Main Arable Crops Research Articles

The causes of differences between the average agricultural land prices of hungarian counties

Currently, there are significant differences between the average per hectare agricultural land prices of Hungarian counties. In this study, I endeavour to identify the causes of the price differentials by using a regression model. The data employed in the analysis relate to the years 2013, 2016 and 2020, and cover all of the 19 counties. The average yields of the main arable crops and the per capita GDP values of counties have a vigorous positive effect on land prices. Much like in numerous pieces of earlier research, it is demonstrated that larger average farm size also increases the price of agricultural land. Land prices are considerably higher in lowland areas with a smaller density of settlements than in otherwise similar but hilly or montainous regions, where there are more settlements. During the 2010s, agricultural land prices in Hungary grew dynamically. The rise of per capita GDP, average farm size and farm output per unit area played an important part in this, but perhaps the most consequential factor was the rise of the yields of the chief arable crops. The spectacular growth trend of average yields is attributable, above all, to the advance of agrotechnology. Since the fall of communism, Hungarian agriculture has shifted more and more towards intensive cereal production. Apparently, technological development has enhanced the profitability of cereal production relative to the other branches of agriculture, and it has thus raised the values of plots located in areas most suitable for arable farming.

Can big data explain yield variability and water productivity in intensive cropping systems?

Abstract Yield gaps and water productivity are key indicators to monitor the progress towards more sustainable and productive cropping systems. Individual farmers are collecting increasing amounts of data (‘big data’), which can help monitor the process of sustainable intensification at local level. In this study, we build upon such data to quantify the magnitude and identify the biophysical and management determinants of on-farm yield gaps and water productivity for the main arable crops cultivated in the Netherlands. The analysis focused on ware, seed and starch potatoes, sugar beet, spring onion, winter wheat and spring barley and covered the period 2015–2017. A crop modelling approach based on crop coefficients (kc) and daily weather data was used to estimate the potential yield (Yp), radiation intercepted and potential evapotranspiration (ETP) for each crop. Yield gaps were estimated to be ca. 10% of Yp for sugar beet, 25–30% of Yp for ware, seed and starch potato and spring barley, and 35–40% of Yp for spring onion and winter wheat. Variation in actual yields was associated with water availability in key periods of the growing season as well as with sowing and harvest dates. However, the R2 of the fitted regressions was rather low (20–49%). Current levels of crop water productivity ranged between 13 kg DM ha−1 mm−1 for spring barley, ca. 15 kg DM ha−1 mm−1 for seed potato, spring onion and winter wheat, 23 kg DM ha−1 mm−1 for ware potato and ca. 25 kg DM ha−1 mm−1 for starch potato and sugar beet. These values are about half of their potential, but increasing actual water productivity further is restricted by rainfall amount and distribution. However, doing so should not be prioritized over reducing environmental impacts of these intensive cropping systems in the short-term and may require large investments from farm to regional levels in the long-term. Although these findings are most relevant to similar cropping systems in NW Europe, the underlying methods are generic and can be used to benchmark crop performance in other cropping systems. Based on this work, we argue that ‘big data’ are currently most useful to describe cropping systems at regional scale and derive benchmarks of farm performance but not as much to predict and explain crop yield variability in time and space.

Scientific evidence for sustainable plant disease protection strategies for the main arable crops in Sweden. A systematic map protocol

BackgroundEfficient and sustainable plant protection is of great economic and ecological significance for global crop production. A number of challenges, e.g. climate change, population growth and global trade, put increasing demands on future crop production and crop protection. This necessitates an increase in crop productivity with less environmental impact while maintaining good food quality and food security. To meet these challenges, it is essential that the recommendations provided to growers are efficient and correct, which can only be ensured by evidence-based recommendations based on outcomes from scientific studies.Methods and outputThe aim of these systematic maps is to compile scientific evidence for different plant disease protection strategies for the main arable crops grown in Sweden. Six major crops (wheat, barley, oat, potato, sugar beet and oilseed rape) have been selected based on the area under production, the annual production, the economic importance, and the amount of pesticide used against diseases in these crops in Sweden. All methods to manage diseases will be considered, including cropping system, pesticide application, biological control methods, as well as combinations of methods and integrated pest management. These systematic maps will only deal with field studies of relevance for agricultural practices in Sweden, although we expect that the results will be applicable for northern Europe as a whole. The main outcome to be used will be productivity measured as yield per area. Plant health and pathogen reduction will be included as a proxy for potential increase in crop quality and yield. This will provide a systematic overview of the plant disease protection measures that have been reported in the scientific literature. The study will result in one searchable database per crop that may be used as a catalogue of evidence for researchers and stakeholders, especially authorities and advisory organizations. The systematic maps will aid in the identification of areas that need further research and guide funding agencies and policymakers when deciding where research resources should be allocated. It will also help to select topics for future systematic reviews and meta-studies within the field of plant protection.

The EU Argentinean Trade Dispute on Biodiesel: An Economic Assessment

Argentina has a long record of taxing agricultural exports. In 2013, the European Commission started to impose antidumping duties on exports of Argentinean biodiesel. They were considered being dumped due to reduced export taxes compared to those applied to soybean oil exports. The objective of this paper is to analyze the economic consequences of these Argen-tinean differential taxes on the European biodiesel and related sectors. Thanks to an original model sim-ulating the world markets of main arable crops, we first analyze the results of an increase of the export tax on biodiesel only. We then simulate the conse-quences of a reduction of export taxes on soybean products. Finally, we assess the impacts of the overall Argentinean policy of differentiated taxation of agri-cultural exports. One main conclusion is that Europe-an biodiesel producers are relatively more penalized than biodiesel producers in other countries by the current Argentinean policy, due to a relatively greater production of rapeseed. US and Brazilian producers suffer from welfare losses in all scenarios due to the indirect effects on soybean markets. The welfare im-pacts on consumers and taxpayers are often opposite to the welfare impacts on producers, leading to small global welfare effects.

Simulating the environmental performance of post-harvest management measures to comply with the EU Nitrates Directive

Nitrate (NO3−) leaching from farmland remains the predominant source of nitrogen (N) loads to European ground- and surface water. As soil mineral N content at harvest is often high and may increase by mineralisation from crop residues and soil organic matter, it is critical to understand which post-harvest management measures can be taken to restrict the average NO3− concentration in ground- and surface waters below the norm of 50 mg l−1. Nitrate leaching was simulated with the EU-rotate_N model on a silty and a sandy soil following the five main arable crops cultivated in Flanders: cut grassland, silage maize, potatoes, sugar beets and winter wheat, in scenarios of optimum fertilisation with and without post-harvest measures. We compared the average NO3− concentration in the leaching water at a depth of 90 cm in these scenarios after dividing it by a factor of 2.1 to include natural attenuation processes occurring during transport towards ground- and surface water. For cut grassland, the average attenuated NO3− concentration remained below the norm on both soils. In order to comply with the Nitrates Directive, post-harvest measures seemed to be necessary on sandy soils for the four other crops and on silty soils for silage maize and for potatoes. Successful measures appeared to be the early sowing of winter crops after harvesting winter wheat, the undersowing of grass in silage maize and the removal of sugar beet leaves. Potatoes remained a problematic crop as N uptake by winter crops was insufficient to prevent excessive NO3− leaching. For each crop, maximum levels of soil mineral N content at harvest were proposed, both with and without additional measures, which could be used in future nutrient legislation. The approach taken here could be upscaled from the field level to the subcatchment level to see how different crops could be arranged within a subcatchment to permit the cultivation of problem crops without adversely affecting the water quality in such a subcatchment.

Lack of evidence for a decrease in synthetic pesticide use on the main arable crops in France

The frequent, widespread use of pesticides in agriculture adversely affects biodiversity, human health, and water quality. In 2008, the French government adopted an environmental policy plan, “Ecophyto 2018”, to halve pesticide use within 10years. Trends in synthetic pesticide sales and use in France were described, through three different indicators: the number of unit doses (NUD), the quantity of active ingredient (QAI), and the treatment frequency index (TFI). Changes in pesticide use on seven of the principal arable crops in France since the implementation of this policy plan were analyzed, together with the impact of changes in pesticide use on water quality. No evidence was found for a decrease in pesticide sales at national level between 2008 and 2013. In terms of the TFI values for individual crops, the only decrease in pesticide use observed since 2001 was for soft wheat. This decrease was very slight, and pesticide use did not decline more rapidly after 2006 than before. Changes in pesticide use differed between French regions and crops. Water pollution did not decrease during the period studied. Possible explanations for the lack of effectiveness of the French environmental plan are considered in the context of European legislation.

The role and impact of N-Lock (N-stabilizer) to the utilization of N in the main arable crops

The nitrogen stabilizer called N-Lock can be used primarily with solid and liquid urea, UAN and other liquid nitrogen, slurry and manure. In corn it can be applied incorporated before sowing or with row-cultivator or applied with postemergent timing in tank-mix. In postemergent timing need precipitation for long effect. In oil seed rape and autumn cereals the N-Lock should be applied with liquid nitrogen in tank mix late winter or early spring (February-March). The dose rate is 2.5 l/ha. N-Lock increases the yield of maize, winter oil seed rape, winter wheat and winter barley 5-20 %. The yield increasing can be given the thousand grain weight. In case of high doses of nitrogen it can be observed higher yield. The quality parameter also improved, especially the oil content of winter oil seed rape and protein and gluten contents of winter wheat. The use of N-Lock increases the nitrogen retention of soil and reduces nitrate leaching towards the groundwater and the greenhouse effect gas emissions into the atmosphere. The degradation of the applied nitrogen is slowing down and the plant can uptake more nitrogen in long period. The effect of N-Lock the nitrogen is located in the upper soil layer of 0-30 cm and increasing the ammonium nitrogen form. The product can be mixed with herbicide products in main arable crops.

A new baseline of organic carbon stock in European agricultural soils using a modelling approach

Proposed European policy in the agricultural sector will place higher emphasis on soil organic carbon (SOC), both as an indicator of soil quality and as a means to offset CO2 emissions through soil carbon (C) sequestration. Despite detailed national SOC data sets in several European Union (EU) Member States, a consistent C stock estimation at EU scale remains problematic. Data are often not directly comparable, different methods have been used to obtain values (e.g. sampling, laboratory analysis) and access may be restricted. Therefore, any evolution of EU policies on C accounting and sequestration may be constrained by a lack of an accurate SOC estimation and the availability of tools to carry out scenario analysis, especially for agricultural soils. In this context, a comprehensive model platform was established at a pan-European scale (EU+Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Norway) using the agro-ecosystem SOC model CENTURY. Almost 164000 combinations of soil-climate-land use were computed, including the main arable crops, orchards and pasture. The model was implemented with the main management practices (e.g. irrigation, mineral and organic fertilization, tillage) derived from official statistics. The model results were tested against inventories from the European Environment and Observation Network (EIONET) and approximately 20000 soil samples from the 2009 LUCAS survey, a monitoring project aiming at producing the first coherent, comprehensive and harmonized top-soil data set of the EU based on harmonized sampling and analytical methods. The CENTURY model estimation of the current 0-30cm SOC stock of agricultural soils was 17.63Gt; the model uncertainty estimation was below 36% in half of the NUTS2 regions considered. The model predicted an overall increase of this pool according to different climate-emission scenarios up to 2100, with C loss in the south and east of the area (involving 30% of the whole simulated agricultural land) compensated by a gain in central and northern regions. Generally, higher soil respiration was offset by higher C input as a consequence of increased CO2 atmospheric concentration and favourable crop growing conditions, especially in northern Europe. Considering the importance of SOC in future EU policies, this platform of simulation appears to be a very promising tool to orient future policymaking decisions.

Twenty‐five years of monitoring pH and nutrient status of soils in England and Wales

Abstract.The Representative Soil Sampling Scheme of England and Wales was started in 1969. During the 25 year period 1969–1993 mean soil pH values under arable and ley‐arable cropping changed little, but under grassland they fell by 0.3 units. Under arable cropping, mean available phosphorus declined whilst available potassium increased fairly steeply for the first eight years then declined again to near the start value by 1993. No significant changes in soil phosphorus and potassium levels were found under ley‐arable cropping, but the percentage of fields under ley‐arable rotations declined from 33% to 14%. Under grassland, phosphorus and potassium levels both declined, although potassium levels rose initially before falling.For this report England and Wales were also divided into five regions. Wales and the West Country had the lowest pH values; these regions together with the Northern region were also found to have declining pH values. Phosphorus and potassium concentrations have been falling in the Northern region which stands out as having the lowest current potassium status with 20% of all fields deficient at index 0.Changes in pH and nutrients are discussed for soils sampled following the main arable crops. The largest changes found were the reductions in phosphorus and potassium in soils after potatoes. In 1993 almost one in ten sugarbeet crop soils had an excessive phosphorus level (index 5+) giving an increased risk of water pollution by this element.Under arable cropping the proportion of soils with low (< 1.8%) organic matter declined. Average soil organic matter levels for all crops and grass have remained static during the period. It is concluded that agricultural soils in England and Wales have not contributed to an increase in the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

Fate of nitrogen fertilizer applied on two main arables crops, winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) and sugar beet (Beta vulgaris) in the loam region of Belgium

Since 1986, the fate of fertilizer N (NH4NO3 or NaNO3) applied in field conditions on two main arable crops, winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) and sugar beet (Beta vulgaris), has been studied using 15N. Up to a rate of 200 kg ha-1 of N, mean recovery of fertilizer by winter wheat was 70%, provided it had been split applied. Single application (with or without dicyandiamid) was less effective. For sugar beet, in 1990, 1991 and 1992, 40% of fertilizer N was found in the crop at harvest when NH4NO3 had been broadcast at 100 to 160 kg N ha-1 at sowing time. For the same N rate, recovery was 50% when row applied near the seeds and 60% for 80 kg N ha-1. For the two experimental crops, residual fertilizer N in soil was exclusively organic. It ranged from 15 to 30% of applied N and was located in the 30 cm upper layer. Losses were generally lower with winter wheat (12%) than with sugar beet (20–40%) and could be ascribed to volatilization and denitrification. Soil derived N taken up by the plant was site and year dependent.

Recent changes in arable crop production in England and Wales

European Community, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has stimulated and accelerated changes in British farming, especially in the arable sector. The current, seemingly intractable problem of overproduction of major foods facing the Community will undoubtedly result in further significant changes. The aim of this paper is to review the present situation in England and Wales and to describe the shifts in production and distribution of the main arable crops over the 1973-66 period. The development of ‘alternative’ crops, including cereals, vegetable oil and protein crops, is also examined.