Agricultural Production Base Research Articles

The Main Soil Constraint Factors and Its Improvement Methods Based on Sustainable Development of Agricultural Economy in Tobacco Planting Area in Chenzhou City, Hunan Province of China

Farmland soil is the basis for agricultural production and a fundamental resource. It is beneficial to the sustainable development of agricultural economy to adopt different conservation measures for different soil types which exist various obstacles. In order to provide scientific guidance for accurate soil improvement for the fields under tobacco-rice rotation in Chenzhou City, Hunan Province of China, soil obstacle combination types were analyzed by sampling and determined based on the data of pH, organic matter (OM), available nitrogen (AN), phosphorous (AP) and potassium (AK) in the plough horizons (0–20 cm) of 1008 typical fields, and according soil obstacle combination types, different measures were adopted to improve the soil fertility and tobacco yield and quality. The results showed that based on the five soil quality indices, 61.31%–81.85% of the fields were in the high levels, 26.79%–33.83% of the fields were in the suitable levels, while only 9.66% on average the fields were in the low levels. In total 89 soil obstacle combination types were found in the fields, among which, 22 types (75.3%) with the field numbers were more than 1% of the total fields. The main ones were the types of Reducing pH, OM and NPK (17.76%), followed by the types of Reducing pH, OM and NP (8.43%), Reducing OM and NPK (5.26%), reducing pH, OM and PK (4.66%), and reducing pH, OM and N (4.07%). In conclusion, the comprehensive countermeasures (organic fertilizer and straw mulching) should be considered and taken for the accurate improvement of soil quality according to the actual situation in soil obstacle combinations, and reducing pH, OM and NPK should be considered first for most fields under tobacco-rice rotation.

A novel near infrared spectroscopy analytical strategy for soil nutrients detection based on the DBO-SVR method

Soil is the basis of agricultural production and accessing accurate information on soil nutrients is essential. Traditional methods of soil composition detection, which are based on chemical analysis, are characterized by being costly and polluting. Spectroscopic analysis has proven to be a rapid, non-destructive and effective technique for predicting soil properties in general and potassium, phosphorus and organic matter in particular. However, previous research on soils has rarely combined optimization algorithms with machine learning techniques, which has led to suboptimal model accuracy and convergence speed. In this study, a total of 184 soil samples were collected from three cities of Linhai, Yueqing and Longyou County, Zhejiang Province, China. After measuring pH values, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen (SAN), available phosphorus (SAP), available potassium (SAK) and soil organic matter (SOM) contents, along with their corresponding spectroscopic measurements, nine pretreatment methods and their combinations are adopted. A novel assessment model, integrating support vector machine and dung beetle optimization algorithm (DBO-SVR), is proposed to predict pH values and SAN, SAP, SAK, SOM content. Meanwhile, the DBO algorithm is compared with three mainstream optimization algorithms (particle swarm optimization (PSO), whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and grey wolf optimizer (GWO)). Results showed that the DBO-SVR model was shown best performance with Rp, RMSEP and RPD of 0.9842, 0.1306, 5.6485 respectively for prediction of pH value, with Rp, RMSEP and RPD of 0.8802, 15.0574 mg/kg and 2.0508, respectively for assessment of SAN content, with Rp, RMSEP and RPD of 0.9790, 12.8298 mg/kg, and 4.5132, respectively for assessment of SAP content, with Rp, RMSEP and RPD of 0.8677, 22.5107 mg/kg, and 1.9546, respectively for assessment of SAK content, and with Rp, RMSEP and RPD of 0.9273, 2.6427g/kg , and 2.1821, respectively for assessment of SOM content. This study demonstrates that the combination of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and the DBO-SVR algorithm is capable of predicting soil nutrient composition with greater accuracy and efficiency.

The importance of production specifications in the process of efficient use of land resources of agricultural enterprises

The modern economy is undergoing significant structural changes, which entail an in-depth study of certain processes in the branches of the economy. Historically, the agricultural sector, which plays a decisive role in the economy of the region and the country as a whole, is the most relevant and requires a special approach due to its economic specificity. Currently, effective use of land resources, identification of problems of their implementation, development of key directions and implementation of measures to increase the efficiency of economic use of land fund play an important role in strengthening the country's economy, and is also of great importance for increasing the volume of agricultural products. Land, as one of the main factors of production, is crucial for the efficiency of the branches of the agro-industrial complex, since food security and the improvement of the quality of life of the population due to sufficient food supply depend on its rational use and maximum involvement in the agricultural cycle, ensuring high-quality and safe food products, sustainable development and modernization of agriculture, development of breeding livestock, plant selection, prevention of reduction of agricultural land areas, rational use of such lands. The issue of increasing the efficiency of land resource use has always been relevant, since land is the basis of agricultural production. Land resources, on the use of which a significant volume of food and the fund of consumer goods are formed, are the primary factor of production, and occupy the largest specific weight in the structure of the resource potential of agricultural enterprises. Therefore, increasing the efficiency of the use of land resources will contribute to the increase in the efficiency of the use of the entire resource potential. Effective use of agricultural land, in the conditions of organizational agricultural formations and their production specifics, is of strategic importance for the production of agro-industrial products for the consumer. Keywords: agriculture, land resources, agricultural land, crop production, livestock production, land use efficiency.

Potential applications for multifunctional microalgae in soil improvement

Soil is the basis of agricultural production, and the quality of soil directly affects crop quality and yield. Microalgae can carry out photosynthesis, carbon and nitrogen fixation, and produce large amounts of valuable biomass coupled with wastewater treatment. Also, microalgae can produce plant hormones and other high-value products, which can promote plant growth, improve soil fertility, soil ecological health, and control crop diseases. This research reviews the characteristics of microalgae in improving soil health, discusses the situation of microalgae in controlling soil pollutants, elaborates on the technical application of microalgae in alleviating soil problems, and proposes potential applications of microalgae in ecological environment. Also, resource utilization of multifunctional microalgae is discussed, to provide a theoretical basis for the application of microalgae in soil improvement.

Основи функціонування малого аграрного підприємництва в умовах євроінтеграції

Goal. To determine the peculiarities of functioning and potential possibilities of promoting the development of small agrarian entrepreneurship in the conditions of the activation of European integration processes. Methods. The methodological basis of the research is general scientific and special methods: abstract, analysis and synthesis, comparative, and analytical grouping. Results. It was established that in recent years, Ukraine had been actively developing its activities in the direction of deepening economic cooperation with the European Union (EU) in the agricultural sector. The results of studies of the common agrarian policy of the EU countries confirm that it is aimed at significant support for farmers. Family farms are recognized as the basis of agricultural production in European countries. The influence of the deepening of the European integration processes on the functioning of small agrarian business entities is considered, and the main advantages that they can receive are determined. A SWOT analysis of the development of small agrarian entrepreneurship in the conditions of European integration was carried out. Strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats are shown, as well as development benchmarks are shown, which should be taken into account when developing a strategy for the behavior of small agrarian entrepreneurship in the conditions of the activation of European integration processes. Conclusions. The study of the main vectors of the EU agrarian policy and the possibilities of its application in Ukraine showed that taking into account the peculiarities of the development of small agrarian entrepreneurship in the process of its implementation will contribute to solving complex theoretical and practical problems of regulating the domestic agrarian sector.

ГОСУДАРСТВЕННАЯ ПОДДЕРЖКА ЦИФРОВИЗАЦИИ СЕЛЬСКОГО ХОЗЯЙСТВА

State support for the development of agriculture, like other subsidized industries, has a significant impact on the development of crop and livestock products, acting as a strategic bulwark of the country's food security. An increase in the volume of state support for agriculture is possible with the dynamic activity of all sectors of agriculture, the main task of which is to increase economic efficiency through the transition to innovative production principles. State support for the technical re-equipment of agribusiness is the basis of agricultural production, which has a decisive impact on the transition to digital solutions for the entire agrarian industry in the future. In this regard, the goal was set to analyze the effectiveness of the implementation of digital technologies using the example of typical agricultural enterprises of the Republic of Tatarstan located in different climatic zones of the Volga region, confirming an average decrease in the production cost of 1 centner of grain crops by 13%, payment labor on average by 14.5%, which makes it necessary to allocate financial support to agrarians as an effective mechanism for increasing the efficiency of agribusiness based on funds from the federal and regional budgets of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and from extra-budgetary sources. Revealing the mechanism of state regulation in the form of tax, control and inspection, as well as the mechanism of state support and legal regulation, a mechanism of state support for the digitalization process is proposed in the form of subsidizing the costs of purchasing digital products, as one of the effective mechanisms, contributing to the acceleration of the transition of agribusiness to the digital economy. This mechanism will allow agrarians, at the first stage of the digitalization process of agricultural production, to acquire primary digital equipment in the form of trackers and sensors capable of receiving, sending, generating and processing data, which will subsequently lead to the need for the acquisition of interfaces capable of providing unhindered exchange of data between machines and business partners, and later portals in the form of ecosystems

RATIONALE PARAMETERS SOIL TILLING MACHINE FOR STRIP-TILL TECHNOLOGY

The agro-industrial complex of Ukraine is a branch of the national economy designed to ensure the production of sufficient food for the population at high quality. The dynamic growth of the country's population leads to an increase in the gradual need for food, thus the agro-industrial complex will be a relevant industry for a long time, one of the key areas of economic development. The basis of agricultural production is agriculture, the main subject of which is land. Today, agriculture in the country is experiencing a very serious problem associated with the rapid decline in potential soil fertility. Effective development of agriculture in Ukraine does not do without the introduction of innovations in agriculture. Namely, the introduction of rational technologies with minimization of tillage and new design solutions for tillage units, focused on preserving and increasing the potential fertility of the country's lands, which is the key to a highly efficient process of crop production. Industrial tillage technology The impact on the soil, in addition, the violation of the technology of fertilizers, both organic and mineral, leads to a high level of plowing, deterioration of soil structure and reduced humus content, so research aimed at finding alternative, modern technologies tillage, which will preserve and restore the potential fertility of soils, which determines the relevance of this article. Thus, in order to preserve the main indicator of soil fertility of Ukraine, the authors of the article conducted theoretical studies of the parameters of the tillage unit for tillage technologies Strip-till, preceding the design and design, the main results of which are presented in the article.

СОВРЕМЕННОЕ СОСТОЯНИЕ ЗЕРНОВОГО ПРОИЗВОДСТВА В РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

The level of providing the population with livestock products at the expense of their own production largely depends on the development of grain production, which is an important strategic component of the country's food security. Achieving this goal is possible only with the stable functioning of the entire agricultural sector, the main direction of which is to increase the volume of grain production and increase the economic efficiency of its organization and management. Grain farming is the basis of agricultural production, which has a decisive influence on the development of all its branches.
 In connection with the above, the analysis of the state of grain production in the Russian Federation in the conditions of transition to export-oriented production becomes relevant. In this connection, the analysis of the sown areas of grain and leguminous crops in farms of all categories, in the context of the main categories of farms of the Russian Federation, was carried out. In addition, a study of the yield of grain and leguminous crops in the context of the main categories of farms of the Russian Federation was conducted, all this allowed us to state that the intensive development of grain production for the period from 2016 to 2020. it became possible due to a change in the structure of sown areas, an increase in the yield of grain and leguminous crops. Thus, in the main category of grain producers, the gross harvest increased by 8.1 %, amounting to 93.2 thousand tons. in peasant (farm) farms, the volume of grain production increased by 17.7 % or from 33.47 to 39.41 million tons. In the households of the population, the gross grain harvest was distinguished by a downward trend – from 1023 thousand tons to 858 thousand tons, or by 16.1 % compared to the level of the base year

History and prospects of development of the Institute of Agro-Biotechnologies of Komi Science Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Agricultural science in the Komi Republic dates back to 1911, when the Pechora Agricultural Experimental Station was opened on the initiative of the Northern researcher A.V. Zhuravsky. It was the first scientific institution of such specialization in the north of Russia above 65° north latitude. Zhuravsky identified the main tasks facing the agricultural science of the North: the development of agriculture (improvement of soil fertility, development of swamps for agricultural use), meadow and crop production, including vegetable growing, floriculture and fruit growing. He also defined the basis of agricultural production in the North – animal husbandry. While carrying out the studies, A.V. Zhuravsky Institute of AgroBiotechnologies solves all the problems raised. The modern structure of the Institute has three departments: the Department of Agriculture of the Far North, the Department "Pechora Experimental Station" and the Department of Agricultural Genomics organized on the basis of the youth laboratory in 2019. Over the past 20 years, the Institute has produced 12 varieties of perennial grasses, seven of which have been zoned. Among new breeding achievements are Pamyati Zhuravskogo Serpukh crowned (Serratula coronata L.) variety with an increased content of biologically active substances, potato varieties Zyryanets and Vychegodsky for food purpose, resistant to drought, cancer pathogen and golden nematode, highly resistant to late blight. Research on the technology of production of complex forms of nematocidal and insecticidal bio-preparations as a means of protecting agricultural crops from various soil-dwelling phytophages has begun. Thanks to the efforts of the Institute staff, in close cooperation with the farmers of the Arctic region of the Komi Republic, the Pechora sheep breed was preserved, and breeding work with rare native groups was widely developed. The Institute is the only agricultural research institution in the Komi Republic that provides scientific support for Nothern reindeer husbandry.

Decolonizing Agrarian Knowledge and the Emergence of Indonesian Critical Agrarian Studies

Agricultural production growth has been the main priority in agrarian development in Indonesia but its ends and means have been varied. In the colonial era, an export- oriented colonial plantation system resulted in the transformation of the Indonesian land tenurial system. In the post-colonial period, Soekarno’s regime pursued agrarian development seeking to strengthening people’s land rights through its land reform policies. Land rights were seen as the basis for agricultural production. Soeharto’s New Order regime implemented its Green Revolution policy by developing agricultural mechanization and extensification which managed to improve agricultural production, but it gave greater privileges to the rural elite class and caused dependence on foreign inputs and aid. All agrarian policies were supported by knowledge produced through the research of influential institutions and individuals, including critical responses against the impacts of the transformation of land tenure. In this context, knowledge in agrarian studies with its critical perspectives were re-shaped as part of the process of knowledge decolonization.

Mathematical modeling soil tilling unit in the system "soil-aggregate-energy means" for Strip-Till technology soil treatment

The agro-industrial complex of Ukraine is a branch of the national economy designed to ensure the production of sufficient food for the population at high quality. The basis of agricultural production is agriculture, the main subject of which is land. Today, agriculture in the country is experiencing a very serious problem associated with the rapid decline in potential soil fertility. The main material wealth of the country is fertile soils - chernozems, which make up a significant part of the country. Chernozems are extremely fertile and rich in organic matter such as humus, which creates agronomic conditions for growing a wide range of crops of plant origin. In recent years, a new direction in the formation of agriculture is emerging in the world, in fact, it is a new strategy based on the use of modern innovative tillage technologies and the development of combined units for their implementation. With such the latest trends in agriculture in the world, appropriate changes should be made in Ukraine, in particular the introduction of soil-saving and resource-saving tillage technologies. The work is devoted to the development of a mathematical model of the process of operation of the tillage unit for tillage technology as Strip-till. In order to reduce energy consumption for tillage, preserve the main indicator of soil fertility - humus and rational aggregation of energy products with tillage units, promising ways to reduce based on mathematical modeling and analysis of relationships between elements. The mathematical model of the process of operation of the tillage unit for the Strip-till technology in the technological system "Soil-unit-energy means" and the analysis of its intra-system dependences and connections are developed and substantiated.

ОБ ИТОГАХ МЕЖДУНАРОДНОЙ НАУЧНОЙ КОНФЕРЕНЦИИ «АГРОБИОТЕХНОЛОГИЯ-2021»

The article summarizes the outcomes of the International Scientific Conference “Agrobiotechnology- 2021”, which took place November 24–25, 2021, in Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. Scientists presented results of their research in the following sections: “Plant growing, grassland science, farming”, “Plant protection”, “Safety and quality of agricultural raw materials and food”, “Biotechnology, breeding and seed production of agricultural plants”, “Horticulture and medicinal plants”. The main emphasis was on the research on the development of resource-saving agro-biotechnologies. It is one of the priorities in implementing programs of the Russian Federation Government in the field of food safety till 2030 and tasks on the self-sufficiency of the country in primary domestic agricultural produce, raw material, and foodstuffs. The conference participants discussed the concept and prospects of organic farming in Russia, issues of crop production sustainability and its functioning, ways to overcome factors negatively affecting yield formation and crop quality. They tried to find ways to improve natural and old grasslands.The reserchers analyzed climate change and related cultivation technology and agronomic practices, soil cultivation methods, weed control, and herbicide use. The participants put forward theses on the importance of crop rotation combined with advanced farming practices.The conference addressed yield loss issues in crop production due to unfavorable conditions of the vegetation period: frost, drought, overwatering, and other stressful situations for plants.The participants suggested resource-saving, soil-protective, energy-saving techniques, and search for new environmentally safe plant seed growth stimulants. They discussed critical factors of plant nutrition and phytosanitary status of soils, soil formation. The conference addresses the challenges of global climate change associated with steadily increasing average annual temperatures, new breeding methods, and seed production as the basis of agricultural production.

Ecological paradigm of integrated plant management

Goal. Analysis and synthesis of the current state of development of integrated plant protection (Integrated Pest Management, IPM) in Europe and Ukraine. Methods System-analytical, abstract-logical, empirical. Results. The basis of agricultural production is the creation of artificial agro-ecosystems with the aim of obtaining the largest possible amount of products and profits per unit area. The productivity of agrobiocenosis is determined by the level of additional technological energy, a significant proportion of which are measures of protection against pests, plant diseases, and weeds. IPM is a reliable pest control paradigm all over the world and has been included in state policy and regulations in the European Union. In line with the EU Framework Directive 2009/128/EC, there are eight IPM principles that all EU members have to comply with strictly from January 2014. They include the prevention and suppression by nonchemical methods, pest monitoring, management. Biological, physical and other non-chemical methods should be used in the first place, and selective pesticides, which have a small negative impact on human health and on useful insects — only if necessary. In order to prevent the development of resistance in pest populations, the use of pesticides should be kept to a minimum by reducing the doses and frequency of their use and the pesticides should be used with different mechanisms of action. It is also important to evaluate the integrated plant protection program. Conclusions. In this paper, information on the history, concepts, principles, components, and methods of integrated plant protection in the world, as well as the application of these methods in Ukraine, was generalized. At present, the implementation of IPM principles in Ukraine is insufficient and requires a systematic approach and a joint action of many parties: scientists, farmers, specialists in the production and marketing of agricultural products, and politicians.

Pros and cons of furrow irrigation on smallholdings in northeast Brazil

Smallholder farming is the basis of agricultural production in developing regions. Irrigation improves the household livelihood and welfare of smallholders. Furrow irrigation is the most common type of irrigation on the small farms of public irrigation schemes set up in the Northeast of Brazil during the 1970s and 1980s. However, furrow irrigation triggers environmental problems related to deep percolation, runoff and soil erosion. The objective of this research was to determine how soil was lost from irrigation furrows as a result of their management and performance. Experiments were carried out in the Curú-Pentecoste irrigation scheme located in the state of Ceará, Brazil. Three inflow rates (corresponding to the three sizes of syphons used to apply water to the furrows) were compared on 60-m long furrows in the two predominant soil classes (sandy loam and silty clay loam) during 4 or 5 irrigation events throughout the irrigation season. Runoff represented between 20 and 70% of the water applied, carrying sediments amounting up to 2.8 Mg ha−1 in 4 irrigation events. Simple irrigation practices that could improve furrow irrigation performance in the scheme are suggested. However, the environmental problems of the furrow irrigation in practice seem inherent to the irrigation method used under those conditions. The paper discusses the adoption and performance of traditional and modern irrigation technology in smallholdings in developing regions.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ РЕГУЛЮВАННЯ РИНКУ ЗЕМЕЛЬ СІЛЬСЬКОГОСПОДАРСЬКОГО ПРИЗНАЧЕННЯ

Based on the analysis of land reforms that have taken place in world practice over the past century, the author proves that the market turnover of agricultural land is formed under the influence of two determined factors. On the one hand, it is the specific features of agricultural land, which is an indispensable strategic resource for food producers, is limited in space, irreproducible and cannot be a product in its classical meaning. On the other hand, land is the basis of agricultural production. However, agriculture performs not only an economic function, but also a social (national food independence, rural employment, population of rural settlements, and arrangement of rural areas) and environmental functions (protecting soils from pollution and degradation, supporting local agrolandscapes, etc.). In this context, the need for specific approaches to the market distribution of agricultural land is justified. Author analyzes foreign practice of the legislative regulation of agricultural land turnover with due regard to their economic and socio-ecological orientation. Also revealed are the consequences of the incompleteness of land reform in Ukraine, which are caused by the lack of definition of the requirements for land users, restrictions on land use, access to agricultural land for foreign companies, land market management and other aspects of land relations, and ways are proposed to address them.

A systemic approach for modeling soil functions

Abstract. The central importance of soil for the functioning of terrestrial systems is increasingly recognized. Critically relevant for water quality, climate control, nutrient cycling and biodiversity, soil provides more functions than just the basis for agricultural production. Nowadays, soil is increasingly under pressure as a limited resource for the production of food, energy and raw materials. This has led to an increasing demand for concepts assessing soil functions so that they can be adequately considered in decision-making aimed at sustainable soil management. The various soil science disciplines have progressively developed highly sophisticated methods to explore the multitude of physical, chemical and biological processes in soil. It is not obvious, however, how the steadily improving insight into soil processes may contribute to the evaluation of soil functions. Here, we present to a new systemic modeling framework that allows for a consistent coupling between reductionist yet observable indicators for soil functions with detailed process understanding. It is based on the mechanistic relationships between soil functional attributes, each explained by a network of interacting processes as derived from scientific evidence. The non-linear character of these interactions produces stability and resilience of soil with respect to functional characteristics. We anticipate that this new conceptional framework will integrate the various soil science disciplines and help identify important future research questions at the interface between disciplines. It allows the overwhelming complexity of soil systems to be adequately coped with and paves the way for steadily improving our capability to assess soil functions based on scientific understanding.

Forage production, environmental management and agroecology

Кормопроизводство имеет важнейшее значение в сельском хозяйстве, рациональном природопользовании и экологии. Основы системы продовольственной и экологической безопасности России лежат в сельском хозяйстве, рациональном природопользовании и сбалансированном развитии отечественного растениеводства, животноводства, земледелия, оптимизации структуры посевных площадей, севооборотов и агроландшафтов. Продовольственная и экологическая безопасность страны тесно взаимосвязаны. Основную часть продуктов питания (98–99 %, в т. ч. 87 % белков) люди получают, используя агроландшафты (сельскохозяйственные земли, почвы) для земледелия, растениеводства и животноводства. Сельское хозяйство даёт человеку пищу, но вместе с тем разрушает землю, саму основу сельскохозяйственного производства и основу нашей среды обитания. В современных условиях развития АПК при острой нехватке средств и материальных ресурсов решение проблемы обеспечения продовольственной и экологической безопасности должно базироваться на максимальном использовании природно-климатических ресурсов, биологических и экологических факторов. Кормопроизводство, самая масштабная, многофункциональная, связующая отрасль сельского хозяйства, во многом определяет состояние животноводства и оказывает существенное влияние на дальнейшее развитие всей отрасли растениеводства, земледелия, рациональное природопользование, повышение устойчивости агроэкосистем и агроландшафтов к воздействию климата и негативных процессов, сохранение ценных сельскохозяйственных угодий и воспроизводство плодородия почв, улучшение экологического состояния территорий и охраны окружающей среды. Кормопроизводство объединяет, связывает в единую систему все отрасли сельского хозяйства и предоставляет огромные преимущества для их развития. Животноводству оно даёт корма, растениеводству — продуктивность всех культур, земледелию — плодородие почв, сельскохозяйственным землям — продуктивность и устойчивость. Оно также обеспечивает эффективное управление сельскохозяйственными землями и рациональное природопользование, поддерживает в сельском хозяйстве необходимый баланс отраслей. Fodder production is very important for agriculture, environmental management and ecology. The bases of Russian food and ecological security are agriculture, environmental management, balanced development of crop production, animal husbandry, arable farming and optimization of field structure, crop rotation and agrolandscape. Food and ecological securities are closely connected. The main part of food products (98–99 %, including 87 % of protein) people have got by using agrolandscapes (farm lands, soils) for arable farming, crop production and animal husbandry. Agriculture supplies people with food, yet at the same time destroys lands – the basis of agricultural production and environment. Under current conditions of agroindustrial complex development and strong deficit of money and resources improving food and ecological security has to be based on maximum usage of natural and climatic resources as well as biological and ecological factors. Forage production is the largest multi-functional branch of agriculture. It affects all the agricultural spheres, integrating them beneficially into a single system. Due to forage production animal husbandry has got feeds, crop production – crop productivity, arable farming – soil fertility, farm lands – productivity and resistance. It also provides effective management of farm lands and environment, maintaining the required balance between all the branches.

Role of NINJA in root jasmonate signaling

Wound responses in plants have to be coordinated between organs so that locally reduced growth in a wounded tissue is balanced by appropriate growth elsewhere in the body. We used a JASMONATE ZIM DOMAIN 10 (JAZ10) reporter to screen for mutants affected in the organ-specific activation of jasmonate (JA) signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings. Wounding one cotyledon activated the reporter in both aerial and root tissues, and this was either disrupted or restricted to certain organs in mutant alleles of core components of the JA pathway including COI1, OPR3, and JAR1. In contrast, three other mutants showed constitutive activation of the reporter in the roots and hypocotyls of unwounded seedlings. All three lines harbored mutations in Novel Interactor of JAZ (NINJA), which encodes part of a repressor complex that negatively regulates JA signaling. These ninja mutants displayed shorter roots mimicking JA-mediated growth inhibition, and this was due to reduced cell elongation. Remarkably, this phenotype and the constitutive JAZ10 expression were still observed in backgrounds lacking the ability to synthesize JA or the key transcriptional activator MYC2. Therefore, JA-like responses can be recapitulated in specific tissues without changing a plant's ability to make or perceive JA, and MYC2 either has no role or is not the only derepressed transcription factor in ninja mutants. Our results show that the role of NINJA in the root is to repress JA signaling and allow normal cell elongation. Furthermore, the regulation of the JA pathway differs between roots and aerial tissues at all levels, from JA biosynthesis to transcriptional activation.

Applying Rough Set Theory to Evaluate Network Marketing Performance of China’s Agricultural Products

Agricultural products network marketing means fully introducing e-commerce systems into the sale process of agricultural products, using information technologies to publish and collect the demand and price information, and relying on agricultural production bases and logistics distribution systems to enhance brand images, improve customer services, develop online marketing channels and ultimately expand marketing activities . I t is very important to evaluate the performance of agricultural products network marketing. The paper proposed a performance evaluation model of agricultural products network marketing based on rough set theory. The model used genetic algorithm to reduce the initial decision table and, through calculating the importance of the decision attributes in the reduced decision table, identified the weight coefficients of various influencing indexes, effectively overcoming the subjectivity of weight coefficient determination in the current evaluation models. In the same time, the paper evaluated the network marketing performance of six agricultural enterprises and the results were in line with the actual results, which verified the validity of the proposed evaluation model. Lastly, the paper, according to the reduced results of the initial index system, proposed specific measures and suggestions to improve the network marketing performance of agricultural products.

Chernozem soils of Novosibirsk oblast: Problems of their rational use and preservation

The virgin and ploughed chernozems of the cis-Altai and West Siberian forest-steppe soil provinces are the “gold” reserves of Novosibirsk oblast; they form a solid basis of agricultural production of the most highly developed area in West Siberia. However the Novosibirsk chernozems are subject to an enhancing erosive destruction. Such detrimental phenomena have been increasingly pronounced in the areas where the most valuable chernozems, leached and podzolized, are predominant. Therefore measures on soil conservation and natural-economic management are gaining in importance.