate were significantly higher than those in the T1 treatment (p < 0.05). The dry-matter accumulation in the T1 and T9 treatments was significantly different from that in the CK treatment, which increased by 27.72% and 5.10%, respectively. Thus, organic fertilizer coupled with nitrogen fertilizer can improve the nitrogen fertilizer utilization rate and the growth of mung beans. Full article

Potato stem removal is one of the critical technical problems of potato mechanized harvesting; it directly affects the quality of potato harvesting and potato storage. There have been several studies on potato stem removal mechanisms. In practice, however, it was found that the potato stem removal rate was greatly influenced by the posture of the stem before it entered the removal mechanism. In this study, we designed a potato stem posture adjustment mechanism consisting of elastic curtains. A test rig was built to investigate the effect of curtain height, curtain width, and curtain suspension height on potato passage rate and potato stem removal rate. The Box–Behnken design (BBD), combined with the response surface method, was used to conduct the test. The optimal construction and installation parameters for each elastic curtain were determined as 278.93 mm for the curtain height, 20 mm for the curtain width, and 260 mm for the curtain suspension height. The predicted values of potato passage rate and potato stem removal rate under the optimal parameters were 92.36% and 82.83%, which were consistent with the validation test results. Based on the optimization results, a rigid-flexible coupled simulation model for a potato stem transported-posture adjustment process based on Abaqus and Adams was constructed. The maximum impact of the elastic curtain of the stem posture adjustment mechanism on the potato stem was 15.91 N and caused the stem to spring back. The projection angle β′ of the stem posture angle in the xoz plane before posture adjustment was 19.07°, and the β′ of the stem after posture adjustment was 87.18°. At this time, the stem was basically parallel to the rod of the separating sieve and had a high probability of falling from the gap of the bar to complete the removal of the stem. Overall, the stem transport position adjustment mechanism effectively adjusted the stem transported posture and improved the stem removal rate in potato mechanical harvesting. Full article

Nature-Based Farming Solutions (NBFS) are envisaged practices that still strongly demand further context-specific scientific validation for their viable deployment at the local scale. In this context, our study deals with the test of a multi-scale system of landscape ecology indicators, interpreted as surrogates for the accounting of the contributions of NBFS to agrobiodiversity values and to the consequent environmental stability and resilience capacities of agroecosystems, recognized as pivotal for facing the ongoing climate change challenges. We here present the preliminary results obtained in a first pilot case study (Po Plain context). Landscape ecology analyses were undertaken at extra-local, local, and farm scales (with different levels of analytical detail), comparing the pilot farm to the surrounding conventionally managed context. A set of structural and functional indicators were tested, allowing a preliminary screening of the most suitable ones (good sensitivity to treatment changes, informative potential). Results suggested a multi-faceted positive contribution given by NBFS implementation and were the basis for orienting further NBFS implementation strategies based on vulnerability and resilience properties analysis. Further investigations are envisaged on wider datasets coming from other pilot case studies belonging to similar pedo-climatic conditions, in order to improve the informative potential of the here presented methodology. Full article