Agricultural Cultivation Research Articles

From Tradition to Innovation: The Role of Culture Tourism in Transforming Chinese Agriculture

After the merger of China’s Ministry of Culture and the National Tourism Administration into the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2018, there was a strong push to advance the strategy of culture–tourism integration, which has shown significant effects on the economy and society. Building on this success, the Chinese government proposed the strategy of agriculture–culture–tourism integration in 2023. However, its impact on the agricultural sector remains unclear. This study employs field theory to explain the impact of culture–tourism integration on the agricultural sector. Drawing from the relevant literature, we construct and statistically analyze the Culture–Tourism Coupling Coordination Degree (CTCCD). Utilizing provincial panel data from China from 2000 to 2022, we employ two-way fixed-effects panel regression to empirically estimate and analyze the effects of the CTCCD on the agricultural GDP, Total Factor Productivity (TFP), and various aspects of crop farming. Our findings reveal several key insights: (i) the CTCCD exhibits a significant negative impact on both agricultural GDP and TFP; (ii) the CTCCD negatively affects the proportion of crop farming within the agricultural sector, suggesting that culture–tourism integration results in weaker development of crop farming compared to forestry, animal husbandry, and fisheries; (iii) the CTCCD demonstrates significant negative effects on the sown area, yield per unit area, and total production of food crops, while positively influencing the per capita income of agricultural workers. These empirical results highlight the complex relationship between culture–tourism integration and agricultural development. Our analysis provides quantitative evidence of the trade-offs involved in pursuing integrated development strategies, adding to the existing research on rural development. The findings indicate that promoting agriculture–culture–tourism integration should be balanced with efforts to accelerate agricultural technological progress.

The Content Analysis of High-Quality Farmer Cultivation Policy under the Context of Rural Revitalization: A Two-Dimensional Perspective on Policy Tools and Participants

Abstract: As the latest stage in the development of farmer cultivation, the sustainable advancement of high-quality farmer cultivation requires not only the rational application of public policy tools but also the collaborative participation of multiple stakeholders. By collating policy documents on high-quality farmer cultivation at the national, Shandong provincial, and Yantai municipal levels from 2019 to December 2023, a total of 26 policy texts were coded, classified, and quantitatively analyzed using the content analysis method under a two-dimensional framework that includes the dimensions of policy tools and participants. The findings reveal that the composition of high-quality farmer cultivation policy in China is unbalanced, with demand-side policies having a weak driving effect. There is insufficient mobilization of agriculture-related enterprises and social organizations, and policy follow-up requires strengthening. Additionally, the correlation between policy tools and participants is inadequate, resulting in fragmented policies. Based on these findings, it is recommended to optimize the structure of policy tools, emphasize the participation of multiple stakeholders, and align policies with the actual policy environment.

Use of HANTS algorithm in Sentinel-2 images for interpolation of missing data: a case-study for soy agricultural areas in periods of growth and harvesting

Abstract. Information about the current state of an agricultural culture can be fundamental in decision making, varying from quantity of fertilizers to be used in an area to estimating the productivity of a harvest in a period to establish credits payment. Satellite images with reasonable spatial resolution like Sentinel-2 are a powerful tool to visualize agricultural areas production, especially with the application of multispectral indexes like the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI). Yet, due to the limitation of temporal resolution of satellites and periods with large cloudy weather can make the analysis difficult. This study proposed the use of the harmonic analysis time series algorithm (HANTS) to aid the incompleteness of time series obtained by the available satellite images in a case study of soy culture in Brazil. By applying the algorithm, a harmonic interpolation is obtained to produce a full daily NDVI time series from the beginning to end of the study period, facilitating further analysis to obtain metrics of interest. In this study, time series with gaps on specified periods are created based on full time series, then interpolated and compared with the real ones based on root mean squared error (RMSE) to access its accuracy.

Texas Water Observatory: A Distributed Network for Monitoring Water, Energy, and Carbon Cycles under Variable Climate and Land Use on Gulf Coast Plains

Abstract In the Gulf Coastal Plains of Texas, a state-of-the-art distributed network of field observatories, known as the Texas Water Observatory (TWO), is developed to better understand the water, energy, and carbon cycles across the critical zone (encompassing aquifers, soils, plants, and atmosphere) at different spatiotemporal scales. Using more than 300 advanced real-time/near-real-time sensors, this observatory monitors high-frequency water, energy, and carbon storage and fluxes in the Brazos River corridor, which are critical for coupled hydrologic, biogeochemical, and land–atmosphere process understanding in the region. TWO provides a regional resource for better understanding and/or managing agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, disasters, health, energy, and weather/climate. TWO infrastructure spans common land uses in this region, including traditional/aspirational cultivated agriculture, rangelands, native prairie, bottomland hardwood forest, and coastal wetlands. Sites represent landforms from low-relief erosional uplands to depositional lowlands across climatic and geologic gradients of central Texas. We present the overarching vision of TWO and describe site design, instrumentation specifications, data collection, and quality control protocols. We also provide a comparison of water, energy, and carbon budget across sites, including evapotranspiration, carbon fluxes, radiation budget, weather, profile soil moisture and soil temperature, soil hydraulic properties, hydrogeophysical surveys, groundwater levels, and groundwater quality reported at TWO primary sites for 2018–20 (with certain data gaps). In conjunction with various Earth-observing remote sensing and legacy databases, TWO provides a master testbed to evaluate process-driven or data-driven critical zone science, leading to improved natural resource management and decision support at different spatiotemporal scales. Significance Statement We provide the vision, design setup, and data acquisition of a state-of-the-art network of field observatories across the Gulf Coastal Plains of Texas. This observatory provides a wealth of measurements of the water, energy, and carbon fluxes, thereby providing a critical testbed for improving the understanding of terrestrial hydrological, biogeochemical, and atmospheric processes across diverse land-use and climate conditions.

Digital Literacy and the Livelihood Resilience of Livestock Farmers: Empirical Evidence from the Old Revolutionary Base Areas in Northwest China

Enhancing the livelihood resilience of livestock farmers in the old revolutionary base areas helps them to cope with the increasingly complex external risk shocks of recent years and promotes the sustainable development of regional agriculture. This study is based on survey data from 1047 livestock farmers in the Ningxia and Gansu provinces of the northwest old revolutionary base area. It incorporates the characteristics of livestock farmers and the elements of psychological capital into the sustainable livelihood analysis framework to construct a livelihood resilience index system. After measuring livelihood resilience, this paper uses a general linear regression model and a probit model to explore the impact and mechanism of digital literacy on the livelihood resilience of livestock farmers. The results show the following: (1) digital literacy has a significant positive effect on the livelihood resilience of livestock farmers, and the impact of different dimensions of digital literacy on different dimensions of livelihood resilience also varies. Additionally, this effect also shows the heterogeneity in different village clustering forms and different income groups. In areas inhabited by ethnic minorities and among moderate-income groups, the role of digital literacy on the livelihood resilience of livestock farmers is more significant. (2) The improvement of digital literacy has a significant positive impact on livelihood resilience through three different pathways: the “differential mode of association”, learning channels, and types of income. (3) Digital literacy has led to the psychological aspects of rural hollowing-out problems among livestock farmers, which is particularly evident in families with only one type of caregiving burden (either only left-behind elderly people or only left-behind children). This problem is more evident. Therefore, this paper poses that the advancement of agricultural and rural economic development in China should not only focus on the cultivation of farmers’ digital literacy but also accelerate the construction of digital infrastructure to ensure the long-term effective mechanism of improving digital literacy. At the same time, in the process of promoting digital rural areas, attention should be paid to the psychological isolation issues that the network era brings to farmers.

Evaluation of crop structure optimization policy quantitatively and future directions in China: a PMC-Index model approach

Developing policies to optimize the planting structure is essential to ensure an adequate supply of agricultural products and guarantee food security. However, the rationality and comprehensiveness of China’s cropping structure optimization policies require scientific evaluation. Therefore, this research established an evaluation index system for China’s planting structure optimization policies using text mining and the PMC-Index model to evaluate eight agricultural cropping structure optimization policies in China since 2003. The results showed that: (1) The PMC-Index showed a general upward trend across the eight policies, with scores ranging from 4.88 to 6.61. (2) Seven of the eight policies were deemed acceptable, while one was classified as low. (3) The Chinese government has long focused on optimizing the structure of agricultural cultivation, and relevant policies have made significant progress in terms of logical connotation and long-term feasibility. However, there is still room for improvement in enhancing regulatory effectiveness and strengthening interdepartmental collaboration. It is recommended that the government develop more flexible and diverse incentive mechanisms, strengthen interdepartmental coordination, expand policy coverage, enhance the comprehensiveness of policy functions, and elevate support for agricultural technology.

Effects of gender and agricultural cooperatives on biodiversity conservation farming practices: evidence from an emerging economy

PurposeThis study explores the effects of gender and participation in agricultural cooperatives on biodiversity conservation farming practices in vegetable production.Design/methodology/approachThis study used data collected from a survey of 627 vegetable farmers in Viet Nam and employed the Ordered Probit regression model to examine the effects of gender and participation in agricultural cooperatives on biodiversity conservation farming practices.FindingsWe find that female vegetable farmers are more likely to conduct biodiversity conservation farming practices than male farmers. This gender difference is, however, removed when participation in agricultural cooperatives is controlled, suggesting that agricultural cooperatives effectively facilitate biodiversity conservation farming practices.Research limitations/implicationsIt is noted that our study is not free from some limitations. First, we conducted our study on vegetable farmers only. The biodiversity conservation practices in vegetable cultivation might be different from other types of farming. Future studies should be conducted with other types of agricultural cultivation. Second, we do not have enough data to explain why female farmers are more likely to adopt biodiversity conservation practices than male farmers. Future studies should capture biological and social aspects of gender differences to address this limitation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on biodiversity conservation by presenting empirical evidence on the effects of gender and agricultural cooperatives. Participation in agricultural cooperatives is revealed to facilitate the adoption of biodiversity conservation practices. In addition, we find that the education of farmers, the number of years that farmers have been living in the local area and the quality of land and water are positively related to the adoption of biodiversity conservation practices in vegetable production.

Quantitative analysis of acetamiprid and thiacloprid in green tea using enhanced SERS and neural networks

Neonicotinoids (NEOs) are widely used in agricultural cultivation, and the presence of residual NEOs poses a serious threat to consumer health. Therefore, trace detection of NEOs is particularly important. In this study, a response surface experimental design was employed to develop AgNP with high enhancement factor and surface height anisotropy, effectively enhancing the Raman signals of acetamiprid (ACE) and thiacloprid (THI) through densely populated hotspots on the surface. Gaussian simulation calculations were used to assign peaks in the ACE and THI spectra. Subsequently, convolutional neural network, backpropagation neural network, and AlexNet neural network were employed to identify the ACE, THI, and mixed component spectra, successfully distinguishing the spectra of the three compounds and achieving qualitative analysis of unknown spectra. Furthermore, genetic algorithm-partial least squares was used to model the spectral data, achieving a correlation coefficient of 0.97. The method was applied for the detection of spiked tea samples, achieving a precision RSD of 4.84 %. Therefore, this sensor combined with intelligent algorithms can be used for spectral identification and trace detection of mixed pesticide samples with structurally similar compounds.

The Inheritance and Development of Agricultural Culture in the Yellow River Basin: A Case Study of the Hetao Region

The agricultural culture of the Yellow River Basin is an essential component of Chinese civilization. The Hetao region, as a representative area of the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, possesses unique agricultural traditions and cultural characteristics. However, influenced by modernization, globalization, and ecological changes, traditional agricultural culture faces challenges in inheritance and development. This paper analyzes the natural environment, historical development, and uniqueness of agricultural culture in the Hetao region, exploring the dilemmas and development paths of agricultural culture in modern society. It suggests that integrating agricultural culture with modern agricultural technology, cultural tourism, education, and digital technologies can effectively promote its inheritance and innovative development, providing practical recommendations for the sustainable development of agricultural culture in the Yellow River Basin.

Source apportionment and influencing factors of surface water pollution through a combination of multiple receptor models and geodetector

In line with sustainable development goals (SDGs), precise quantification of water pollution and analysis of environmental interactions are crucial for effectively safeguarding water resources. In this study, Nemerow's pollution index was used to evaluate water quality, three receptor models were used to identify pollution sources, and Geodetector analysis was applied to explore environmental interactions in the North Shangyu Plain, Southeast China. Using 5207 surface water samples from September 2023 with 11 physicochemical parameters, the results showed that surface rivers in the North Shangyu Plain exhibited varying degrees of pollution: slight pollution upstream, moderate pollution in midstream and downstream, and concentrated high pollution in certain areas, with TN, CODCr, and TP as the primary pollutants. Multimethod source apportionment significantly improved the accuracy of pollution source attribution and identified five main sources: domestic sewage (1.42%–3.54%) characterized by NO3-N, phytoplankton source (38.43%–50.05%) indicated by chl and PC, agricultural cultivation (16.1%–17.63%) marked by TP and CODMn, industrial wastewater (17.64%–25.1%) primarily associated with TN, and natural source (10.32%–13.26%) characterized by DO, NH3-N, and CODCr. Influencing factor analysis validated the source identification. Natural factors had minor impacts on water parameters, while pollution control from agricultural activities was suggested to diversify fertilizer types rather than merely reduce quantities. The combined effects of industrial and aquaculture activities intensified pollution from TN, chl, and PC, underscoring the need for targeted management practices. This study showed the objectivity and reliability of using a combined approach of multiple receptor models and Geodetector to evaluate the river water quality status, which helps assist decision-makers in formulating more effective water resource protection strategies.

Anthracnose Caused by Colletotrichum spaethianum on Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum in Korea.

Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum (Miq.) Ohwi (Asparagaceae), commonly known as Lesser Solomon's seal, is a perennial herbaceous plant widely distributed in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is known for tea and contains various pharmacologically active compounds (Chang et al. 2007). In September 2021, previously unseen anthracnose was encountered on Polygonatum odoratum var. pluriflorum in Chuncheon (37°45'07''N; 127°47'45''E) and Wanju (35°38'47''N; 127°31'16''E), Korea, with a disease incidence of 20 to 30% of the inspected plants. The disease symptoms begin with leaf yellowing (chlorosis) along the margins, progressing toward the central part of the leaf. As the disease progressed, brown necrotic lesions developed, covered with small, dark dots, indicating the presence of conidiomata of Colletotrichum. The disease often led to leaf blight, resulting in concentric lesions of a periodic and concentric arrangement of conidiomata, forming circular patterns within the affected tissue. It expanded rapidly during the rainy season producing water-soaked lesions but nearly slowed down during the dry season, leaving the plant with a ragged appearance. Monoconidial isolates were obtained from five fresh samples collected in Wanju, of which a representative isolate was deposited in the Korean Agricultural Culture Collection (KACC410442), and the dried specimen was housed at the herbarium of Jeonbuk National University (JBNU0135). Morphological characteristics of the fungus were examined with fresh and naturally infected leaves. Setae (n = 30) were dark brown to nearly blackish, 45 to 172 um long, 4.1 to 6.1 µm wide at the base, and becoming narrower upwards, apex pointed, 2 to 4-septate. Conidia were 1-celled, sometimes uniseptate before germination, slightly curved, with an acute or rounded apex and a more or less truncate base, and 11.4 to 23.2 × 3.1 to 4.2 µm. Appressoria were single or in groups, dark brown, lobate, irregularly shaped, and 6.0 to 11.9 × 7.0 to 14.8 µm. Two-week-old colonies grown on PDA at 25 ℃ reached 30-35 mm in diam., initially white, turning gray with age, with cottony aerial mycelia. These morphological characteristics were in good agreement with those of C. spaethianum (Damm et al. 2009; Liu et al. 2020). To confirm the morphology-based determination, genomic DNA was extracted from KACC410442, and multi-loci sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) rDNA, glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH), actin (actA), chitin synthase (CHS1), histone (HIS3) and tubulin (TUB2) genes were determined, as outlined by Cannon et al. (2012) and Damm et al. (2009). The resulting sequences obtained in this study were registered to GenBank (PP739190 for ITS, PP741985 for GAPDH, PP741986 for actA, PP741987 for CHS1, PP741988 for HIS3, and PP741989 for TUB2) and compared with other sequences on GenBank using the BLASTn search tool. The results showed 100% identity to other C. spaethianum sequences (e.g., MT611068 for ITS, MN400659 for actA, OP965007 for CHS1, OR060963 for GAPDH, PP480643 for HIS3, and OQ613727 for TUB2). In a maximum parsimony tree, the Korean isolate formed a well-supported clade (100% bootstrap value) with reference sequences of C. spaethianum. Pathogenicity was tested by spraying a conidial suspension (1×104 conidia/ml) from a two-week-old culture onto ten leaves of three potted plants, without wounding. Ten water-sprayed leaves were served as controls. The plants were maintained in a dew chamber and later moved to a greenhouse at 25 to 30 °C. After two weeks, all inoculated plants developed anthracnose symptoms, while the control plants remained symptomless. The fungus isolated from the inoculated plants was morphologically identical to that initially observed, fulfilling Koch's postulates. C. spaethianum has been known on various plant species, but mostly on the Asparagaceae, including Anemarrhena (Okorley et al. 2019), Hosta (Damm et al. 2009; Cheon and Jeon 2016), and Polygonatum (Liu et al. 2020; Ma et al. 2021). To our knowledge, this is the first report of anthracnose caused by C. spaethianum on P. odoratum var. pluriflorum in Korea, highlighting the continuous need for disease management and control in the cultivation of this plant.

Effects of Organic Agricultural Materials and Cultivation Methods on the Control of Ginger Rhizome Rot Disease and Growth in Organic Ginger Farming

Effects of Organic Agricultural Materials and Cultivation Methods on the Control of Ginger Rhizome Rot Disease and Growth in Organic Ginger Farming

High-sensitive detection of organophosphate and carbamate pesticide residues in milk based on bioluminescence method

Organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) and carbamate pesticides (CBs) are the most commonly used pesticides in agricultural cultivation. The pesticide residues in plant products can easily enter dairy cows through feed, resulting in the pesticide low-concentration residues in milk. Traditional acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibition-based colorimetric methods have low sensitivity and could not satisfy the detection of low-concentrations of OPs and CBs residues in dairy products. In this study, we combined firefly luciferase (FLuc)-mediated bioluminescence with the inhibition of AChE-catalyzed substrate activity by pesticides to develop a highly sensitive and rapid method for detecting OPs and CBs residues in milk. AChE breaks down D-luciferin acetate to produce D-luciferin, which is recognized by the FLuc and emits luminescence in the presence of ATP. However, the presence of OPs and CBs inhibits AChE, causing the reduction or disappearance of the luminescence signal. The luminescence signal can be detected using a hand-held luminescence photometer, eliminating the need for large instrumentation. The AChE-FLuc system accurately detected OPs and CBs in milk within 30 min, with detection limits of 7.89 ng/mL and 1.75 ng/mL, respectively. The sensitivity of this method is approximately ten times higher than that of traditional AChE inhibition methods, meeting the pesticide residue limits in milk set by China and the European Union.

IoT System for Floating Raft Hydroponics: Nutrient Monitoring and Automation

Abstract The utilization of hydroponic cultivation in agriculture is increasing due to its high productivity even in limited spaces. However, in practice, monitoring and controlling nutrients in hydroponic systems often require intensive human supervision and intervention. This issue can be addressed through technological advancements, particularly with the adoption of microcontrollers, sensors, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Previous research has developed IoT-based monitoring and control systems for DFT hydroponics using the Blynk platform. This study aims to develop an IoT-based nutrient monitoring and automation system for floating raft hydroponics. Floating raft hydroponics was chosen for its simplicity, lower installation costs, and space optimization. The system developed in this study uses the HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor with an average error of 1.229%, the DS18B20 water temperature sensor with an error of 0.415%, and the TDS sensor with an error of 2.055%. The sensor and actuator measurement data are presented via the Antares Web. This research has the potential to minimize the necessity for manual intervention in hydroponic systems, thereby enhancing both efficiency and consistency in nutrient delivery.

Re-identification of Korean Isolates in the Colletotrichum dematium, C. magnum, C. orchidearum, and C. orbiculare Species Complexes.

A large number of species in the genus Colletotrichum have been reported as causal agents of anthracnose on crops and wild plants in Korea. Many Colletotrichum isolates from the country preserved in the Korean Agricultural Culture Collection (KACC) were previously identified based on host plants and morphological characteristics, and it may lead to species misidentification. Thus, accurate fungal species identification using multilocus sequence analyses is essential for understanding disease epidemiology and disease management strategies. In this study, combined DNA sequence analyses of internal transcribed spacer, gapdh, chs-1, his3, act, tub2, and gs were applied to re-identify 27 Colletotrichum isolates in KACC. The phylogenetic analyses showed that the isolates resulted in 11 known species, they belong to the C. dematium species complex (C. hemerocallidis, C. jinshuiense, and C. spinaciae), the C. magnum complex (C. kaifengense and C. cf. ovatense), the C. orchidearum complex (C. cattleyicola, C. plurivorum, C. reniforme, and C. sojae) and the C. orbiculare complex (C. malvarum and C. orbiculare). Of them, C. cattleyicola, C. hemerocallidis, C. kaifengense, and C. reniforme were unrecorded species in Korea. In the view of host-fungus combinations, 10 combinations are newly reported in the world and 12 are new reports in Korea, although their pathogenicity on the host was not confirmed.

KARABAKH AGRICULTURE CREATED BY THE PEOPLE’S WRITER ALI VALIYEV

The article is dedicated to an important issue – Karabakh agriculture, which is included in the work of the people’s writer Ali Valiyev. Here, attention is paid to all the processes and points from preparing the soil for planting to sowing, watering, peeling or harvesting of various plants. Based on the ethnographic materials collected by A.Valiyev’s work, it consists in uncovering information about the rich experience and empirical knowledge of the people of Karabakh in the field of agriculture, the various products they grow, farm tools, and also the widespread beliefs, and introducing the scientific community to them. Materials of historical-ethnographic literature, numerous artistic works of A.Valiyev, as well as the method of comparative analysis were used in the writing of the research work. The research suggests that the people of Karabakh have a rich agricultural culture and that they have gained enough experience in this field. The comparative analysis of the materials in our hands shows that the rules, customs, and customs that A.Valiyev collected from the population of Karabakh and included in his work, in general, most of the agricultural work performed were the same as in other regions of Azerbaijan. At the same time, the abundance of ethnographic materials in his artistic work characterizes A.Valiyev as an ethnographer who knows enough about the Karabakh region.

Study Assessment of Soil and Water Quality Conditions on Barren Agricultural Lands in Tropical Regions

Barren land is non-productive land that is difficult to use as a medium for integrated agricultural cultivation. The aim of this research is to determine the profile and feasibility status of land in barren agricultural areas quantitatively. The research method used was descriptive with purposive data collection. Data analysis included SQI and WQI parametric analyses. The research results indicate that the ideal soil parameter is only pH 7.5-7.7, while for water parameters it is pH 8.0-8.1, meeting water quality standards. SQI values range from 0.44 to 0.49 and WQI from 0.45 to 0.57. SQI and WQI values at the research site fall into the poor category, indicating difficulty in converting the land into agricultural use. SQI and WQI show a strong correlation as depicted in the model Y = 4.113 + 0.026 (R2 = 0.789). Correlation tests showed strong correlations in soil between redox potential and soil pH (0.449), and redox potential and organic matter (0.377). Weak correlations were found between cation exchange capacity and soil pH (0.009), and nitrate and total N (0.517). In water, strong correlations were found between water pH and nitrite (0.302) and ammonia (0.529). Additionally, water pH showed weak correlations with carbon dioxide (0.752) and organic matter (0.659). The values of soil and water parameters have an immediate impact on plant growth patterns. Therefore, integrated agricultural cultivation patterns need to be developed. In conclusion, empirically, the condition of barren land indicates poor land use feasibility. The poor profile and biophysical feasibility conditions of barren land are attributed to environmental pollution and runoff from other land areas.

The Reflection and Practice of Excellent Traditional Agricultural Culture in the Cultivation of Professional Qualities at Agricultural Colleges and Universities

The excellent traditional agricultural culture is an important cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, encompassing rich agricultural techniques, production methods, as well as ethics and social norms. Agricultural colleges and universities bear the responsibility of both preserving and innovating agricultural culture in the cultivation of professional qualities. This study aims to explore the specific reflection and practice of excellent traditional agricultural culture in the cultivation of professional qualities at agricultural colleges and universities. Through efforts in curriculum design, school-enterprise cooperation, and campus culture construction, the comprehensive enhancement of students’ professional ethics, abilities, and spirit is promoted. The research finds that traditional agricultural culture has unique advantages in cultivating students’ integrity, diligence, and pragmatism, and plays a crucial role in improving the professional qualities of students at agricultural colleges and universities.

Microgreens Production: Exploiting Environmental and Cultural Factors for Enhanced Agronomical Benefits.

An exponential growth in global population is expected to reach nine billion by 2050, demanding a 70% increase in agriculture productivity, thus illustrating the impact of global crop production on the environment and the importance of achieving greater agricultural yields. Globally, the variety of high-quality microgreens is increasing through indoor farming at both small and large scales. The major concept of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) seeks to provide an alternative to traditional agricultural cultivation. Microgreens have become popular in the twenty-first century as a food in the salad category that can fulfil some nutrient requirements. Microgreens are young seedlings that offer a wide spectrum of colours, flavours, and textures, and are characterised as a "functional food" due to their nutraceutical properties. Extensive research has shown that the nutrient profile of microgreens can be desirably tailored by preharvest cultivation and postharvest practices. This study provides new insight into two major categories, (i) environmental and (ii) cultural, responsible for microgreens' growth and aims to explore the various agronomical factors involved in microgreens production. In addition, the review summarises recent studies that show these factors have a significant influence on microgreens development and nutritional composition.

Comparison of different fertilization rates on yield, evapotranspiration, and water use efficiency of sweet corn under drought-salinity stresses

The present study investigated the effects of three fertilization (N-P2O5-K2O) rates (F1: 240-100-120 kg ha-1, F2: 192-80-96 kg ha-1, F3: 154-64-77 kg ha-1) coupled with four irrigation practices (Control: C, irrigated at the 100% field capacity, Drought: D, irrigated 60% of C, Saline: S, irrigated at the 100% field capacity, Drought and saline: D+S, irrigated 60% of S) on sweet corn yield, evapotranspiration (ET), water use efficiency (WUE), and shoot fresh-dry weights. The obtained results depicted that the grain yield at D, S, and D+S treatments decreased by 24.2%, 46.6%, and 62.0%, respectively, relative to the C treatment. Moreover, grain yield at the F3 condition was reduced by 45.3% compared to the F1 condition. Additionally, the highest ET (330.7 mm) and yield (74.0 g) was achieved with F1×C treatment. The F2 and F3 treatments reduced WUE by 17.9% and 31.5%, respectively, compared to the F1 treatment. The highest reduction in yield, ET, WUE, and shoot fresh-dry weights was found at D+S irrigation treatment under all fertilization conditions. The tallest plants were observed in the F1×C treatment, being 24.0%, 33.5%, and 43.2% taller than plants in the F1×(D+S), F2×(D+S), and F3×(D+S) treatments, respectively. Under F3 conditions, exposing sweet corn plants to single or combined salinity and drought stress remarkably degraded the growth ability of the plants, and therefore, it is not economical and sustainable cultivation for agriculture. Finally, cultivation of sweet corn plants under individual or combined drought-salinity stress is not recommended due to the high reduction in grain yield.