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Agronomy
Special Issues
Good Agricultural Management to Higher Nutrient Use Efficiency
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Good Agricultural Management to Higher Nutrient Use Efficiency

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Innovative Cropping Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2022) | Viewed by 11133

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Cláudia Marques dos Santos Cordovil

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CEF, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Tapada da Ajuda, 1349-017 Lisboa, Portugal
Interests: agriculture; nitrogen; environment; safety; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are, today, are at the crossroads between the need to produce more food for a growing world population, and the urgency to halt environmental degradation and climate change. One of the drivers to harmful effects to the environmental is the loss of nutrients from low use efficiency. A better and integrated agricultural management offers the opportunity to link the multiple benefits of better nutrient’s use. In fact, by reducing the losses of nutrients several benefits are obtained at different levels, from environmental, economic and health perspectives, helping to avoid trade-offs and maximizing synergies. Taking action on nutrient use efficiency is especially beneficial for climate mitigation and air quality, for the protection of water resources, including groundwater, rivers, lakes, coastal zones and the wider marine environment.

This Special Issue will focus on “Good agricultural management, a tool to higher nutrient use efficiency”.

We welcome novel research, reviews and opinion pieces covering all related topics included in the different types of agricultural systems, nutrient management in conventional and organic crop production, N and P cycling, soil dynamics in different environments and climates, related air and water quality mitigation and barriers to good management, innovative solutions, modelling, case-studies and policy positions.

Prof. Claudia M d S Cordovil
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

good agricultural practices;

soil fertility;

crop production;

nutrient use efficiency;

nutrients losses reduction measures;

barriers;

air quality;

water quality;

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3110 KiB  
Article
Exploring Different Pretreatment Methodologies for Allowing Microalgae Growth in Undiluted Piggery Wastewater
by Alice Ferreira, Daniel Figueiredo, Rodrigo Cardeiras, Rui Nabais, Francisca Ferreira, Belina Ribeiro, Cláudia M. d. S. Cordovil, F. Gabriel Acién and Luisa Gouveia
Agronomy 2022, 12(3), 580; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12030580 - 26 Feb 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2331
Abstract
The overapplication of manure on agricultural soils leads to nitrogen and phosphorus discharge into the aquatic environment, resulting in serious eutrophication problems and decreased water quality. Piggery wastewater (PWW) can be treated by microalgae to recycle nutrients, but the toxic levels of ammonia [...] Read more.
The overapplication of manure on agricultural soils leads to nitrogen and phosphorus discharge into the aquatic environment, resulting in serious eutrophication problems and decreased water quality. Piggery wastewater (PWW) can be treated by microalgae to recycle nutrients, but the toxic levels of ammonia and organic matter hinder their growth. Fresh water is usually used to dilute PWW, but it is a scarce resource. The implementation of a pretreatment step before microalgae-based treatment could make PWW suitable for microalgae growth. Electrocoagulation, ammonia stripping, photo-Fenton, and constructed wetlands were evaluated as pretreatment methods to reduce ammonia, chemical oxygen demand (COD), color, and total suspended solids. Moreover, the pretreated PWWs were tested to grow the microalga Tetradesmus obliquus. Photo-Fenton showed the best results among the other pretreatments, achieving removal efficiencies above 90%, except for ammonia. This resulted in T. obliquus being capable of growing on undiluted PWW, even at higher ammonia levels, achieving similar biomass productivity to synthetic medium (66.4 ± 17.8 mg·L−1·day−1 and 60.1 ± 10.4 mg·L−1·day−1, respectively) almost doubling with pH control (116.5 mg·L−1·day−1). Thus, this pretreatment seems to be the most promising one to incorporate into microalgae-based treatment systems and must be further explored. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Good Agricultural Management to Higher Nutrient Use Efficiency)
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19 pages, 19039 KiB  
Article
Mapping Spatial Management Zones of Salt-Affected Soils in Arid Region: A Case Study in the East of the Nile Delta, Egypt
by Samah M. S. Abdelaal, Karam F. Moussa, Ahmed H. Ibrahim, Elsayed Said Mohamed, Dmitry E. Kucher, Igor Savin and Mohamed K. Abdel-Fattah
Agronomy 2021, 11(12), 2510; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11122510 - 10 Dec 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2684
Abstract
Soil salinization is a global problem that affects a large part of the world, especially arid and semi-arid regions. Hence, diagnosing soil salinity is the first step towards appropriate management. The current work aims to assess and map soil salinity in the eastern [...] Read more.
Soil salinization is a global problem that affects a large part of the world, especially arid and semi-arid regions. Hence, diagnosing soil salinity is the first step towards appropriate management. The current work aims to assess and map soil salinity in the eastern Nile Delta using principal component analysis (PCA). In order to develop appropriate solutions for rational management to mitigate the impacts of soil salinization and increase yield production 34 soil profiles were dug that covered the variation in the soils located at the northeast of the Nile delta. The spatial variation of soil parameters was mapped using ordinary kriging interpolation. The results of PCA illustrated that, among the studied soil properties, soil electrical conductivity (ECe), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), exchangeable sodium percent (ESP), and bulk density (BD), are the critical factors affecting management practices in the Nile Delta. Two spatial management zones (SMZ) were identified; SMZ 1 occupied 45.04% of the study area and SMZ2 occupied 54.96% of the study area. The average of soil pH, ECe, SAR, CEC, ESP and BD were 8.31, 20.32 dSm−1, 47.19, 32.9 cmolckg−1, 32.85% and 1.47 Mgm−3 for the first cluster (SMZ1), respectively. In addition, the second cluster (SMZ2) had average soil pH, ECe, SAR, CEC, ESP and BD of 7.75, 12.30 dSm−1, 26.6, 25.23 cmolckg−1, 26.6% and 1.27 Mgm−3. The results showed p-value < 0.05 which confirms that there is a significant statistical difference between the two zones. Finally, the results obtained could be used as a fundamental basis for improving agricultural management practices in such salt-affected soils. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Good Agricultural Management to Higher Nutrient Use Efficiency)
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21 pages, 1954 KiB  
Article
Precision Nutrient Rates and Placement in Conservation Maize-Wheat System: Effects on Crop Productivity, Profitability, Nutrient-Use Efficiency, and Environmental Footprints
by Raj K. Jat, Deepak Bijarniya, Suresh K. Kakraliya, Tek B. Sapkota, Manish Kakraliya and Mangi L. Jat
Agronomy 2021, 11(11), 2320; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11112320 - 17 Nov 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2588
Abstract
Intensive tillage-based production systems coupled with inefficient fertilizer management practices have led to increased production costs, sub-optimal productivity, and significant environmental externalities. Conservation agriculture (CA) is being increasingly advocated as a management strategy to overcome these issues but precision nutrient management under the [...] Read more.
Intensive tillage-based production systems coupled with inefficient fertilizer management practices have led to increased production costs, sub-optimal productivity, and significant environmental externalities. Conservation agriculture (CA) is being increasingly advocated as a management strategy to overcome these issues but precision nutrient management under the CA-based maize-wheat system is rarely studied. Two year’s (2014–2015 and 2015–2016) research was conducted at the research farm of BISA, Pusa, Bihar, India to develop precision nutrient management practices for CA-based management in the maize-wheat system. Seven treatment combinations involving (i) tillage (conventional tillage; CT & permanent beds; PB) and (ii) nutrient management rates, application methods (farmers’ fertilizer practices; FFP, state recommended dose of fertilizer; SR and precision nutrient management using Nutrient Expert tool; NE and GreenSeeker; (GS), applied using two methods; broadcasting (B) and drilling (D)) were investigated for multiple parameters. The results showed that NE, NE+GS, and SR-based nutrient management tactics with drilling improved crop yields, nutrient-use efficiency (NUE), and economic profitability relative to NE-broadcasting, SR broadcasting, and FFP broadcasting methods. Maize-wheat system productivity and net returns under NE+GS-drilling on PB were significantly higher by 31.2%, 49.7% compared to FFP-broadcasting method, respectively. Total global warming potential (GWP) was lower in the PB-based maize-wheat system coupled with precision nutrient management compared to CT-based maize-wheat system with FFP. Higher (15.2%) carbon sustainability index (CSI) was recorded with NE-drilling compared to FFP-broadcasting method. Results suggests that PB-based maize-wheat system together with precision nutrient management approaches (NE+GS+drilling) can significantly increase crop yields, NUE, and profitability while reducing the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from maize-wheat systems in eastern Indo Gangetic Plains (IGP). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Good Agricultural Management to Higher Nutrient Use Efficiency)
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19 pages, 2139 KiB  
Article
Fungicide Application Affects Nitrogen Utilization Efficiency, Grain Yield, and Quality of Winter Wheat
by Ahossi Patrice Koua, Mirza Majid Baig, Benedict Chijioke Oyiga, Jens Léon and Agim Ballvora
Agronomy 2021, 11(7), 1295; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11071295 - 26 Jun 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2488
Abstract
Nitrogen (N) is a vital component of crop production. Wheat yield varies significantly under different soil available N. Knowing how wheat responds to or interacts with N to produce grains is essential in the selection of N use efficient cultivars. We assessed in [...] Read more.
Nitrogen (N) is a vital component of crop production. Wheat yield varies significantly under different soil available N. Knowing how wheat responds to or interacts with N to produce grains is essential in the selection of N use efficient cultivars. We assessed in this study variations among wheat genotypes for productivity-related traits under three cropping systems (CS), high-nitrogen with fungicide (HN-WF), high-nitrogen without fungicide (HN-NF) and low-nitrogen without fungicide (LN-NF) in the 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons. ANOVA results showed genotypes, CS, and their interactions significantly affected agronomic traits. Grain yield (GY) increased with higher leaf chlorophyll content, importantly under CS without N and fungicide supply. Yellow rust disease reduced the GY by 20% and 28% in 2015 and 2016, respectively. Moreover, averaged over growing seasons, GY was increased by 23.78% under CS with N supply, while it was greatly increased, by 52.84%, under CS with both N and fungicide application, indicating a synergistic effect of N and fungicide on GY. Fungicide supply greatly improved the crop ability to accumulate N during grain filling, and hence the grain protein content. Recently released cultivars outperformed the older ones in most agronomic traits including GY. Genotype performance and stability analysis for GY production showed differences in their stability levels under the three CS. The synergistic effect of nitrogen and fungicide on grain yield (GY) and the differences in yield stability levels of recently released wheat cultivars across three CS found in this study suggest that resource use efficiency can be improved via cultivar selection for targeted CS. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Good Agricultural Management to Higher Nutrient Use Efficiency)
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