Validating economic and environmental sustainability of a short-term summer forage legume in dryland wheat cropping systems in south-west Queensland

The present study set out to test the hypothesis through field and simulation studies that the incorporation of short-term summer legumes, particularly annual legume lablab (Lablab purpureus cv. Highworth), in a fallow–wheat cropping system will improve the overall economic and environmental benefits in south-west Queensland. Replicated, large plot experiments were established at five commercial properties by using their machineries, and two smaller plot experiments were established at two intensively researched sites (Roma and St George). A detailed study on various other biennial and perennial summer forage legumes in rotation with wheat and influenced by phosphorus (P) supply (10 and 40 kg P/ha) was also carried out at the two research sites. The other legumes were lucerne (Medicago sativa), butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea) and burgundy bean (Macroptilium bracteatum). After legumes, spring wheat (Triticum aestivum) was sown into the legume stubble. The annual lablab produced the highest forage yield, whereas germination, establishment and production of other biennial and perennial legumes were poor, particularly in the red soil at St George. At the commercial sites, only lablab–wheat rotations were experimented, with an increased supply of P in subsurface soil (20 kg P/ha). The lablab grown at the commercial sites yielded between 3 and 6 t/ha forage yield over 2–3 month periods, whereas the following wheat crop with no applied fertiliser yielded between 0.5 to 2.5 t/ha. The wheat following lablab yielded 30% less, on average, than the wheat in a fallow plot, and the profitability of wheat following lablab was slightly higher than that of the wheat following fallow because of greater costs associated with fallow management. The profitability of the lablab–wheat phase was determined after accounting for the input costs and additional costs associated with the management of fallow and in-crop herbicide applications for a fallow–wheat system. The economic and environmental benefits of forage lablab and wheat cropping were also assessed through simulations over a long-term climatic pattern by using economic (PreCAPS) and biophysical (Agricultural Production Systems Simulation, APSIM) decision support models. Analysis of the long-term rainfall pattern (70% in summer and 30% in winter) and simulation studies indicated that ~50% time a wheat crop would not be planted or would fail to produce a profitable crop (grain yield less than 1 t/ha) because of less and unreliable rainfall in winter. Whereas forage lablab in summer would produce a profitable crop, with a forage yield of more than 3 t/ha, ~90% times. Only 14 wheat crops (of 26 growing seasons, i.e. 54%) were profitable, compared with 22 forage lablab (of 25 seasons, i.e. 90%). An opportunistic double-cropping of lablab in summer and wheat in winter is also viable and profitable in 50% of the years. Simulation studies also indicated that an opportunistic lablab–wheat cropping can reduce the potential runoff + drainage by more than 40% in the Roma region, leading to improved economic and environmental benefits.

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Evaluation of the Policy Effect of China’s Environmental Interview System for Effective Air Quality Governance

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18179006 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (17) ◽

pp. 9006

Author(s):

Xue Jin ◽

Ussif Rashid Sumaila ◽

Kedong Yin ◽

Zhichao Qi

Keyword(s):

Air Quality ◽

Environmental Protection ◽

Environmental Sustainability ◽

Local Governments ◽

Local Governance ◽

Assessment System ◽

Control Group ◽

Short Term ◽

Interview System

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China formally proposed an environmental interview system in May 2014, which applies pressure on local governments to fulfill their responsibility toward environmental protection by conducting face-to-face public interviews with their officials. In this paper, 48 cities that were publicly interviewed from 2014–2020 were considered the experimental group and 48 cities surrounding them were the control group. First, the dynamic panel model is applied to initially determine the effect of the policy. Then, a regression discontinuity method (Sharp RD) is used to analyze the short-term and long-term effects and compare the reasons for the differences observed among the estimates of various types of samples. Finally, a series of robustness tests were also conducted. The results show that the environmental interview system can improve air quality. However, because an emergency short-term local governance system exists at present, the governance effect is not long-term and, therefore, not sustainable. Therefore, it suggests that the government should continue to improve the environmental interview system, establish an optimal environmental protection incentive mechanism, and encourage local governments to implement environmental protection policies effectively in the long term. The results of the research are of great significance to the environmental impact assessment system of the world, especially in countries with similar economic systems, which are facing a trade-off between economic growth and environmental sustainability.

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The role of management in yield improvement of the wheat crop—a review with special emphasis on Western Australia

Australian Journal of Agricultural Research ◽

10.1071/ar05077 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 56 (11) ◽

pp. 1137 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

W. K. Anderson ◽

M. A. Hamza ◽

D. L. Sharma ◽

M. F. D'Antuono ◽

F. C. Hoyle ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Western Australia ◽

Weed Management ◽

Water Conservation ◽

Grain Quality ◽

Crop Residues ◽

Cropping System ◽

Rate Of Change ◽

Wheat Crop ◽

Positive Interactions

Modern bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) has been well adapted for survival and production in water-limited environments since it was first domesticated in the Mediterranean basin at least 8000 years ago. Adaptation to various environments has been assisted through selection and cross-breeding for traits that contribute to high and stable yield since that time. Improvements in crop management aimed at improving yield and grain quality probably developed more slowly but the rate of change has accelerated in recent decades. Many studies have shown that the contribution to increased yield from improved management has been about double that from breeding. Both processes have proceeded in parallel, although possibly at different rates in some periods, and positive interactions between breeding and management have been responsible for greater improvements than by either process alone. In southern Australia, management of the wheat crop has focused on improvement of yield and grain quality over the last century. Adaptation has come to be equated with profitability and, recently, with long-term economic and biological viability of the production system. Early emphases on water conservation through the use of bare fallow, crop nutrition through the use of fertilisers, crop rotation with legumes, and mechanisation, have been replaced by, or supplemented with, extensive use of herbicides for weed management, reduced tillage, earlier sowing, retention of crop residues, and the use of ‘break’ crops, largely for management of root diseases. Yields from rainfed wheat crops in Western Australia have doubled since the late 1980s and water-use efficiency has also doubled. The percentage of the crop in Western Australia that qualifies for premium payments for quality has increased 3–4 fold since 1990. Both these trends have been underpinned by the gradual elimination or management of the factors that have been identified as limiting grain yield, grain quality, or long-term viability of the cropping system.

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Impacts of Repeated Glyphosate Use on Wheat-Associated Bacteria Are Small and Depend on Glyphosate Use History

Applied and Environmental Microbiology ◽

10.1128/aem.01354-17 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 83 (22) ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Daniel C. Schlatter ◽

Chuntao Yin ◽

Scot Hulbert ◽

Ian Burke ◽

Timothy Paulitz

Keyword(s):

Pacific Northwest ◽

Bacterial Communities ◽

Cropping Systems ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Cropping System ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

No Till ◽

History Of ◽

History Of Use

ABSTRACT Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide worldwide and a critical tool for weed control in no-till cropping systems. However, there are concerns about the nontarget impacts of long-term glyphosate use on soil microbial communities. We investigated the impacts of repeated glyphosate treatments on bacterial communities in the soil and rhizosphere of wheat in soils with and without long-term history of glyphosate use. We cycled wheat in the greenhouse using soils from 4 paired fields under no-till (20+-year history of glyphosate) or no history of use. At each cycle, we terminated plants with glyphosate (2× the field rate) or by removing the crowns, and soil and rhizosphere bacterial communities were characterized. Location, cropping history, year, and proximity to the roots had much stronger effects on bacterial communities than did glyphosate, which only explained 2 to 5% of the variation. Less than 1% of all taxa were impacted by glyphosate, more in soils with a long history of use, and more increased than decreased in relative abundance. Glyphosate had minimal impacts on soil and rhizosphere bacteria of wheat, although dying roots after glyphosate application may provide a “greenbridge” favoring some copiotrophic taxa. IMPORTANCE Glyphosate (Roundup) is the most widely used herbicide in the world and the foundation of Roundup Ready soybeans, corn, and the no-till cropping system. However, there have been recent concerns about nontarget impacts of glyphosate on soil microbes. Using next-generation sequencing methods and glyphosate treatments of wheat plants, we described the bacterial communities in the soil and rhizosphere of wheat grown in Pacific Northwest soils across multiple years, different locations, and soils with different histories of glyphosate use. The effects of glyphosate were subtle and much less than those of drivers such as location and cropping systems. Only a small percentage of the bacterial groups were influenced by glyphosate, and most of those were stimulated, probably because of the dying roots. This study provides important information for the future of this important tool for no-till systems and the environmental benefits of reducing soil erosion and fossil fuel inputs.

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Investigating the network consequences of focal brain lesions through comparisons of real and simulated lesions

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-81107-9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Yuan Tao ◽

Brenda Rapp

Keyword(s):

Chronic Stroke ◽

Simulation Studies ◽

Short Term ◽

Focal Lesions ◽

Healthy Control ◽

Quantitative Understanding ◽

Network Properties ◽

Computer Simulation Studies ◽

Global And Local

AbstractGiven the increased interest in the functional human connectome, a number of computer simulation studies have sought to develop a better quantitative understanding of the effects of focal lesions on the brain’s functional network organization. However, there has been little work evaluating the predictions of this simulation work vis a vis real lesioned connectomes. One of the few relevant studies reported findings from real chronic focal lesions that only partially confirmed simulation predictions. We hypothesize that these discrepancies arose because although the effects of focal lesions likely consist of two components: short-term node subtraction and long-term network re-organization, previous simulation studies have primarily modeled only the short-term consequences of the subtraction of lesioned nodes and their connections. To evaluate this hypothesis, we compared network properties (modularity, participation coefficient, within-module degree) between real functional connectomes obtained from chronic stroke participants and “pseudo-lesioned” functional connectomes generated by subtracting the same sets of lesioned nodes/connections from healthy control connectomes. We found that, as we hypothesized, the network properties of real-lesioned connectomes in chronic stroke differed from those of the pseudo-lesioned connectomes which instantiated only the short-term consequences of node subtraction. Reflecting the long-term consequences of focal lesions, we found re-organization of the neurotopography of global and local hubs in the real but not the pseudo-lesioned connectomes. We conclude that the long-term network re-organization that occurs in response to focal lesions involves changes in functional connectivity within the remaining intact neural tissue that go well beyond the short-term consequences of node subtraction.

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Short-term cover crop carbon inputs to soil as affected by long-term cropping system management and soil fertility

Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment ◽

10.1016/j.agee.2021.107339 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 311 ◽

pp. 107339

Author(s):

Esben Øster Mortensen ◽

Chiara De Notaris ◽

Leanne Peixoto ◽

Jørgen E. Olesen ◽

Jim Rasmussen

Keyword(s):

Soil Fertility ◽

Cover Crop ◽

Cropping System ◽

System Management ◽

Short Term

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Poor adoption of ley-pastures in south-west Queensland: biophysical, economic and social constraints

Animal Production Science ◽

10.1071/an09015 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 49 (10) ◽

pp. 894 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

D. K. Singh ◽

N. McGuckian ◽

R. A. Routley ◽

G. A. Thomas ◽

R. C. Dalal ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Water ◽

Economic Benefits ◽

Environmental Benefits ◽

Social Constraints ◽

Subzero Temperature ◽

Soil Conditions ◽

Soil Productivity ◽

Research Development ◽

South West

The present review identifies various constraints relating to poor adoption of ley-pastures in south-west Queensland, and suggests changes in research, development and extension efforts for improved adoption. The constraints include biophysical, economic and social constraints. In terms of biophysical constraints, first, shallower soil profiles with subsoil constraints (salt and sodicity), unpredictable rainfall, drier conditions with higher soil temperature and evaporative demand in summer, and frost and subzero temperature in winter, frequently result in a failure of established, or establishing, pastures. Second, there are limited options for legumes in a ley-pasture, with the legumes currently being mostly winter-active legumes such as lucerne and medics. Winter-active legumes are ineffective in improving soil conditions in a region with summer-dominant rainfall. Third, most grain growers are reluctant to include grasses in their ley-pasture mix, which can be uneconomical for various reasons, including nitrogen immobilisation, carryover of cereal diseases and depressed yields of the following cereal crops. Fourth, a severe depletion of soil water following perennial ley-pastures (grass + legumes or lucerne) can reduce the yields of subsequent crops for several seasons, and the practice of longer fallows to increase soil water storage may be uneconomical and damaging to the environment. Economic assessments of integrating medium- to long-term ley-pastures into cropping regions are generally less attractive because of reduced capital flow, increased capital investment, economic loss associated with establishment and termination phases of ley-pastures, and lost opportunities for cropping in a favourable season. Income from livestock on ley-pastures and soil productivity gains to subsequent crops in rotation may not be comparable to cropping when grain prices are high. However, the economic benefits of ley-pastures may be underestimated, because of unaccounted environmental benefits such as enhanced water use, and reduced soil erosion from summer-dominant rainfall, and therefore, this requires further investigation. In terms of social constraints, the risk of poor and unreliable establishment and persistence, uncertainties in economic and environmental benefits, the complicated process of changing from crop to ley-pastures and vice versa, and the additional labour and management requirements of livestock, present growers socially unattractive and complex decision-making processes for considering adoption of an existing medium- to long-term ley-pasture technology. It is essential that research, development and extension efforts should consider that new ley-pasture options, such as incorporation of a short-term summer forage legume, need to be less risky in establishment, productive in a region with prevailing biophysical constraints, economically viable, less complex and highly flexible in the change-over processes, and socially attractive to growers for adoption in south-west Queensland.

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Effect of three decade long application of chemical fertilizer and amendments on crop yield under maize - wheat cropping system in an acid alfisol

Journal of Applied and Natural Science ◽

10.31018/jans.v6i1.383 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 106-109 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

R. P. Sharma ◽

Vandana Kaushal ◽

Gayatri Verma ◽

S. P. Sharma

Keyword(s):

Grain Yield ◽

Crop Yield ◽

Farmyard Manure ◽

Cropping System ◽

Optimal Dose ◽

Crop Productivity ◽

Wheat Crop ◽

Npk Fertilizers ◽

Continuous Maize

The results on the effect of three decade long term application of chemical fertilizers and amendments on the yield of continuous maize-wheat crop rotation in an acid alfisol at Palampur revealed that continuous omission of essential nutrients in a maize-wheat sequence resulted in an appreciable decline in the grain yield of maize and wheat crops. A remarkable reduction in crop yield was noticed in plots where nitrogen was applied alone. Use of recommended level of N alone through urea had deleterious effect on crop productivity. The continuous exhaustionof native pools of K in 100% NP treated plots appreciably reduced percent grain yield. Application of farmyard manure (FYM) and lime along with NPK fertilizers increased the crop yield. The integrated use of optimal dose of NPK and FYM give better and more sustainable yields.

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Economic analysis to Impact of Production and Maintenance of Improved Seeds on Achieving Sustainable Development

Muthanna Journal for Agricultural Sciences ◽

10.52113/mjas04/8.3/40v ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Mohammad Kh. M. Farhan ◽

Amina M. Khairy ◽

Omar Kh. Abbas

Keyword(s):

Sustainable Development ◽

Production Costs ◽

Future Generations ◽

Wheat Crop ◽

Short Term ◽

Wide Range ◽

Production Quantity ◽

Continued Use

The term sustainable development includes a wide range of methods and objectives that must be provided and achieved to ensure the continuity of this development into the future and future generations. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the role of improved seeds, which are the most important production elements that contribute to increasing the expected production quantity of crops and improving its quality, The results of the analysis showed that production costs by ( 8.18%), either on the part of the returns The use of improved seeds in the production process led to an increase in the yield achieved from the production of wheat by (32.6%) compared to using traditional seeds, and this was achieved in two ways, the first of which was to increase the average productivity per dunum by (19.7%), as well as selling the final product at a higher price. (12%). From here we conclude that the use of improved seeds contributes to the development of the wheat crop in the short term first, to achieve meaningful profits for farmers, and then it will lead to the continued use of those seeds in the long term secondly, which contributes to achieving sustainable development.

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Assessment of soil micro flora in rice-wheat cropping system through continuous and rotational herbicide applications

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES ◽

10.15740/has/ijas/17.2/455-461 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 455-461

Author(s):

Jagdish Parshad ◽

Dharam Bir Yadav ◽

Satbir Singh Punia ◽

Kuldeep Singh ◽

Baljeet Singh

Keyword(s):

Green Manure ◽

Cropping System ◽

Bacterial Count ◽

Wheat Crop ◽

Total Bacterial Count ◽

Research Station ◽

Negative Effect ◽

Long Term Experiment ◽

Phosphate Solubilizing

A long term experiment was conducted at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Regional Research Station, Uchani (Karnal), India. Assessment of fix and rotational herbicides with and without green manure on the microbial population were studied in wheat crop during 2017-18. The treatments included fix/continuous herbicide (Clodinafop) and rotational herbicide (Sulfosulfuron) to control weeds along with weed free and weedy checks. Rhizosphere samples of wheat were collected from different plots of fixed and rotational herbicides treated soil to assess the total bacterial count, phosphate solubilizing microorganisms, actinobacteria, fungi and free-living diazotrophs. Weed free and weedy check served as check (control) for total microbial populations in the soil. Initially, herbicidal application showed negative effect on the soil microbes but retain the number later on as compared to weedy check under both conditions. But the effects of the herbicides on the micro flora in soil could be nullified through green manure.

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