Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith), also known as the fall armyworm (FAW), is a major pest that causes yield losses in maize crops around the world. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where farmers have limited access to effective control measures, the economic impact is particularly severe. The thesis provides the first data on the invasio...
Published in Environmental Research Letters
Extreme climate events in breadbasket regions have become more frequent due to climate change, exposing crops to a greater frequency and intensity of abiotic stress. But by using observed crop yield statistics and an ensemble of statistical models, we demonstrate that over the last six decades the frequency of crop yield shocks in breadbasket regio...
Published in Open Agriculture
The agricultural crop that is particularly important to the world is maize, and its development is frequently impacted by a crucial factor known as moisture stress. It is crucial to understand how maize reacts to different irrigation depths, especially in dry and semi-arid locations where it has high irrigation requirements and is sensitive to wate...
Published in Frontiers in Plant Science
High-concentration phosphorus (P) fertilizers are crucial for crop growth. However, fertilizers with lower P concentrations, such as calcium magnesium phosphate (CMP) and single super phosphate (SSP), can also serve as efficient P sources, especially when blended with high-concentration P fertilizers like diammonium phosphate (DAP) or monoammonium ...
Published in Frontiers in Agronomy
Introduction Improving photosynthetic use efficiency in dryland agroecosystems to sustain high agricultural yields is a key responsibility for ensuring food security. Methods This study was conducted in the regions on the semiarid Loess Plateau of China during 2018–2020. Dryland maize of Xianyu 335 comprised four modes: basic yield input (CK, plast...
Published in Frontiers in Plant Science
Recently, a rapid advancement in using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for yield prediction (YP) has led to many YP research findings. This study aims to visualize the intellectual background, research progress, knowledge structure, and main research frontiers of the entire YP domain for main cereal crops using VOSviewer and a comprehensive literat...
Published in Frontiers in Environmental Science
Estimating the latent heat flux (λET) accurately is important for water-saving irrigation in arid regions of Northwest China. The Penman-Monteith model is a commonly used method for estimating λET, but the parameterization of canopy resistance in the model has been a difficulty in research. In this study, continuous observation of λET during the gr...
Published in Frontiers in Plant Science
Nicosulfuron, a widely utilized herbicide, is detrimental to some maize varieties due to their sensitivity. Developing tolerant varieties with resistance genes is an economical and effective way to alleviate phytotoxicity. In this study, map-based cloning revealed that the maize resistance gene to nicosulfuron is Zm00001eb214410 (CYP81A9), which en...
Published in Frontiers in Plant Science
Maize is the most widely cultivated and major security crop in sub-Saharan Africa. Three foliar diseases threaten maize production on the continent, namely northern leaf blight, gray leaf spot, and southern corn leaf blight. These are caused by the fungi Exserohilum turcicum, Cercospora zeina, and Bipolaris maydis, respectively. Yield losses of mor...
Published in Frontiers in Plant Science
Multi-parent populations (MPPs) are attractive for genetic and breeding studies because they combine genetic diversity with an easy-to-control population structure. Most methods for mapping QTLs in MPPs focus on the detection of QTLs in single environments. Little attention has been given to mapping QTLs in multienvironment trials (METs) and to det...
