marginal soils
Recently Published Documents


TOTAL DOCUMENTS

102
(FIVE YEARS 46)

H-INDEX

11
(FIVE YEARS 2)

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwaseyi Samuel Olanrewaju ◽  
Olaniyi Oyatomi ◽  
Olubukola Oluranti Babalola ◽  
Michael Abberton

Constant production of quality food should be a norm in any community, but climate change, increasing population, and unavailability of land for farming affect food production. As a result, food scarcity is affecting some communities, especially in the developing world. Finding a stable solution to this problem is a major cause of concern for researchers. Synergistic application of molecular marker techniques with next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies can unlock the potentials hidden in most crop genomes for improving yield and food availability. Most crops such as Bambara groundnut (BGN), Winged bean, and African yam bean are underutilized. These underutilized crops can compete with the major crops such as cowpea, soybean, maize, and rice, in areas of nutrition, ability to withstand drought stress, economic importance, and food production. One of these underutilized crops, BGN [Vigna subterranea (L.), Verdc.], is an indigenous African legume and can survive in tropical climates and marginal soils. In this review, we focus on the roles of BGN and the opportunities it possesses in tackling food insecurity and its benefits to local farmers. We will discuss BGN’s potential impact on global food production and how the advances in NGS technologies can enhance its production.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolai D. Jablonowski ◽  
Markus Pauly ◽  
Murali Dama

Biomass from perennial plants can be considered a carbon-neutral renewable resource. The tall wheatgrass hybrid Szarvasi-1 (Agropyron elongatum, hereafter referred to as “Szarvasi”) belongs to the perennial Poaceae representing a species, which can grow on marginal soils and produce large amounts of biomass. Several conventional and advanced pretreatment methods have been developed to enhance the saccharification efficiency of plant biomass. Advanced pretreatment methods, such as microwave-assisted pretreatment methods are faster and use less energy compared to conventional pretreatment methods. In this study, we investigated the potential of Szarvasi biomass as a biorefinery feedstock. For this purpose, the lignocellulosic structure of Szarvasi biomass was investigated in detail. In addition, microwave-assisted pretreatments were applied to Szarvasi biomass using different reagents including weak acids and alkali. The produced pulp, hydrolysates, and extracted lignin were quantitatively characterized. In particular, the alkali pretreatment significantly enhanced the saccharification efficiency of the pulp 16-fold compared to untreated biomass of Szarvasi. The acid pretreatment directly converted 25% of the cellulose into glucose without the need of enzymatic digestion. In addition, based on lignin compositional and lignin linkage analysis a lignin chemical model structure present in Szarvasi biomass could be established.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-47
Author(s):  
Aditya Aris Kurniawan ◽  
Pauliz Budi Hastuti ◽  
Arif Umami

Soybean is one of the leading commodities that is being developed in Indonesia. Today, the increase of soybean needs is not followed by its production capacity. Meanwhile, the area of productive land for soybean farming is decreasing due to land conversion for non-agricultural needs. One effort that can be an alternative is using marginal land by applying appropriate technology such as manure and biofertilizer. So that, it was necessary to know the composition of manure and biofertilizer, which was appropriate to increase the growth and yield of soybean plants on marginal soils. Complete Randomized Design was used in the experiment with two factors. The first factor was the ratio of manure: soil (v:v) there are 0:1, 1:1, 1:2, and 2:1. The second factor was rhizobacteria inoculum, which included without rhizobacteria, exogenous rhizobacteria, and indigenous rhizobacteria. Results showed that the composition of the best planting medium for growth and yield of soybean is manure: soil 1: 1 and 1: 2. The source of the rhizobacteria inoculum is not a significant difference to the soybean’s growth and yield. Manure and soil 1: 2 with indigenous inoculum tended to produce the best total number of nodules and effective root nodules. Manure and soil 1:1 with indigenous inoculum produce the best of seeds number. Manure and soil 1:2 or 2:1 with exogenous inoculum tended to produce the best seed index weight (g per 100 seeds).


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew John Milner ◽  
Stéphanie M. Swarbreck ◽  
Melanie Craze ◽  
Sarah Bowden ◽  
Howard Griffiths ◽  
...  

There is a strong pressure to reduce nitrogen (N) fertiliser inputs while maintaining or increasing current cereal crop yields. Brassinosteroids, (BR), are a group of phytohormones essential for plant growth and development, that have been demonstrated to regulate several agronomic traits. DWF4 encodes a cytochrome P450 that catalyses a rate-limiting step in BR synthesis. We show that overexpression of the dominant shoot expressed homoeologue TaDWF4-B in wheat can increase plant productivity by up to 105% under a range of N levels on marginal soils, resulting in increased N use efficiency (NUE). We show that a two to four-fold increase in TaDWF4 transcript levels enhances the responsiveness of genes regulated by N. The productivity increases seen were primarily due to the maintenance of photosystem II operating efficiency and carbon assimilation in plants when grown under limiting N conditions and not an overall increase in photosynthesis capacity. The increased biomass production and yield per plant in TaDWF4 OE lines could be linked to modified carbon partitioning and changes in expression pattern of the growth regulator Target Of Rapamycin, offering a route towards breeding for sustained yield and lower N inputs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 10079
Author(s):  
Danielle L. Gelardi ◽  
Sanjai J. Parikh

Biochar is most commonly considered for its use as a soil amendment, where it has gained attention for its potential to improve agricultural production and soil health. Twenty years of near exponential growth in investigation has demonstrated that biochar does not consistently deliver these benefits, due to variables in biochar, soil, climate, and cropping systems. While biochar can provide agronomic improvements in marginal soils, it is less likely to do so in temperate climates and fertile soils. Here, biochar and its coproducts may be better utilized for contaminant remediation or the substitution of nonrenewable or mining-intensive materials. The carbon sequestration function of biochar, via conversion of biomass to stable forms of carbon, does not depend on its incorporation into soil. To aid in the sustainable production and use of biochar, we offer two conceptual decision trees, and ask: What do we currently know about biochar? What are the critical gaps in knowledge? How should the scientific community move forward? Thoughtful answers to these questions can push biochar research towards more critical, mechanistic investigations, and guide the public in the smart, efficient use of biochar which extracts maximized benefits for variable uses, and optimizes its potential to enhance agricultural and environmental sustainability.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARIA PAULA CAMPESTRE ◽  
CRISTIAN JAVIER ANTONELLI ◽  
MATIAS ANDRES BAILLERES ◽  
VANINA GISELLE MAGUIRE ◽  
MIGUEL ANGEL TABOADA ◽  
...  

Abstract Background and AimsForage production constitutes a great challenge for the Salado River Basin (Argentina), the major area devoted to livestock in the country. The successful naturalization of the European legume Lotus tenuis has been a productive and environmental relevance for the region. This study aims to evaluate its strategic contribution, reporting for the first time the B value for this species in these marginal environments for agriculture.MethodsThe 15N natural abundance method was used to evaluate the BNF of L. tenuis at soil plots and non-leguminous weed species in the same plots were utilized as reference plants. The assays included determinations of the 13C isotope, as well. Simultaneously, evaluations were carried out in the greenhouse for the determination of the B value of L. tenuis and the relative reproducibility of the field experiments.ResultsThe results obtained demonstrated that the L. tenuis promotion is accompanied by an increase in forage quality, due to the predominance of this C3 legume species, over C4 species. Moreover, its contribution to N inputs to the system, through the BNF with native rhizobia demonstrated to be about 80%, a highly relevant percentage for these constrained agroecosystems.ConclusionsThis work supports the hypothesis that L. tenuis promotion plays a strategic role in the sustainability of the ecosystem, especially in soil constrained areas. Joined with data previously published, the results obtained contribute to support the criteria that define the naturalized legume playing a strategic role in the sustainability of agriculture marginal soils.


Author(s):  
Peter Schröder ◽  
Michel Mench ◽  
Virmantas Povilaitis ◽  
Francois Rineau ◽  
Beata Rutkowska ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document