- Author: Ben Faber
On behalf of the International Society of Citriculture (ISC) and the Organizing Committee of the 14th International Citrus Congress (ICC 2020), we are very pleased to invite participants from public and private research and institutions, and from the production and commercial sector to attend the ICC 2020 that will be held in Mersin, Turkey, from 8-13 November 2020, under the theme “Reframing Citriculture: Better Connections for Future”. The Congress is being organized by the Mediterranean Exporters' Association (MEA), Çukurova University (ÇU) and National Citrus Council (NCC). These three institutions will cooperate with universities, research institutes, associations, companies, growers, exporters and sponsors. The Congress that will be realized with attendance of all stakeholders concerning whole citrus industry attracts attention with all activities including a number of workshop, plenary, oral presentation and poster sessions which cover policies, comments, approaches under the theme “Reframing Citriculture: Better Connections for Future”. So citrus will be reframe for better connection in future
Historians believe that the ancestor of the citrus trees, Citrus medica L., was introduced from India into Anatolia (Turkey) in the late 4th century BC. Today, Turkey is the 8th largest citrus producer in the World. Total citrus production of Turkey was 4.902.052 t. Oranges are the main citrus fruit grown in Turkey, accounting for about 43% of total production (1.900.000 t). Orange production is followed by mandarins (1.650.000 t), lemons (1.100.000 t), grapefruit (250.000 t) and others (2.052 t). Citrus area has expanded rapidly and reached 135.643 ha. This expansion is driven by domestic and export demands. It is believed that Turkey has a production potential at least three times of the present level. (TUIK, 2018)
The major citrus producing areas are located along Turkey's southern Mediterranean (88%) and Aegean coastal plains (12%), where typical mild or cool Mediterranean subtropical climate prevails. The most producer provinces are Adana (1.142.686 t), Mersin (1.052.992 t) and Hatay (906.392 t) in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Mediterranean climate is more suitable for high quality citrus; continue to shift to citrus from field crops (cotton and grains) because of its more attractive returns. In these regions, high quality citrus fruit production is oriented particularly towards fresh fruit markets and consumption.
Most of Turkey's citrus production is used for the local fresh fruit market and for export. Turkey has a significant place in international citrus trade, particularly in fresh citrus fruit exports. In the total global fresh citrus fruit export, Turkey was the second in the world. In recent years, exports of citrus, especially mandarin, have steadily increased.
The first settlement in Mersin, the host city of ICC 2020, which is known as Cilicia in ancient times, dates as far back as to the New Stone Age. It is one of the important ports of the Mediterranean and the center of maritime commerce just as it was during ancient times. As a settlement of dominant powers since Neolithic Period, Mersin hosts many archaeological and historical monuments remaining from Chalcolithic, Hittite, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations. Therefore, many important figures in the history of civilization, such as Alexander the Great, Saint Paul, Cleopatra, Aya Thecla, Prophet Daniel, lived in this area and changed the course of history.
During the congress, a great many scientific activities such as plenary and ordinary sessions, workshops and poster display to establish new links and collaborations among participants will be carried out by well-appointed scientists who will come from all of the world. Furthermore, participants will find opportunities to see both Turkish citrus industries and historical background by technic and social pre, mid and post Congress tours.
We look forward to meeting you in Turkey.
Website: https://www.icc2020.org/
- Author: Ben Faber
A team of University of Connecticut researchers engineered a soil moisture sensor that is more cost effective than anything currently available and responds to the global need to regulate water consumption in agriculture. https://today.uconn.edu/2019/09/engineers-produce-water-saving-crop-irrigation-sensor/
Designed and tested on the university's farm, the sensors are small enough to insert into the soil with ease and less expensive to manufacture than current technology, the researchers write in the Journal of Sensors and Actuators.
“Advances in hydrological science are hampered by the lack of on site soil moisture data,” said Guiling Wang, study author and professor of civil and environmental engineering at UConn. “It's really hard to monitor and measure things underground. The challenge is that the existing sensors are very expensive and the installation process is very labor intensive.”
The sensors developed by the team of UConn engineers — environmental, mechanical, and chemical — are expected to save nearly 35% of water consumption and cost far less than what exists. Current sensors that are used in a similar way range from $100 to $1,000 each, while the one developed at UConn cost $2, according to the researchers.
An alternate monitoring option, soil moisture data collected from remote sensing technology such as radars and radiometers on board satellites, have suffered from low resolution. But the new technology developed by UConn Professor Baikun Li's group can provide high spatio-temporal resolution data needed for hydrology model development in Wang's group.
In the UConn prototype, wires are connected from the sensors to an instrument that logs data. Researchers conducted field tests of the sensors — performing side-by-side tests with commercial sensors under various environmental conditions throughout a 10-month period. The effects of the environmental variations on soil moisture throughout the period were clearly reflected.
Critically, the small sensors can also be easily sent around he world given the fact that soil moisture plays a fundamental role in agricultural decision-making globally.
Accurate soil moisture sensing is essential to ensure a water level that produces the most robust crops while not wasting the natural resource. In some states in the U.S. — Florida and California, for example — irrigation water usage has become tightly restricted.
The UConn researchers are also working on a nitrogen sensor that is the same model of the water sensors. These would help provide farmers with information on when fields need fertilizing. Currently, nitrogen sensors are not available using this type of technology.
“This is really an exciting start to a much larger scope of things we have in mind,” says Li, a study author and professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Towards water-saving irrigation methodology: Field test of soil moisture profiling using flat thin mm-sized soil moisture sensors (MSMSs)
WangchiZhouaZhihengXuaDannyRossaJamesDignanbYingzhengFanaYuankaiHuangaGuilingWangaAmvrossios C.BagtzoglouaYuLeicBaikunLia
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2019.126857Get rights and content
Abstract:
This study examined flat thin mm-sized soil moisture sensors (MSMS) fabricated using thermal press technology on thin compact disc (CD) to solve the long-standing problems of soil moisture profiling. The 10-month field tests conducted at a farm site compared three groups of MSMS with commercial capacitance-type soil moisture sensors (SMS) in terms of accuracy, sensitivity to environmental variations (e.g. water shock, temperatures, dry/wet seasons) and long-term stability. MSMS sensors were mounted on the shallow, middle and deep locations of a hollow plastic rod (length: 1.1 m) and installed along the soil depth to profile the soil moisture variation. The resistance readings of MSMS sensors along soil depth were recorded in a real-time mode. Due to soil settlement over time after installation, the MSMS sensors in the shallow soil suffered from unstable readings, while the MSMS sensors in the middle and deep soil exhibited high stability and had the best correlation with water content values of commercial sensors (R2 value: 0.6264). The contact between MSMS surface and soil particles appeared to be a critical factor determining the stability of MSMS readings. In addition, MSMS sensors showed a prompt response to the sharp change of soil moisture in the water shock tests. The soil moisture profiles collected from MSMS sensors captured the spatiotemporal variation of soil moisture, which enabled the simultaneous profiling at multiple locations. This field study demonstrated the great potential of mass deployment of low-cost but accurate MSMS sensors to achieve high resolution profiling for water-saving irrigation.
- Author: Ben Faber
Soil Health & Cover Crop Field Day
Date: October 31, 2019
Time: 8:30 AM - 11:00 AM
Contact: Alli Rowe, amrowe@ucanr.edu
Sponsor: UCCE Ventura
Location: Hansen Agricultural Research and Extension Center
Event Details
Come gather around a cover crop demonstration for a discussion on cover crop seed selections, appropriate mixes for different cropping systems, and management issues. Other soil health topics include compost applications, Healthy Soils grant opportunities, and technical assistance availability.
This event is free and open to anyone interested in soil health. Please spread the word! Register here
8:30 –9:00 Registration
9:00 –10:45 Rotate through stations to learn about cover crops
- Station 1:Biomass Builders with Shulamit Shroder, Climate Smart Agriculture Specialist, UCCEKern County
- Station 2: Pollinator Habitat with Jamie Whiteford,Irrigation Specialist, Ventura County/Cachuma RCD
- Station 3: Low Profile with Oleg Daugovish,Strawberry and Vegetable Crop Advisor, UCCE Ventura County
- Station 4: Mustards and Varieties with Dee Vega,Staff Research Associate, UCCE Ventura County
- Station 5: Compost and Compost Tea with Annemiek Schilder,County Director, UCCE Ventura County
- Station 6: Grant Opportunities and Technical Assistance with Alli Rowe,Climate Smart Agriculture Specialist, UCCE Ventura County
10:45 –11:00 Questions and wrap up
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- Author: Ben Faber
There's a new pub in town, and you can read it up. It's a generic guide to mulch use.
Mulches for Landscapes
Mulches are materials that are applied to the soil surface, but not tilled, mixed, or combined with underlying soil. Landscape mulches are typically plant residues (organic mulches) or rock, sand, and stone (inorganic mulches). You may know that immediately after application mulches prevent weeds from germinating and reduce evaporative loss from soil surfaces, but there are other benefits as well. And down sides, as well.
Includes a table of common mulch materials with their benefits and potential problems.
This free publication is available by download.
Read more. Know more. And there's a lot more to read at ANR Publications.
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- Author: Ben Faber
PULLMAN, Wash. – Washington State University researchers have for the first time grown the bacteria in a laboratory that causes Citrus Greening Disease, considered the world's most harmful citrus disease.
Being able to grow the elusive and poorly understood bacterium, Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (CLas), will make it easier for researchers to find treatments for the disease that has destroyed millions of acres of orange, grapefruit and lemon groves around the world and has devastated the citrus industry in Florida.
The researchers, including Phuc Ha, postdoctoral research associate, Haluk Beyenal, Paul Hohenschuh Professor in the Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, David Gang and Ruifeng He, from WSU's Institute of Biological Chemistry, Anders Omsland, from the Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health, and researchers from the University of Florida and University of Arizona, report on their work in the journal, Biofilm.
WSU was selected three years ago for a $2 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant to study the bacteria, in part, because Washington has no citrus industry. The disease, formally known as Huánglóngbìng, (HLB), is spread by Asian citrus psyllids insects. It attacks the vascular system of citrus trees and causes fruit to become green, misshapen, and bitter-tasting.
A critical step in coming up with weapons to fight the disease is being able to study it in the lab, but the CLas bacterium is notoriously difficult to grow. With a small genome, CLas is thought to depend on very specific nutrient availability and possibly compounds secreted by other nearby bacteria. When researchers used a traditional rich media that they typically use for growing bacteria, they mostly grew bacteria other than CLas.
So, in order to conduct research, scientists have had to get bacterial samples directly from the trees themselves or from the insects that spread it, which is time-consuming and cumbersome. Trying to conduct experiments has also been difficult because, unlike neat lab cultures, bacterial samples gathered from a sick tree vary, depending on where and when the sample is gathered and the level of infection.
Without being able to grow the bacteria in a lab, researchers have been unable to even absolutely confirm that the bacteria, in fact, causes the disease.
In their paper, the researchers for the first time successfully established and maintained CLas bacterial cultures outside of its host.
Using infected citrus tissue as their starting point, the researchers developed a biofilm, a kind of bacterial city that allows a variety of bacteria to thrive. Instead of a rich growth medium that would crowd out the CLas, the researchers severely limited the growth of partner bacteria and created a medium with the specific nutrients, acidity, incubation temperatures, and oxygen levels that are optimal for CLas.
The CLas thrived – an important first step.
“We were really excited,” said Beyenal, “but then we wondered if we could re-grow it.”
The researchers were able to transfer the orange-colored culture and grow new cultures in their biofilm reactors, which they have maintained for more than two years.
“We can do this for as long as we want,” said Beyenal.
Beyenal's group is now working to purify the culture, which will further help researchers to study it. They are also developing genetic-based methods to understand and mitigate the spread of the disease.
Media contacts:
- Haluk Beyenal, Hohenschuh Distinguished Professor, Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, 509-335-6607, beyenal@wsu.edu.
- David Gang, Professor, Institute of Biological Chemistry, 509-335-0550, gangd@wsu.edu
- Tina Hilding, communications director, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture, 509-335-5095, thilding@wsu.edu
Photo: Phuc Ha and Haluk Beyenal examine a bacterial culture in the laboratory.
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