Precision Agriculture Technologies for Crop and Livestock Production in the Czech Republic
Recommending Advanced Deep Learning Models for Efficient Insect Pest Detection
Hot Water Treatment as Seed Disinfection Techniques for Organic and Eco-Friendly Environmental Agricultural Crop Cultivation
Rhizobium and Phosphate Solubilizing Bacteria Influence the Soil Nutrient Availability, Growth, Yield, and Quality of Soybean

Journal Description

Agriculture

Agriculture is an international, scientific peer-reviewed open access journal published monthly online by MDPI.

Open Access— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, SCIE (Web of Science), PubAg, AGRIS, RePEc, and other databases.
Journal Rank: JCR - Q1 (Agronomy) / CiteScore - Q2 (Plant Science)
Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision provided to authors approximately 19.8 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 2.5 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the first half of 2022).
Recognition of Reviewers: reviewers who provide timely, thorough peer-review reports receive vouchers entitling them to a discount on the APC of their next publication in any MDPI journal, in appreciation of the work done.
Companion journals for Agriculture include: Poultry and Grasses.

Impact Factor: 3.408 (2021); 5-Year Impact Factor: 3.459 (2021)

Imprint Information Journal Flyer Open Access ISSN: 2077-0472

Latest Articles

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Oak Leaf Extract, Biofertilizer, and Soil Containing Oak Leaf Powder on Tomato Growth and Biochemical Characteristics under Water Stress Conditions

Nawroz Abdul-razzak Tahir

Kamaran Salh Rasul

Djshwar Dhahir Lateef

and

Florian M. W. Grundler

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2082; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122082 (registering DOI) - 04 Dec 2022

Abstract

Drought stress is one of the most significant abiotic stresses on the sustainability of global agriculture. The finding of natural resources is essential for decreasing the need for artificial fertilizers and boosting plant growth and yield under water stress conditions. This study used a factorial experimental design to investigate the effects of oak leaf extract, biofertilizer, and soil containing oak leaf powder on the growth and biochemical parameters of four tomato genotypes under water stress throughout the pre-flowering and pre-fruiting stages of plant development. The experiment had two components. The first component represented the genotypes (two sensitive and two tolerant), while the second component represented the treatment group, which included irrigated plants (SW), untreated and stressed plants (SS), treated plants with oak leaf powder and stressed (SOS), treated plants with oak leaf powder and oak leaf extract and stressed (SOES), and treated plants with oak leaf powder and biofertilizers and stressed (SOBS). When compared with irrigated or control plants, drought stress under the treatments of SS, SOS, SOES, and SOBS conditions at two stages and their combination significantly lowered shoot length (12.95%), total fruit weight per plant (33.97%), relative water content (14.05%), and total chlorophyll content (26.30%). The reduction values for shoot length (17.58%), shoot fresh weight (22.08%), and total fruit weight per plant (42.61%) were significantly larger in two sensitive genotypes compared with tolerant genotypes, which recorded decreasing percentages of 8.36, 8.88, and 25.32% for shoot length, shoot fresh weight, and total fruit weight per plant, respectively. Root fresh weight and root dry weight of genotypes treated with SS, SOS, SOES, and SOBS, on the other hand, increased in comparison with control plants. Tomato fruits from stressed plants treated with SS, SOS, SOES, and SOBS had considerably higher levels of titratable acidity, ascorbic acid, and total phenolic compounds than irrigated plants during all stress stages. Under water stress conditions, the addition of oak leaf powder to soil, oak leaf extract, and biofertilizer improved the biochemical content of leaves in all genotypes. Furthermore, leaf lipid peroxidation was lower in plants treated with SOES and SOBS, and lower in the two tolerant genotypes than in the two susceptible genotypes. In conclusion, the application of SOS, SOES, and SOBS demonstrated a slight decrease in some morpho-physiological and fruit physicochemical traits compared with SS treatment. However, the application of oak leaf powder and oak leaf extract can be described as novel agricultural practices because they are low-cost, easy to use, time-consuming, and can meet the growing demands of the agricultural sector by providing environmentally sustainable techniques for enhancing plant resistance to abiotic stress. The usage of the combination of leaf crude extract, oak leaf powder, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus should be investigated further under stress conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Abiotic Stresses, Biostimulants and Plant Activity)

Open AccessReview

Direct and Endophytic Effects of Fungal Entomopathogens for Sustainable Aphid Control: A Review

Frederic Francis

Junior Corneille Fingu-Mabola

and

Ibtissem Ben Fekih

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2081; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122081 (registering DOI) - 04 Dec 2022

Abstract

Entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) are cosmopolitan species of great interest in pest management due to their ability to cause epizooty in soil-dwelling and aboveground insects. Besides their direct effect against a wide host range of serious agricultural insect pests, such as aphids, a major emphasis has been placed on investigating the impact of EPF with endophytic traits (EIPF) on aboveground tripartite interactions between host plants, herbivores and beneficial insects. However, despite their valuable role in biocontrol processes, there is still more to explore about their diverse potential as ecofriendly biological control agents. Herein, we provide an overview of the meaningful role and faced challenges following the use of EPF and EIPF to control aphids. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Pest Management in Agriculture)

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Open AccessArticle

Retrieval of Harmonized LAI Product of Agricultural Crops from Landsat OLI and Sentinel-2 MSI Time Series

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Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2080; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122080 (registering DOI) - 04 Dec 2022

Abstract

In this study, an approach for the harmonized calculation of the Leaf Area Indices (LAIs) for agronomic crops from Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat OLI multispectral satellite data is proposed in order to obtain a dense seasonal trajectory. It was developed and tested on dominant crops grown in the Czech Republic, including winter wheat, spring barley, winter rapeseed, alfalfa, sugar beet, and corn. The two-step procedure harmonizing Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat OLI spectral data began with deriving NDVI, MSAVI, and NDWI_1610 vegetation indices (VIs) as proxy indicators of green biomass and foliage water content, the parameters contributing most to a stand’s spectral response. Second, a simple linear transformation was applied to the resulting VI values. The regression model itself was built on an artificial neural network, then trained on PROSAIL simulations data. The LAI estimates were validated using an extensive dataset of in situ measurements collected during 2017 and 2018 in the lowlands of the Central Bohemia Region. Very strong agreement was observed between LAI estimates from both Sentinel-2 MSI and Landsat OLI data and independent ground-based measurements (r between 0.7 and 0.98). Very good results were also achieved in the mutual comparison of Sentinel-2 and Landsat-based LAI datasets (rRMSE < 20%, r between 0.75 and 0.99). Using data from all currently available Sentinel-2 (A/B) and Landsat (8/9) satellites, a dense harmonized LAI time series can be created with high potential for use in precision agriculture. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote-Sensing-Based Technologies for Crop Monitoring)

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Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Jacek Długosz

Anna Piotrowska-Długosz

Anetta Siwik-Ziomek

and

Anna Figas

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2079; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122079 (registering DOI) - 03 Dec 2022

Abstract

Although the phosphatase enzymes regulate phosphorus (P) turnover throughout the soil profile, at present, they are rarely studied and are less well understood in the deeper soil layers than in the surface horizons. Hence the changes in P-associated soil properties were assessed throughout five Phaeozem profiles for different agricultural land uses including alfalfa, winter wheat, grapevine, apple trees and hops. The acid phosphatase (AcP), alkaline phosphatase (AlP) and phosphodiesterase (PDE) activity was assayed, as were the microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and phosphorus (MBP) contents and also other properties (e.g., available phosphorus_, total organic carbon, total nitrogen). We have also determined the mass, length and surface area of the plant roots. In general, the activities of the studied enzymes were highest in the topsoil in four out of the five profiles studied, which corresponded to the highest level of root mass. The older the plant, the greater the root mass and increased enzymatic activity in the deeper horizons of apple trees and hop profiles in comparison to the surface layers. The greatest enzymatic activity, MBC and MBP contents were found in the horizons with a TOC content >0.5% and decreased down the soil profiles similarly to the changes in TOC and TN contents. While the studied properties were determined to varying degrees by means of the organic C content and availability in all of the genetic horizons, the influence of the prevailing conditions and the factors related to soil depth and pedogenic processes were less pronounced. The clay content was related to a significant extent to all of the studied enzyme activities, but only in horizons with a TOC content <0.5%. Significantly higher phosphatase activity under aerobic as opposed to anaerobic conditions were determined in this study, while the opposite trend was found for the content of MBC and MBP as well as the ratio of MBC/MBP. Overall, we pointed out the complex effect of the soil depth, soil forming-processes and cultivated plants on soil P-associated enzyme activities and other properties throughout the soil profiles. This knowledge will allow better understanding of the state of enzymes and their contribution to the biogeochemical cycle of soil P, especially in subsoils, where the enzyme activities follow different patterns than those in the surface horizons. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soil Enzymatic Activity and Physicochemical Properties in Agriculture System)

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Open AccessArticle

Experimental Research on the Effect of Sugarcane Stalk Lifting Height on the Cutting Breakage Mechanism Based on the Sugarcane Lifting–Cutting System (SLS)

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Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2078; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122078 (registering DOI) - 03 Dec 2022

Abstract

The sugarcane lifting–cutting System (SLS) is the core component of the sugarcane harvester, and the influence of its stalk lifting height on the mechanism of perennial root-cutting damage is still unclear. The test was conducted with the vertical height of centroid (VHC), forward velocity, and cutter rotational speed. Numerical quantification of perennial root based on the cutting breakage effect and cutting breakage grade (CBG) classification was used as the evaluation index. The test results showed that the VHC had a highly significant effect on the CBG of the perennial root. The CBG of the stalk decreased significantly with the lifting height. The average CBG was greater than 2.0 when the stalk lifting height was severely collapsed. The CBG ≤ 1.6 was considered qualified, and the requirements were met when the VHC of the stalk was about 0.85~1.0 m at a forward velocity of 1~3 km/h. The inverted angle of the stalk being lifted was selected to be 45° as the evaluation standard to measure the qualified lifting of the spiral sugarcane lifter. This study provides technical support for the optimal design and selection of operating parameters of the sugarcane harvester. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Agricultural Technology)

Open AccessArticle

Sedimentary Nutrient Dynamics in Homestead Fishpond Systems from a Subtropical Coastal Area

Mohammad Nurul Azim Sikder

Mohammed Fahad Albeshr

and

Mohammad Belal Hossain

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2077; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122077 (registering DOI) - 03 Dec 2022

Abstract

Homestead ponds are small seasonal ponds that are rarely utilized for fish farming. Culturing fish in these small ponds can boost household fish consumption and cash inflow. The availability of nutrients in the water and sediment, however, plays a significant role in the pond’s natural productivity. This study was conducted to assess nutrient contents and some key physical parameters in the bottom sediments of 30 homestead ponds from the central coast along the Northern Bay of Bengal. Analyses of results showed the average values (±SD) of temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter (OM), organic carbon (°C), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and sulphur (S) were 17.8 ± 1.12 °C, 7.29 ± 0.11, 0.41 ± 0.09 mS/cm, 29,615.48 ± 10,528.9 mg kg⁻¹, 11,958 ± 6107 mg kg⁻¹, 1030.6 ± 252 mg kg⁻¹, 17.1 ± 13.5 mg kg⁻¹and 32.6 ± 19.7 mg kg⁻¹during winter and 27.2 ± 1.81 °C, 6.73 ± 0.12, 0.38 ± 0.17 mS/cm, 19,100.01 ±13,739.07 mg kg⁻¹, 11,079 ± 7969 mg kg⁻¹, 955 ± 229.4 mgkg⁻¹, 26.6 ± 20.2 mg kg⁻¹ and 23.4 ± 15.9 mg kg⁻¹ during pre-monsoon, respectively. One-way ANOVA revealed no significant differences in the mean value of sediment quality parameters among the selected ponds (p > 0.05) except for phosphorus in the winter season (p < 0.05). The sediment quality variables were found to be in the suitable range for fish culture. Pearson’s correlation coefficient values (r) showed that only organic carbon and nitrogen had a strong significant correlation with organic matter (p < 0.05). Based on Cluster Analysis (CA), two major associations among the nutrients were attained at a 15% similarity level: C, OM, and N in one cluster and P and S in another. The findings showed that the parameters were within the preferable range for aquaculture, and the homestead ponds are average productive ponds. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Farm Animal Production)

Open AccessReview

Cover Crops for Sustainable Cropping Systems: A Review

Valentina Quintarelli

and

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2076; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122076 (registering DOI) - 03 Dec 2022

Abstract

Cover cropping is a promising and sustainable agronomic practice to ameliorate soil health and crop performances in agro-ecosystems. Indeed, cover crops (CCs) may regulate several ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, soil fertility, moderation of extreme meteorological events, pollination, and climate and water regulation; in addition, CCs are also used as forage crops and have considerable effects on plant and soil biodiversity. However, to achieve the desired effects on agro-ecosystems, cover cropping should be carefully adopted by considering the specie choice, period of cultivation, and termination method based on site, farm, or purpose-specific. The main objective of this manuscript is to analyze the effects of modern agriculture on soil and environmental health and how cover crops can support sustainable cropping systems and global food security. In addition, it focuses on how the incorporation of cover crops into conventional cropping systems can help in the diversification of crops and assist in mitigating the environmental effects of cropping systems. Finally, this review thoroughly investigates the potential effects of CCs on environmental sustainability, which can be an important source of information for sustainable crop production and food security. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cover Crops - Series II)

Open AccessArticle

Evaluation of Agricultural Machinery Operational Benefits Based on Semi-Supervised Learning

and

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2075; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122075 (registering DOI) - 03 Dec 2022

Abstract

Judging the efficiency of agricultural machinery operations is the basis for evaluating the utilization rate of agricultural machinery, the driving abilities of operators, and the effectiveness of agricultural machinery management. A range of evaluative factors—including operational efficiency, oil consumption, operation quality, repetitive operation rate, and the proportion of effective operation time—must be considered for a comprehensive evaluation of the quality of a given operation, an analysis of the causes of impact, the improvement of agricultural machinery management and an increase in operational efficiency. In this study, the main factors affecting the evaluation of agricultural machinery operations are extracted, and information about the daily operations of particular items of agricultural machinery is taken as a data source. As regards modeling, a subset of data can be scored manually, and the remaining data is predicted after the training of the relevant model. With a large quantity of data, manual scoring is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive, but also produces sample errors due to subjective factors. However, a small number of samples cannot support an accurate evaluation model, and so in this study a semi-supervised learning method was used to increase the number of training samples and improve the accuracy of the least-squares support vector machine (LSSVM) training model. The experiment used 33,000 deep subsoiling operation data, 500 of which were used as training samples and 500 as test samples. The accuracy rate of the model obtained using 500 training samples was 94.43%, and the accuracy rate achieved with this method with an increased number of training samples was 96.83%. An optimal combination of agricultural machinery and tools is recommended owing to their operational benefits in terms of reduced costs and improved operating capacity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Agricultural Technology)

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Preharvest and Postharvest Application of 1-MCP on the Quality of Gala Schniga^® SchniCo Red(s) Apples during Long-Term Storage

Maria Małachowska

and

Kazimierz Tomala

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2073; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122073 (registering DOI) - 03 Dec 2022

Abstract

Fruit growers are looking for effective solutions to preserve the high quality of apples after storage. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the impact of pre- and postharvest use of 1-MCP on the quality of ‘Gala Schniga^® SchniCo Red(s)’ apples harvested at the optimal harvest date and at a delayed harvest date and stored for 9 months under conditions similar to DCA (0.6% CO₂ and 0.6% O₂). Four treatments: control (1-MCP untreated), 1-MCP treated 7 days before harvest (Harvista™), 1-MCP treated 7 days after harvest (Smart-Fresh™), and 1-MCP treated before and after harvest (Harvista™ + SmartFresh™) were used, respectively, for each of the above harvest dates. After 5, 7, and 9 months of storage and after an additional 7-day shelf-life period, the following properties were determined: flesh firmness, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, and ethylene production rate. The harvest date and the 1-MCP application date affected ethylene production rate which was reflected in fruit flesh firmness and acidity (p < 0.05). Apples collected at the optimal harvest date from trees sprayed with Harvista™ before harvest retained high firmness (>55 N) after 7 days of shelf-storage at 20 °C, even if previously stored for 9 months. Apples collected later showed firmness similar to the best preferred by consumers only if treated with 1-MCP after harvest. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of Environmental Factors on Fruit Quality)

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Open AccessArticle

Design and Multi-Parameter Optimization of a Combined Chinese Milk Vetch (Astragalus sinicus L.) Seed Harvester

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Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2074; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122074 (registering DOI) - 02 Dec 2022

Abstract

In order to solve problems such as poor applicability of headers, weak separation ability of threshing mechanisms and poor impurity-removal ability of cleaning devices in the existing seed harvest methods of Chinese milk vetch (Astragalus sinicus L.), a combined Chinese milk vetch seed harvester was designed in this paper. The parameters of the key components, such as the flexible anti pod-dropping seedling-lifting header, the longitudinal rod-teeth-type threshing device and the air-sieve-type layered impurity-controlled cleaning device, were designed and optimized. Aiming at reducing seed loss rate, breakage rate and impurity rate of Chinese milk vetch during the mechanical harvesting process, through multi-parameter optimization, the best combination of working parameters was obtained: machine forward speed was 3 km·h⁻¹, rotation speed of the threshing drum was 550 r·min⁻¹, rotation speed of the cleaning fan was 990 r·min⁻¹ and the scale sieve’s opening was 35 mm. Field tests were performed under these parameters, and the results showed that the seed loss rate of Chinese milk vetch was 2.35%, the breakage rate was 0.22% and the impurity rate was 0.51%, which were better than the technical requirements of loss rate and breakage rate less than 5% and impurity rate less than 3% specified in relevant standards. The research results can solve the shortage problem of efficient seed harvest equipment in large-scale planting areas of Chinese milk vetch, and will further help to carry out seed harvest experiments on different varieties of Chinese milk vetch and other green manure varieties in paddy fields. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue 'Eyes', 'Brain', 'Feet' and 'Hands' of Efficient Harvesting Machinery)

Open AccessArticle

The Impact of Socialized Agricultural Machinery Services on Land Productivity: Evidence from China

Siyu Yang

and

Wei Li

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2072; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122072 (registering DOI) - 02 Dec 2022

Abstract

Under the background of urbanization, rural hollowing out, and aging, it is increasingly urgent to solve the problem of “who will farm the land” to stabilize the foundation of national food security. The socialized agricultural machinery service undoubtedly provides a feasible solution. From the perspective of land productivity, and based on field survey data from 597 farmers in four major wheat-producing provinces in China, this study applied an endogenous switching regression model. By constructing a “counterfactual” analysis framework, this paper’s empirical analysis showed that the socialized agricultural machinery service had a positive impact on the land productivity of wheat production. At the same time, the impact of socialized agricultural machinery services on land productivity was heterogeneous due to the differences in planting scale, terrain, and concurrent business. It can give full play to the positive influence of socialized agricultural machinery services on stable grain yields and increases. It is necessary to guide and support the effective supply of socialized agricultural machinery services in the key links of food production, and to reasonably guide the main providers of socialized agricultural machinery service to provide high-quality services that meet the production needs of small farmers according to local conditions, so as to promote the organic connection between small farmers and the development of modern agriculture. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Agricultural Economics, Policies and Rural Management)

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Open AccessArticle

A Counting Method of Red Jujube Based on Improved YOLOv5s

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Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2071; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122071 - 02 Dec 2022

Abstract

Due to complex environmental factors such as illumination, shading between leaves and fruits, shading between fruits, and so on, it is a challenging task to quickly identify red jujubes and count red jujubes in orchards. A counting method of red jujube based on improved YOLOv5s was proposed, which realized the fast and accurate detection of red jujubes and reduced the model scale and estimation error. ShuffleNet V2 was used as the backbone of the model to improve model detection ability and light the weight. In addition, the Stem, a novel data loading module, was proposed to prevent the loss of information due to the change in feature map size. PANet was replaced by BiFPN to enhance the model feature fusion capability and improve the model accuracy. Finally, the improved YOLOv5s detection model was used to count red jujubes. The experimental results showed that the overall performance of the improved model was better than that of YOLOv5s. Compared with the YOLOv5s, the improved model was 6.25% and 8.33% of the original network in terms of the number of model parameters and model size, and the Precision, Recall, F1-score, AP, and Fps were improved by 4.3%, 2.0%, 3.1%, 0.6%, and 3.6%, respectively. In addition, RMSE and MAPE decreased by 20.87% and 5.18%, respectively. Therefore, the improved model has advantages in memory occupation and recognition accuracy, and the method provides a basis for the estimation of red jujube yield by vision. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Innovations in Agriculture)

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Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Different Floor Management Systems Affect Soil Properties and Initial Development of Apple Tree (Malus × domestica Borkh.) in an Orchard

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Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2070; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122070 - 02 Dec 2022

Abstract

In order to achieve sustainable food production, non-chemical weed management practices need to be developed for fruit growing. Tailor-made floor management systems enable efficient weed regulation, but they also affect the soil quality in an orchard. In this article, the effects of various floor management systems in a ‘Red Jonaprince’ apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) orchard on the soil properties and the trees’ nutritional status and initial development during the first two years after the orchard’s establishment were assessed. The experiment was set up in the spring of 2017 in the Experimental Orchard of WULS. ‘Red Jonaprince’ cv. trees grafted on M.9 rootstock were planted with 3.5 × 1 m spacing between them. Different floor management systems were applied to the rows, including the selected organic mulches: Miscanthus × giganteus straw (MG1 and MG2), spent mushroom substrates (SMS1 and SMS2), herbicide strip (HS), clear mechanical soil cultivation (MC), and synthetic black mulch (BC). The organic mulches affected the soil properties significantly. Spent mushroom substrates (SMS1, SMS2) increased the P and K contents in the soil, increased the salinity 10-fold, and retarded the growth in terms of the trunk cross-section area (TCSA) and its increment compared with other systems. Miscanthus × giganteus straw mulch (MG1, MG2) was associated with a more vigorous shoot growth compared with other combinations in the first year of the study as it provided a better tree nitrogen nutritional status. The floor management system affected the generative development of the trees. Mulching with a spent mushroom substrate boosted the flower bud formation intensity, but it did not affect the yielding quantity. Moreover, due to the poor fruit set, the trees mulched with a spent mushroom substrate (SMS2) gave a low initial bearing. High crop loads were noted for the trees treated with black synthetic mulch (BC) and the trees mulched with Miscanthus × giganteus straw (MG1). This was an effect of the tree size rather than the blooming intensity, while there were no differences in the cropping efficiency index (CEI) parameter. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of Environmental Factors on Fruit Quality)

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Open AccessArticle

Effect of Nitrogen Fertilization in the Sour Cherry Orchard on Soil Enzymatic Activities, Microbial Population, and Fruit Quality

Krzysztof Rutkowski

Grzegorz P. Łysiak

and

Zofia Zydlik

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2069; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122069 - 01 Dec 2022

Abstract

Sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) is one of the most important fruit crops in Poland and ‘Łutówka’ is the dominant cultivar in commercial orchards. The experiment was carried out in 2007–2013 in three orchards; in each of them, three levels of fertilization were applied: 0 N kg ha⁻¹, 60 kg N ha⁻¹, and 120 kg N ha⁻¹. The activity of dehydrogenase and protease in the soil was studied depending on nitrogen fertilization. The abundance of soil microorganisms was assessed: bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, and nitrogenous bacteria (Azospirillum and Azotobacter) in the years during the experiments carried out with fertilization of 60 kg N ha⁻¹ in all orchards. The enzyme activity of dehydrogenases increased after the use of 60 kg N ha⁻¹ from 3.8 to 6.7 (cm³ H₂ 24 h⁻¹ kg⁻¹ DW soil), but a further increase in the dose to 120 kg N ha⁻¹ caused a decrease in activity to 5.1 (cm³ H₂ 24 h⁻¹ kg⁻¹ DW soil). The activity of proteases was dependent on nitrogen fertilization, but to a large extent it was related to the course of climatic conditions. There is no relationship between the growth and the activity of proteases. The yield and selected quality parameters of the cherry fruits were associated with both dehydrogenases and proteases. The use of lower doses of nitrogen fertilizers allows for maintaining biological balance in the soil and a more efficient use of nutrients, contributing to less environmental pollution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of Environmental Factors on Fruit Quality)

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Open AccessArticle

The Shadow Values of Soil Hydrological Properties in the Production Potential of Climatic Regionalization of the Czech Republic

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Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2068; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122068 - 01 Dec 2022

Abstract

The Czech Republic uses a dual system of agricultural land prices, namely the formal/official price—for tax purposes—and the market price in the case of a standard sale or purchase of farmland. This paper focuses on the construction of an econometric model to quantify the influence of soil hydrological characteristics on the production potential in a given climatic region. It also focuses on the use of this model for the determination of the official price of agricultural land, which is expressed on the basis of the code of the evaluated soil-ecological unit (ESEU) and based on defined soil characteristics. The pricing itself is based on the production potential of the land, which in practice is very important for spatial planning, as it determines the classes of agricultural land protection with regard to the possibility of setting aside agricultural land for non-productive purposes or for drawing subsidies for less favourable areas. In this context, the non-productive functions of agricultural land are also frequently discussed, especially its retention, which plays a very important role in the currently changing climatic conditions. There are a number of studies on soil retention, and numerous approaches to measuring it, but none of them address its impact on production potential and thus on the price of land. For this reason, this paper focuses on defining the influence of the retention of the main soil units (defined for the conditions of the Czech Republic) on production potential. For this definition, SUR models are used, where the endogenous variable is expressed as production potential and the exogenous variables include the basic soil characteristics such as grain size, porosity, hydrological component of the soil, and retention. The obtained outputs show both the high explanatory power of the model and the adequate parametric significance of most variables, which provides sufficient support for the use of the results in practice. In addition, the estimated models across all climatic regions are consistent with substantively logical assumptions about the link between production potential and soil hydrological properties, which secondarily demonstrates their applicability in practice, especially for state administration, but also for local government in the sense of municipalities, cities, and other organizational units. Full article

(This article belongs to the Topic Water and Soil Management in Adaptation to Climate Change)

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Open AccessArticle

Low Illumination Soybean Plant Reconstruction and Trait Perception

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Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2067; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122067 - 01 Dec 2022

Abstract

Agricultural equipment works poorly under low illumination such as nighttime, and there is more noise in soybean plant images collected under light constraints, and the reconstructed soybean plant model cannot fully and accurately represent its growth condition. In this paper, we propose a low-illumination soybean plant reconstruction and trait perception method. Our method is based on low-illumination enhancement, using the image enhancement algorithm EnlightenGAN to adjust soybean plant images in low-illumination environments to improve the performance of the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) algorithm for soybean plant feature detection and matching and using the motion recovery structure (SFM) algorithm to generate the sparse point cloud of soybean plants, and the point cloud of the soybean plants is densified by the face slice-based multi-view stereo (PMVS) algorithm. We demonstrate that the reconstructed soybean plants are close to the growth conditions of real soybean plants by image enhancement in challenging low-illumination environments, expanding the application of three-dimensional reconstruction techniques for soybean plant trait perception, and our approach is aimed toward achieving the accurate perception of current crop growth conditions by agricultural equipment under low illumination. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computer Vision for Intelligent Crop Identification and Crop Protection)

Open AccessArticle

Red Light Emitting Transition Metal Ion Doped Calcium Antimony Oxide for Plant Growth Lighting Applications

Lankamsetty Krishna Bharat

Harishkumarreddy Patnam

Alexander Sokolov

Sergey V. Gudkov

and

Jae Su Yu

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2066; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122066 - 01 Dec 2022

Abstract

In this work, we synthesized Mn⁴⁺-doped CaSb₂O₆ phosphors using the conventional solid-state reaction method for plant growth lighting applications. The morphological, structural, and optical properties were analyzed based on the results obtained from scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffraction, and spectrophotometer. The results of the spectrophotometer illustrate that the phosphors showed a red emission band in 550–800 nm wavelength range with peak maxima at 642 nm. The red emission in these phosphors is attributed to the ²E_g → ⁴A_2g transition of Mn⁴⁺ ions. The emission intensity is increased with the doping of a charge compensator. The emission range of the phosphor covers the absorption range of photosynthetic pigments such as chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, phytochrome P_r, and phytochrome P_fr. The results signify that the prepared phosphor materials are suitable candidates for application in plant growth lighting. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Innovations in Agriculture)

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Effects of Lake Sediment on Soil Properties, Crop Growth, and the phoD-Harboring Microbial Community

and

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2065; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122065 - 01 Dec 2022

Abstract

Removal of lake sediment has been shown to be an effective method for lake restoration. High phosphorus (P) content makes it possible for lake sediment to provide fertility for agricultural production. However, little research has focused on the responses of the soil-phosphorus-related microbial community to the sediment-derived fertilizer enriched in phosphorus content. The phoD-harboring gene, important to the global phosphorus cycle, encodes alkaline phosphatase hydrolyzing organic P in soil. Accordingly, a plot experiment was performed to compare the effects of four different fertilization treatments—no-fertilizer control (CK), 50% chemical fertilization with compressed sediment (CS), 50% chemical fertilization with original lake sediment (S), and conventional chemical fertilization treatment (CT)—on the phoD gene community using QPCR and high-throughput sequencing analysis. Relationships among soil physicochemical properties, phoD-harboring microbial community abundance and composition were also evaluated. Results showed that compared to CT, CS significantly increased soil organic matter (SOM) content by 20.29%, and S enhanced the humus content by 20.75% (p < 0.05). There was no significant influence on phoD gene microbial community richness (Chao1 and Sobs indexes) and diversity (Shannon index) between all treatments. The CS treatment significantly altered the phoD community structure and enhanced the Chinese cabbage yield by 40.19% (p < 0.05). Pearson analysis showed that phoD gene abundance (copy number) had significant and negative relationships with SOM, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), available nitrogen (AN), available phosphorus (AP), and the Chao1 index. Redundancy analysis showed that shifts in the phoD community structure were related to soil physicochemical properties (SOM, TN, TP, AN, AP, and humus) rather than soil pH. In conclusion, the compressed sediment can be used in farmland since it optimizes the phoD-harboring microbial community abundance, composition, and structure, and thus significantly increases the Chinese cabbage yield. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Innovative Conservation Cropping Systems and Practices)

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Vision-Based a Seedling Selective Planting Control System for Vegetable Transplanter

and

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2064; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122064 - 01 Dec 2022

Abstract

Seedling transplanting is an important part of vegetable mechanized production in modern agriculture. After the seedlings are cultivated on a large scale by the nursery tray, they are planted into the field by the transplanter. However, unlike manual transplanting, transplanter is unable to judge the status of seedlings in the hole during seedling planting, which leads to problems such as damaged seedlings and empty holes being picked in the same order and planted into the field, resulting in yield reduction and missed planting. Aiming at this problem, we designed a seedling selective planting control system for vegetable transplanter which includes vision unit, seedling picking mechanism, seedling feeding mechanism, planting mechanism, pneumatic push rod unit, limit sensor, industrial computer and logic controller. We used asymmetrical light to construct visual identification scenes for planting conditions, which suppresses environmental disturbances. Based on the intersection operation of mask and image, a fast framework of tray hole location and seedling identification (FHLSI) was proposed combined with FCM segmentation algorithm. The vision unit provides the transplanting system with information on the status of the holes to be transplanted. Based on the information, planting system chooses the healthy seedlings for transplanting, improving the survival rate and quality of transplanting. The results show that the proposed visual method has an average accuracy of 92.35% for identification with the selective planting control system of seedlings and improves the transplanting quality by 15.4%. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Agricultural Technology)

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The Determinants of Grape Storage: Evidence from Grape Growers in China

Xiaoyu Sun

Xiaoli Yang

and

Ruilong Zhang

Agriculture 2022, 12(12), 2063; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture12122063 - 01 Dec 2022

Abstract

Storage of high-value agricultural products is essential to increase their added value. Exploring growers’ storage strategies for high-value agricultural products is helpful in developing the agricultural industry. In this paper, we analyzed the factors affecting growers’ storage decisions using Probit and Tobit models based on field data from 1026 grape growers in China. We conclude that the in-season price has a negative effect on growers’ storage decisions. Expected price, market risk perception and grape quality have a positive effect on storage decisions. Borrowing behavior has a positive effect on the storage decisions of large-scale growers. In addition, the higher the expected price and the greater the market risk perception, the more growers prefer long-term storage; and the better the quality of the grapes, the more growers tend to store grapes in the short term. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Agricultural Economics, Policies and Rural Management)

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Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition for Sustainable Agriculture Topic Editors: Othmane Merah, Purushothaman Chirakkuzhyil Abhilash, Magdi T. Abdelhamid, Hailin Zhang, Bachar Zebib
Deadline: 31 December 2022

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Remote Sensing and Geoinformatics in Agriculture and Environment Topic Editors: Dionissios Kalivas, Christos Chalkias, Thomas Alexandridis, Konstantinos X. Soulis, Emmanouil Psomiadis
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