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Harnessing Beneficial Root Microbiome Alleviates Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crops
Published in Gustavo Molina, Zeba Usmani, Minaxi Sharma, Abdelaziz Yasri, Vijai Kumar Gupta, Microbes in Agri-Forestry Biotechnology, 2023
Mehtab Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Waseem, Abah Felix, Eyalira J. Okal, Witness J. Nyimbo, Muhammad Tahir ul Qamar
Rhizobacteria and Arbuscular mycorrhiza have shown effectiveness against heat and other abiotic stress factors. If properly harnessed, especially in the developing economies, can improve agricultural productivity among smallholder farmers in the face of climate change and environmental degradation. Some different reports and demonstrations showed the practical effects of PGPR and fungi against temperature stress. It is demonstrated that inoculation of wheat with P. putia (strain AKMP7) could increase significantly shoot/root length and dry biomass by 52.93/27.7 cm and 16.8 g/plant, respectively (Grover et al. 2011). Its reported growth and biochemical parameters: total sugar contents, proline, carbohydrates, protein contents and chlorophyll, chlorophyll significantly enhanced under heat stress. The rhizospheric microorganisms play a key role in promoting plant growth during abiotic stress than uninoculated plants. The enhancement of biochemical parameters promotes plant growth/yield by increasing photosynthetic activities and suppressing ROS generation on leaves. Thermotolerant PGPR, Bacillus cereus proved effective in stimulating growth in tomatoes under heat-stressed conditions. Tomato augmented with ACC producing B. cereus enhanced the plant biochemical and physiological parameters (Mukhtar et al. 2020). Other agronomic treats such as shoot-to-root length, total leaf surface area, plant fresh to dry weights were significantly increased.
Agricultural water management
Published in Lyla Mehta, Theib Oweis, Claudia Ringler, Barbara Schreiner, Shiney Varghese, Water for Food Security, Nutrition and Social Justice, 2019
Lyla Mehta, Theib Oweis, Claudia Ringler, Barbara Schreiner, Shiney Varghese
The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) responds to water scarce conditions by making crops more productive and water use more efficient through better management practices, despite initial poor soil conditions. In SRI, soil physical properties are enhanced by amendments with organic matter, compost and mulch. This helps maintain and magnify the beneficial soil microorganisms’ life in the soil in terms of their abundance, diversity and activity. This in turn enhances the structure and functioning of soil systems through fixing nitrogen, solubilizing phosphorus, immobilizing various macro- and micro-nutrients, storing them in the soil and releasing them to meet plants’ needs (Uphoff, 2017). In essence, through the adoption of practices rooted in agroecological principles, even smallholder farmers are able to raise crop yields, despite cutting back on inputs including seeds, synthetic fertilizers and irrigation water. SRI helps even in cases where acidic conditions of the soil previously intervened in crop growth (Ferichani and Prasetya, 2017).
Performance Of Drip Irrigated Capsicum Under Protected Cultivation Structures
Published in Megh R. Goyal, Balram Panigrahi, Sudhindra N. Panda, Micro Irrigation Scheduling and Practices, 2017
The 20th century brought significant changes to the economics of global agriculture. This transition is a direct result of the increase in relative price of labor and changes in domestic and global agricultural policies [3,19], and was spurred by dramatic improvements in agricultural productivity, and a shift from more labor intensive agriculture to more capital- and technology intensive agricultural practices that employed new varieties, synthetic inputs, and irrigation [2,7–11,18,20]. Incorporating and disseminating technological advances that improve productivity and incomes in smallholder farming systems, remains a challenge throughout the developing world [4]. India being a vast country with diverse and extreme agro-climatic conditions, the protected vegetables cultivation technology can be utilized for year round and off-season production of high value, low volume vegetables, crops production of virus free quality seedlings, quality hybrid seed production and as a tool for disease resistance breeding programs.
Do agricultural innovation platforms and soil moisture and nutrient monitoring tools improve the production and livelihood of smallholder irrigators in Mozambique?
Published in International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2020
M. Chilundo, W. de Sousa, E. W. Christen, J. Faduco, H. Bjornlund, E. Cheveia, P. Munguambe, F. Jorge, R. Stirzaker, A. F. van Rooyen
The agriculture sector is critical for Mozambique and its people, as it employs about 80% of the population and accounts for about a quarter of GDP (INE, 2018). Despite the potential for 36 million hectares of arable land to be brought into production, of which 3 million hectares are irrigable, agricultural production and productivity remain very low (MINAG, 2013; World Bank, 2016). Recent government plans acknowledge the need to focus on smallholder farmers to foster agricultural development through technology transfer and adoption, infrastructure development, improved agricultural practices, access to markets and agricultural inputs, strengthening of institutions and organizations, and adequate policy and legislation (MINAG, 2011). Nevertheless, the irrigation sector has several challenges: a relatively small area is currently developed in comparison to the potential area; the land that has been developed to date is underutilized; poor maintenance; irrigation infrastructure is rapidly deteriorating; water use efficiency is poor; and there is conflict among water users (Beekman & Veldwisch, 2016; MINAG, 2013). For instance, INIR (2017) states that of the 181,000 ha of land developed with irrigation infrastructure, only 50% is currently operational. This is mainly due to inadequate public funds allocated to irrigation maintenance, lack of technical resources, and farmers not being linked to markets.