Single Crop Research Articles

Peanut residue incorporation benefits crop yield, nitrogen yield, and water use efficiency of summer peanut – winter wheat systems

Summer peanut – winter wheat is considered a feasible alternative to the traditional summer maize – winter wheat on the North China Plain, and it has great potential to maintain crop yield and reduce environmental costs. However, the yield, water consumption, and nitrogen utilization of subsequent wheat responses to peanut residue incorporation are not well-documented. Thus, a two-year field experiment with peanut root, shoot, and total residue incorporations, as well as a control with no residue, was established for the summer peanut – winter wheat cropping system. Peanut residue incorporation had no significant yield benefits for subsequent wheat and subsequent peanut, compared with no peanut residue input. The wheat yield was positively correlated with previous peanut yield, due to complementary utilization of residual nitrogen and water resources. Therefore, residue incorporation increased the annual yield of the summer peanut – winter wheat system by 5–13%, decreased the annual evapotranspiration by 3–12%, and boosted annual water use efficiency by 8–26%. Yield increases caused by peanut residue incorporation were detected only from the perspective of multiple cropping systems rather than single crop seasons. This indicated that at least two crop seasons were needed to verify the effects of residue incorporation on the North China Plain. Remarkably, no significant differences in yield, nitrogen yield, or wheat equivalent yield were detected between root and total residue incorporations. This clearly indicates that shoot removal has a negligible effect on the annual crop yield and performance of the summer peanut – winter wheat system. In conclusion, the yield benefits of legume residue incorporation are mainly attributed to the belowground residue, and the benefits may be underestimated when only one crop season after residue retention was investigated.

Crop Diversification of Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) based Cropping System for High Resource Use Efficiency

Background: Cotton production is labour intensive in almost all the developing countries where it is picked by hand. However, due to acute labour shortage in recent times, mechanized harvesting is gaining momentum. Mechanized harvesting requires the application of defoliants, which reduces the cost of labour used for picking cotton and maximum cotton can be picked in a single pick (one picking) and providing timely sowing of next crop. So, farmers can get benefit of two crops instead of one single long duration cotton crop. Researchers have conducted various studies on defoliation in cotton using different chemicals and different defoliation methods. However, in India their usage could not be exploited much due to their limited availability. Methods: A field experiment entitled “Studies on defoliants in high density planting cotton-greengram sequence” was conducted during 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 on clay soils at Agricultural College Farm, Bapatla. Crop diversification of cotton with pulses (Greengram) is an alternative cropping system for monocropping of cotton to get higher returns and high land use efficiency. Result: Total cotton equivalent yield was highest with dropp ultra @ 250 ml ha-1 (D1) which was on par with Etherel @ 3000 ppm (D3) in 2018 and in pooled data. 80% boll opening recorded maximum total cotton equivalent yield, which was on par with node above cracked boll. Land use efficiency and production use efficiency were highest in late sown (80% boll opening) plots. The highest net returns and returns per rupee investment were noticed with application of defoliant dropp ultra @ 250 ml ha-1 (D1) and at 80% boll opening.

Monitoring Complex Integrated Crop–Livestock Systems at Regional Scale in Brazil: A Big Earth Observation Data Approach

Due to different combinations of agriculture, livestock and forestry managed by rotation, succession and intercropping practices, integrated agriculture production systems such as integrated crop–livestock systems (iCL) constitute a very complex target and a challenge for automatic mapping of cropping practices based on remote sensing data. The overall objective of this study was to develop a classification strategy for the annual mapping of integrated Crop–Livestock systems (iCL) at a regional scale. This strategy was designed and tested in the six agro-climatic regions of Mato Grosso, the largest Brazilian soybean producer state, using MODIS satellite time-series images acquired between 2012 and 2019, ground data with heterogeneous distribution in space and time and a Random Forest classifier. The results showed that: 1. the use of unbalanced training samples with a class composition close to the real one was the right classifier training strategy; 2. the use of a single training database (pooling samples from different years and regions) to classify each region and year individually proved to be robust enough to provide similar classification accuracies in comparison to those based on the use of a database acquired for each region and for each year. The final hierarchical classification overall accuracy was 0.89 for Level 1, the cropping pattern level (single and double crops DC); 0.84 for Level 2, the DC category level (integrated system iCL soy-pasture/brachiaria, soy-cotton and soy-cereal); 0.77 for Level 3, the iCL level (iCL1 soy-pasture and iCL2 soy-pasture mixed with corn). The F-scores for DC, iCL and iCL1 cropping systems presented high accuracy (0.89, 0.85 and 0.84), while iCL2 was more difficult to classify (0.63). This approach will next be applied across the entire Brazilian soybean corridor, leading to an operational tool for monitoring the adoption of sustainable intensification practices recognized by Brazil’s Agriculture Low Carbon Plan (ABC PLAN).

Sesuvium portulacastrum mitigates salinity induced by irrigation with paper and pulp mill effluent

ABSTRACT Sea purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum) was cultivated for two 90-day sequences at two spacings, and with various soil amendments, to evaluate its potential to arrest the increase in soil salinity and sodicity associated with irrigation using paper- and pulp-mill effluent. Its phytodesalination capacity (PDC) with respect to Na ranged from 162 to 226 kg/ha in the first sequence and 167 to 250 kg/ha in the second sequence; the PDC is reliable even under drought stress. Addition of amendments, in particular pressmud compost, increased the average Na+ uptake by 38%, leading to the highest PDC of 250 kg/ha for a single crop sequence.

Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and ammonia volatilization from cotton fields by integrating cover crops with reduced use of nitrogen fertilizer

Winter cover crop cultivation during the fallow season has been strongly recommended in single crop cropping systems to improve soil quality, but its impact on the soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the soil has not been extensively studied. This study aimed to investigate the effects of replacing traditional winter fallow with a cover crop combined with a reduced amount of nitrogen (N) fertilizer on ammonia (NH3) volatilization, GHG emissions, and cotton production yield. A field experiment was performed with two cropping systems (a single cotton system and February orchid (Orychophragmus violaceus L.) incorporated into a single cotton cropping system) and four N levels (0, 112.5, 168.75 and 225.0 kg N ha−1). The results showed that the incorporation of February orchid increased cotton yield, nitrous oxide (N2O) emission, NH3 volatilization, global warming potential (GWP), and net ecosystem carbon budget (NECB) under the same N application rate. Moreover, the NH3, N2O, GWP, yield GWP, and NECB increased with an increasing N application rate. Furthermore, the correlation and redundancy analysis (RDA) results indicated that N2O emissions and NH3 volatilization were positively affected by soil NO3- -N, total nitrogen (TN) and lint cotton yield. Overall, compared with the single cropping of cotton with conventional fertilization, the incorporation of February orchid with a 25% reduction in the N application rate decreased NH3 volatilization by 1.05 kg NH3-N ha−1 and N2O losses by 0.34 kg N2O-N ha−1 and resulted in a favorable cotton yield. Our results demonstrate that replacing traditional winter fallow with a cover crop combined with a N fertilizer reduction may help to mitigate soil GHG emissions and NH3 volatilization while ensuring yield in cotton production. In future studies, the evaluation of cropping system GHG emissions should be considered from a life-cycle perspective, and attention should be given to the legacy impacts of N.

Optimal Annual Allocation Model of Large Storage Based Irrigation Project by Multi Level Approach

The effective management of water available for irrigation in arid and semi-arid regions has increased in importance due to limited water supply. The need for allocation of water resources optimally in a water limiting condition has already been recognized, and much research has been carried out. In the present study, an annual irrigation planning model is formulated for Nagarjuna Sagar Project command in the semi-arid region of South India dealing with optimal allocation of annual available water among command areas of each main canal taking off from the reservoir and reallocating the available land and water of each command area to different seasons of a year and finally allocating the available land and water of each season among crops grown in that season, maximizing the total annual benefit of the project. The problem is solved in three stages. In the first stage, fortnightly crop water requirements are calculated from the evapotranspiration model by Penman – Monteith method. In the second stage, seasonal crop water production functions are developed using the single crop intraseasonal allocation model for each crop of all seasons. In the third stage, allocations of area and water are made at seasonal, interseasonal and at reservoir levels by deterministic dynamic programming, maximizing the net annual benefit from the project. Optimal cropping pattern and irrigation water allocations are made with full and deficit irrigation strategies for various levels of probability of exceedences of expected annual water available and results obtained are discussed.

Better performance of organic than conventional tomato varieties in single and mixed cropping

ABSTRACT Replacing traditional crop varieties with commercial, high-yielding varieties during the last decades is one of the main drivers for the decline in farmland and crop diversity. However, it is unclear how commercial, high-yielding varieties adapt to less environmental conditions such as weed pressure and mixed cropping cultivation systems. In Europe, organic breeding organizations conserve local, traditional varieties and develop new varieties under low-input conditions, aiming at increasing the range of varieties adapted to harsh cultivation conditions and mixed cropping. To evaluate whether organic varieties (i) cope better with weed pressure and (ii) have a higher adaptability to mixed cropping, we compared the agronomic and quality performance of eight organic varieties with eight commercial, high-yielding varieties, focusing on tomato, the economically most important vegetable in the EU. Each group was cultivated as single plants and in a mixed cropping system, respectively, with a legume and with or without exposure to weed stress by a grass. The organic group outperformed the commercial, high-yielding group, specifically, in mixed cropping systems. Weed stress lowered the yield of both groups, but the organic group showed higher fruit weight stability across the varieties than the commercial, high-yielding varieties when grown as single plants under weed stress.

Estimation of direct-seeded guayule cover, crop coefficient, and yield using UAS-based multispectral and RGB data

Guayule (Parthenium argentatum, A. Gray), a perennial desert shrub, produces high-quality natural rubber and is targeted as a domestic natural rubber source in the U.S. While commercialization efforts for guayule are on-going, crop management requires plant growth monitoring, irrigation requirement assessment, and final yield estimation. Such assistance for guayule management could be provided with remote sensing (RS) data. In this study, field and RS data, collected via drones, from a 2-year guayule irrigation experiment conducted at Maricopa, Arizona were evaluated. In-season field measurements included fractional canopy cover (fc), basal (Kcb) and single (Kc) crop coefficients, and final yields of dry biomass (DB), rubber (RY), and resin (ReY). The objectives of this paper were to compare vegetations indices from MS data (NDVI) and RGB data (triangular greenness index, TGI); and derive linear prediction models for estimating fc, Kcb, Kc, and yield as functions of the MS and RGB indices. The NDVI and TGI showed similar seasonal trends and were correlated at a coefficient of determination (r2) of 0.52 and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.11. The prediction of measured fc as a linear function of NDVI (r2 = 0.90) was better than by TGI (r2 = 0.50). In contrast to TGI, the measured fc was highly correlated with estimated fc based on RGB image evaluation (r2 = 0.96). Linear models of Kcb and Kc, developed over the two years of guayule growth, had similar r2 values vs NDVI (r2 = 0.46 and 0.41, respectively) and vs TGI (r2 = 0.48 and 0.40, respectively). Final DB, RY, and ReY were predicted by both NDVI (r2 = 0.75, 0.53, and 0.70, respectively) and TGI (r2 = 0.72, 0.48, and 0.65, respectively). The RS-based models enable estimation of irrigation requirements and yields in guayule production fields in the U.S.

Assessment of Seasonal Drought Impact on Potato in the Northern Single Cropping Area of China

Drought is one of the key limiting factors for potato yield in the northern single cropping area (NSCA) in China. To analyze the impact of drought on potato yield in the NSCA, this study first analyzed the variation of dry/wet conditions in the plantable areas on a seasonal scale using the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI). Secondly, the changes in yield structure in the last 36 years were systematically analyzed and divided the total yield change into planting area contribution and climate yield contribution. Finally, a regression model of the seasonal drought index and contributing factors of total yield change in different administrative regions was constructed. The results showed that the main factors affecting the total potato yield of the NSCA began to change from yield to planting area in the 1990s, while the barycenter of the output structure and population moved to the southwest, with grassland being the main source; dry/wet conditions (year i) had varying degrees of effect on contributing factors (year i, year i + 1) of total yield change in different administrative regions that were not limited to the growing season; the non-overlap of high-yield area, high-adaptability area and planting area was the urgent problem to be solved for the NSCA. The results of this study can provide a scientific basis for NSCA crop management and communication with farmers, providing new ideas for sustainable production in other agricultural regions in the world.

Evaluating Branched Broomrape (Phelipanche ramosa) Management Strategies in California Processing Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum).

Detections of the regulated noxious parasitic weed branched broomrape (Phelipanche ramosa) in California tomato fields have led to interest in eradication, sanitation, and management practices. Researchers in Israel developed a decision-support system and herbicide treatment regime for management of Egyptian broomrape (P. aegyptiaca) in tomato. Research was conducted in 2019 and 2020 to evaluate whether similar treatments could be used to manage branched broomrape in California processing tomatoes and to provide registration support data for the herbicide use pattern. Treatment programs based on preplant incorporated (PPI) sulfosulfuron and chemigated imazapic were evaluated in 2019 and 2020 to determine safety on the processing tomato crop and on common rotational crops. Three single-season tomato safety experiments were conducted and a single rotational crop study was conducted in which a tomato crop received herbicide treatments in 2019 and several common rotational crops were planted and evaluated in 2020 in a site without branched broomrape. In 2020, an efficacy study was conducted in a commercial tomato field known to be infested with branched broomrape to evaluate the efficacy of PPI sulfosulfuron and chemigated imazapic, imazapyr, imazethapyr, and imazamox. After two field seasons, sulfosulfuron and imazapic appeared to have reasonable crop safety on tomato in California; however, rotational crop restrictions will need to be considered if sulfosulfuron is used to manage branched broomrape. In the efficacy study, there was a trend in which the sulfosulfuron and imidazolinone treatments had fewer broomrape shoots per plot than the grower standard treatments, however, none were fully effective and there were no significant differences among the various sulfosulfuron and imidazolinone treatment combinations. Additional research is needed to optimize the treatment timing for management of branched broomrape in this cropping system. Because of registration barriers with imazapic in the California market, future research will focus on treatment combinations of PPI sulfosulfuron and chemigated imazamox rather than imazapic.

Assessment of Prioritized Climate Smart Agricultural Practices and Technologies of Household Farmers in Southeast, Nigeria

The study assessed prioritized climate smart agricultural (CSA) practices and technologies of household farmers in Southeast, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to isolate 326 household farmers who participated on the study. Data collection was done using research instrument (questionnaire). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed for data analysis. Results indicated that majority of the respondents were females, had secondary education, and had household size of 9 persons with a mean age of 48 years and 19 years of farming experience. Temperature variation (3.85), increase in number of sunny days (3.50), increase in amount of rainfall (3.10), variation in rainfall pattern (3.56), decrease in total rainfall (3.21), increase in frequency of heavy rains (2.85), etc were seriously perceived as climate change effects in the area. Again, various prioritized CSA practices and technologies such as growing a single crop, using a mixture of appropriately chosen genotypes of a given species (46.6%), use of quality seeds and planting materials of well-adapted crops and varieties (77.9%), crop rotation and diversity (41.1%) integrated pest management (47.5%), improved water use and management (26.4%), etc. were adopted by the farmers in mitigating climate change effects. Climate threats identified in the area include, decrease in overall productivity due to increased extreme weather events (0.97), decrease in crop production due to changes in average rainfall (0.94), decrease crop production due to increase in temperatures and rainfall variability (0.79), rapid migration of some pests and diseases (0.72), etc. Lack of access to up to-date information (2.88), access to micro-finance and insurance (2.57), access to agricultural input and output markets (2.14), etc. constrained the adoption of CSA practices. Age, education, occupation, years in farming experience further influenced the adoption of CSA practices and technologies. Policy motions in propagating climate change awareness through the mass media were recommended.

Variation in actual corn (Zea mays L.) evapotranspiration, single, and dual crop coefficient under different point source irrigation systems in a semiarid region

Close management of irrigation could have considerable impacts on water resources, especially for cropping systems dominated by corn. The experiment was carried out to compare the influence of porous capsule irrigation (PCI), surface drip irrigation (DI), and subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) systems, with or without mulching, on actual evapotranspiration (ETc act), crop coefficients (Kc single and Kc dual), biomass yield, and water use efficiency (WUE) of corn in a semiarid region of Iran. The experiment was arranged in a split-plot design with the three irrigation systems assigned to the main plots and two mulching (with or without foil type) treatments (M1 and M2) assigned to the sub-plots. The corn ETc act varied significantly (P < 0.05) with the different irrigation systems, being (mm) 389.8 for PCI, 377.0 for DI, and 372.8 for SDI. The highest Kc average and Kcb (0.82 and 1.22) and the lowest Ke (0.12) were observed under the PCI system. The dry and wet biological biomass yields were highest (29.98 and 107 t/ha) under the PCI + M1 treatment, and the lowest (23.19 and 58.54 t/ha, respectively) were under the DI + M2 treatment. The highest WUE (7.89 kg/m3) was also observed under the PCI + M1 treatment; PCI produced the best biological biomass yield, WUE and IWUE in comparison to DI and SDI systems. Accordingly, the PCI system could be a viable alternative to drip irrigation for areas with scarce water resources, particularly for smallholder farmers.

Evaluation &amp; Development of Cultivation Techniques of Rainfed Maize + Sweet Potato Inter-Cropping under Indian North-Western Himalaya

Maize (Zea maize L.) is grown for human food, animal fodder, and chicken feed in India's Northwestern Himalayan Region (NWHR), which covers over 0.33 million hectares of cultivated land. In the NWHR of India, substantial soil erosion is a major challenge in maize production, resulting in low rainfed maize productivity. During the peak rainy season in NWHR, a single maize crop can only cover up to 30% of the land, leaving more bare soil vulnerable to soil erosion. Furthermore, sole maize growing only generates roughly Rs. 30,000-40,000 in net income per hectare field, making maize farming less profitable for farmers. Using a randomized block design with four replications, a field experiment was conducted with five treatments: maize-wheat (control), maize + sweet potato-wheat, maize + colocasia-wheat, maize + ginger, and maize + turmeric to conserve soil and water, increase crop productivity, and farmers profit by introducing soil conserving and high-value crops with rainfed maize cultivation. The authors discussed the developed scientific rainfed maize + sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas [L.] Lam) intercropping technique in NWHR, which had not before been devised for this region. From 8.7 t ha-1 soil loss of sole maize, maize + sweet potato intercropping can minimize it to 1.5 t ha-1 and increase maize grain yield to 3.5 t ha-1 from 3.1 t ha-1. In addition to higher maize production, the system also produced 5.0-7.0 t ha-1 of fresh sweet potato tubers. Thus, intercropping of maize + sweet potato under NWHR can reduce soil erosion while also enhance maize yield and farmers' profit in rainfed conditions.

Fate of heavy metals and bacterial community composition following biogas slurry application in a single rice cropping system

Fate of heavy metals and bacterial community composition following biogas slurry application in a single rice cropping system

Exploring long-term impacts of different crop rotation systems on sustainable use of groundwater resources using DSSAT model

Groundwater depletion has been a global concern due to unreasonable agricultural water managements. Identifying long-term impacts of crop rotation systems on hydrological parameters and crop yields can help to alleviate groundwater depletion. The Decision Support System for Agro-technology Transfer model was applied to simulate impacts of nine crop rotation systems (H1: continuous spring maize; H2: continuous potato; H3: continuous spring wheat; H4:potato-maize rotation; H5:maize-wheat rotation; H6: wheat-potato rotation; H7: two year fallow-maize rotation; H8: two year fallow-potato rotation; H9: two year fallow-wheat rotation) on crop evapotranspiration, percolation, yields, water use efficiency, net water use and groundwater table depth changes in Zhangjiakou, China from 1985 to 2018. The results showed DSSAT model performed well in simulating crop ET, yields (R2>0.9, RMSE<500 kg ha−1) and soil water content (R2>0.9 and RMSE<10.1 mm). The long-term two year fallow with one single crop rotation systems (H7 to H9) had lower total accumulative groundwater table depth changes (2.8–14.4 m) than others (12.7–52.3 m) from 1985 to 2018. Also, cropping rotation systems H7 to H9 obtained the lower annual average net water use (14–70 mm) compared to other cropping rotation systems (62–253 mm). The significant difference of net water use, crop yields, water use efficiency and accumulative groundwater table depth changes of nine different cropping systems indicated H4 and H8 is suitable in the study region. Our results is useful for selecting suitable cropping systems based on the water use for local farmers.

A novel mechanism to simulate intercropping and relay cropping using the DayCent model

Combining different crops in complex spatial and temporal arrangements can increase resource use efficiency and reduce negative environmental impacts in croplands. Simulation models are useful tools to explore new management strategies and crop combinations in varied landscapes under different weather scenarios. However, models that allow simulations of two or more crops growing simultaneously, such as intercropping or relay cropping systems, are scarce. We adapted DayCent, one of the most widely used models to analyze greenhouse gas emissions on croplands, to simulate two crop types growing at the same time. We changed several tree parameters in the savanna scheme which was designed to represent single crop and tree species growing simultaneously and competing for light and nutrients. This allowed us to simulate two crop species growing simultaneously without modifying model code. Our results showed good agreements with standard single crop simulations of different key variables and with measured aboveground biomass and grain yield collected in a long-term intercropping experiment. A sensitivity analysis showed that the parameters that control the effect on leaf-area-index are more important than those that control the competitiveness among crops. DayCent can now represent several crop combinations for both intercropping and relay cropping schemes and be used to explore both agronomic and environmental performance of novel agricultural systems.

Real-time methods for short and medium-term evapotranspiration forecasting using dynamic crop coefficient and historical threshold

Crop evapotranspiration (ETc) plays a fundamental role in agronomic and water resource management. Accurate forecasting of ETc is a major challenge for agricultural researchers and experts. Based on the measured ETc of the Eddy Covariance system and weather forecast data (1–15 d: short and medium-term) in North China, the real-time short (1–7 d) and medium (8–15 d) term ETc forecast models were developed by coupling with the dynamic crop coefficient and modifying the historical threshold. The results demonstrated that compared with the single crop coefficient model recommended by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO-56, M1), the M2 model (a modification of the M1 model developed using the dynamic crop coefficient) accurately forecasted the winter wheat and summer maize ETc, with an increased accuracy of 11%. Moreover, the ETc forecasting accuracy using the M2 model for short and medium-term was over 77%, of which the short-term accuracy was higher (greater than84%). The ETc forecasting accuracy increased with the decrease in the forecast period at different growth stages. Further, the short and medium-term accuracies of M3 model (a modification of the M2 model developed by incorporating the historical threshold) were over 81%, of which the accuracy of the 1 d forecast period was approximately 95%, which was 6% higher than that of the M2 model; the root mean square error and the mean absolute error were reduced by 0.1 mm d−1 and 0.11 mm d−1, respectively. Thus, these results indicated that the M3 model, which was developed by integrating the dynamic crop coefficient and the historical empirical threshold, can predict short and medium-term ETc more accurately.

Phosphorus acquisition from phosphate rock by soil cover crops, maize, and a buckwheat–maize cropping system

Alternatives to enhance the consensual low phosphorus (P) use efficiency of agriculture may include use of phosphate rock (PR) and plant species with unequal ability to get soil and rock P interplanted in cropping systems to allow plants with higher ability to facilitate access to P of plants with lower ability. This study investigated (i) the maize and three soil cover crops on their capacity to acquire P from PR and (ii) measured P acquisition of maize interplanted with the soil cover crop with the highest capacity to acquire P shown in (i). Experiments were carried out in a greenhouse, with plants grown in single and mixed cropping in pots containing a sandy, low–P soil amended with Monocalcium Phosphate (McP) or the Brazilian PR Itafós. Plant biomass production with PR, in relation to McP, was 83.7 % for buckwheat, 83.6 % for forage radish, 51.8 % for maize, and 0.3 % for pigeon pea. Buckwheat showed capacity of acquiring P from PR; nevertheless, it did not increase growth or P nutrition of maize interplanted in the soil amended with PR, showing no significant P facilitation. The soil amended with McP showed competition between the two plants in the pots. Maize had a greater growth in mixed than in single cropping and this occurred at the expenses of buckwheat. Despite the P mobilization potential of buckwheat, its simple interplanting with maize did not produce positive results.

Adaptation to saline intrusion for agriculture farming transformation in the coastal Ben Tre province, Vietnam

This study aimed to evaluate the adaptive capacity (AC) of agriculture farming transformation to improve for the adaptability by saline intrusion of those culture systems in the coastal Ben Tre province. The primary data was collected by questionnaires in three coastal districts of Ba Tri, Thanh Phu and Binh Dai with 178 households to distribute on agriculture land use transformations. An Object-Based Image Analysis (OBIA) and multi-temporal image analysis approach was developed to detect how LULC changes during 2010-2020 in the coastal Ben Tre province using Landsat TM and OLI data. The MODIS (MOD09 8-day reflectance) data was processed into monthly NDVI maps with the Time Series Product Tool software package and then used to classify regionally common rice crops LULC types using unsupervised classification by ISODATA algorithm. Based on primary data collection, evaluating adaptation measures was assessed the compilation of modification options based on a detailed description and criteria including human, society, infrastructure and natural conditions by standardized a weight ranges of adaptive indicators in the agriculture land use changes. The results detected five agriculture land use transformation including rice-shrimp crop rotation to aquaculture, single rice crop to aquaculture, double rice crop to perennial plant/orchards, double rice crop to rice-shrimp crop rotation, and triple rice crop to double rice crop. The adaptability of these transformations conducted the shrimp-rice crop rotation to aquaculture in Binh Dai of strongly high adaptability. Next is followed by double rice crops to orchards and double rice crops to rice-shrimp crop rotation with high adaptability while the rice-shrimp crop rotation to aquaculture is only moderate in Thanh Phu. The low adaptability levels were identified on single rice crop to aquaculture and triple rice crop to double rice crop transformations due to tolerant condition of saltwater for rice crop cultivation. The studies results can further contribute to support adaptation planning in these sectors by using, developing and streamlining this framework to additional and different socio-ecological contexts.

Variation of harvest index of wheat and triticale in monocrops and intercrops system of cultivation

The harvest index of grain can be used as indicator for the potential yield of crop. The aim of this study was to determine the variation of the harvest index for wheat and triticale and differences in monocrops and intercrops systems of cultivation under different field environmental conditions. The experiment, carried out in field conditions for two consecutive years, was designed according to a randomized block system so that each species was sown in two cultivation systems as a single crop and a combined crop (wheat + pea and triticale + pea) in four replicates. The results show that, in the first year of the experiment, the value of the harvest index varied from 32.5% (triticale + pea) to 39.3% (wheat monocrop), while in the second year of the research, the value of the harvest index varied from 26.4% (wheat + pea) and 28.1% (triticale + pea). As for the components of harvest index, values of weight of grains spike-1 and weight of total above ground biomass were higher in intercrops than in monocrops system of cultivation. It can be concluded that the intercropping of cereals (triticale and wheat) and forage crops (pea) provided positive effects on weight of grains spike-1 and weight of total above ground biomass and does not diminish harvest index when compared to standard system of cultivation.