Cropping Systems Models for Sustainable and Intensive Management

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Innovative Cropping Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2020) | Viewed by 16119

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Guest Editor
Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES), University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Interests: environmental impact assessment; agriculture; climate change; soil fertility; soil; plant environmental stress physiology; agronomy; climate; climate modeling; evapotranspiration
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Dear Colleagues,

Information and technology-based farm management must address the food requirements of the ever-growing world population in a sustainable manner while simultaneously reducing the environmental footprint of agricultural production and conserving biodiversity loss in the maximum acceptable cropland area to safeguard the integrity of the biosphere. The only suitable tools for quantitative assessment of new technologies (such as crop mixes of cereals and pulses, different field geometrics, etc.) for sustainable crop production systems and their socio-economic impact evaluation at scales (from field–region–global) are bio-physical models combined with economic assessment tools.

Dr. Amit Kumar Srivastava
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Farming system model
  • Smart agriculture
  • Soil fertility
  • Irrigation and water management
  • Environmental impact assessment
  • Climate change
  • Environmental stress physiology
  • Climate modeling and global changing
  • Evapotranspiration

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 5481 KiB  
Article
Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions in a Data-Scarce Region Using a Scenario-Based Modeling Approach: A Case Study in Southeastern USA
by Mahnaz Afroz, Runwei Li, Gang Chen and Aavudai Anandhi
Agronomy 2021, 11(7), 1323; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11071323 - 29 Jun 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3527
Abstract
Climate change may impact agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and yields under higher temperatures, higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and variable precipitations. This calls for adaptation strategies to optimize agricultural productions with minimal GHGs. This study aimed to identify these optimum agricultural managements [...] Read more.
Climate change may impact agricultural greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and yields under higher temperatures, higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations, and variable precipitations. This calls for adaptation strategies to optimize agricultural productions with minimal GHGs. This study aimed to identify these optimum agricultural managements in response to current and projected climatic scenarios for the Choctawhatchee Basin in Southeastern USA, an experimentally unexplored data-scarce region lacking validation data. This scenario-based modeling study analyzed a total of 1344 scenarios consisting of four major crops, eight managements (varying tillage, manuring, and residue), and forty climatic combinations under current as wells as two representative concentration pathways with process-based Denitrification and Decomposition (DNDC) model. The results indicated that the region’s GHGs and yields were most affected by higher temperatures (≥+3 °C) and extreme precipitation changes (≥±40%), while high atmospheric CO2 concentrations exerted positive fertilization effects. The manure-related and higher residue incorporation scenarios were found to be better options in varying climates with minimal present global warming potentials (GWP) of 0.23 k to −29.1 k MT equivalent CO2. As such, the study presented climate change impacts and potential mitigation options in the study region while presenting a framework to design GHG mitigation in similar data-scarce regions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cropping Systems Models for Sustainable and Intensive Management)
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10 pages, 227 KiB  
Article
Response of Rice to Tillage, Wheat Residue and Weed Management in a Rice-Wheat Cropping System
by Bisheshwor P. Pandey and Tanka P. Kandel
Agronomy 2020, 10(11), 1734; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10111734 - 7 Nov 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2819
Abstract
In Nepal and elsewhere in the Indo-Gangetic plains where rice-wheat is a major crop rotation, interest in conservation practices such as direct-seeding of rice on zero-tilled soil and retention of crop residue is increasing. However, the use of herbicide is increasing in the [...] Read more.
In Nepal and elsewhere in the Indo-Gangetic plains where rice-wheat is a major crop rotation, interest in conservation practices such as direct-seeding of rice on zero-tilled soil and retention of crop residue is increasing. However, the use of herbicide is increasing in the region due to a shortage of labor and its ease of operation compared to manual weeding. This field experiment was conducted to identify the response of rice to tillage and planting systems, level of wheat residue retention and weed managements under rice-wheat cropping system. This study was conducted during three growing seasons of rice (June through November) in 2014, 2015 and 2016 at the National Wheat Research Program (NWRP), Rupandehi, Nepal. The experiment was conducted in a split-split plot design. Tillage and planting systems were the main plots where rice was either transplanted on puddled field managed with conventional tillage (CT) or direct seeded on zero till (ZT) soil. The level of residue retention was the sub-plot which included three levels of residue retention as whole (WR), partial (PR) or no (NR) retention. Forms of weed management were the sub-sub plots with manual weeding (MW) compared with chemical weeding (CW) through the application of bispyribac-sodium. Each treatment combination consisted of three replicated units. Averaged across the years, grain yield of rice under the CT system (4.8 t ha−1) was significantly higher than ZT (4.4 t ha−1). Increased level of wheat residue retention increased grain yield consistently in all three years. Grain yield was not influenced by systems of weed management. The following conclusions were drawn from the results: (i) rice grain yield might decrease under a direct-seeded ZT system more than the conventional system, (ii) wheat residue retained in the field can increase rice grain yield significantly, and (iii) application of bispyribac-sodium could be equally effective as manual weeding for weed control in both tillage/planting systems of rice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cropping Systems Models for Sustainable and Intensive Management)
19 pages, 2315 KiB  
Article
Modeling Planting-Date Effects on Intermediate-Maturing Maize in Contrasting Environments in the Nigerian Savanna: An Application of DSSAT Model
by Abdullahi I. Tofa, Uche F. Chiezey, Bashir A. Babaji, Alpha Y. Kamara, Adnan A. Adnan, Aloysius Beah and Adam M. Adam
Agronomy 2020, 10(6), 871; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10060871 - 18 Jun 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4239
Abstract
The Crop Environment Resource Synthesis (CERES)-Maize model in Decision Support System for Agricultural Technology Transfer (DSSAT) was calibrated and evaluated with experimental data for simulation of response of two intermediate-maturing maize varieties to different sowing dates in the Nigerian savannas. The calibration experiments [...] Read more.
The Crop Environment Resource Synthesis (CERES)-Maize model in Decision Support System for Agricultural Technology Transfer (DSSAT) was calibrated and evaluated with experimental data for simulation of response of two intermediate-maturing maize varieties to different sowing dates in the Nigerian savannas. The calibration experiments involved 14 consecutive field trials conducted in the rainy and dry seasons in Bayero University Kano (BUK), Dambatta, and Zaria between 2014–2019. Two sets of field experiments were conducted simultaneously for model evaluation in Iburu in the southern Guinea savanna zone and Zaria in the northern Guinea savanna zone during 2015 and 2016 cropping seasons. The experiments for calibration had two maize (SAMMAZ-15 and SAMMAZ-16) varieties planted under optimum conditions with no water and nutrients stresses. The trials for model evaluation were conducted using the same varieties under four different nitrogen (N) rates (0, 60, 120 and 180 kg N ha−1). A 30-year (1985–2014) term simulation was performed to determine effect of varying sowing dates on yields of two maize varieties (SAMMAZ-15 and SAMMAZ-16) in the Sudan savanna (SS), northern Guinea savanna (NGS), and southern Guinea savanna (SGS) zones. The calibration results showed that the cultivar coefficients of the two maize varieties resulted in simulated growth and development parameters that were in good agreement with observed parameters. Model evaluation showed a good agreement between simulated and observed data for phenology and growth of maize. This demonstrated the potential of the CERES-Maize model to simulate growth and yield of maize in the Nigeria savannas. Results of 30-year sensitivity analysis with 9 different sowing windows showed that in SS, sowing the intermediate maize varieties from early to mid-June produced the highest grain yields. In NGS, the optimum sowing windows were found between late June and late July for the both varieties. In SGS, the optimum sowing window is from early June to late July for SAMMAZ-15 and mid-June to late July for SAMMAZ-16. These planting windows gave the highest long-term average yields for each variety. The variety SAMMAZ-15 was found to be best performing across the three agro-ecologies. Maize performance was generally higher in NGS than in SGS. SS in the Sudan savanna recorded the lowest yield compared with other locations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cropping Systems Models for Sustainable and Intensive Management)
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22 pages, 10634 KiB  
Article
Delineation of Soil Texture Suitability Zones for Soybean Cultivation: A Case Study in Continental Croatia
by Dorijan Radočaj, Mladen Jurišić, Vladimir Zebec and Ivan Plaščak
Agronomy 2020, 10(6), 823; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10060823 - 10 Jun 2020
Cited by 19 | Viewed by 4942
Abstract
Soil texture is a vital criterion in most cropland suitability analyses, so an accurate method for the delineation of soil texture suitability zones is necessary. In this study, an automated method was developed and evaluated for the delineation of these zones for soybean [...] Read more.
Soil texture is a vital criterion in most cropland suitability analyses, so an accurate method for the delineation of soil texture suitability zones is necessary. In this study, an automated method was developed and evaluated for the delineation of these zones for soybean cultivation. A total of 255 soil samples were collected in the Continental biogeoregion of Croatia. Three methods for interpolation of clay, silt and sand soil content were evaluated using the split-sample method in five independent random repetitions. An automated algorithm for soil texture classification based on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 12 classes was performed using Python script. Suitability classes for soybean cultivation per soil texture class were determined according to previous agronomic and soybean land suitability studies. Ordinary kriging produced the highest accuracy of tested interpolation methods for clay, silt and sand. Highly suitable soil texture classes for soybean cultivation, loam and clay loam, were detected in the northern part of the study area, covering 5.73% of the study area. The analysis of classification results per interpolation method indicated a necessity of the evaluation of interpolation methods as their performance depended on the normality and stationarity of input samples. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cropping Systems Models for Sustainable and Intensive Management)
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