scholarly journals REVIEW ON KNOWLEDGE GAP IN Brachiaria GRASS RESEARCH AND UTILIZATION: ETHIOPIAN PERSPECTIVE

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-26
Author(s):  
Wubetie ADNEW ◽  
Bimrew ASMARE ◽  
Yeshambel MEKURIAW
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Research Knowledge ◽  
Feed Resources ◽  
Livestock Feed ◽  
The Tropics

Still food security has not been attained fully in many tropical African countries including Ethiopia. However, the issue of food security achievement has been able to realize due to various setbacks among which low productivity of crops and livestock take the lion share. Among the various constraints the parasitic weed Striga, and Stemborer pests are responsible for lower crop yields in the region. Regarding livestock feed, shortage in terms of quantity and quality are the major impediment to the livestock sector. To achieve food security, increasing crop yield and livestock production is vital in Ethiopia and other tropical countries. Crop yields can be enhanced through the control of weeds using biological systems to increase food crop yield apart from chemical inputs. In case of livestock, full production and reproduction potential of animals can be met through fulfilling nutritional requirements of livestock. The major livestock feed resources in Ethiopia are natural pasture and crop residues. Both feed resources; however, are poor in nutritional value and they are listed as low maintenance feed category. Therefore, it is vital to intensify integrated crop- livestock production systems for sustainable economy and environment. Introducing forage grasses in the crop production system has been practiced in the tropics as push pull technology. In Ethiopia, Brachiaria grass is an emerging forage for integrated agricultural production that has been getting considerable recognition as an option to overcome the pests in crop production in the tropics due to its high adaptive and yielding as well as climate smart forages. In the country, Brachiaria is recently introduced by different organization in different agro-ecology of the country mainly as push-pull integrated agricultural system and considering its fodder potential for the livestock feed. Therefore, this review paper aimed to looking for the available research knowledge in Ethiopia and somewhere else in the glob for better utilization of Brachiaria grass in the integrated agricultural system. All available information regarding the research and utilization of Brachiaria grass were reviewed in the published papers. The review reveal that Brachiaria has many advantages over other grass species in terms of adaptation to drought and low fertility soils, ability to sequester carbon; increase nitrogen use efficiency through biological nitrification inhibition (BNI) and arrest greenhouse gas emissions. The knowledge has been established in quantifying the multiple contributions of Brachiaria grass inclusion as push pull technology in different parts of the world (South America, Kenya, Rwanda). Limited report showed that cut-and-carry system is the utilization practice of brachiaria grass grown the push pull integration. The potential of improved Brachiaria grass in Ethiopia to address the challenge of livestock feed scarcity and other environmental managements; however, remain unexploited/limited which calls researchers to work on. The review concluded that B. cultivars could have a significant contribution on both animal and cereal production in the tropics but limited research and utilization in Ethiopia.

scholarly journals Farmed animal production in tropical circular food systems

Food Security ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Oosting ◽  
Jan van der Lee ◽  
Marc Verdegem ◽  
Marion de Vries ◽  
Adriaan Vernooij ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Food System ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Animal Production ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Nitrogen And Phosphorus ◽  
The Tropics

AbstractIn the discourse about the development of farmed animal production (terrestrial livestock production and aquaculture) in the tropics, two important food system outcomes emerge: (1) to supply animal-sourced food (ASF) at a level that suffices healthy future diets, including for poor people, and (2) to contribute to climate change mitigation and minimize pollution with nitrogen and phosphorus. Livestock production and aquaculture contribute to food security directly by increasing producers’ food diversity and availability, but also that of urban consumers, and indirectly through income generation and increased farm resilience. Recently, circularity has come to the fore as an integrated approach to food system development. Circularity has four cornerstones: (1) food crops have highest priority (which implies no food-feed competition), (2) avoid losses, (3) recycle waste and (4) use animals to unlock biomass that humans cannot eat. In this review, the role of farmed animals in circular food systems in the tropics is presented in four case studies and the impacts of circularity on food security and environmental impact mitigation are discussed. The cases are ruminants in grazing systems in West Africa and in Colombia, fish in pond aquaculture in general, and land-limited dairy production in Indonesia. Additionally, options for novel protein sources for use in livestock and fish feeding are presented. It is concluded that farmed animals are important in circular food systems because of their use of land unsuited for crop production, their upgrading of crop residues, and their supply of manure to crop production. Nevertheless, the increasing demand for ASF puts pressure on important characteristics of circularity, such as minimizing food-feed competition, maximization of use of waste streams in feed, and the value of manure for fertilization. Hence, in line with conclusions for Western countries, maximum circularity and sustainability of food systems can only be achieved by optimizing the population size of animals. Thus, a sustainable contribution of ASF production to global food security is complex and in not only a technical matter or outcome of an economic process balancing supply and demand. It requires governance for which public, private, and social actors need to partner.

Closing Yield Gaps: Consequences for the Global Food Supply, Environmental Quality & Food Security

Daedalus ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 144 (4) ◽  
pp. 45-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathaniel D. Mueller ◽  
Seth Binder
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Food Supply ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Agricultural Landscapes ◽  
Environmental Benefits ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Yield Gap ◽  
Yield Gaps

The social, economic, and environmental costs of feeding a burgeoning and increasingly affluent human population will depend, in part, on how we increase crop production on under-yielding agricultural landscapes, and by how much. Such areas have a “yield gap” between the crop yields they achieve and the crop yields that could be achieved under more intensive management. Crop yield gaps have received increased attention in recent years due to concerns over land scarcity, stagnating crop yield trends in some important agricultural areas, and large projected increases in food demand. Recent analyses of global data sets and results from field trials have improved our understanding of where yield gaps exist and their potential contribution to increasing the food supply. Achieving yield gap closure is a complex task: while agronomic approaches to closing yield gaps are generally well-known, a variety of social, political, and economic factors allow them to persist. The degree to which closing yield gaps will lead to greater food security and environmental benefits remains unclear, and will be strongly influenced by the particular strategies adopted.

scholarly journals The Pitfalls of Relating Weeds, Herbicide Use, and Crop Yield: Don't Fall Into the Trap! A Critical Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalie Colbach ◽  
Sandrine Petit ◽  
Bruno Chauvel ◽  
Violaine Deytieux ◽  
Martin Lechenet ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crop Yield ◽  
Weed Management ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Yield Loss ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Cropping Systems ◽  
Crop Productivity ◽  
Arable Farming ◽  
Herbicide Use ◽  
The Impact

The growing recognition of the environmental and health issues associated to pesticide use requires to investigate how to manage weeds with less or no herbicides in arable farming while maintaining crop productivity. The questions of weed harmfulness, herbicide efficacy, the effects of herbicide use on crop yields, and the effect of reducing herbicides on crop production have been addressed over the years but results and interpretations often appear contradictory. In this paper, we critically analyze studies that have focused on the herbicide use, weeds and crop yield nexus. We identified many inconsistencies in the published results and demonstrate that these often stem from differences in the methodologies used and in the choice of the conceptual model that links the three items. Our main findings are: (1) although our review confirms that herbicide reduction increases weed infestation if not compensated by other cultural techniques, there are many shortcomings in the different methods used to assess the impact of weeds on crop production; (2) Reducing herbicide use rarely results in increased crop yield loss due to weeds if farmers compensate low herbicide use by other efficient cultural practices; (3) There is a need for comprehensive studies describing the effect of cropping systems on crop production that explicitly include weeds and disentangle the impact of herbicides from the effect of other practices on weeds and on crop production. We propose a framework that presents all the links and feed-backs that must be considered when analyzing the herbicide-weed-crop yield nexus. We then provide a number of methodological recommendations for future studies. We conclude that, since weeds are causing yield loss, reduced herbicide use and maintained crop productivity necessarily requires a redesign of cropping systems. These new systems should include both agronomic and biodiversity-based levers acting in concert to deliver sustainable weed management.

scholarly journals Effect of livestock production on the economic efficiency of irrigation systems

2006 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petar Gogic
Keyword(s):  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Irrigation System ◽  
Livestock Production ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Field Crop ◽  
System Utilization ◽  
Price Relationship

The aim of the study was to examine the effect of livestock production on the economic efficiency of investments in irrigation projects. The study was based on a model focused on field crop/livestock production using the data of crop yields in field crop production with or without irrigation, financial results of cattle fattening and milk production and the input and output price relationship. The influence of livestock production on the economic effects of irrigation system utilization was evaluated using the indices of economic efficiency of investments - internal rate of return, net present value and pay-back period. The data on the amount of investments required for the construction of the irrigation system, economic benefit achieved by optimizing production under both irrigated and non-irrigated conditions, with and without livestock production were used to determine these indices.

scholarly journals A multi-model analysis of teleconnected crop yield variability in a range of cropping systems

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matias Heino ◽  
Joseph H. A. Guillaume ◽  
Christoph Müller ◽  
Toshichika Iizumi ◽  
Matti Kummu
Keyword(s):  
Crop Yield ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Food System ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Yield Variability ◽  
Management Scenarios ◽  
Yield Data ◽  
Climate Oscillations ◽  
Crop Models

Abstract. Climate oscillations are periodically fluctuating oceanic and atmospheric phenomena, which are related to variations in weather patterns and crop yields worldwide. In terms of crop production, the most widespread impacts have been observed for the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which has been found to impact crop yields in all continents that produce crops, while two other climate oscillations – the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) – have been shown to impact crop production especially in Australia and Europe, respectively. In this study, we analyse the impacts of ENSO, IOD and NAO on the growing conditions of maize, rice, soybean and wheat at the global scale, by utilizing crop yield data from an ensemble of global gridded crop models simulated for a range of crop management scenarios. Our results show that simulated crop yield variability is correlated to climate oscillations to a wide extent (up to almost half of all maize and wheat harvested areas for ENSO) and in several important crop producing areas, e.g. in North America (ENSO, wheat), Australia (IOD & ENSO, wheat) and northern South America (ENSO, soybean). Further, our analyses show that higher sensitivity to these oscillations can be observed for rainfed, and fully fertilized scenarios, while the sensitivity tends to be lower if crops are fully irrigated. Since, the development of ENSO, IOD and NAO can be reliably forecasted in advance, a better understanding about the relationship between crop production and these climate oscillations can improve the resilience of the global food system to climate related shocks.

Assessment of potential livestock feed resources in Telangana State

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Raju ◽  
P. Ravi Kanth Reddy ◽  
N. Nalini Kumari ◽  
J. Narasimha ◽  
D. Nagalakshmi
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Residues ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The State ◽  
Poultry Feed ◽  
Land Utilization ◽  
Feed Resources ◽  
Livestock Feed ◽  
Telangana State ◽  
Production Pattern

An assessment of livestock and poultry feed resources availability was done based on the extrapolation of secondary data from livestock census, 2012 and land utilization and crop production pattern in Telangana state. Overall dry matter (DM) availability in the state is about 19.47 million tonnes (Mt) from various feed resources. Availability of green forage, dry forage and concentrate feed resources were 2.38, 15.0 and 2.1 million tonnes respectively. Crop residues contributed to 77% of total DM supply for livestock in Telangana. Straws from paddy and maize crops are the major crop residues available in the state. The DM availability per RLU/day for the region as a whole is 6.1 kg with the values ranging from 2.8 kg in Adilabad district to 13.2 kg in Nizamabad district. Total DM availability including livestock and poultry was 84% and the deficit was around 16%. It could be concluded that there is severe shortage of green forages and concentrates to meet the requirements of livestock and poultry.

scholarly journals Spatial and temporal variability of crop yield and some Rhodic Hapludox properties under no-tillage

2010 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Osvaldo Guedes Filho ◽  
Sidney Rosa Vieira ◽  
Márcio Koiti Chiba ◽  
César Hideo Nagumo ◽  
Sônia Carmela Falci Dechen
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Northern Region ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽  
No Tillage

Soil properties are closely related with crop production and spite of the measures implemented, spatial variation has been repeatedly observed and described. Identifying and describing spatial variations of soil properties and their effects on crop yield can be a powerful decision-making tool in specific land management systems. The objective of this research was to characterize the spatial and temporal variations in crop yield and chemical and physical properties of a Rhodic Hapludox soil under no-tillage. The studied area of 3.42 ha had been cultivated since 1985 under no-tillage crop rotation in summer and winter. Yield and soil property were sampled in a regular 10 x 10 m grid, with 302 sample points. Yields of several crops were analyzed (soybean, maize, triticale, hyacinth bean and castor bean) as well as soil chemical (pH, Soil Organic Matter (SOM), P, Ca2+, Mg2+, H + Al, B, Fe, Mn, Zn, CEC, sum of bases (SB), and base saturation (V %)) and soil physical properties (saturated hydraulic conductivity, texture, density, total porosity, and mechanical penetration resistance). Data were analyzed using geostatistical analysis procedures and maps based on interpolation by kriging. Great variation in crop yields was observed in the years evaluated. The yield values in the Northern region of the study area were high in some years. Crop yields and some physical and soil chemical properties were spatially correlated.

scholarly journals Determining the Yield of the Crop using Artificial Neural Network Method

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 2959-2965
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Artificial Neural Network ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Back Propagation ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Artificial Neural

The agricultural system is complex and comprehend since it deals with large data that comes from several factors. Lot of techniques and have been used to identify any interactions between factors affecting yields with crop performance. The major objective of this paper is to help us predict the yield of a particular crop before even cultivating it for its production. We are using artificial neural networks for forwarding and implementing a system that will help the farmers in finding their crop yields according to their given data as input in the system and the system will give output based on previous data. The method used in this crop yield system is an artificial neural network and the algorithm used is feed forward and back propagation. Provide the input of data sets and the desired outcome of the system. Compute the error between the actual and desired outcome of the system. Amendment of the weight associated with different inputs and different functions. Compare the errors and the tolerance ratio of the output. Various machine learning techniques have been used in the past for calculating the crop yield using remote data. However, these methods are less useful and effective for predicting the yield of maize and for some other crops, which is cultivated at different times in various fields.The major application of this crop yield system is that it will help us to predict the yield before even cultivating it by studying the previous data collected such as soil fertility, pH level.

scholarly journals The global burden of plant disease tracks crop yields under climate change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Chaloner ◽  
Sarah J. Gurr ◽  
Daniel P. Bebber
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Plant Pathogens ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Crop Protection ◽  
Global Food Security ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Productivity Gains

AbstractGlobal food security is strongly determined by crop production. Climate change will not only affect crop yields directly, but also indirectly via the distributions and impacts of plant pathogens that can cause devastating production losses. However, the likely changes in pathogen pressure in relation to global crop production are poorly understood. Here we show that disease risk for 79 fungal and oomycete crop pathogens will closely track projected yield changes in 12 major crops over the 21st Century. For most crops, yields are likely to increase at high latitudes but disease risk will also grow. In addition, the USA, Europe and China will experience major changes in pathogen assemblages. In contrast, while the tropics will see little or no productivity gains, the disease burden is also likely to decline. The benefits of yield gains will therefore be tempered by the increased burden of crop protection.

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