Agroforestry as an approach to minimizing nutrient loss from heavily fertilized soils: The Florida experience

Agroforestry Systems - Nutrient buildup in the soil caused by increased animal manure and fertilizer use in agricultural and forestry practices may increase the potential for their loss from the...     

Forest villages: an agroforestry approach to rehabilitating forest land degraded by shifting cultivation in Thailand

The Forest village scheme was introduced by the Forest Industries Organisation (FIO) of Thailand in 1967 as an attempt to stop further spread of the fast increasing shifting cultivation and deforestation in the country. The underlying princple of the scheme is to relate reforestation with social welfare of the people involved. It is essentially a modification of the traditional taungya method of plantation establishment.The salient aspect of the scheme is to induce the shifting cultivators to settle down in villages where each family is given tenure over a plot of land to construct a house and develop a homegarden around it. The farmers are required to help establish and maintain forest plantations, in which they are permitted to raise agricultural crops during the first three years of its establishment. The farmers are also given free medical and educational facilities, and technical advice on crop and livestock husbandry. They can also earn cash rewards for successful plantation establishment.Although the scheme has not achieved its full target in terms of area covered and number of families settled, it is proving to be a successful method of luring people away from destructive shifting cultivation. The approach is applicable to other countries and regions with similar land-use problems and socio-cultural background.The paper also examines the constraints to the effective working of the scheme, provides some simple suggestions for improving its functioning and identies some of the issues that can easily be tackled by research.     

Litter dynamics of six multipurpose trees in a homegarden in Southern Kerala, India

Multipurpose trees, the integral components of homegardens, contribute significantly to the closed nutrient cycling processes and sustainability of the ecosystem. Although, the litter production and probable nutrient returns via litter in homegardens have been documented, quantification and characterization of the decomposition and bioelement release from the litter have received relatively little scientific attention. The objective of the present study is to explore the litter dynamics of six locally important multipurpose trees (Mangifera indica L., Artocarpus heterophyllus Lamk., Anacardium occidentale L., Ailanthus triphysa Dennst., Artocarpus hirsutus L. and Swietenia macrophylla L.), in an agroforestry homegarden in Southern Kerala, India. Litterfall and nutrient additions in the six species ranged from 383 to 868 g m⁻² yr⁻¹, nitrogen, 6.4 to 8.8, phosphorus, 0.17 to 0.42 and potassium, 1.1 to 2.8 g m⁻² yr⁻¹. The annual litter output in the homegarden was 425 kg with A. hirsutus, M. indica, A. heterophyllus and A. occidentale recording significantly higher litter and nutrient additions. Leaf litter decay studies revealed A. heterophyllus and A. occidentale to be the most labile litter species and S. macrophylla the most recalcitrant. The decay rate coefficients varied significantly among the species. Foliage decomposition rates related to the initial chemical composition of the litter revealed best correlation with lignin. NPK release was almost complete by the end of decay in all species inspite of the initial phases of accumulation observed for nitrogen and phosphorus. Two-way analysis of variance test revealed significant differences in the contents of the three elements as a function of species and time elapsed. Macronutrients were released in the order K>N/P. The higher rates of decay and nutrient turnover in M. indica, A. heterophyllus and A. occidentale foliage indicated the potential of using these species’ litter as nutrient inputs in agriculture while A. triphysa, A. hirsutus and S. macrophylla perform better as organic mulches taking a longer time for decay and hence nutrient release.     

Multipurpose tree prunings as a source of nitrogen to maize under semiarid conditions in Zimbabwe

When multipurpose-tree (MPT) prunings are used as a source of nitrogen to annual corps in agroforestry systems, it is important that high levels of N recovery are attained. In order to test the effect of pruning quality and method of pruning application on N-recovery rates, a field experiment was conducted using prunings of five MPT species and two methods of application (surface versus incorporation). There was an interaction of pruning quality and method of pruning application on N recovery and maize grain yield. For most MPT species used, incorporated prunings gave high nitrogen recovery compared to surface applied prunings. In order to achieve synchrony between N supply from prunings and N demand by a maize crop, relatively large amounts of N should be released into the soil before peak N demand by the maize crop. This could be achieved by incorporating adequate quantities of high quality prunings such as those ofCajanus cajan andLeucaena leucocephala. Florida Agricultural Experiment Station Journal Series Number R-05489.     

Lipoperoxidation and cyclooxygenases 1 and 2 inhibitory compounds from Iryanthera juruensis

Plants from Iryanthera genus have been traditionally used as food supplements by South American Indians. The MeOH extract of leaves of Iryanthera juruensis, one of the plants endemic to the Amazon region and consumed in Brazil, and the hexane extract from its seeds inhibited lipid peroxidation (LPO) and cyclooxygenase (COX-1 and -2)) enzymes in in vitro assays. Further analyses of these extracts yielded 5-deoxyflavones (1-5) from the leaf extract and sargachromenol (6), sargaquinoic acid (7), a novel juruenolic acid (8), omega-arylalkanoic acids (9a-c), and the lignan guaiacin (10) from the seed extract. Compounds 3-5 inhibited LPO by 86%, 77%, and 88% at 10 ppm, respectively, and compounds 6 and 9a-c showed inhibition at 76% and 78% at 100 ppm, respectively. However, compounds 7 and 8 were inactive and lignan 10 exhibited LPO inhibitory activity by 99% at 100 ppm compared to commercial antioxidants butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), and vitamin E. The flavones 1-5 also inhibited COX-1 and -2 enzymes by 50-65% at 100 ppm. Compound 6 showed high but nonselective inhibition of COX-1 and COX-2 enzymes, when compared to aspirin and Celebrex, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). Compounds 7 and 10 inhibited COX-1 by 60% and 65% and COX-2 by 37% and 18%, respectively, whereas compounds 8 and 9a-c showed little or no activity against these enzymes.     

A B-cell targeting virus disrupts potentially protective genomic methylation patterns in lymphoid tissue by increasing global 5-hydroxymethylcytosine levels

The mechanisms by which viruses modulate the immune system include changes in host genomic methylation. 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) is the catalytic product of the Tet (Ten-11 translocation) family of enzymes and may serve as an intermediate of DNA demethylation. Recent reports suggest that 5hmC may confer consequences on cellular events including the pathogenesis of disease; in order to explore this possibility further we investigated both 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and 5hmC levels in healthy and diseased chicken bursas of Fabricius. We discovered that embryonic B-cells have high 5mC content while 5hmC decreases during bursa development. We propose that a high 5mC level protects from the mutagenic activity of the B-cell antibody diversifying enzyme activation induced deaminase (AID). In support of this view, AID mRNA increases significantly within the developing bursa from embryonic to post hatch stages while mRNAs that encode Tet family members 1 and 2 reduce over the same period. Moreover, our data revealed that infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV) disrupts this genomic methylation pattern causing a global increase in 5hmC levels in a mechanism that may involve increased Tet 1 and 2 mRNAs. To our knowledge this is the first time that a viral infection has been observed to cause global increases in genomic 5hmC within infected host tissues, underlining a mechanism that may involve the induction of B-cell genomic instability and cell death to facilitate viral egress.     

Molecular diversity in Indian sugarcane cultivars as revealed by randomly amplified DNA polymorphisms

Genetic diversity in 28 prominent Indian sugarcane varieties cultivated under a wide range of agroclimatic conditions, was studied using 25 RAPD markers. The mean genetic distance among the 28 varieties was only 29.31%, implying that a large part of the genome is similar among the varieties. This probably arises from the lack of parental diversity, with few clones which are themselves related, contributing to the parentage of these varieties. The parentage of the varieties did not contribute significantly to the clustering pattern. Varieties belonging to the same parentage were grouped under different clusters while varieties from different parentages were grouped under the same cluster. The tropical and subtropical identities of the varieties also did not contribute to the clustering pattern as individual clusters included varieties from both tropics and subtropics. This shows that genetically similar varieties are present in both the regions. Among the varieties, Co 7717 was found to be totally distinct and divergent from rest of the varieties. The study reveals the limited genetic base of the current Indian commercial varieties and the need to diversify the genetic base by using new sources from the germplasm. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Identification of soybean strains resistant to Xanthomonas campestris pv. glycines

Summary Soybean germplasm was screened for resistance to bacterial pustule disease. The etiological agent, Xanthomonas campestris pv. glycines, was isolated from the leaves of field grown soybean in Maharashtra, India. The screening of soybean stocks was carried out by excised leaf inoculation method. A differential susceptibility to the pathogen was observed in the tested stocks. Two stocks P-4-2 and P-169-3 were found to be completely resistant to the pathogen and displayed an incompatible reaction. Four cultivars, EC-34160, Bragg, Kalitur and PK-472 displayed moderate resistance and the remaining stocks were susceptible to the attack of the pathogen. The stocks P-4-2 and P-169-3 remained resistant even to a high concentration of 10⁹ colony forming units (cfu)/ml of the pathogen.