Search Results (365)

We investigated whether sowing a mixture of wheat cultivars could reduce the occurrence of winged aphids in crops. Aphid presence was monitored using yellow water traps. Three wheat cultivars—Simonida, NS 40S, and NS Rani otkos—and their mixtures were used in the study. The results indicate that alate aphid captures in cultivar mixtures are often lower than in pure stands. However, this effect is not consistent across all mixtures, and the impact of individual varieties and their mixtures varies between the autumn and spring vegetation phases. In autumn, aphid species that overwinter on wheat and serve as potential virus vectors dominate, primarily Rhopalosiphum padi and Sitobion avenae, while in spring, polyphagous aphid species are more prevalent. During autumn, the least attractive cultivar for vector species was NS Rani otkos, which, in mixtures with the other two cultivars, also decreased its attractiveness. With lower vector abundance, the potential for viral infection is reduced. In spring, the number of alate aphids and vectors captured in mixtures was lower than in pure stands. The reduction in aphid presence in mixtures was particularly pronounced during weeks with the highest aphid abundance. Full article

Root-knot nematodes of the genus Meloidogyne are among the most destructive endoparasitic nematodes due to their ability to infect a wide range of agriculturally important crops. In this context, nematode-trapping fungi have been widely recognized for their potential as biological control agents against plant-parasitic nematodes. In the present study, the nematode-trapping fungus Arthrobotrys thaumasius was isolated from roots soils of banana plants (Musa spp.) in the canton of Guayaquil, Guayas Province, Ecuador. Four strains were obtained and identified based on sequence analyses of molecular markers. In addition, the in vitro growth and sporulation of the isolates were evaluated, with cornmeal agar and oat agar proving to be the most suitable culture media. Three A. thaumasius isolates exhibited attraction and capture rates exceeding 65% against second-stage juveniles (J2) of Meloidogyne. This study represents the first report of the isolation and characterization of A. thaumasius in Ecuador and demonstrates that isolates HN-20, HN-21, and HN-24 have high potential as biological control agents, positioning them as promising candidates for the sustainable management of root-knot diseases caused by Meloidogyne spp. Full article

Currently, devices such as solar insecticidal lamps are widely used in agricultural pest control, but routine trapping is insufficient to meet the demands of precision agriculture. Therefore, determining the nocturnal phototactic rhythm of pests to optimize the control strategies of insecticidal lamps has become key to achieving precise pest control. However, existing automated monitoring and forecasting devices struggle to effectively monitor the nocturnal phototactic rhythm of small pests. To address this issue, this study developed an automated monitoring system for phototactic rhythm based on sticky traps and machine vision. For the hardware, an image acquisition device integrating a darkroom and scheduled supplementary lighting was designed to obtain stable time-series images of nocturnal pests. For the algorithm, the YOLO-STP detection model was proposed by improving upon the baseline YOLOv11 model. This model introduces a P2 detection layer, a Coordinate Attention (CA) mechanism, and a hybrid bounding box regression loss function integrating WIoU and NWD. Combined with a sliding window cropping method, it further enhances the detection capability for small objects. Additionally, an incremental counting method based on spatial cascade matching was proposed to mitigate counting errors caused by target occlusion or detachment in the time-series images. Experimental results indicate that the mean average precision (mAP) of the detection model was 93.2%. For the counting method, the coefficient of determination ($R^2$) was 0.98, with an RMSE of 1.97 and an MAE of 1.60. Field validation in real-world paddy fields demonstrated that the system can accurately record the abundance changes of 12 pest species, intuitively visualizing the differences in phototactic rhythms among various species. This study provides a viable automated monitoring tool for acquiring the nocturnal activity rhythm data of agricultural pests in the field. Full article

Fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae) are major pests of crops that require effective monitoring for management. This study evaluated locally available food baits for monitoring fruit flies in guava orchards in Maputo, Mozambique. It also assessed infestation levels and examined the relationship between trap catches and the ratio adult/kg of fruit. Four treatments (palm sap, molasses, torula yeast, and water) and four replications were used. Tephri traps were installed on four trees per block and inspected weekly, while guava fruits from both trees and the ground were collected and incubated to estimate infestation indices. Three genera (Bactrocera, Dacus, and Ceratitis) were recorded, with a high relative abundance (90.37%) for Bactrocera dorsalis. Torula and palm sap were the best attractants, with no significant difference between them. Guava fruits showed high infestation (208.5 ± 13.3 adults/kg). Trap catches of B. dorsalis were positively correlated with adults/kg, suggesting 42.5% of infestation variation and highlighting the influence of factors outside the orchard on infestation indices. The results show that palm sap is a promising low-cost alternative bait and highlight the importance of considering area-wide management of fruit flies. Full article

Western flower thrips (Frankliniella occidentalis) are major pests of horticultural crops worldwide, creating a need for sensitive monitoring tools to support integrated pest management. Semiochemical lures are widely used to enhance sticky trap capture, but their effectiveness depends on both attractant composition and dispenser design. In this study, the plant-derived volatiles p-anisaldehyde (PANI) and S(−)-verbenone were evaluated as individual and blended attractants, together with the development of practical dispenser systems, across field trials conducted between 2018 and 2021 in commercial strawberry production systems. Initial short-term trials in 2018 showed that both compounds increased trap capture relative to controls, with the PANI–verbenone blend providing the greatest enhancement across repeated 48 h assessments. Follow-on trials in 2019 supported these findings and introduced ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) tubing as a controlled-release dispenser, improving lure practicality and durability without loss of efficacy. Expanded multi-site trials in 2021, conducted across four farms over four weeks, showed that although early capture dynamics were similar among treatments, differences emerged over time. By day 28, blended attractants, particularly when delivered via polymer-based dispensers, consistently exceeded controls and performed comparably to, or sometimes better than, the commercial standard Lurem-TR. These findings show that combining plant-derived volatile blends with optimised controlled-release dispensers can improve monitoring sensitivity for F. occidentalis under commercial growing conditions. Full article

Host-finding behavior of insect herbivores is a key determinant of herbivory intensity in agricultural and forest ecosystems, which often drives excessive pesticide application for pest control. While host plant apparency theory explains herbivore host detection, and push–pull strategies manipulate this behavior, both produce inconsistent results and remain mechanistically disconnected. Existing frameworks like the Resource Concentration Hypothesis focus mainly on host density, ignoring the multidimensional, context-dependent nature of apparency. Here, we synthesize forest and agricultural research to develop the first unified framework linking these two concepts. We show that host plant apparency is not intrinsic but shaped by plant morphology, non-host identity, and spatial arrangement. Push–pull strategies exploit this relativity by redesigning the chemical and physical apparency landscape. We argue that: (1) push–pull system success requires reducing main crop apparency while enhancing trap crop apparency; (2) trap crops may fail when their dual functions, olfactory attraction or physical interception, are misinterpreted, with profound implications for spatial design; and (3) this integration resolves field contradictions by framing them within a common bottom-up mechanism. Our framework provides a generalizable principle for sustainable pest management: effective control depends on understanding what makes host plants apparent to target pests in their specific local environment. Full article

Rural e-commerce is treated as a lever for common prosperity, but its welfare effect turns non-monotonic across digital-development gradients, raising concerns about the widening urban–rural gap in sustainable regional development. We built a county-year panel of 2725 Chinese counties from 2014 to 2022, with Taobao village density as the treatment, land-based agricultural value conversion efficiency as the county-level mediator, and the Peking University digital financial inclusion digitization sub-index as the moderator. The estimations combine two-way fixed-effect regressions, continuous-interaction moderation, Hansen panel-threshold regression, Callaway–Sant’Anna difference-in-differences, Bartik shift-share instrumentation with Rotemberg-weight diagnostics, and multiple imputation by chained equations supplemented by propensity-score sensitivity checks. Taobao village density linearly depresses rural per-capita disposable income and produces a significant U-shape in the nightlight Gini with an in-sample turning point. The marginal effect on Sen welfare moves from approximately $+0.99$ log-units at low digitization to approximately $-0.95$ at high digitization, with the sign-reversal becoming statistically significant only above the 55th percentile of the moderator (Hansen threshold at the 85th percentile), so the trap is a tail regime rather than a generalized reversal; over the panel window, however, 80.5% of counties cross into the trap zone in at least one year. Approximately 28 percent of the welfare squeeze passes through the land-based ecological efficiency channel, with parallel mediators delivering 19–90 percent. The deepest squeeze appears in cash-crop counties that platform theory predicted to benefit most, where the welfare effect at high digitization is roughly $3.1$ times the staple-grain effect. We label this pattern the Digital Saturation Trap and argue that sustainable urban–rural policy should shift from uniform platform access toward differentiated platform governance in counties beyond the saturation threshold. Full article

Damage caused by Frankliniella intonsa to sunflower seeds results in the emergence of rusty speckling on the seedcoat, severely compromising seed quality in recent years. Although chemical control has remained the primary management strategy, its application during the flowering period—when F. intonsa is the most active—poses significant risks to pollinating insects and natural enemies, highlighting the urgent need for effective and environmentally sustainable control alternatives. Previous studies have shown that F. intonsa is attracted by buckwheat and that it could be a promising trap crop for F. intonsa. Thus, the attractiveness of Fagopyrum esculentum and F. tataricum to F. intonsa was compared, and the preference of F. intonsa between two buckwheat varieties was examined. Furthermore, the behavioral responses of F. intonsa to volatiles emitted by these plants in different developmental stages were assessed. The study results indicated that F. intonsa had a clear preference for F. tataricum over F. esculentum. In cage trials, the selection rates of 2nd instar nymphs and adults of F. intonsa for F. tataricum were 61.63% and 60.19% at the seedling stage, and 60.74% and 62.50% at the full-bloom stage, all significantly surpassing those of F. esculentum. Olfactory bioassays further confirmed that flowers of F. tataricum were notably more appealing to both 2nd instar nymphs and adults of F. intonsa, with selection rates of 64.17% and 61.67%, respectively. Twenty distinct floral volatiles of two buckwheat varieties were detected through the phytochemical analysis. Orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) identified seven key compounds that accounted for the observed behavioral differences. Both 2nd instar nymphs and adults of F. intonsa demonstrated a significant selection for Δ-Cadinene, with the highest selection rates of 75.00% and 76.67% recorded at a concentration of 0.1 μg/μL. Furthermore, F. intonsa exhibited a marked attraction to higher concentrations of Verbenone, which was unique to F. tataricum, and (S)-2-Methyl-1-butanol, which was unique to F. esculentum. Field intercropping experiments confirmed that F. tataricum outperformed F. esculentum in trapping F. intonsa within sunflower plots. In conclusion, the results indicated that F. tataricum possessed considerable potential as a trap crop for the integrated management of F. intonsa in sunflower cultivation systems. Full article

Phlebotomine sand flies remain poorly studied in southeastern Peru, a region with a high burden of cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Using modified ultraviolet (UV) light traps, we surveyed sand fly assemblages at Manu Biological Station during the wet season within secondary forest, Guadua bamboo forest, fruit crop plots, and peridomicile habitats. We collected 2641 sand flies representing 32 species. Habitat type was the primary driver of assemblage composition, with minimum nightly temperature as the strongest environmental correlate. Sand fly abundance was highest in secondary forest (n = 921) and peridomicile habitats (n = 836), where assemblages were dominated by Nyssomyia shawi, a generalist species. Although Guadua bamboo forests harbored lower abundance (n = 386), potential vector species comprised 92% of the assemblage compared to 42–86% in other habitats, suggesting that expanding bamboo forests may favor a higher proportion of potential CL vectors. Peridomicile assemblages consisted largely of generalist species that overlapped with adjacent forested habitats, indicating potential pathways for sylvatic-to-peridomestic spillover. Although the study’s limited scope (i.e., limited to a single season and locality) does not allow broad generalization, our findings suggest the importance of habitat in structuring patterns of potential vector exposure. Full article

Background: Agroecology is increasingly discussed as a strategic response to the combined challenges of drought, ecological degradation, and rural vulnerability. In Morocco, this debate has become particularly urgent because agriculture now operates under persistent hydro-climatic stress, declining water availability, and strong territorial disparities between rainfed, irrigated, mountain, and oasis systems. Methods: This article is based on a structured critical review combined with an interpretive bibliometric synthesis of Moroccan and North African literature on agroecology, water stress, agricultural transition, and food-system resilience. The review was organized through conceptual framing, targeted source selection, thematic screening, and integrative synthesis. Results: Morocco is not an agroecological blank slate. Practices compatible with agroecological transition already exist across the country, including crop diversification, legume rotations, crop–livestock integration, biological regulation, organic amendments, and multifunctional production systems. However, previous reviews have mainly documented practices, projects, or sustainability initiatives without fully explaining why these remain weakly connected, poorly scaled, and insufficiently institutionalized under Moroccan conditions. This review shows that the principal barrier is not the absence of relevant practices but the absence of a coherent transition architecture capable of aligning water governance, farm economics, advisory systems, public incentives, territorial differentiation, and market valorization. The Moroccan case reveals a central paradox: agroecology is most necessary precisely where the structural conditions for its adoption are most fragile. To capture this contradiction, the paper proposes the concept of a Hydro-Agroecological Transition Trap, defined as a condition in which worsening water stress simultaneously intensifies the need for agroecological redesign and reduces the ability of farms and institutions to implement it. Conclusions: The manuscript concludes by proposing a six-pillar transition framework for Morocco based on water-smart agroecology, territorially differentiated pathways, participatory innovation, transition finance and risk-sharing, market construction, and multidimensional assessment. The originality of the study lies in shifting the analysis from a shortage of practices to a shortage of transition architecture, thereby contributing to international debates on agroecological scaling under chronic hydro-climatic stress. Full article

Agricultural crop residue burning is a major driver of seasonal PM2.5 pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Northern Thailand. This study quantified GHG emissions from the open burning of rice, maize, and sugarcane residues across six provinces (Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Lampang, Uttaradit, Nakhon Sawan, and Kamphaeng Phet) from 2019 to 2024 using the 2006 IPCC emission methodology. Spatiotemporal patterns of fire hotspots were characterized using MODIS and VIIRS satellite data, combined with kernel density estimation (KDE) and land-use classification in ArcGIS Pro. Total non-CO₂ GHG emissions (CH₄ and N₂O, expressed as CO₂-eq using GWP100 from IPCC AR5) over the six years totaled 2,599,551 tCO₂-eq, with major rice contributing the largest share (35%), followed by sugarcane (24%), second rice (21%), and maize (20%). Nakhon Sawan was the leading emitter (41%), reflecting its extensive rice and sugarcane cultivation. Pearson correlation analysis revealed consistently positive relationships between daily fire hotspot counts and PM2.5 concentrations (r = 0.30–0.84), with the strongest correlations observed in Mae Hong Son, where basin topography traps pollutants. Time-series analysis confirmed pronounced seasonal PM2.5 peaks that exceeded Thailand’s 24-h NAAQS limit (37.5 μg/m³) by 7–9 times in severe years. Biochar production via pyrolysis was evaluated as a zero-burning alternative, with an estimated annual carbon sequestration potential of 2.3–3.5 million tCO₂-eq, substantially exceeding emissions from open burning. These findings indicate that crop-residue valorization options—including biochar production, composting, and biochar co-compost—could theoretically offset agricultural GHG emissions and reduce field-burning PM2.5 emissions in Northern Thailand. However, the realized mitigation will depend on (i) verification of biochar long-term stability in tropical Thai soils through dedicated in situ trials, (ii) economic incentives that offset biochar production costs of approximately 1500–3500 THB per tonne, and (iii) integration within a policy mix that combines burning bans, mechanization support, and farmer extension services. Without these enabling conditions, biochar should be regarded as a future-perspective option rather than an immediately deployable solution. Full article

Accurate estimation of dynamic environmental phenomena through intelligent sensing systems plays a critical role in enabling reliable monitoring and decision-making in complex real-world scenarios. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence-driven sensing technologies and Internet of Things systems, modern agricultural monitoring is evolving from isolated data acquisition toward intelligent, multimodal perception and decision-making. However, traditional approaches predominantly rely on single data sources, making it difficult to simultaneously capture plant phenotypic variations and environment-driven mechanisms, thereby limiting model applicability in complex field scenarios. To address this issue, a multimodal pest density estimation framework, namely the Pest Density Estimation Framework (PDEF), is proposed, which integrates UAV-based imagery, trap monitoring data, and environmental sensor measurements. In this framework, crop canopy damage features are extracted using convolutional neural networks, while temporal encoding is employed to model dynamic environmental variations. Cross-modal feature alignment and environment-aware enhancement mechanisms are further introduced to achieve deep integration of multi-source information, enabling the construction of a unified feature representation space and improving estimation accuracy. Extensive experiments conducted on a constructed multimodal agricultural dataset demonstrate that the proposed method achieves MAE, RMSE, and MAPE values of $5.47$, $7.62$, and $14.9\%$, respectively, significantly outperforming the Transformer-based fusion model (MAE $6.01$, RMSE $8.16$). Meanwhile, the coefficient of determination reaches $R^2=0.84$, indicating superior fitting capability and stability. In multimodal combination experiments, the three-modality fusion reduces error metrics by more than $20\%$ on average compared with single-modality models, validating the effectiveness of multi-source collaborative modeling. From the perspective of integrating plant phenotypic analysis and environmental perception, this study provides a novel AI-driven intelligent sensing framework for pest monitoring and crop management, contributing to improved pest prediction capability and enhanced intelligence in agricultural production systems. This study further provides practical implications for agricultural economics and supply chain optimization by enabling data-driven decision-making through intelligent sensing systems. Full article

The coffee berry borer (Hypothenemus hampei) is the primary pest of coffee crops worldwide. Sustainable management strategies increasingly rely on the integration of biological control and interventions activated by population thresholds. In this work, a comparative framework based on dynamical systems is presented, integrating three complementary mathematical models to analyze different management strategies for the coffee berry borer. First, a biologically structured three-dimensional model describes the interaction between adult and immature borers and predatory ants. Second, a two-dimensional formulation allows the maximum per capita consumption rate of the predator to be studied as a bifurcation parameter, identifying critical parameter values that delimit regions of coexistence or effective pest control. Finally, a piecewise-smooth dynamical system incorporates ethological control activated when infestation exceeds a predefined threshold, whose effectiveness depends on the capture intensity associated with the traps. Using stability theory, bifurcation analysis, and techniques from piecewise-smooth dynamical systems, parametric regions associated with persistence, coexistence, or significant pest reduction are characterized. The results show that biological control alone may be insufficient if a predation threshold is not exceeded, whereas its combination with early threshold-based interventions considerably enlarges the dynamical regions favorable to producers. This study provides a dynamical interpretation of the agricultural concept of intervention threshold and offers a quantitative framework to strengthen integrated management and the sustainability of coffee production. Full article

Trypophloeus binodulus is a bark beetle present in mature poplar plantations that damages the bark of healthy trees and is currently expanding, posing a risk to these crops and impacting their economic profitability, since there is currently no early detection method or control strategy for this pest. This study was carried out in the province of León in three experimental plots affected by this pest, located in Villasabariego, Villoria de Órbigo, and Turcia to evaluate the effectiveness of different combinations of primary and secondary kairomonal compounds in different trap types. Moreover, the capture results obtained during 20 and 22 weeks in 2023 and 2024 years, respectively, of the field trial made it possible to determine that the most effective lure for monitoring and controlling T. binodulus is Ethanol + Salicylaldehyde, since its synergistic effect enhances its attractiveness. Also, the results confirmed that ESCOLITRAP^® traps are the most effective under field conditions. These results identify an effective method for monitoring the pest, which could be a promising candidate for adoption by poplar growers, enabling progress toward sustainable management through semiochemical compounds. Full article

High-temperature stress severely reduces the photosynthetic efficiency of radish (Raphanus sativus L.), a cool-season crop. This study evaluated five nitrogen (N) levels {0 N, 0.5 N, 1 N (234 kg urea ha⁻¹, based on RDA), 2 N, and 4 N} through an open-field experiment under high-temperature stress conditions. Analysis of OJIP transients revealed that high temperatures severely inhibited photosynthetic capacity in the 0 N, 0.5 N, and 4 N treatment groups. These groups exhibited a simultaneous increase in K and J-steps, signifying electron transport bottlenecks and structural damage to the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC). Consequently, energy absorption and trapping decreased, while heat dissipation increased. In contrast, the 2 N treatment maintained superior F_m(maximum fluorescence) and energy flux, demonstrating enhanced photosynthetic resilience. However, despite improved photosynthetic stability, the 2 N group did not show a significant increase in yield compared to the 0.5 N or 1 N treatment groups. These results suggest that photosynthetic protection under heat stress does not necessarily guarantee higher yields, highlighting the need to identify optimal fertilization points for sustainable production. Overall, the findings of this study provide fundamental data for strategic nitrogen management in open-field radish cultivation to mitigate the impacts of increasing climatic instability. Full article