scholarly journals A review of the soil science research legacy of the triumvirate of cotton CRC

2013 ◽  
Vol 64 (12) ◽  
pp. 1076 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen R. Cattle ◽  
Damien J. Field
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Soil Science ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Cotton Production ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Environmental Implications

For nearly two decades (1994–2012) a series of three consecutive Cooperative Research Centres (CRC) dealing with cotton production provided the impetus and financial support for a substantial body of soil science research in eastern and northern Australia. Focusing on the most commonly utilised soil for irrigated crop production, the Vertosol, CRC-affiliated soil researchers undertook detailed soil inventories of cotton-growing valleys in New South Wales, and tackled a range of applied soil research questions that faced the entire Australian cotton industry. Across the broad categories of soil mapping and characterisation, soil physical condition, salinity and sodicity, soil chemical fertility, and soil carbon and biota, some 120 CRC-affiliated research papers were published in peer-reviewed journals during the years of the CRC. Findings from this body of research were fed back to the industry through conferences, extension workshops and materials, and to a lesser extent, the peer-reviewed publications. In certain cases, underpinning basic research was carried out concurrently with the more applied research, meaning that the cotton CRC were effectively supporting advances in the discipline of soil science, as well as in sustainable cotton production. A feature of the soil research portfolio over the span of the three cotton CRC was that priorities shifted according to the interplay of three factors; the natural maturation of research topics and the concomitant evolution of cotton farming systems, the rising importance of environmental implications of agricultural land use, and the emergence of carbon as a national research priority. Furthermore, the commitment of the CRC to education resulted in the involvement of undergraduate and postgraduate university students in all aspects of the soil research effort. A legacy of the triumvirate of cotton CRC is a wide-ranging body of both applied and basic knowledge regarding the physical, chemical and biological attributes of Australian Vertosols used for irrigated agriculture.

scholarly journals Can sustainable cotton production systems be developed for tropical northern Australia?

2013 ◽  
Vol 64 (12) ◽  
pp. 1127 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. J. Yeates ◽  
G. R. Strickland ◽  
P. R. Grundy
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Climatic Factors ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
Research Centre ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Cotton Production ◽  
Cooperative Research ◽  
Funding Model

This article reviews research coordinated by the Australian Cotton Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) that investigated production issues for irrigated cotton at five targeted sites in tropical northern Australia, north of 21°S from Broome in Western Australia to the Burdekin in Queensland. The biotic and abiotic issues for cotton production were investigated with the aim of defining the potential limitations and, where appropriate, building a sustainable technical foundation for a future industry if it were to follow. Key lessons from the Cotton CRC research effort were: (1) limitations thought to be associated with cotton production in northern Australia can be overcome by developing a deep understanding of biotic and environmental constraints, then tailoring and validating production practices; and (2) transplanting of southern farming practices without consideration of local pest, soil and climatic factors is unlikely to succeed. Two grower guides were published which synthesised the research for new growers into a rational blueprint for sustainable cotton production in each region. In addition to crop production and environmental impact issues, the project identified the following as key elements needed to establish new cropping regions in tropical Australia: rigorous quantification of suitable land and sustainable water yields; support from governments; a long-term funding model for locally based research; the inclusion of traditional owners; and development of human capacity.

scholarly journals Environmental implications of using ‘underutilised agricultural land’ for future bioenergy crop production

2015 ◽  
Vol 139 ◽  
pp. 180-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saori Miyake ◽  
Carl Smith ◽  
Ann Peterson ◽  
Clive McAlpine ◽  
Marguerite Renouf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Bioenergy Crop ◽  
Environmental Implications

scholarly journals Facing policy challenges with inter- and transdisciplinary soil research focused on the SDG's

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Bouma ◽  
Luca Montanarella
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Interdisciplinary Studies ◽  
Sustainable Land Use ◽  
Soil Science ◽  
Design Decision ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Joint Activities

Abstract. Our current information society, populated by increasingly well informed and critical stakeholders, presents a challenge to both the policy and science arena's. The introduction of the UN Sustainable Development Goals offers a unique and welcome opportunity to direct joint activities towards these goals. Soil science, even though it is not mentioned as such, plays an important role in realizing a number of SDG's focusing on food, water, climate, health, biodiversity and sustainable land use. A plea is made for a systems approach to land use studies, to be initated by soil scientists, in which these land-related SDG's are considered in an integrated manner. To connect with policy makers and stakeholders two approaches are functional, following: (i) the policy cycle when planning and executing research, which includes signaling, design, decision, implementation and evaluation. Many current research projects spend little time on signaling which may lead to disengagement of stakeholders. Also, implementation is often seen as the responsibility of others while it is crucial to demonstrate – if successful – the relevance of soil science and (ii) the DPSIR approach when following the policy cycle in land-related research, distinguishing external drivers, pressures, impacts and responses to land-use change that affect the state of the land in past, present and future. Soil science cannot by itself realize SDG's and interdisciplinary studies on Ecosystem Services (ES) provide an appropriate channel to define contributions of soil science in terms of the seven soil functions. ES, in turn, can contribute to addressing the six SDG's (2, 3, 6, 12, 13 and 15) with an environmental, land-related character. SDG's have a societal focus and future soil science research can only be successful if stakeholders are part of the research effort in transdisciplinary projects, based on the principle of time-consuming "joint-learning". The internal organization of the soil science discipline is not yet well – tuned to the needs of inter – and transdisciplinary approaches.

scholarly journals Soils and agriculture in central-west and north Brazil

2009 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 697-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley W. Buol
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Acid Soils ◽  
Soil Science ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Commercial Agriculture ◽  
Modern Soil ◽  
North Brazil ◽  
Uncultivated Soil ◽  
Aluminum And Iron Oxides

Modern soil science, spearheaded by research in Brazil has facilitated the utilization of vast areas of previously uncultivated soil long considered unsuitable for human food production into highly productive agricultural land. Naturally acid soils with high contents of aluminum and iron oxides and low CEC values and organic matter contents long considered insurmountable obstacles to crop production in tropical latitudes could be extremely productive. With continued development of the infrastructure needed by commercial agriculture Brazil has the potential to lead the world in its quest to provide food for growing human populations.

scholarly journals Plant Development and Organogenesis: From Basic Principles to Applied Research

Plants ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 299
Author(s):  
Giovanna Frugis
Keyword(s):  
Plant Development ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Applied Research ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Applied Science ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Architectural Features ◽  
Agricultural Applications ◽  
Overall Performance

The way plants grow and develop organs significantly impacts the overall performance and yield of crop plants. The basic knowledge now available in plant development has the potential to help breeders in generating plants with defined architectural features to improve productivity. Plant translational research effort has steadily increased over the last decade, due to the huge increase in the availability of crop genomic resources and Arabidopsis-based sequence annotation systems. However, a consistent gap between fundamental and applied science has yet to be filled. One critical point is often the unreadiness of developmental biologists on one side, to foresee agricultural applications for their discoveries, and of the breeders on the other, to exploit gene function studies to apply candidate gene approaches when advantageous. In this Special Issue, developmental biologists and breeders make a special effort to reconcile research on basic principles of plant development and organogenesis with its applications to crop production and genetic improvement. Fundamental and applied science contributions interwine and chase each other, giving the reader different but complementary perpectives from only apparently distant corners of the same world.

Future of Weed Science Research

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald L. Wyse
Keyword(s):  
Weed Control ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Production Systems ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Basic Knowledge ◽  
Control Technology ◽  
Weed Science

The discipline of weed science is entering a critical period in its development. Decisions made in the next few years will determine if weed science will remain weed control technology oriented or develop into a broad-based scientific discipline. Over the last 30 yr the evolution of weed science has been based on the development of weed control methods. Currently, most crop production systems rely very heavily on one weed control technology, herbicides. Agriculture is now in a debate with society over how food and fiber should be produced. Society is asking weed science, because of food safety and water quality concerns, to develop new methods to control weeds. To do this, weed science must put more emphasis on principles-based research that can provide the basic knowledge required to develop new weed control technology. Weed scientists must join forces with private citizens and organizations concerned with the effect of current agricultural practices on the environment, to obtain, through the political process, new resources for weed science research. These resources are needed to develop the basic principles that will support the development of new weed control technologies with reduced environmental impact. Weed scientists must decide if they are going to lead the direction of weed science research or be led reluctantly by others.

scholarly journals A Comparison of Approaches to Regional Land-Use Capability Analysis for Agricultural Land-Planning

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 458
Author(s):  
Tara A. Ippolito ◽  
Jeffrey E. Herrick ◽  
Ekwe L. Dossa ◽  
Maman Garba ◽  
Mamadou Ouattara ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Field Samples ◽  
Agricultural Potential ◽  
Fertility Data ◽  
Using Data

Smallholder agriculture is a major source of income and food for developing nations. With more frequent drought and increasing scarcity of arable land, more accurate land-use planning tools are needed to allocate land resources to support regional agricultural activity. To address this need, we created Land Capability Classification (LCC) system maps using data from two digital soil maps, which were compared with measurements from 1305 field sites in the Dosso region of Niger. Based on these, we developed 250 m gridded maps of LCC values across the region. Across the region, land is severely limited for agricultural use because of low available water-holding capacity (AWC) that limits dry season agricultural potential, especially without irrigation, and requires more frequent irrigation where supplemental water is available. If the AWC limitation is removed in the LCC algorithm (i.e., simulating the use of sufficient irrigation or a much higher and more evenly distributed rainfall), the dominant limitations become less severe and more spatially varied. Finally, we used additional soil fertility data from the field samples to illustrate the value of collecting contemporary data for dynamic soil properties that are critical for crop production, including soil organic carbon, phosphorus and nitrogen.

Uzbekistan’s Aquatic Environment and Water Management as an Area of Interest for Hydrology and Thematic Tourism

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 642
Author(s):  
Jacek RÓŻKOWSKI ◽  
Mariusz RZĘTAŁA
Keyword(s):  
Water Management ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Aral Sea ◽  
Irrigated Agriculture ◽  
Human Consumption ◽  
Irrigation Systems ◽  
Natural Lakes ◽  
Area Of Interest

The functioning of Uzbekistan’s economy is closely linked to the water resources of its huge cross-border rivers: the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, as well as to the groundwater present within their basins. Both natural lakes and artificial reservoirs (e.g. the Aydar-Arnasay system of lakes, the Kayrakkum Reservoir, the Chardarya Reservoir) are present there, which retain significant amounts of water, and large canals with lengths of up to several hundred kilometres which involve complex hydraulic structures are used for irrigation purposes. All these are components of a water management system which needs optimisation; as much as 80% of agricultural land is irrigated, with 70% of the water being lost due to inefficient irrigation systems. The consequence of this allocation of river flows and the overuse of water in irrigation systems has been the disappearance of the Aral Sea (1960 year – 68,900 km2, 2017 year – 8,600 km2) and the inflow of water into the Sarygamysh Lake as well as the reduction of Uzbekistan’s groundwater resources by about 40%. The intensive development of irrigated agriculture is associated with changes in surface and groundwater quality caused, inter alia, by the increased use of chemicals in agriculture and the discharge of collector-drainage waters into river systems as well as their reuse. The extent of environmental degradation in some areas (especially in the Aral Sea region) is unique on a global scale. The origins of Uzbekistan’s other hydrological tourist attractions are related to attempts to ensure the availability of water for both human consumption and industrial use under conditions of water scarcity in the country’s arid and semi-arid climates. Not just the spectacular watercourses and water bodies present there (e.g. rivers, lakes, canals), but also small water retention facilities and minor infrastructure elements (e.g. wells, springs and retention basins, canals, ditches and flow control structures) are of potential tourist importance.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document