About Book

Crop production depends on the successful implementation of the soil, water, and nutrient management technologies. It is a branch of agriculture that deals with growing crops for use as food and fiber. It includes grains, cotton, tobacco, fruits, vegetables, nuts and plants. Different crops grow best in different areas of the country. In order for crops to grow very well; it may be necessary to apply some form of fertilizer as a nutrient boost. This aspect of crop production management is also one that requires a careful analysis of the type of crop in relation to the kind of fertilizer that may be applied to that particular crop. Apart from the application of fertilizers, pest management must be included in crop production management. Effective crop production management also requires the constant removal of weeds from the land since they tend to proliferate very fast and compete with legitimate crop. Other considerations include the practice of irrigation as means of providing moisture when this is an issue. The ultimate stages of crop production are harvesting and storage. The book is a valuable compilation of topics, ranging from the basic to the most complex advancements in the field of crop production. It focuses on pesticide utilisation, organic farming system, water consumption, solar radiation effect, bacterial inoculation, fertility effects, genetic processes and meteorological drought. This book presents the complex subject of crop production in the most comprehensible and easy to understand language. It covers the fundamentals of the topic and critically addresses the advancements in the field of crop production. The objective of this book is to give a general view of the different areas of crop production. As this field is emerging at a rapid pace, the contents of this book will help the readers understand the modern concepts and applications of the subjects.

Preface............................................................................................................v

Chapter 1 Satellite Data and Supervised Learning to Prevent Impact of Drought on Crop Production: Meteorological Drought....................1

Abstract...................................................................................................1

1. Introduction............................................................................................2

2. Machine learning...................................................................................3

3. Meteorological indices........................................................................14

4. Forecasting meteorological drought................................................16

5. Satellite precipitation products (SPPs)............................................22

6. Accessing and processing the data.................................................24

7. Conclusion............................................................................................25

Conflict of interest..............................................................................26

Chapter 2 Sunflower Leaf Senescence: A Complex Genetic Process with Economic Impact on Crop Production.................................................36

Abstract.................................................................................................36

1. Introduction..........................................................................................37

2. Senescence and crop yields: stay green genotypes......................38

3. Study of leaf senescence process in sunflower.............................39

4. Selection of stay green genotypes in sunflower...........................43

5. Conclusions and perspectives...........................................................47

Acknowledgements.............................................................................48

Chapter 3 Long-Term Crop Rotation, Tillage, and Fertility Effects on Soil Carbon and Nitrogen in Dry-Seeded, Delayed-Flood Rice

Production Systems..................................................................................55

1. Introduction..........................................................................................55

2. Materials and methods......................................................................58

3. Results and discussion.......................................................................65

4. Summary and conclusions................................................................81

Acknowledgements.............................................................................82

Chapter 4 Legume Crops, Importance and Use of Bacterial Inoculation to

Increase Production .................................................................................89

1. Introduction..........................................................................................89

2. Improving legume yield by inoculation with rhizobia...............92

3. The use of microbial consortium in legume agronomic

production............................................................................................98

4. Concluding remarks.........................................................................107

5. Acknowledgments.............................................................................107

Chapter 5 Solar Radiation Effect on Crop Production ....................................119

1. Introduction........................................................................................119

2. Interception of radiation..................................................................122

3. Leaf area index..................................................................................124

4. Effect of intercepted radiation and leaf area index on growth and

crop production.................................................................................126

5. Intercepted radiation and leaf area index measurement

methods...............................................................................................132

6. Conclusions........................................................................................146

7. Acknowledgment..............................................................................147

Chapter 6 Optimizing Water Consumption Using Crop Water Production

Functions .................................................................................................155

1. Introduction........................................................................................155

2. Crop production functions..............................................................157

3. Optimizing water consumption.....................................................158

4. Wheat production function under supplementary irrigation..160

5. Soybean production function..........................................................164

6. Water–salinity production function...............................................169

7. Conclusion..........................................................................................176

Chapter 7 Seed and Crop Production of Yardlong Bean Under Organic

Farming System .....................................................................................179

1. Introduction........................................................................................179

2. Materials and methods....................................................................180

3. Results and discussion.....................................................................181

Chapter 8 Pesticide Utilisation, Regulation and Future Prospects in Small Scale Horticultural Crop Production Systems in a Developing Country ....................................................................................................196

1. Introduction........................................................................................196

2. Status of pesticide utilization – Case studies..............................198

3. Regulation of pesticide usage on specified horticultural crops in

Uganda ...............................................................................................202

4. General discussion............................................................................208

5. Conclusions, recommendations and future prospects...............211

6. Acknowledgements...........................................................................212

Citation......................................................................................................217

Index...........................................................................................................219

About Author

Valerie Baker pursued her Ph.D. in Sustainable Crop Production from State University, Kansas. She is a Guest Lecturer at Public University, Hidalgo. Her academic interests lie in crop production, plant breeding, plant physiology, plant genetics, crop rotation, crop protection and management. She has produced several articles, journal papers and book chapters, which have been published worldwide. She also serves on the editorial board of two renowned international journals in the field of agronomy. Baker consistently shares her knowledge with the researcher fraternity by organizing lectures and conferences around the globe.