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The present study addresses Ghana’s heavy dependence on rice imports, which currently make up over 40% of the nation’s domestic consumption with declining soil fertility. The use of organic and chemical fertilizers to improve soil fertility has had an unintended consequence like the production of methane (CH4) gas. This study investigates the potential of biochar, a promising solution for reducing emissions and enhancing crop yields when combined with silicon (Si). This research assessed the effect of these soil amendments on rice yield and methane emissions within degraded rice fields. The main treatments were recommended fertilizer dose (RDF), a biochar compost (BIOCOM) application, and a combination of 50% RDF with 50% BIOCOM. Within these treatments, Si was introduced at varying levels: 0, 100, and 200 kg Si ha−1. The results indicate that the application of RDF resulted in significant improvements in rice growth, Si uptake, phosphorus (P) uptake, and ultimately, grain yield. RDF produced remarkable yield increments, surpassing BIOCOM by 59.7% in 2020 and 56.6% in 2021. Additionally, the introduction of 100 kg Si ha−1 led to an average 15.6% increase in grain yield across both growing seasons and displayed a positive correlation with P uptake. BIOCOM and its blend with NPK improved residual P and K contents. BIOCOM reduced CH4 emissions by 46% in 2020 and 44% in 2021 when compared to RDF. This study does not only hold valuable implications for sustainable agricultural practices but also make a substantial contribution to addressing key concerns, including food security, soil fertility preservation, and the reduction of CH4 gas emissions in rice production.

The global temperature increase of 1.1°C over the past decade and human population growth are already escalating competition for water in locations where water is scarce, adversely affecting agriculture. Water-smart farming was developed to address challenges associated with the availability, access and use of agricultural water. It complements practices and goals related to agricultural water in climate-smart agriculture. It encompasses several climate-responsive food cropping systems, water-saving methods, tools, and technologies to grow food sustainably. Effective implementation of water-smart farming can ameliorate the pressing burden of agricultural water competition. Therefore, the conceptual framework of water-smart farming and its principal elements or ideology are introduced in this review. The major pillars of water-smart cropping, which include conditioning and improving the soil’s capacity to capture and hold moisture, basic infrastructure for water harvesting, storage and use as nature-based cropping solutions were elaborated. Further examples of technologies and best practices in water-smart crop farming, such as breeding for drought-tolerant crop varieties, promoting dryland cropping systems, alternate wetting and drying technology, water drainage and control structures, rainwater harvesting, utilization of irrigation reservoirs, cover cropping and intercropping for enhancing soil moisture conservation were presented. The review also briefly shows the contribution of some of these best practices and adaptive technologies of water-smart cropping toward promoting water-saving methods used for growing rice, maize, legumes, cassava and peri-urban vegetables.

Yam production along the West African yam belt is challenged with deteriorating soil fertility and unavailability of stakes, resulting in decreased yam productivity, and farmers' livelihood. This study evaluated resource use and yam productivity in pigeonpea-yam cropping systems in Ghana's forest and forest-savannah transition zones from 2017 through 2019 cropping seasons. Pigeonpea was established either in an alley or as a border during the 2017 cropping season, while yam was cultivated in 2018 and 2019. A split-plot design of cropping system (yam planted in alleys of pigeonpea—PA; yam planted with pigeonpea as a border—PB and sole yam) as main-plot treatments and chemical fertilizer (0–0–0; 23–23–30; 45–45–60 N-P2O5-K2O kg ha−1) as subplot treatments were used for the study. Productivity data on pigeonpea and yam were collected. The results revealed significantly higher leafy biomass and correspondent higher N content and N due to fixation in PA fields than PB fields in both locations and seasons. The presence of the pigeonpea and its biomass resulted in a significant suppression of ridge erosion and weeds, while soil moisture and nutrients improved, resulting in increased yam tuber productivity than in sole yam production. Further, planting yam with pigeonpea and half (23–23–30 N-P2O5-K2O kg ha−1) the recommended fertilizer rate significantly improved tuber yield and productivity than planting sole yam with full recommended fertilizer level in both locations and seasons. Promoting and adopting the pigeonpea-yam cropping system could sustain soil fertility, provide readily available stakes to address the constraint of deforestation and land degradation associated with yam production.

Intensification of staple food crops such as Yam (Dioscorea spp.) while sustaining the environment is imperative in providing food for the expected 9.6 billion global population by 2050. In West Africa, amid the threat posed by climate change on food security, yam production is associated with deforestation and land degradation. Integrated soil fertility management and improved staking options for intensification and sustainable yam production on continuously cropped fields hold the key to addressing this challenge. This review evaluates the last decade's yam production trends in West Africa and in three leading yam-producing countries, Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire, using the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT) data. A production increase of 1.72, 1.43, and 1.35 times resulted in an area harvest increase of 2.25, 1.23, and 1.59 times in Nigeria, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire, respectively. Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire had the worst yam productivity across the decade by producing at an average yield 17.3 and 12.5%, respectively, of the estimated potential yam yield (50 t ha−1). Even in Ghana, where the productivity increased across the decade, the average productivity was 33% of the estimated potential yield. Thus, it can be observed that the primary reason for the increase in yam production across the globe and in West Africa is mainly because of the increase in area under cultivation in the major yam-producing countries. The projected future erratic rainfall and elevated daily mean temperature as a result of climate change would cause declining tuber yields. Meanwhile, the importation of food such as rice as a strategy to improve food availability cannot be accessed by poor rural households due to the strong correlation between international food price hikes and prices of these foods. However, there is less relationship between international yam price hikes and yam prices in West Africa. Therefore, yam production and sustenance could be vital for food security for the increasing population of West Africa. This study reviews current research on soil fertility and staking options for sustaining yam production on continuously cropped fields. Promotion and adoption of these improved technologies would enhance food security and contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goals 1 (No poverty), 2 (Zero hunger), 13 (Climate action), and 15 (Life on land).

Group recommendation has attracted wide attention owing to its significance in real applications. One of the big challenges for group recommendation systems is how to integrate individual preferences of each group member and attain overall preferences for the group. Most of the traditional group recommendation solutions regard group members as equal participants and assign a same weight to each member. As a result, performance of this type of recommendation methods is not as good as expected. To improve the performance of group recommendation, a novel group recommendation model via Self-Attention and Collaborative Metric Learning (SACML) is presented in this paper. With the employment of Self-Attention mechanism, the SACML model can learn the similarity interactions between group members and services and decide a different weight for different group member. Based on these weights, group preferences for services can be generated by the aggregation of group members' preferences and the group's own preference. Similar metric space between group and services is obtained via collaborative metric learning with the group preferences and positive and negative services' features. Group recommendation is finally implemented based on the obtained metric space. Simulation has been conducted on CAMRa2011 and Meetup datasets, and experimental results show that the proposed SACML model has better performance in comparison with those baseline methods.

Water stress (WS) during spike development strongly affects final grain yield and grain quality in cereals. Proline, an osmoprotectant amino-acid, may contribute to alleviating the effects of cell and tissue dehydration. We studied five spring barley genotypes contrasting in their drought response, including two introgression lines, S42IL-143 and S42IL-141, harboring a Pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthase1- P5cs1 allele originating from the wild barley accession ISR42-8. We tested the hypothesis that barley genotypes harboring a wild allele at P5cs1 locus are comparatively more drought-tolerant at the reproductive stage by inducing proline accumulation in their immature spikes. At the booting stage, we subjected plants to well-watered and WS treatments until physiological maturity. Several morpho-physiological traits had significant genotype by treatment interaction and reduction under WS. Varying levels of genotypic proline accumulation and differences in WS tolerance were observed. Spike proline accumulation was higher than leaf proline accumulation for all genotypes under WS. Also, introgression lines carrying a wild allele at P5cs1 locus had a markedly higher spike and leaf proline content compared with the other genotypes. These introgression lines showed milder drought symptoms compared with elite genotypes, remained photosynthetically active under WS, and maintained their intrinsic water use efficiency. These combined responses contributed to the achievement of higher final seed productivity. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of whole spikes at the soft dough stage showed an increase in seed abortion among the elite genotypes compared with the introgression lines 15 days after WS treatment. Our results suggest that proline accumulation at the reproductive stage contributes to the maintenance of grain formation under water shortage.

A vigorous root system in barley promotes water uptake from the soil under water-limited conditions. We investigated three spring barley genotypes with varying water stress responses using rhizoboxes at the seedling stage. The genotypes comprised two elite German cultivars, Barke and Scarlett, and a near-isogenic line, NIL 143. The isogenic line harbors the wild allele pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthase1-P5cs1. Root growth in rhizoboxes under reduced water availability conditions caused a significant reduction in total root length, rooting depth, root maximum width, and root length density. On average, root growth was reduced by more than 20% due to water stress. Differences in organ proline concentrations were observed for all genotypes, with shoots grown under water stress exhibiting at least a 30% higher concentration than the roots. Drought induced higher leaf and root proline concentrations in NIL 143 compared with any of the other genotypes. Under reduced water availability conditions, NIL 143 showed less severe symptoms of drought, higher lateral root length, rooting depth, maximum root width, root length density, and convex hull area compared with Barke and Scarlett. Within the same comparison, under water stress, NIL 143 had a higher proportion of lateral roots (+30%), which were also placed at deeper substrate horizons. NIL 143 had a less negative plant water potential and higher relative leaf water content and stomatal conductance compared with the other genotypes under water stress. Under these conditions, this genotype also maintained an enhanced net photosynthetic rate and exhibited considerable fine root growth (diameter class 0.05–0.35 mm). These results show that water stress induces increased shoot and root proline accumulation in the NIL 143 barley genotype at the seedling stage and that this effect is associated with increased lateral root growth.

Modelling and multiple linear regression were used to explore the reason for low maize yield in the Atebubu-Amantin and West Mamprusi Districts of Ghana, West Africa. The study evaluated maize yields on twenty farms against measures of soil fertility, agronomic attributes and soil water availability. Correlations between yield, soil fertility, rain, crop density, and weed biomass, were low, and no single factor could explain the low yields. A 50-year virtual experiment was then set up using the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) to explore the interactions between climate, crop management (sowing date and nitrogen fertilization) and rooting depth on grain yield and nitrate (NO3-N) dynamics. The analysis showed that a lack of optimal sowing dates that synchronize radiation, rainfall events and nitrogen (N) management with critical growth stages explained the low farm yields.