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Sustainability
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Smart Farming and Bioenergy Feedstock Crops
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Smart Farming and Bioenergy Feedstock Crops

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 May 2022) | Viewed by 11416

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Shivendra Kumar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agronomy, Iowa State University, 716 Farm House Ln, Ames, IA 50011, USA
Interests: plant genetics and breeding; plant pathology; smart crop production; QTL and association mapping
Dr. Sudeep S. Sidhu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agronomy, University of Florida, North Florida Research and Education Center, 155 Research Road, Quincy, FL 32351, USA
Interests: crop production; plant nutrition; smart crop production; soil environmental quality
Dr. Ian M. Small

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Plant Pathology, University of Florida, North Florida Research and Education Center, 155 Research Road, Quincy, FL 32351, USA
Interests: plant pathology; epidemiology; integrated disease management; plant breeding for disease resistance; smart crop protection

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture has seen many revolutions starting from the domestication of plants and animals, practicing crop rotation and mechanization and “green revolution”. Currently, agriculture is going through a new phase/era of technical advancement which involves the use of information and technology for better yield and productivity. Smart farming has enabled the use of robotic vehicles for various purposes such as weeding, fertilization, biomass and yield estimation, detection of diseases and even harvesting of fruits. Smart farming is going to make agriculture more profitable and less labor-intensive and will reduce the risk of crop loss. Although technical advancement in agriculture is taking place, it still has certain limitations such as the high cost of adoption and the time to develop site- and crop-specific technology. This technical advancement has been utilized in various crops such as corn, wheat, rice and soybean for increasing profitability. On the other hand, use of this technology for improvement of bioenergy feedstock crops is still at its infancy. Bioenergy feedstocks have gained importance in recent years because of their renewable nature and the increasing cost and limited reserve of non-renewable fuel sources. It is estimated that the world energy consumption will increase by 57% in 2025 in comparison to 2002. This situation demands exploitation of alternative energy sources to meet our energy needs. Use of smart farming for the advancement of bioenergy feedstock crops will play an important role in their overall adoption and in meeting our fuel and energy needs.

The Special Issue of Sustainability will deal with the topic “Smart farming and its utility for advancement of bioenergy feedstock crops”. It is a multidiscipilinary topic which will include the development of decision support systems, phenotyping tools and smart crop protection to understand plant diseases and reduce their impact on bioenergy feedstock crop production.

Dr. Shivendra Kumar
Dr. Sudeep S. Sidhu
Dr. Ian M. Small
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • artificial intelligence
  • bioenergy feedstock
  • biofuel
  • UAV
  • smart farming
  • smart crop protection
  • renewable energy
  • biotic stress
  • crop advancement technologies

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 62945 KiB  
Article
Identifying and Counting Tobacco Plants in Fragmented Terrains Based on Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Images in Beipanjiang, China
by Yu Wang, Zhongfa Zhou, Denghong Huang, Tian Zhang and Wenhui Zhang
Sustainability 2022, 14(13), 8151; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14138151 - 4 Jul 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2105
Abstract
Refined tobacco plant information extraction is the basis of efficient yield estimation. Tobacco planting in mountainous plateau areas in China is characterized by scattered distribution, uneven growth, and mixed/intercropping crops. Thus, it is difficult to accurately extract information on the tobacco plants. The [...] Read more.
Refined tobacco plant information extraction is the basis of efficient yield estimation. Tobacco planting in mountainous plateau areas in China is characterized by scattered distribution, uneven growth, and mixed/intercropping crops. Thus, it is difficult to accurately extract information on the tobacco plants. The study area is Beipanjiang topographic fracture area in China, using the smart phantom 4 Pro v2.0 quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicle to collect the images of tobacco planting area in the study area. By screening the visible light band, Excess Green Index, Normalized Green Red Difference Vegetation Index, and Excess Green Minus Excess Red Index were used to obtain the best color index calculation method for tobacco plants. Low-pass filtering was used to enhance tobacco plant information and suppress noise from weeds, corn plants, and rocks. Combined with field measurements of tobacco plant data, the computer interactive interpretation method performed gray-level segmentation on the enhanced image and extracted tobacco plant information. This method is suitable for identifying tobacco plants in mountainous plateau areas. The detection rates of the test and verification areas were 96.61% and 97.69%, and the completeness was 95.66% and 96.53%, respectively. This study can provide fine data support for refined tobacco plantation management in the terrain broken area with large exposed rock area and irregular planting land. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Farming and Bioenergy Feedstock Crops)
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19 pages, 2027 KiB  
Article
Interactive Effects of Nitrogen and Sulfur Nutrition on Growth, Development, and Physiology of Brassica carinata A. Braun and Brassica napus L.
by Shivendra Kumar, Ramdeo Seepaul, Ian M. Small, Sheeja George, George Kelly O’Brien, James J. Marois and David L. Wright
Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7355; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137355 - 30 Jun 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2504
Abstract
Brassica carinata (carinata) has emerged as a potential biofuel source due to its high erucic acid content, making it desirable for various industrial applications. Nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) are required as primary sources of nutrition for growth and development in different oilseed [...] Read more.
Brassica carinata (carinata) has emerged as a potential biofuel source due to its high erucic acid content, making it desirable for various industrial applications. Nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) are required as primary sources of nutrition for growth and development in different oilseed crops and their utilization is interdependent. The purpose of the study was to analyze the interactive effect of N and S nutrition on the growth and other physiological activities of carinata and B. napus (napus). Four treatments, i.e., optimum NS (+N+S, 100% N and 100% S); N limited (−N+S, 0% N, 100% S); S limited (+N−S, 100% N, 0% S), and NS limited (−N−S, 0% N and 0% S) of N and S in full-strength Hoagland solution were imposed in the current study. Effect of different NS treatments was observed on vegetative traits such as number of primary and secondary branches, total leaf area, total biomass production and allocation, and physiological traits such as production of photosynthetic pigments, net photosynthesis, electron transport, and other aspects for both carinata and napus. The traits of stem elongation, number of nodes, node addition rate, internode length, number of primary and secondary branches were 60%, 36%, 50%, 35%, 56%, and 83% lower, respectively, in napus in comparison to carinata. Different NS treatments also positively influenced the production of photosynthetic pigments such as chlorophyll (Chl) a and b and carotenoids in carinata and napus. The concentration of Chla was 11% higher in napus in comparison to carinata. The rate of net photosynthesis, electron transport, and fluorescence was 12%, 8%, and 5% higher based on overall value, respectively, in napus compared to carinata. On the other hand, the overall value for stomatal conductance decreased by 5% in napus when compared to carinata. Different growth-related traits such as vegetative (plant height, node number, internode length, leaf area, number of primary and secondary branches), reproductive (pod number, pod length, seeds per pod), and photosynthetic capacity in oilseed brassicas are correlated with the final seed and oil yield and chemical composition which are of economic importance for the adoption of the crop. Thus, the analysis of these traits will help to determine the effect of NS interaction on crop productivity of carinata and napus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Farming and Bioenergy Feedstock Crops)
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Review

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24 pages, 18018 KiB  
Review
Perspectives on Bioenergy Feedstock Development in Pakistan: Challenges and Opportunities
by Athar Mahmood, Xiukang Wang, Ahmad Naeem Shahzad, Sajid Fiaz, Habib Ali, Maria Naqve, Muhammad Mansoor Javaid, Sahar Mumtaz, Mehwish Naseer and Renji Dong
Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8438; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158438 - 28 Jul 2021
Cited by 24 | Viewed by 6034
Abstract
Pakistan faces challenges in both food and energy security. Indeed, extensive literature suggests that food and energy security are interdependent. While acknowledging that food security is still a primary concern for Pakistan, energy security is also a major issue. It is crucial to [...] Read more.
Pakistan faces challenges in both food and energy security. Indeed, extensive literature suggests that food and energy security are interdependent. While acknowledging that food security is still a primary concern for Pakistan, energy security is also a major issue. It is crucial to develop sustainable energy sources for energy production. Among sustainable sources, biomass is a promising source that can be effectively used for environmentally friendly energy production. This article addresses the energy issues and potential solutions using crop residues, non-edible energy crops, and animal and municipal solid wastes in Pakistan. The current research challenges, relevant industries, opportunities, and the future share of energy production derived from renewable and sustainable sources are emphasized with a focus on the potential of biomass energy. This article shows that Pakistan has considerable potential to develop bioenergy crops on marginal lands without compromising food security, with considerable greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits. Pakistan has vast biomass resources, including crop residues, animal waste, municipal solid waste, and forest residues, which collectively produce 230 billion tons of biomass annually. There are about 72 million bovines (cows and buffaloes), 81 million tons per year of crop biomass, and about 785 million birds in poultry farms across the country. Land that is currently non-productive could be used for energy crops, and this has the potential to produce 2500–3000 MW of energy. The utilization of waste cooking oil and fats is the most economically feasible option for obtaining biodiesel due to its easy and almost free availability in Pakistan. Systematic management is needed to collect this huge quantity of waste cooking oil and efficiently convert it to biodiesel. Similarly, molasses may be a promising source for bioethanol production. Furthermore, this study suggests that Pakistan’s energy policies need to be amended to ensure that the energy supply meets the demand. In the future, massive energy projects on biomass-based bioenergy need to be implemented in Pakistan. To achieve its bioenergy potential, Pakistan needs to develop incentive-based bioenergy technologies. Moreover, this objective can only be achieved in the country by initiating R&D projects to promote advanced biomass conversion technologies, such as biogas plants and combustion systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart Farming and Bioenergy Feedstock Crops)
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