Comparative studies on energy balance components and their inter relations on soybean crop and bare soil in kharif season at Pune situated in semi-arid tract

Comparative studies of radiation balance components at different growth stages on soybean crop and bare soil were made at Central Agrometeorological Observatory (CAgMO), Pune. Continuous measurements of net, reflected and global solar radiations were made over cropped field as well as over bare soil all throughout the growth phases in kharif season of 1995. Net and reflected radiations and albedo over canopy were higher by 7, 26 and 25 per cent respectively than bare soil. The net short wave (absorbed) radiation and net long wave (out-going) radiation evaluated over the canopy were less than those over bare soil by 5 and 20 per cent respectively. The mean daily net, reflected, net short wave and net long wave (out-going) radiation were 9.86, 3.86, 15.35 and 5.49 MJm-2 respectively and the albedo was 20 per cent over soybean canopy whereas for bare soil they were 9.23, 3.07, 16.15 and 6.91 MJm-2 and 16 per cent respectively. The mean daily global solar radiation during the crop growing season was 19.20 MJm-2. The highest albedo (26 per cent) of the crop recorded in the 10th week after sowing (WAS) was in correspondence to maximum LAI (5.9) observed at pod formation stage.

System for Identifying Pests and Diseases in Soybean Crop through Natural Language Processing

The presence of technologies in the agronomic field has the purpose of proposing the best solutions to the challenges found in agriculture, especially to the problems that affect cultivars. One of the obstacles found is to apply the use of your own language in applications that interact with the user in Brazilian Agribusiness. Therefore, this work uses Natural Language Processing techniques for the development of an automatic and effective computer system to interact with the user and assist in the identification of pests and diseases in soybean crop, stored in a non-relational database repository to provide accurate diagnostics to simplify the work of the farmer and the agricultural stakeholders who deal with a lot of information. In order to build dialogues and provide rich consultations, from agriculture manuals, a data structure with 108 pests and diseases with their information on the soybean cultivar and through the spaCy tool, it was possible to pre-process the texts, recognize the entities and support the requirements for the development of the conversacional system.

Biofertilizers in the control of Pratylenchus brachyurus in soybean crop

Nematodes are of great importance in soybean cultivation, especially the Pratylenchus brachyurus known as root lesion nematode. Its attack on plant roots causes less efficiency in the absorption of water and nutrients, in addition to damaging the plant's development. There is still no fully efficient method to control this phytopathogen, however, some products are available on the market, including biological control. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate commercial biological products in the efficiency of reducing the nematode population in soybean crop in Goiás, Brazil. The design was completely randomized in a 2x4 factorial scheme, the first factor being two soybean genotypes (Brasmax Bônus and Nidera NS 8383) and the second factor the treatments consisting of different dosages in an association of three commercial products: No-Estio®, Bio-fertility® and Radic®. The treatments used were: T1 control - without application of the products; T2 half the recommended dose; T3 the recommended dose and T4 a dose and a half that recommended by the manufacturer. Plant evaluation was carried out after 75 days of nematode inoculation. The results obtained showed that both cultivars hosted P. brachyurus, however, the treatments using the products had a lower population density of this nematode. It was concluded that the two soybean cultivars are hosts of Pratylenchus brachyurus. The agronomic character plant height was more affected when there was no application by the biological method. The association of No-Estio®, Bio-fertility® and Radic® products reduced the population density of nematodes in infected plants.

Phenophase wise study of parameters controlling water requirement of soybean crop [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] at various agroclimatic zones

Soybean is a major kharif season crop in parts of M.P., U.P., Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana,Maharashtra, Rajasthan, A.P. and Chattisgarh. The present work was undertaken to study the parameters controllingwater requirement of the crop at various phenophases in soybean growing 8 ET- stations (viz., Akola, Bangalore,Banswara, Dharwar, New Delhi, Parbhani, ICRISAT and Rahuri) in various agroclimatic zones. Eight phenophases of thecrop (viz., germination, seedling, vegetative, active vegetative, flowering, pod formation, pod maturity and harvesting)were identified. The data were collected for latest available 3 to 5 years and the mean values were analysed. The study onsoybean crop revealed that the mean total water requirement demand of the crop varied from 294.7 to 559.2 mm indifferent soybean growing ET stations. The ET demand reached the peak mostly at active vegetative stage (which was19.0 to 25.6 % of the total ET demand, at various locations). The computed best – fit ET curves provide ET demand ofthe crop at any point of the phenophases for the specific location. The rainfall during study period was mostly sufficientto meet the crop specific ET demand at various phenophaes of soybean crop. Abundant soil moisture supported goodvegetation cover. The mean Kc value varied widely from 0.61 to 0.98 among different stations studied, which reachedtheir peak mostly at active vegetative to flowering stages, where the values were even more than 1 in most of thosephenophases except 3 stations. The mean soybean crop yield and productivity varied widely agroclimatic zone wise. Thesoybean yield varied from 981.0 kg/ha to 2530.6 kg/ha, while productivity per day varied from 9.0 kg/ha/day to 23.2kg/ha/day. The WUE of the crop laid between 2.1 kg/ha/mm to 6.0 kg/ha /mm at various locations.

Dependance of soybean yield on crop evapotranspiration, crop duration and rainfall

In the present study, data for four stations viz., Banswara, Bhopal, Parbhani and Rahuri for the years from 1990 to 1993 have been utilized to understand various aspects of evapotranspiration of the soybean crop. An attempt has also been made to find out the impact of rainfall and crop duration at different phases on the seed yield. The yield was found to be significantly correlated with the rainfall during vegetative phase. Crop growth duration exert positive effect on the soybean yield and that a longer flowering period is favourable for higher yields. The results also indicate that the soybean crop consume maximum water during the vegetative stage.

Soil moisture prediction, evapotranspiration, yield and water use efficiency of soybean (Glycine max L.) crop under variable weather conditions in a semi-arid environment

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2009 and 2010 in a sandy loam soil of New Delhi to study the effect of weather, achieved by sowing at normal (D1) and late (D2), on soil moisture prediction, evapotranspiration (ET), yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of three varieties (V1: JS 335, V2: Pusa 9712 and Pusa 9814) of soybean. Study of soybean phenology showed that there was reduction in the number of days taken for the crop to complete life cycle with delayed sowing. The agrometeorological water balance model could satisfactorily predict soil moisture content during soybean crop growth period with RMSE (%) varying between 6.27 to 12.06 and correlation coefficient between 0.828 to 0.982. The ET decreased significantly with delay in sowing; however there was no significant variation among the varieties. Among the stages of the soybean crop, mid season stage had highest ET followed by development stage, late season stage and initial stage. Normal sowing resulted in higher yield but lower WUE than the late sowing. Among the cultivars, JS 335 resulted in lower yield and WUE than Pusa 9712 and Pusa 9814. It may be recommended that, Pusa 9712 or Pusa 9814 may be sown during first and second week of July (normal sowing) to achieve higher yield in the semi-arid environment of Delhi region.

Water and heat unit requirement in different growth stages of Soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill) at Bhopal

In this study, ET data available on Soybean crop for Bhopal during 1991-95 have been utilized. With regard to water need of the crop, the life span of soybean has been divided into five important growth stages viz., seedling up to 2 weeks after sowing (WAS), vegetative (3-8 WAS), flowering (9-10 WAS), pod development (11-13 WAS), and maturity (14-15 WAS). In this paper, consumptive use of water (ET), Water Use Efficiency (WUE), Heat Units (HU), Heat Use Efficiency (HUE) and crop coefficient (Kc) for different growth stages of the crop have been computed and discussed. The study revealed that on an average, Soybean crop consumed about 450 mm of water. The average WUE was found to be 3.23 kg /ha/mm. It was also observed that WUE does not depend only on the total amount of water consumed by the crop but also indicates the importance of its distribution during various growth stages. On an average, the crop consumed nearly 7%, 36%, 24%, 25% and 8% of water during seedling, vegetative, flowering, pod development and maturity stage respectively. The crop consumed maximum amount of water during vegetative stage. However, the average weekly ET rate was found to be highest during flowering stage (nearly 52 mm). Average heat unit requirement of soybean was found to be 1694 degree-days. Maximum heat units were required during vegetative stage (638 degree days) followed by pod development stage (358 degree days). The average HUE was found to be 0.86 kg/ha/degree days. Crop coefficient (Kc) values varied in the range 0.30 – 0.45, 0.55 – 0.90, 1.00 – 1.15, 0.85 – 0.70 and 0.55 – 0.40 during seedling, vegetative, flowering, pod development and maturity stage respectively. The crop coefficient values attained the peak during the flowering stage.

Efficiency of Bacillus subtilis Bs10 as a plant growth promoting inoculant in soybean crop under field conditions

The growth of the Brazilian market for biological defensive follows a worldwide trend of reducing the use of pesticides in crops, due to international and societal demands for a more sustainable agriculture. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the efficiency of Bacillus subtilis Bs10 as an inoculant for the soybean crop, through the promotion of plant growth and productive performance in the field. Three field experiments were conduct in the municipalities of Porto Nacional and Formoso do Araguaia, Tocantins, Brazil. The treatments used in the experiments were five doses of the B. subtilis Bs10-based product (0, 100, 200, 300 and 400 mL 50 kg of seeds-1), plus one treatment with a commercial B. subtilis-based product. The inoculation of B. subtilis Bs10 provided increases in biomass, agronomic characteristics, plant population and productivity in soybeans under field conditions. There were positive results starting at a dose of 200 mL, with gains in productivity ranging from 28 to 41% in relation to the absolute control treatment, without inoculation of B. subtilis, and from 11 to 42% in relation to the treatment with commercial product. The bio formulated B. subtilis Bs10 should be recommend as a plant growth promoting inoculant in soybean.