On-Farm Experimentation to transform global agriculture.

Restructuring farmer-researcher relationships and addressing complexity and uncertainty through joint exploration are at the heart of On-Farm Experimentation (OFE). OFE describes new approaches to agricultural research and innovation that are embedded in real-world farm management, and reflects new demands for decentralized and inclusive research that bridges sources of knowledge and fosters open innovation. Here we propose that OFE research could help to transform agriculture globally.

A Roadmap for Lowering Crop Nitrogen Requirement.

Increasing nitrogen fertilizer applications have sustained a growing world population in the 20th century. However, to avoid any further associated environmental damage, new sustainable agronomic practices together with new cultivars must be developed. To date the concept of nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) has been useful in quantifying the processes of nitrogen uptake and utilization, but we propose a shift in focus to consider nitrogen responsiveness as a more appropriate trait to select varieties with lower nitrogen requirements.

Gross N transformation rates and related NO emissions in Chinese and UK agricultural soils.

The properties of agricultural soils in various regions of the world are variable and can have a significant but poorly understood impact on soil nitrogen (N) transformations and nitrous oxide (NO) emissions. For this reason, we undertook a study of gross N transformations and related NO emissions in contrasting agricultural soils from China and the UK. Seven Chinese and three UK agricultural soils were collected for study using a N tracing approach.

Root length densities of UK wheat and oilseed rape crops with implications for water capture and yield.

Root length density (RLD) was measured to 1 m depth for 17 commercial crops of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) and 40 crops of winter oilseed rape [Brassica napus; oilseed rape (OSR)] grown in the UK between 2004 and 2013. Taking the critical RLD (cRLD) for water capture as 1cm cm(-3), RLDs appeared inadequate for full water capture on average below a depth of 0.32 m for winter wheat and below 0.

Feed the crop not the soil: rethinking phosphorus management in the food chain.

Society relies heavily on inorganic phosphorus (P) compounds throughout its food chain. This dependency is not only very inefficient and increasingly costly but is depleting finite global reserves of rock phosphate. It has also left a legacy of P accumulation in soils, sediments and wastes that is leaking into our surface waters and contributing to widespread eutrophication.

Stability, across environments, of grain and alcohol yield, in soft wheat varieties grown for grain distilling or bioethanol production.

Background: Soft-milling wheat has potential use for both grain whisky distilling and bioethanol production. Varietal comparisons over wide-ranging environments would permit assessment of both grain and alcohol yield potential and also permit the stability across environments, for these parameters, to be compared.

Results: For 12 varieties, analysis of variance showed highly significant effects of variety, site, season and fertiliser application on grain and alcohol yield.

Raising yield potential of wheat. III. Optimizing partitioning to grain while maintaining lodging resistance.

A substantial increase in grain yield potential is required, along with better use of water and fertilizer, to ensure food security and environmental protection in future decades. For improvements in photosynthetic capacity to result in additional wheat yield, extra assimilates must be partitioned to developing spikes and grains and/or potential grain weight increased to accommodate the extra assimilates. At the same time, improvement in dry matter partitioning to spikes should ensure that it does not increase stem or root lodging.

Analysing nitrogen responses of cereals to prioritize routes to the improvement of nitrogen use efficiency.

The efficient use of fertilizer nitrogen (N) is crucial to sustainable human nutrition. All crops receive significant amounts of additional N in temperate environments, through fixation or fertilizer use. This paper reviews progress towards the efficient use of fertilizer N by winter wheat (Triticum aesitivum L.

Modelling cereal root systems for water and nitrogen capture: towards an economic optimum.

A quantitative model of wheat root systems is developed that links the size and distribution of the root system to the capture of water and nitrogen (which are assumed to be evenly distributed with depth) during grain filling, and allows estimates of the economic consequences of this capture to be assessed. A particular feature of the model is its use of summarizing concepts, and reliance on only the minimum number of parameters (each with a clear biological meaning). The model is then used to provide an economic sensitivity analysis of possible target characteristics for manipulating root systems.