Table Of ContentAGRICULTURAL RESEARCH UPDATES
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VOLUME 9
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AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH UPDATES
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VOLUME 9
PRATHAMESH GORAWALA
AND
SRUSHTI MANDHATRI
EDITORS
New York
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CONTENTS
Preface vii
Chapter 1 The Efficacy of Growing and Consuming Locally Grown Produce
in New England (USA) and New Zealand 1
Ben Tyson, Chelsea Pitvorec and Nick Edgar
Chapter 2 Significance of Seed and Root Crop Properties in Organic Farming 25
Ladislav Bláha
Chapter 3 Diagnostic Methods for Seed-Transmitted Viruses 41
Marcio Martinello Sanches and Fernanda Rausch Fernandes
Chapter 4 Remotely Sensed Detection and Monitoring of Crop Diseases 63
Jingcheng Zhang, Lin Yuan, Wenjiang Huang,
Jihua Wang and Guijun Yang
Chapter 5 Rice Tolerance to the Impact of High Temperatures 97
J. K. Goncharova and E. M. Kharitonov
Chapter 6 Enzyme Activity Variability in Soils under Medicinal and
Food-Crop Plants 127
Jiaojiao Zhao and Wenke Liu
Chapter 7 Determining the Efficient Relations between Climatic Factors
and Cotton Flower and Boll Production Behavior by Appropriate
Time Scale 137
Zakaria M. Sawan
Index 157
PREFACE
This compilation examines agricultural research from across the globe and covers a broad
spectrum of related topics. In this book, the authors discuss research including the efficacy of
growing and consuming locally grown produce in New England (USA) and New Zealand;
significance of seed and root crop properties in organic farming; diagnostic methods for seed-
transmitted viruses; remotely sensed detection and monitoring of crop diseases; rice tolerance
to the impact of high temperatures; enzyme activity variability in soils under medicinal and
food-crop plants; and determining the efficient relations between climatic factors and cotton
flower and boll production behaviors.
Chapter 1 - Sales of locally produced foods comprise a small but growing part of United
States and New Zealand agricultural sales. There is some suggestion that consumers may
perceive locally sourced foods (compared to foods grown elsewhere) as fresher, higher
quality, grown in a more environmentally sustainable manner, and that purchasing locally
grown foods helps support and preserve local farm economies. The following research
investigates locally grown food initiatives in New Zealand and in two states in the United
States with significant local foods support programs. A brief literature review from each
location is first presented. Original data collected from farmers, individual consumers and
institutional consumers concerning the benefits and barriers of marketing and consuming
local produce follows this. Recommendations are offered for the further development of local
food support programs in these three locations. These recommendations may be applicable to
other locations worldwide.
Chapter 2 - The need to breed crop varieties suitable for organic farming, that is to say a
new type of plant suitable for this type of agriculture exist,in this type of agriculture and at
research activities, still outweighs varieties bred for conventional crop production; i.e., for a
high level of fertilization with the application of complex of protective substances
(pesticides). High quality seeds and roots are desirable, however they need improved or up-
to-date features which are suitable for a lower level of agrotechnical treatments.
The quality of the root and seeds is very important, but in the case of the root system it is
not only a question of the size of the root system, it is also a question of the root system
activity and the maximum development available in optimal time during crop growth. It is
necessary to pay attention to individual crops and their phylogeny and ontogeny.
Influence of the root traits for the seed‘s growth and development is very significant and
this relationship exists also in reverse. It has been noted that a 1% change of the root system
viii Prathamesh Gorawala and Srushti Mandhatri
size corresponded to a 2% change of the grain yield. Similarly, the possibility of breeding for
greater vitality of seeds was also noted.
The overall results at the root system, also suggest that mycorrhizal colonization could
improve the osmotic adjustment response of most plants, enhance its defence system against
pests and diseases, and alleviate oxidative damage of cell viability.
More than 90 - 95% of organic production is based on the utilisation of crop varieties that
were bred for the conventional high-input sector. Most of the contemporary varieties lack
important traits required under organic and low-input production conditions.
The results showed that the seeds and embryos of different provenance have almost the
same dimensions but have different physiological characteristics, chemical composition and
enzyme activity, seed vigour, content of seed dry matter and water and size of embryonic
roots.
The efficiency of water utilization in time of germination is one of the basic factors
influencing successful germination and the field emergence rate. There exists a large
variability in the water-use efficiency of seeds from different species and cultivars. This is
very important for the future growth and development of crops for plant breeding. It is
already possible to identify selection for resistance to environmental stress conditions at the
seed germination stage. The quality of the embryonic root is important for the subsequent
growth of the roots.
Chapter 3 - It is estimated that more than 230 plant viruses are seed-transmitted in
different food, fiber and ornamental crops, even as weeds. Despite a limited number of virus
species that are transmitted in this manner, this is a primary factor for virus spread, especially
through new areas. The transmission rate is variable between species, strains and plant hosts
of viruses. There are two manners of seed infection by viruses. Infection of the embryo is the
most common and external seed contamination. Only few virus species cause symptoms in
seeds. Also, seeds are rich in compounds that are inhibitory for a number of laboratory tests.
To overcome the difficulty to detect viruses, some different approaches have been used for
diagnosis, like planting in greenhouse and further analysis: electron microscopy, ELISA test,
PCR–based detection and more recently Real-Time PCR and NGS. The best diagnostic
procedure to be used depends on the purpose of seed utilization and the seed transmission
rates. However, the composition and the size of the seed could be limiting for some tests. In
this chapter, the advantages of each strategy for diagnosis are discussed.
Chapter 4 - This chapter introduced remotely sensed methods for detecting and
monitoring crop diseases at varying scales. Taking powdery mildew in winter wheat as an
example, two experiments were carried out at both leaf-level and parcel level, to facilitate the
development of methods for detection and monitoring of the disease. Firstly, to understand
the spectral response of powdery mildew, a detailed spectral analysis was conducted by
comparing healthy leaves with disease infected leaves at various severity levels. A total of 32
spectral features were examined for their sensitivity to disease severity. Both regression and
discriminant analysis were implemented for estimating the disease severity of powdery
mildew. The results indicated that based on disease sensitive SFs and PLSR model, a
satisfactory estimation of the disease severity can be achieved by both forms of models, with
a relative root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.23 for regression model and an overall
accuracy of 0.92 for discriminant model. Then, to attempt to extend the monitoring of crop
diseases to large spatial scale based on satellite remote sensing data, the authors introduce
disease mapping strategies based on both high-resolution satellite images and multi-temporal
