Annoucements

Research Coordination Meeting (RCM) of the Coordinated Research Project (CRP) on Integrated Soil, Water and Nutrient Management in Conservation Agriculture (D1.50.09)

The fourth and final RCM of this CRP will be held from 5 to 9 October 2009 at IAEA Headquarters in Vienna. All chief scientific investigators (both contract and agreement holders) are expected to attend the meeting. The objective of the meetings are: (1) present and discuss the results obtained for the whole duration of the CRP, (2) evaluate achievements in accordance with project objectives and expected outputs, and (3) review manuscripts prepared for the production of the IAEA-TECDOC publication.

FAO/IAEA/IFDC Direct Application of Phosphate Rock (DAPR)

The updated FAO/IAEA/IFDC and FAO Direct Application of Phosphate Rock (DAPR) website is now available at http://www-iswam.iaea.org/dapr/srv/en/home. This updated DAPR website will help farmers, resource managers and extension workers in developed and developing country to decide on the use of phosphates rocks (PR) as phosphorus (P) fertilizers based on their cost-effectiveness against soluble P fertilizers as a source of phosphorus for crop productivity and its long-term sustainability.

Special News

Roots for crop productivity.
Roots-the hidden half of the plant -play an important role in improving soil and crop and productivity because of its central importance for capturing and utilizing soil water and nutrients for plant growth. However root research has received very little attention because of the high labour cost of assessing a large number of roots in the field, but plant life begins with roots. A joint successful collaboration between the IAEA and the Pennsylvania State University through a CRP has resulted in the development of a field root methodology that is capable of discerning variations for root traits important for efficient acquisition of nutrients and water with minimum cost. This methodology which is available at a website http://roots.psu.edu is user-friendly and available to our member states. This validated protocol has been used to effectively identify deep and shallow root genotypes which could be intercropped to maximize the utilization of water and nutrient resources in cropping system.

New Publications

On-going Joint FAO and IAEA effort to improve crop water productivity and water use efficiency
The Soil and Water Management and Crop Nutrition (SWMCN) Section has been working with FAO on the development of FAO's AquaCrop field-crop model for predicting yield response to water. This is in part a revision of the FAO's published document in 1979 on "Yield Response to Water", (FAO Irrigation and Drainage Paper No. 33). The outcome of this collaboration is a more user-friendly model which can be used by scientists and land managers in Member States to manage scarce water for crop production under both rainfed and irrigated conditions. Refer to FAO Website for more information: http://www.fao.org/NR/dep/nrlw/nrlw_en.htm