Search Results (5)

This paper innovatively proposes the concepts of length, width, and depth for modern agricultural industrial systems. The development level of the modern agricultural industrial system is systematically measured by the length of the agricultural industry chain, the width of agriculture in terms of its overlap with and integration of non-agriculture industries, and the depth of agricultural productive services. Using the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method, 88 main production areas of special and excellent agricultural products in Shanxi, China, are selected as sample objects. The configuration paths of the length, width, and depth of the modern agricultural industrial system impacting farmers’ wage income, operating income, property income, and transfer income are explored. The study found the following: (1) The income level of farmers is jointly influenced by the length, width, and depth of the modern agricultural industrial system, emphasizing that a single factor does not constitute a necessary condition for farmers’ income growth and prosperity. (2) There exist four types of paths through which the modern agricultural industrial system can promote increases in farmer incomes, namely “non-industry length * industry width”, “industry length * non-industry width * non-industry depth”, “non-industry length * industry depth” and “industry length * non-industry depth”, a various types of paths have a differential impact on the structure of farmers’ incomes. (3) The length, width, and depth of the modern agricultural industrial system individually have crowding-out effects on each of a farmer’s four types of income. Full article

Sorghum is one of the most important foods, fodder, and technical crops grown in the world. Global climate change and environmental pollution with toxic industrial and agricultural waste are the most unfavorable environmental factors affecting the growth and development of sorghum, which leads to a decrease in product quality. The development of new environmentally friendly plant growth regulators to improve growth and increase the productivity of sorghum is an urgent task of modern agriculture. Currently, considerable attention is paid to the development of new environmentally friendly plant growth regulators based on 6-methyl-2-mercapto-4-hydroxypyrimidine sodium and potassium salts (Methyur and Kamethur) and N-oxide-2,6-dimethylpyridine (Ivin). Thanks to the use of plant growth regulators Methyur, Kamethur, and Ivin, it is possible to increase the productivity of agricultural crops and their adaptive properties to stress factors of abiotic nature. This work examines the use of plant growth regulators Methyur, Kamethur, and Ivin to increase the productivity of sorghum. Field experiments were carried out on grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) cv. Yarona and sweet sorghum (Sorghum saccharatum L.) cv. Favorite. Seeds sterilized with 1% KMnO₄ solution were treated either with distilled water (control sample) or with solutions of any plant growth regulators Methyur, Kamethur, or Ivin, applied at a concentration of 10⁻⁷ M for 24 h (experimental sample). Each control and experimental sample contained 50 plant seeds; the experiments were carried out in triplicate. Then the soaked seeds were planted in the soil. Yield indicators such as panicle length (in cm) and fresh weight of grain (in grams), determined in experimental samples of sorghum plants, were calculated as % in relation to similar indicators determined in control samples of sorghum plants. It was shown that the yield indicators of sorghum plants grown for 4 months in the field, treated with Methyur, Kamethur, and Ivin at a concentration of 10⁻⁷ M exceeded those of control plants. Panicle length (in %) of experimental grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) cv. Yarona increased by 7%—in plants treated with Kamethur, 20%—in plants treated with Methyur, and 17%—in plants treated with Ivin, compared to the control. Panicle length (in %) of experimental sweet sorghum (Sorghum saccharatum (L.) Moench) cv. Favorite increased by 36%—in plants treated with Kamethur, 37%—in plants treated with Methyur, and by 25%—in plants treated with Ivin, compared to the control. Grain fresh weight (in %) of experimental grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) cv. Yarona increased by 22%—in plants treated with Kamethur, 26%—in plants treated with Methyur, and 13%—in plants treated with Ivin, compared to the control. Grain fresh weight (in %) of experimental sweet sorghum (Sorghum saccharatum (L.) Moench) cv. Favorite increased by 24%—in plants treated with Kamethur, 38%—in plants treated with Methyur, and 35%—in plants treated with Ivin, compared to the control. Based on the results obtained, a conclusion was made about the high growth-stimulating effect of plant growth regulators, similar to the phytohormones auxins and cytokinin, and the dependence of their effect on their composition. It is proposed to use new environmentally friendly plant growth regulators Methyur, Kamethur, and Ivin to improve growth and increase the productivity of sorghum while reducing the use of environmentally toxic agrochemicals for plant protection and improving the environmental condition of the entire agricultural system. Full article

Modern irrigation practices and industrial pollution can contribute to the simultaneous occurrence of salinity and heavy metal contamination in large areas of the world, resulting in significant negative effects on crop productivity and sustainability. This study aimed to investigate the growth-promoting potentials of an important endophytic fungal strain SL3 and to compare its potential with exogenous IAA (indole-3-acetic acid) in the context of salt and heavy metal stress. The strain was assessed for plant growth-promoting traits such as the production of indole-3-acetic acid, gibberellins (GA), and siderophore. We selected two important crops, mung bean and maize, and examined various physiological and biochemical characteristics under 300 mM NaCl and 2.5 mM Pb stress conditions, with and without the application of IAA and SL3. This study’s results demonstrated that both IAA and SL3 positively impacted the growth and development of plants under normal and stressed conditions. In NaCl and Pb-induced stress conditions, the growth of mung bean and maize plants was significantly reduced. However, the application of IAA and SL3 helped to alleviate stress, leading to a significant increase in shoot/root length and weight compared to IAA and SL3 non-treated plants. The results revealed that photosynthetic pigments, accumulation of catalase (CAT), phenolic contents, polyphenol oxidase, and flavanols are higher in the IAA and SL3-treated plants than in the non-inoculated plants. This study’s findings revealed that applying the SL3 fungal strain positively influenced various physiological and biochemical processes in tested plant species under normal and stress conditions of NaCl and Pb. These findings also suggested that SL3 could be a potential replacement for widely used IAA to promote plant growth by improving photosynthetic efficiency, reducing oxidative stress, and enhancing metabolic activities in plants, including mung and maize. Moreover, this study highlights that SL3 has synergistic effects with IAA in enhancing resilience to salt and heavy stress and offers a promising avenue for future agricultural applications in salt and heavy metal-affected regions. Full article

In modern agriculture, the substrate industry prefers porous materials for plants to provide water and nutrients in soilless cultivation. Composted sawdust is such a substrate. The sawdust industry is interested in avoiding composting sawdust because it is time and labor-consuming. The study objective was to evaluate whether non-composted (fresh) Bombax ceiba (red cotton tree) sawdust with added nutrients could be an alternative to composted sawdust for okra production. The sawdust was mixed with nutrients in the form of banana peels (a potassium source), eggshells (a calcium source), and urea (a nitrogen source). We conducted two independent pot experiments. Treatments were viz.: T₁: non-fertilized 100% sandy clay loam soil (control) (vol/vol); T₂: non-composted 100% B. ceiba sawdust (vol/vol); T₃: non-composted 80% B. ceiba sawdust + 20% banana peels (vol/vol); T₄: non-composted 60% B. ceiba sawdust + 20% banana peels + 20% eggshells (vol/vol); T₅: non-composted 60% B. ceiba sawdust + 20% banana peels + 20% eggshells (vol/vol) + urea (@ 91 kg N ha⁻¹). In both experiments, the germination of okra seeds was unaffected by the sawdust mixtures. The phenological development of okra was significantly greater in non-fertilized clay loam soil than in any non-composted sawdust mixtures. Plant height, leaf relative water content, stability index of the membrane, root length, chlorophyll content index, root and shoot dry and fresh weight, stem diameter, and single leaf area of okra were lower in all non-composted B. ceiba sawdust mixtures compared to the control. In contrast to T₂, T₅ resulted in fewer days before the first flower developed, an increase in the number of pods plant⁻¹, length of pod plant⁻¹, the diameter of the pod, fresh and dry weight of pod plant⁻¹, and the seed numbers pod⁻¹. It is concluded that amending non-composted B. ceiba sawdust with banana peels, eggshells, and urea (T₅) enhanced its perspective as a growth medium for okra. Nonetheless, the amendments were unlikely to establish an adequate yield of okra, as was the case with non-fertilized sandy clay loam soil. Full article

Crop breeding plays an important role in modern agriculture, improving plant performance, and increasing yield. Identifying the genes that are responsible for beneficial traits greatly facilitates plant breeding efforts for increasing crop production. However, associating genes and their functions with agronomic traits requires researchers to observe, measure, record, and analyze phenotypes of large numbers of plants, a repetitive and error-prone job if performed manually. An automated seedling phenotyping system aimed at replacing manual measurement, reducing sampling time, and increasing the allowable work time is thus highly valuable. Toward this goal, we developed an automated corn seedling phenotyping platform based on a time-of-flight of light (ToF) camera and an industrial robot arm. A ToF camera is mounted on the end effector of the robot arm. The arm positions the ToF camera at different viewpoints for acquiring 3D point cloud data. A camera-to-arm transformation matrix was calculated using a hand-eye calibration procedure and applied to transfer different viewpoints into an arm-based coordinate frame. Point cloud data filters were developed to remove the noise in the background and in the merged seedling point clouds. A 3D-to-2D projection and an x-axis pixel density distribution method were used to segment the stem and leaves. Finally, separated leaves were fitted with 3D curves for morphological traits characterization. This platform was tested on a sample of 60 corn plants at their early growth stages with between two to five leaves. The error ratios of the stem height and leave length measurements are 13.7% and 13.1%, respectively, demonstrating the feasibility of this robotic system for automated corn seedling phenotyping. Full article