Potential planting area for tuber mustard was simulated using the Maxent model under current and future conditions based on 591 coordinates and 22 environmental layers. Model accuracy was excellent, with area under the receiving operator curve values of 0.967 and 0.958 for model training and testing, respectively. Dominant factors were mean diurnal range, mean temperature of the coldest quarter, annual mean temperature and minimum temperature of the coldest month, with thresholds of 6.5–7.5, 5.5–9, 16–19 and 2.0–6.5 °C, respectively. Under current conditions, suitable habitat areas (2.16% of total land in China) were concentrated mainly in Central, Southwest and East China, which can be defined as three occurrence and diffusion centres. In the 2050s and 2070s, suitable habitat areas are predicted to change to 3.72 and 3.92%, and 3.60 and 3.73% under scenarios RCP4.5 and RCP6.0, respectively, indicating that suitable habitat areas will increase slightly. However, future distribution of tuber mustard was predicted to differ among provinces or cities, i.e. predicted suitable habitat areas in Sichuan Province increased up to the 2050s but remained relatively unchanged between the 2050s and 2070s; in Chongqing city they first increased and then decreased; in Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces they increased continuously; and in Guizhou, Hubei, Jiangxi Provinces and Shanghai city they first decreased, and then increased. The results from the current study provide useful information for management decisions of tuber mustard.

Nitroethane (NE), 2-nitroethanol (NEOH) and 2-nitro-1-propanol (NPOH) were investigated in order to determine their inhibitory effects on in vitro ruminal fermentation and methane (CH4) production of a hay-rich substrate (alfalfa hay: maize meal = 4:1, w/w). The rumen liquor collected from cannulated Holstein dairy cows was incubated at 39 °C for 72 h. The addition of NE, NEOH and NPOH slowed down the fermentation process and notably decreased molar CH4 proportion by 96.8, 96.4 and 35.0%, respectively. The abundance of total methanogen and methanogens from the order Methanobacteriales were all decreased with NE, NEOH and NPOH supplementation. Meanwhile, the nitrocompound addition reduced mcrA gene expression, coenzyme F420 and F430 contents. The correlation analysis showed that CH4 production was correlated positively with the population abundance of total methanogens, Methanobacteriales, mcrA gene expression, coenzyme contents of F420 and F430. The nitrocompound addition decreased acetate concentration and increased propionate and butyrate concentrations in the culture fluid. In summary, both NE and NEOH addition presented nearly the same inhibitory effectiveness on in vitro CH4 production; they were more effective than NPOH. The results of the current study provide evidence that NE, NEOH and NPOH can dramatically decrease methanogen population, mcrA gene expression and the coenzyme content of F420 and F430 in ruminal methanogenesis.

Grain production potential (GrPP) is the maximum production in 1 year that can be achieved by land use under the limitations of climate conditions and in the absence of pests and diseases and other factors. Regional GrPP can change over time and there is an urgent need to identify the main factors affecting regional differences in such changes. Therefore, changes in GrPP were studied for six geographical units in Shaanxi Province, with summer maize and winter wheat as the main grain crops. Changes of GrPP during 2000–2015 were simulated by the global aro-ecological zone model. Analysis of modelled GrPP driven by observed changes in climate and land use suggest that over this period GrPP increased to the north but declined to the south of the Qinling Mountains. This is driven mainly by past changes in climate, with modelled GrPP more sensitive to changes in precipitation than temperature in all geographical units except one. Climate change was the main factor affecting GrPP in all geographical units except one; however, model prediction suggests that land use changes had a clear yield-reducing effect in three of the units. It is the conversion from cultivated land to construction land, grassland and woodland that led to the greatest declines in GrPP in these three geographical units. In order to ensure the stable development of regional agriculture and food security, Shaanxi Province should focus on tapping GrPP north of the Qinling Mountains and increasing the conversion rate of GrPP to actual production.

The current paper tackles a critical question in climate change literature of whether farmers will be able to fully adapt to monsoonal climate changes owing to technological developments. Making use of the climate, agricultural and social data of Thailand from 1900 to 2015, this paper estimates a technological change instrumental variable by the growth of the normalized rice yield per hectare of land. The estimation shows that 0.98 of the growth in rice yield can be attributed to technological changes while the rest is accounted for by climate, soils and social factors. In the second stage regressions with the technological change indicator, the paper estimates the normalized numbers of the six most important types of live animals in Thailand: goats, chickens, cattle, sheep, pigs and buffaloes. Over the time period studied, the number of each of these live animals has increased vastly, except for buffaloes. The second-stage regressions show that the growth is largely attributable to technological changes, but monsoonal climate variables such as normalized monsoon precipitation ratio and normalized monsoon temperature are not significant factors. The results indicate that the rate of technological changes is overwhelming the rate of climate change on agriculture in Thailand.

New farming systems and management options are needed in South Asia as the intensive rice–wheat production system is set to become increasingly unsustainable under climate change. In the current study, six cropping systems options/treatments varying in tillage, crop establishment method, residue management, crop sequence and fertilizer and water management were evaluated using a cropping systems model under current (1980–2009) and future (2030 and 2050) climate scenarios in the state of Bihar, India. The treatments were current farmers' practice (CP), best fertilizer and water management practices, zero tillage (ZT) with no crop residue retention, ZT with partial crop residue retention (ZTPR), future conservation agriculture-based rice–wheat intensive cropping system (FCS-1) and future conservation agriculture-based maize–wheat intensive cropping system (FCS-2). The results indicate that climate change is likely to reduce rice–wheat system productivity under CP by 4% across Bihar. All the crop management options studied increased yield, water productivity and net returns over that of the CP under the current and future climate scenarios. However, the ZTPR treatment gave significantly higher relative yield, lower annual yield variability and a higher benefit-cost-ratio than the other treatments across cropping system components and climate periods. Although all the new cropping system treatments had a positive yield implication under the current climate (compared to CP), they did not contribute to adaptation under the future climate except FCS-2 in wheat. It is concluded that adaptation to future climate must integrate both cropping system innovations, and genetic improvements in stress tolerance.

The reproductive stage of rice is the most sensitive to heat stress, which can lead to spikelet sterility. Thus, heat-tolerant and heat-susceptible genotypes were used to investigate their differences in terms of phenotypic responses and expression changes of Hsf genes at the pre-flowering stage under heat stress. Results clearly showed that panicles had the highest temperature compared with other plant parts under both natural and heated conditions. However, the temperatures of tolerant and susceptible genotypes were not significantly different. In terms of spikelet fertility, the tolerant lines M9962 and M7988 had high seed set because their anther dehiscence, pollen viability and pollen germination were only slightly affected. In contrast, the susceptible line Sinlek showed severe effects at all steps of fertilization, and the pollen viability of M7766 was slightly affected under heat stress but was more affected in terms of anther dehiscence and pollen germination. Both susceptible lines showed dramatically decreased seed set. In addition, the expression of six HsfA genes in the flag leaves and spikelets at the R2 stage of plants under heat stress showed different responses. Notably, expression of the HsfA2a gene was predominantly upregulated in the flag leaf and spikelets under heat stress in M9962. Therefore, it can be concluded that heat stress has severe effects on the stamen, and that different genotypes have different susceptibilities to heat stress.

Protein content (PC) and oil content (OC) are important breeding traits of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]. Quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping for PC and OC is important for molecular breeding in soybean; however, the negative correlation between PC and OC influences the accuracy of QTL mapping. In the current study, a four-way recombinant inbred lines (FW-RILs) population comprising 160 lines derived from the cross (Kenfeng14 × Kenfeng15) × (Heinong48 × Kenfeng19) was planted in eight different environments and PC and OC measured. Conditional and unconditional QTL analyses were carried out by interval mapping (IM) and inclusive complete IM based on linkage maps of 275 simple sequences repeat markers in a FW-RILs population. This analysis revealed 59 unconditional QTLs and 52 conditional QTLs among the FW-RILs. An analysis of additive effects indicated that the effects of 13 protein QTLs were not related to OC, whereas OC affected the expression of 13 and eight QTLs either partially or completely, respectively. Eight QTLs affecting OC were not influenced by PC, whereas six and 26 QTLs were partially and fully affected by PC, respectively. Among the QTLs detected in the current study, two protein QTLs and five oil QTLs had not been previously reported. These findings will facilitate marker-assisted selection and molecular breeding of soybean.

The aim of the current study was to evaluate the effect of long-term (56 years) liming on changes in soil pH and aluminium (Al) forms in the soil profile compared with an unlimed soil in a sandy moraine loam of a Dystric Glossic Retisol. Long-term liming had a significant influence on soil acidity of the whole profile, causing increased pH values in the following horizons to 120 cm depth: the ploughing horizon (Ahp), where humus accumulates; the eluvial horizon (E), from which clay particles are leached; a horizon having retic properties and predominantly coarser-textured albic material (E/B); and a horizon with retic properties and predominantly finer-textured argic material (B/E). In the solid phase, non-crystalline Al in limed soil decreased in the Ahp horizon; meanwhile a decrease in total organically bound Al (Alp) and organo–Al complexes of low to medium stability was detected in the deeper El and ElBt horizons. High-stability Al complexes with organic matter were the predominant form of Alp in the unlimed and limed whole soil profile. The concentration of total water-soluble Al ranged from 0.61 to 0.80 mg/l in the limed soil profile but 0.62–1.15 mg/l in the unlimed soil. The highest concentration of exchangeable Al was determined in the upper horizons of the unlimed soil profile and the concentration decreased significantly in the same horizons of the limed soil profile. Long-term liming promoted changes in Al compounds throughout the soil profile.

The frost susceptibility of Australian commercial cereal crops, in particular wheat and barley, has become an economically devastating issue for growers. The relative risk to frost damage of the currently available varieties is obtained through testing varieties in a series of field experiments at locations susceptible to frost events (FEs). The experimental design, measurement protocols and resultant data from these frost expression experiments (FEEs) are complex due to the unpredictability of the timing and severity of FEs, and the maturity of the plants at the time of the events. Design and protocol complexities include the use of multiple sowing dates and the recording of plant maturity. Data difficulties include a high degree of unbalance, and in the instance of multiple frosts in a FEE, there is a longitudinal aspect. A linear mixed model analysis was adopted to accommodate these characteristics of individual FEEs and the multi-environment trial analysis of 17 FEEs. Finally, an approach is demonstrated for dissemination of results that are of use to both growers and breeders.

Genebanks offer vast amounts of traditional germplasm with potential sources of novel genes against biotic and abiotic stresses. In order to utilize the germplasm in rice breeding programmes, there should be a fast screening approach such as the use of molecular markers. Thus, the current study aimed to evaluate the use of tsv1 resistance-linked simple sequence repeat markers (SSR) for the preliminary screening of Philippine traditional rice germplasm against rice tungro spherical virus (RTSV). The tsv1 resistance-linked SSR markers consisted of two to four repeat motifs with 5–24 base repeats. Expected sizes ranged from 123 to 465 base pairs (bp) with polymorphism information content ranging from 0.23 to 0.73. Genetic analysis showed six major clusters at 50%: Clusters A, B and C had individual accessions, Cluster D had three accessions, Cluster E had 55 and Cluster F had 42 accessions. The study showed the germplasm with alleles linked to tsv1 but should be validated in the future with induced screening. In general, the material consisted of selected germplasm showing the presence of alleles linked to the tsv1 gene. These rice accessions could be a source of resistance to RTSV following further validation. Furthermore, molecular markers provide a useful tool to accelerate the screening of genetic resources for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance.

A survey of the prevalence of rigid ryegrass (Lolium rigidum) resistant to ACCase and ALS herbicides was conducted in major-cereal growing regions in the north of Tunisia. Randomly collected ryegrass populations were assessed, using the Syngenta RISQ® test, for resistance to clodinafop-propargyl, iodosulphuron + mesosulphuron and pinoxaden. Of the 177 tested populations, 58% exhibited resistance to clodinafop-propargyl and 52% to iodosulphuron + mesosulphuron, with 40% exhibiting resistance to both herbicides. Significant variations in the frequencies of rigid ryegrass resistant to clodinafop-propargyl and/or iodosulphuron + mesosulphuron were observed between surveyed regions which may be the result of differences in the history of herbicide use. Over 50% of resistant populations contained 60% of resistant plants or more, indicating the extent of resistance evolution in these regions. Our study demonstrates that the extent of resistance to ACCase and ALS-inhibiting herbicides in rigid ryegrass is widespread in major cereal-growing regions of Tunisia. Therefore, weed management must be focused on reducing the frequency of herbicide application, using multiple herbicide mechanisms of action, rotating different modes of action and integrating alternative control options.

A bibliometric analysis of research articles published on water-use efficiency was performed using the Web of Science database and evaluated. Journal titles, publication years, subject categories, keywords and countries publishing were obtained. A number of 2077 papers were retrieved, two-thirds of them published in the last decade. The articles were published in 439 journals, with Agricultural Water Management, Agronomy Journal, Crop Science, Field Crops Research and Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences the most productive. Most of the leading productive journals have Impact Factors in the top quartiles of the Journal Citation Reports. Agronomy, Plant Sciences, Water Resources and Agriculture Multidisciplinary were the most common journal subject categories, indicating a wide diversity of research fields ascribed to this topic. The predominant key words and phrases used were growth, ‘carbon isotope discrimination’, yield, photosynthesis, ‘gas exchange’, evapotranspiration and ‘stomatal conductance’. The productivity ranking for countries was headed by China (456 papers), followed by the USA (410), Australia (176) and India (165). A content analysis of the papers made identification of the key issues of greatest scientific concern possible, as well as their evolution over time. The most cited papers relate to physiological aspects, but also important studies on experimental biology, drought resistance, effects of climate, crop production and ecology, among others.

A field study to optimize the nitrogen (N) top-dressing mode of panicle fertilization and improve rice yields was conducted in mid-eastern China. Japonica cultivar Yunongjing-6 was grown and panicle N fertilizer was applied at the beginning of the inverted fourth leaf stage using three different modes: manual broadcast application (BA) on the soil surface as a control treatment, deep application during ditching at a depth of 15 cm (DD) and manual BA on the soil surface during deep ditching (BAD). The activity of soil enzymes, including invertase, urease, phosphatase and catalase, was increased significantly at the jointing, booting and grain-filling stages with the DD and BAD treatments compared with the traditional BA mode. The DD and BAD treatments also increased basal internode and neck-panicle internode bleeding intensity. The DD treatment gave the highest crop yield, increasing the yield by 0.63 and 0.31 t/hm2 in 2011 and 2012, respectively, compared with BA. The results suggest that ditching during panicle N fertilizer application after sun-drying of the fields increases rice yields, most likely by improving the activity of soil enzymes and enhancing the physiological activity of roots and grain weight.

Fragrant rice is an important export commodity of Thailand and obtaining seasonal production estimates well in advance is important for marketing and stock management. Rice4cast is a software platform that has been developed to forecast rice yield several months prior to harvesting; it links a rice model with a Minimum Data Set (MDS) and Weather Research Forecast (WRF) data. The current study aimed to parameterize and evaluate the model and to demonstrate the use of the Rice4cast platform in forecasting seasonal KDML 105 rice yield and production with local data set. The study area encompassed 77 districts in Thailand, covering 0.94 of the total area of KDML 105 in the country. Minimum Data Sets for the 2013–2015 growing seasons were used for model parameterization and evaluation. The annual statistics from the Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE) were used as a reference basis and planted areas from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) was used for production estimation. Model evaluation showed good to fairly good agreement between the predicted and reported OAE yield. Production forecasts, however, over-estimated the OAE values considerably, primarily because of the use of GISTDA planted areas that were larger than the harvested areas in the production estimates. Adjustment of the planted areas to account for damaged areas need to be explored further. Nevertheless, the results demonstrated the capability of yield predictions with the Rice4cast, making it a valuable tool for in-season estimates for fragrant rice yield and production.

In Central America, population and food demands are rising rapidly, while yields of staple crops, maize and beans, remain low. To identify the main factors limiting production, field trials were established in six maize- and bean-producing regions in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, representing about three-quarters of the maize-producing area. Potential yield-limiting factors were evaluated in 2017 and included: water stress, nutrient deficiency, pest and disease pressure, and/or inter-plant competition. When considering all sites, improved fertilization and pest and disease control significantly improved yields in maize by 11 and 16%, respectively but did not have a significant effect in beans. Irrigation had no effect due to good rainfall distribution over the growing season. Optimized planting arrangement resulted in an average 18% increase in maize yield, making it the most promising factor evaluated. The treatment and site combinations that increased both crop productivity and net profit included management changes that improved resource use efficiency. However, the contribution of each limiting factor to yield gaps varied across sites and no treatment was effective at increasing yield consistently across sites. Production constraints are highly dependent on local management practices and agroecological location. Therefore, public and private development efforts that seek to increase production should conduct multi-year, participatory experiments to identify limitations pertinent to the area in question. The next step is then to evaluate sustainable and profitable practices, to address those limitations and provide sound recommendations to farmers while decreasing the environmental and economic costs.

Heading date (HD) and flowering date (FD) are critical for yield potential and stability, so understanding their genetic foundation is of great significance in wheat breeding. Three related recombinant inbred line populations with a common female parent were developed to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) for HD and FD in four environments. In total, 25 putative additive QTL and 20 pairwise epistatic effect QTL were detected in four environments. The additive QTL were distributed across 17 wheat chromosomes. Of these, QHd-1A, QHd-1D, QHd-2B, QHd-3B, QHd-4A, QHd-4B and QHd-6D were major and stable QTL for HD. QFd-1A, QFd-2B, QFd-4A and QFd-4B were major and stable QTL for FD. In addition, an epistatic interaction test showed that epistasis played important roles in controlling wheat HD and FD. Genetic relationships between HD/FD and five yield-related traits (YRTs) were characterized and ten QTL clusters (C1–C10) simultaneously controlling YRTs and HD/FD were identified. The present work laid a genetic foundation for improving yield potential in wheat molecular breeding programmes.

Farmers, who have to decide which pesticide to use against a particular crop-damaging pest, need to take into account country-specific regulations (e.g. permitted levels of pesticide residues), application instructions and financial considerations. The fact that these data are stored in different locations, sometimes using different terminology or different languages, makes it difficult to gather these data and requires that farmers are familiar with the variety of terms used, which consequently hampers the efficiency and effectiveness of the decision process. To overcome these challenges, a Web application for pest control is proposed to facilitate the integration of information coming from different Internet sources and representing different terminologies by using an ontology. The application is based on a pest-control ontology (formal representations of domain knowledge that can be interpreted by computers) that accounts for various pesticide regulations of different countries to which the crop is exported. In recent years, ontologies have become a major tool for domain knowledge representation and a core component of many knowledge management systems, decision support systems and other intelligent systems, inter alia, in the context of agriculture. The pest-control ontology developed in the current research includes pest-control concepts that have yet to be covered by existing ontologies. It is demonstrated in the specific case of pepper in Israel. The ontology is expressed using Web Ontology Language (OWL) and thus can be shared on the Web and reused by other ontologies and systems. In addition, a comprehensive method for developing and evaluating agricultural ontologies is presented.

Cultivar mixtures of winter barley and spring barley, together with their component monocultures, were grown in field trials to assess the effect of cultivar combinations on both straw and grain yield. The overall grain yields for all trials were significantly higher for the cultivar mixtures than for the corresponding component monocultures. Also, significant decreases in rhynchosporium disease severity for cultivar mixtures were recorded for most non-fungicide treatments. The size of these responses was often significantly correlated with the component number of the mixtures. The amount of straw produced in mixtures was sometimes changed significantly, but not always in a positive direction and it was only correlated with increasing mixture component number in two environments. No correlation of straw yield potential of cultivars with performance in mixtures was found. Cultivar × cultivar mixture × environment interactions appeared to affect the relative yield of grain and straw differentially and therefore it was not possible to predict the effect of mixtures on the harvest index.

In areas where water is scarce, the use of regulated deficit irrigation, combined with decision support system tools, may decrease the impact of agriculture on natural water resources, as well as on energy consumption, thereby improving the profitability of farms. With this aim, the SUBSTOR-Potato model (incorporated in the DSSAT Program) was evaluated with a 2-year field test (2011 and 2012) conducted in a semi-arid area (Albacete, Spain) applying four irrigation levels (120, 100, 80 and 60% of irrigation requirements). Subsequently, the model was used for simulating the potato yield under several deficit irrigation strategies (ISs) during 30 years of a semi-arid climate (1988–2017) and determining the most profitable option. The considered ISs were deemed those most suitable from the yield and water productivity point of view by some authors. The model performance for tuber yield was satisfactory with an index of agreement >0.91 and errors between 0.71 and 3.06 × 103 kg/ha. The ISs simulated with SUBSTOR-Potato showed that slight deficit irrigation (5–10%) may increase the water productivity and profitability of the farms. Moreover, tuber formation (from onset of tuber initiation to harvest) was shown to be the most sensitive stage, therefore it is highly recommended to avoid deficit during this stage, which would cause a large reduction in yield (around 8 t/ha, depending on the level of deficit suffered by the crop).