International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics
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Assessment of Photoperiod Sensitivity and the Effect of Sowing Date on Dry-Season Sorghum Cultivars in Southern Chad
Get PDFThe cultivation of dry-season sorghum on residual moisture in West and Central Africa is highly affected by sowing dates and ecotypes used. Fifty-five dry-season sorghum ecotypes collected from three zones in southern Chadian were sown on two dates, early and late, in 2013 and 2014, in an α-Lattice, and replicated five times to evaluate the effect of sowing date on potential yield, flowering time, and other agro-morphological traits and to determine their photoperiod sensitivity. Trials were conducted in the research fields at the Agricultural Research Extension Farm in Youé, Chad. Year, sowing date, and their interaction significantly affected most of the assessed traits. Delaying sowing significantly decreased potential yield, duration of vegetative phase, and other agro-morphological traits, except staygreen. All cultivars were photoperiodic with late sowing requiring a lower cumulative growing degree unit to flower. The flowering window was not affected by sowing dates across cultivars; however, the flowering time was affected by a decrease in daylength, but not low night temperatures. Generally, late sowing decreased potential yield across cultivars. However, this decrease varied with the region of origin, with seven cultivars having average potential yields at or above the regional potential yield of 1 t/ha, irrespective of year or sowing dates
Adoption and impact of improved groundnut varieties on household food security in Nigeria
Get PDFImproved agricultural technologies are promoted as cost-effective and sustainable ways of improving rural households’ food security and reducing poverty in developing countries. This study evaluates the relationship between improved groundnut varieties (IGVs) and household food security using detailed household and plot level data from a sample of over 1300 farm households in Northern Nigeria. Endogenous switching regression models are employed to control for potential endogeneity biases. Results show that about 30 % of groundnut plots are planted with improved varieties, and the adoption of IGVs significantly increases the likelihood of household per capita groundnut consumption by about 13 % and reduces the probability of households’
vulnerability to food (access) insecurity by 22 %. Counterfactual analyses show that non-adopting households
could have enjoyed comparable benefits had they adopted IGVs. These results suggest that development interventions aimed at improving the diffusion and impacts of IGVs in Nigeria need to target farmers’ access to information about the technologies while developing groundnut seed systems to make quality seeds readily available to smallholder farmers at affordable prices
Farm size limits agriculture’s poverty reduction potential in Eastern India even with irrigation-led intensification
Get PDFCONTEXT: Millions of people living in the Eastern Gangetic Plains (EGP) of India engage in agriculture to support their livelihoods yet are income poor, and food and climate insecure. To address these challenges, policymakers and development programs invest in irrigation-led agricultural intensification. However, the evidence for agricultural
intensification to lift farmers’ incomes above the poverty line remains largely anecdotal. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study is to use a large household survey (n = 15,572; rice: 8244, wheat: 7328; 2017/18) to assess the link between agricultural intensification and personal daily incomes from farming (FPDI) in the rice-wheat systems of the EGP – the dominant cropping system of the region. METHODS: We use the Intensification Benefit Index (IBI), a measure that relates farm size and household size to FPDI, to assess how daily incomes from rice-wheat production change with irrigation-led intensification across the EGP. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Relative to the international poverty line of 1.90 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) day-1 (a 0.15 PPP day-1 for households in the upper quartile of the IBI distribution (a 0.30 PPP$ gain). Irrigation-led agricultural intensification of rice-wheat systems in the EGP may provide substantial benefits for resilience to climatic change and food security but achieving meaningful poverty reduction will require complementary investments. SIGNIFICANCE: Transforming the poverty status of most smallholder farmers in the EGP requires diversified portfolios of rural on- and off-farm income-generating opportunities. While bolstering food- and climate security, agronomic intervention programs should consider smallholders’ limited monetary incentives to invest in intensification. Irrigation-led agricultural intensification programs and policies should explicitly account for the heterogeneity in household resources, irrigation levels, and degree of dependence on agricultural income
Long-term organic fertilizer-induced carbonate neoformation increases carbon sequestration in soil
No full textSoil carbon is major driver of climate in the long term because soil can either decrease global warming by carbon sequestration or increase warming by emissions of greenhouse gases. Soil inorganic carbon is mainly composed of carbonates and represents globally more than half of the total soil carbon stock up to a 2-m depth. The dissolution of carbonates by fertilization-induced acidification may offset the global efforts aimed at organic carbon sequestration, yet this process is poorly understood. Here, we evaluated the effects of fertilization strategies on inorganic carbon contents and stocks to 120 cm soil depth by using natural δ13C signature of organic and inorganic carbon in 32- and 40-year field experiments. Results show that long-term application of mineral nitrogen and phosphorous fertilizers acidified soils by 0.2 pH units. This caused inorganic carbon dissolution and carbon dioxide emissions of 9–12 Mg C per hectare, representing 12–18% of the initial stock in the top 60 cm. By contrast, manure application increased inorganic carbon stock by 8.9–11 Mg C per hectare, representing 4.8–17% of the initial stock up to 120 cm depth. The main pathway of inorganic carbon accumulation under organic fertilization is the neoformation of pedogenic carbonates and the conservation of lithogenic carbonates. Manure combined with mineral fertilizers did not affect inorganic carbon and therefore provides an optimal solution to mitigate carbon losses from soil
Effects of Irrigation Regimes and Rice Varieties on Methane Emissions and Yield of Dry Season Rice in Bangladesh
Get PDFAdoption of the right rice variety and water-saving irrigation method could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in lowland rice cultivation. A study was conducted at the research farm of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh, in 2019 during the Boro (dry) season to determine the impacts of different rice varieties (BRRI dhan29, BRRI dhan47, BRRI dhan69, Binadhan-8, Binadhan-10, and Binadhan-17) on methane (CH4) emissions under two irrigation methods, i.e., alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and continuous flooding (CF). The treatments were laid
out in a split-plot design, considering water regime as the main plots and rice variety as the sub-plots. The emission rates of CH4 were determined by collecting air samples using the closed chamber technique and measuring the concentrations using a gas chromatograph. CH4 emission rates varied with the growth and development of the rice varieties. The lowest cumulative CH4 emission rate was observed in Binadhan-17, particularly under AWD irrigation. Across the rice varieties, AWD irrigation significantly reduced the cumulative CH4 emissions by about 35% compared with CF. No significant variation in rice yield was observed between AWD (5.38 t ha-1) and CF (5.16 t ha-1). This study suggests that the cultivation of Binadhan-17 under AWD irrigation could be effective at reducing the carbon footprint of lowland rice fields
Exploration of urease-mediated biomineralization for defluoridation by Proteus columbae MLN9 with an emphasis on its genomic characterization
No full textFluoride (F-) contamination of groundwater is a silent killer of human health that has now become a global problem. In the present study, we sought to isolate fluoride-resistant, urease producing bacteria from F- contaminated groundwater to evaluate their potential F- biomineralization. Strain MLN9, isolated from the fluoride-contaminated village of Madhabpur in Birbhum, could resist up to 5600 mg L−1 F- concentration. Taxonomic classification of strain MLN9 based on whole genome sequence identified it as Proteus columbae MLN9. Strain MLN9 showed 88.9% of maximum F- removal efficiency at pH 8.0, 1.0 g L−1 CaCl2, and 10.0 g L−1 urea concentration. Scanning electron micrographs showed dense and porous biological crystal precipitates surrounding the surface of the bacterial cells, and the adherence of F- to the cell surface was confirmed by the energy dispersion spectrum. Moreover, the X-ray diffraction pattern showed that the F- precipitates on the cell surface were biological crystals of Ca5(PO4)3F and CaF2. Genomic analysis of strain MLN9 revealed the presence of crcB gene homologs possibly encoding F- transporters and urease regulatory proteins such as UreA, UreB, UreC, UreD, and UreG suggesting a role in defluoridation. Our findings provide new insights into the urease based MICP technology using a noble bacterium Proteus columbae MLN9 for fluoride removal
Legumes Biofortification
No full textSustainable food production is vital to ensure food and nutritional security to growing human population. Recently, there has been a shift in agricultural production system, crop production is not only considering yield as primary interest to produce higher number of calories for reducing hunger, but also more nutrient-rich food to reduce malnutrition or “hidden hunger”. Micronutrient malnutrition is a continuing and serious public health problem in many countries, various Interventions to alleviate this problem have been implemented. Biofortification, the process of breeding nutrients into food crops, provides a comparatively cost effective, sustainable, and long-term means of delivering more micronutrients. Legumes have higher protein content than most plant foods approximately twice than cereals and are rich in the key micronutrients folate, niacin, thiamine, calcium, iron and zinc. This book summarizes the biofortification of legumes. Detailed information through contributed chapters shed light on legumes research relevant to human health, with key topics that include genomic and genetic resources for food security, conventional and modern breeding approaches for improving nutrition, agronomic traits and biotechnological interventions
Legumes: Source of Bioactive Compounds and Their Potential Use in Legume Crops Improvement: A Review
Get PDFThe bioactive phytochemicals are the most important bioactive compounds against insect herbivores. These phytochemicals produced by many legumes and react herbivore attacks. Therefore, keeping in mind the said facts, this review discusses the potential use of bioactive compounds like Proteinase inhibitors, trypsin inhibitors, lectins, vicillins (7S storage proteins), phenolics, amino acids, sugars and α-amylase inhibitors in legume plants as most important weapons that confer resistance against herbivorous insects. These inhibitors inhibiting proteases present in the larval gut and has insecticidal potential against insect pests. This review demonstrates the potential of natural phytochemicals from legume plants and or artificially diet incorporate to inhibit the development of pathogens and insect pests. Thus, legumes can be used to produce phytochemicals as bio-pesticides and minimize or avoid the use of agrochemicals in crop protection. This ability making them interesting bioactive for next generation of sustainable pesticides for more sustainable agriculture
Amaranth Genomic Resource Database: an integrated database resource of Amaranth genes and genomics
Get PDFAmaranth (Amaranthus L.) is native to Mexico and North America, where it was cultivated thousands of years ago, but now amaranth is grown worldwide. Amaranth is one of the most promising food crops with high nutritional value and belongs to the family Amaranthaceae. The high-quality genome assembly of cultivated amaranth species (A. hypochondriacus, A. cruentus) and wild/weedy species (A. tuberculatus, A. hybridus, and A. palmeri) has already been reported;
therefore, we developed an Amaranth Genomic Resource Database (AGRDB) to provide access to all the genomic information such as genes, SSRs, SNPs, TFs, miRNAs, and transporters in one place. The AGRDB database contains
functionally annotated gene information with their sequence details, genic as well as genomic SSRs with their three sets of primers, transcription factors classified into different families with their sequence information and annotation
details, putative miRNAs with their family, sequences, and targeted gene details, transporter genes with their superfamily, trans-membrane domain details, and details of genic as well as nongenic SNPs with 3′ and 5′ flanking sequence information of five amaranth species. A database search can be performed using the gene ID, sequence ID, sequence motif, motif repeat, family name, annotation
keyword, scaffold or chromosome numbers, etc. This resource also includes some useful tools, including JBrowse for the visualization of genes, SSRs, SNPs, and TFs on the respective amaranth genomes and BLAST search to perform a
BLAST search of the user’s query sequence against the amaranth genome as well as protein sequences. The AGRDB database will serve as a potential platform for genetic improvement and characterization of this futuristic crop. The AGRDB database will be accessible via the link: http://www.nbpgr.ernet.in:8080/AmaranthGRD/
Comprehensive Project on Rice Fallow Management (2022-23)
Get PDFThe Comprehensive Project on Rice Fallow Management is a transformative initiative launched by the Directorate of Agriculture and Food Production, Government of Odisha for the intensification of pulses in rabi (post-rainy) fallows. The project’s primary goal is to enhance pulse production in the state, thereby addressing food security and nutritional challenges and improving farm income. During the first year of the project (2022-23), the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), partnered
with the Department of Agriculture and a local NGO for the implementation of demonstrations of pulses in 5000 hectares (ha) in Koraput district