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Advances in human–robot collaboration in agricultural robotics
Introduction of robotics into agriculture has the potential to lower production costs, reduce the drudgery of tedious manual labor, increase the level of accuracy of mechanized operations, and improve environmental control. Unlike industrial applications that often deal with relatively simple, re...
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Changing patterns of disease affecting pigs: porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (prrs) and porcine epidemic diarrhoea (ped)
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus (PRRSv) and Porcine Epidemic Diarrhoea virus (PEDv) are two of the major viruses that affect pigs worldwide. This chapter focuses on the transmission, clinical presentation, evolution and spread of these two agents (PRRSv and PEDv), due to their...
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Advances in the use of entomopathogenic nematodes (epns) as biopesticides in suppressing crop insect pests
Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) have been commercialized as biopesticides since the 1980s. Since the 1990s, research on the application, biology, and ecology of these biocontrol agents has seen exponential growth, and since the mid-2000s basic research on EPNs has further expanded due to the u...
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Banana plant propagation methods
The ease of banana propagation by taking a sucker and simply planting it has allowed farmers to multiply their banana selections and share them. The banana sucker is a resilient form of planting material as the growing point is protected within the sucker, which contains a corm with a starchy sto...
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Understanding poultry social behaviour and its impact on animal welfare
Sociality was a prerequisite for domestication that allowed animals to remain in groups under human custody. The social group provides opportunities to find food, protection from predation or weather conditions. However, highly dense or large groups normally found in production environment, may i...
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Disease monitoring and decision making in integrated fruit disease management
Regular inspection of fruit crops for diseases is a vital part of integrated disease management. Combining this information with that generated from disease warning systems can play a significant role in achieving perfect fruit with minimal use of fungicides. This chapter includes general discuss...
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Agronomic and environmental factors affecting rice grain quality
Recent research has shown the importance of both cultivation practices and environmental factors in determining the yield and quality of rice crops. These aspects of rice production are increasingly important given the need to develop sustainable production techniques which will provide food secu...
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Conserving banana germplasm through field genebanks
The availability of true-to-type, pest- and disease-free planting material is fundamental to successful banana cultivation. It ensures that crops will not succumb to pathogens introduced at planting. This chapter examines the key issues in the selection, establishment and management of a field ge...
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The effects of consumer perception of food safety and quality in food purchase decisions
Consumers expect their food to be safe and of high quality. However, food safety issues can and do occur. This chapter covers a wide range of topics that explain consumer perceptions of food safety and quality and how they relate to subsequent purchase decisions. It begins with a discussion of th...
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Identifying and managing plant health risks for key african crops: fruit and other tree crops
This chapter reviews control methods for the main pests affecting fruit and other tree crops. It describes the use of classical biological control for mango, papaya, cacao, coconut and citrus. Mango mealybug, Rastrococcus invadens, has been controlled with great success across West and Central Af...
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Constraints in adopting improved technologies for maize cultivation: the case of africa
The adoption of improved technology is essential for increasing productivity in the production of maize in Africa. This, in turn, will contribute to food self-sufficiency and the alleviation of poverty and food insecurity. This chapter reviews the importance of increasing the adoption rate of imp...
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Smallholder seed systems for sustainability
This chapter discusses the role of seed systems particularly as a channel to supply smallholder farmers with new traits and combinations of traits through improved hybrids or varieties. This chapter looks at issues surrounding the development of more economically-sustainable and predominantly “fo...
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Managing hedgerows to optimise ecosystem services in agroforestry systems
Hedgerows are composed of trees and/or shrubs and serve as natural fences, often between pastures and arable fields. This chapter discusses the importance of hedgerow management and maintenance to enhance multiple ecosystem services such as biomass production, wind and water protection, habitat p...
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Achieving sustainable cultivation of cassava volume 1
This collection begins by reviewing the current state of cassava cultivation, before going on to review the range of techniques enabling sustainable intensification, from seed systems management to intercropping and post-harvest management.
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Development of conservation agriculture systems globally
This chapter outlines the development of Conservation Agriculture (CA) system globally in terms of its origins, pioneers and champions, main drivers for its spread, CA systems involved, regional adoption, challenges and future prospects. Reducing soil disturbance by tillage began in the USA in th...
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Advances in conventional soybean breeding techniques
Soybean cultivar selection techniques and advances in variety development continue to evolve. The planning that goes into selecting superior soybean varieties is currently complicated by changing environments, a growing global population and decreasing productive farmland. In this chapter, the mo...
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Bioactive compounds and evaluation of biostimulant activity
The regulations concerning the placement of biostimulants on the market are still widely varying across countries and regions, even though both efficacy claims and composition declarations are primarily addressed. The definition of pre-market approval systems specifying the data required for auth...
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Agroforestry: a system for improving soil health
Introducing agroforestry into agroecosystems can be an important method to help promote soil health by its influence on soil physical, chemical and biological properties. This chapter highlights the benefits of agroforestry systems on soil properties important for soil health. These include criti...
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The role and challenges of the private sector in supplying inputs to smallholders
This chapter focuses on analysis of the private sector input supply to smallholders, in Africa. The goal of the chapter is to describe and discuss challenges of the private sector when working with smallholders. There is special emphasis of reliability of demand, purchasing power and logistics th...
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Producing consistent quality meat from the modern pig
Pork producers have focussed, over many years, on producing pork efficiently and sustainably, in order to satisfy consumer demand for lean pork and remain competitive. Increases in efficiency and leanness have been achieved through genetics, targeted nutrition and the use of entire males and meta...
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The use of unmanned aerial systems (uass) in precision agriculture
The rapid development of small unmanned aerial systems (UASs) in recent years has triggered considerable interest in their application for precision agriculture. The decreasing cost, the ultra-high spatial resolution and the increased flexibility of image acquisition have made UAS remote sensing ...
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Improving soil and nutrient management for cacao cultivation
The results of early fertiliser trials on cacao showed that phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) always had positive effects, along with variable effects from calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg). The variability of yield responses to nutrients pointed to the need to link the nutrients with each other or ...
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Developments in growing substrates for soilless cultivation
Growing substrates are used to provide physical support, as reservoir for water and nutrients, for providing air space for free gas exchange, and also for providing a habitat for beneficial microorganisms. Peat- and coir-based substrates and rockwool are the most commonly used substrates in moder...
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Plant protection products in rice cultivation: critical issues in risk assessment and management to promote sustainable use
The use of plant protection products (PPPs) is a key issue in ensuring the sustainability of rice cultivation. It is essential to evaluate the risks these products pose to human health and the environment, and to determine what measures are required to keep the risks within acceptable limits. Thi...
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Developing disease-resistant tomato varieties
Tomato is known to be afflicted by at least 200 different disease-causing organisms from most major pathogen classes – bacteria, fungi (including Oomycota), viruses and nematodes. Despite decades of conventional breeding and selection, there are still a large number of diseases caused by these pa...
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Incubator design for poultry eggs: principles and techniques
Incubation is a very delicate process that requires a good control of the environment around the egg. Not meeting the requirements of the embryo will result in a loss of hatchability and chick quality which can influence performance in later life. Key factors are: temperature, position and turnin...
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Weed control in cassava cropping systems
Weed control in cassava fields appears to have received highly variable levels of attention on the different continents where cassava is grown, despite clear messages from farming communities on its importance. Moreover, although grasses and broadleaved weeds are perceived as a major problem in c...
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Post-harvest storage of potatoes
Storage is one component of the field to fork cycle and good storage can maintain the quality of the input tubers with positive benefits for the rest of the supply chain. This chapter reviews the mechanisms underlying potato spoilage and discusses key techniques for storing potatoes to maintain q...
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Precision agriculture for sustainability: second edition
By using resources more efficiently, precision agriculture (PA) can make agriculture more productive and sustainable.This new edition of Precision agriculture for sustainability provides a comprehensive review of the key components of PA, from information gathering to delivery systems, as well as...
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Agricultural ethics – the farmer’s perspective
Modern, intensive agricultural production methods have attracted increasing criticism from a range of economic, ecological, and social perspectives. What moral responsibilities do farmer’s have to address these concerns? This chapter reviews responsibilities, constraints and motivations of farmer...
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Advances in fertigation techniques to optimize crop nutrition
Improving fertilizer application involves the ‘4Rs’: applying the right fertilizer source at the right rate, time and place. This chapter reviews the latest research on the ways fertigation can meet these objectives. Topics discussed include nutrient consumption curves and supply, optimizing irri...
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Instant insights: using manure in soil management
This book reviews recent advances in the utilisation of livestock manure to improve soil management and health. Chapters discuss best practices for the storage, treatment and processing of livestock manure, as well as the effects of manure application on the ability of soil to deliver a range of ...
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Improving best practice with regard to pesticide use in cocoa
Consumer concerns about food safety have been translated into policy in consuming countries, including pesticide residues in cocoa. Such policy changes have an impact on cocoa producers and other supply chain stakeholders, as they have to comply with legislation or risk losing lucrative markets. ...
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Advances in understanding and improving the role of enzymes in poultry nutrition
This chapter reviews the current status of research on feed enzymes with an emphasis on identifying the key challenges researchers face in terms of current trends in enzyme development, mechanism(s) of action and enzyme efficacy. It also addresses new research directions and the development of co...
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Maintaining soil health in oil palm cultivation
Many existing oil palm plantations were set up after clearing equatorial and tropical rainforests. In tropical forests, the topsoil is where the fertility lies due to its physico-chemical properties, developed through an accumulation of organic matter and intense biological activity. In the first...
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Targeting smallholder farmers to adopt improved cassava technologies: challenges and opportunities
This chapter examines the challenges and opportunities for targeting smallholder farmers to adopt improved cassava technologies for yield and profitability. Smallholder farmers are not a homogenous group and, therefore, a static technology promotion system cannot address the needs of a dynamic cl...
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Ensuring the genetic diversity of potatoes
Preserving genetic diversity lies at the heart of improvements in breeding and resilience in potato cultivation. This chapter discusses the challenges, opportunities and recent accomplishments of potato gene banks in the areas of acquisition, classification, preservation, evaluation and distribut...
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Harvesting and packaging of bananas
Bananas are one of the most widely traded crops globally, and with appropriate management, can be produced on a continuous basis. However, the journey from field to retail destination is a delicate, finely tuned process, which must be closely managed at every stage to ensure the safety and qualit...
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Advances in pest- and disease-resistant apple varieties
Disease and pest-resistant cultivars can significantly contribute to sustainable and resilient cultivation of apples. In this chapter, we review the development of apples that are resistant to a number of important diseases, including apple scab, powdery mildew, fire blight, nectria canker and Ma...
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Tomato plant responses to biotic and abiotic stress
The major challenge faced by tomato production is the need to increase productivity by improving resistance and tolerance to crop stresses. Cultivar improvement depends on our ability to identify, study and leverage the genetic diversity present among tomato germplasm resources worldwide from whi...
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Improving plant health in sub-saharan africa: conclusions and future challenges
This chapter provides concluding comments for ‘Critical Issues in Plant Health: 50 Years of Research in African Agriculture’, a book focussing on research carried out by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to improve the health of crops in Africa. In addition, it also outli...
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Managing calves/young stock to optimise dairy herd health
This chapter demonstrates that youngstock management can play a critical role in optimising dairy herd health. While the immediate impact of better calf management is visible to farmers in better youngstock health and growth, the long-term benefits in dairy herd productivity and survival need to ...
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Developing decision support systems (dss) for weed management
The objectives of this chapter are to review what is achievable in DSS designed specifically for weed management, identify the obstacles in creating more effective DSS, and discuss how to increase adoption by farmers. DSS can model crop yield losses due to weed competition and set thresholds for ...
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Approaches to ethics
This chapter describes the field of ethics and surveys the three main schools of thought in contemporary ethics: utilitarianism, deontology, and virtue ethics. The main tenets of each theory are explained, with particular attention paid to how they might be applied to issues in agricultural and e...
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Banana bunchy top virus
This chapter reviews current knowledge on banana bunchy top disease, the most important virus disease of banana, worldwide. It provides an overview of the historical aspects of the disease and the early studies, outlines the symptoms of the disease and biological characteristics of the pathogen r...
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Weed management in grain legume cultivation
The importance of managing weeds in a grain legume crop is critical for obtaining optimum yield. All grain legumes are relatively poor competitors with weeds and thus are prone to yield reductions when grown in the presence of weeds. This chapter outlines the nature and challenges of weed interfe...
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Advances in local perception for orchard robotics
The development of digital technologies, cost pressures and the increasing need for sustainability have heightened interest in the application of robotics and automation to improve the efficiency of agricultural operations. Sensors for autonomous navigation require precise positioning and percept...
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Finding causal variants for monogenic traits in dairy cattle breeding
Many of the most striking traits we recognise in cattle are caused by one or a small number of large effect mutations. These include breed-defining characteristics such as coat colours and patterns, hair length, and horn status. Many deleterious effects in cattle can also be attributed to single ...
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