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At least 253 records · Page 14

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NASA NTRS1977

The large area crop inventory experiment: A major demonstration of space remote sensing

Strategies are presented in agricultural technology to increase the resistance of crops to a wider range of meteorological conditions in order to reduce year-to-year variations in crop production. Uncertainties in agricultral production, together with the consumer demands of an increasing world population, have greatly intensified the need for early and accurate annual global crop production forecasts. These forecasts must predict fluctuation with an accuracy, timeliness and known reliability sufficient to permit necessary social and economic adjustments, with as much advance warning as possible.

Macdonald, R. B.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Australia ground data collection 1981-82 crop year, volume 1

Under AgRISTARS management, ground data were collected at 20 agricultural sites within Australia during the crop year 1981-82. The data collection activity is summarized. Specifically, the following information is provided: discussion of data procedures, methods, and products; crop production results; photographs of the Australia agriculture scene, map sheets of segments, LANDSAT full frames, and aerial photographs of data collection areas; and summarizations of district agronomist reports.

Quinones, C. R.↗

DOE OSTI2023

The evolution of symbiotic innovation, water, and agricultural supply chains

Abstract The water literature has mainly investigated the diversion and distribution of water from the source to the end users or the utilization of water at the farm level in crop production. This paper presents a supply chain perspective that links the innovation supply chain of water delivery and irrigation with the complete water supply chain to the crop and the crop supply chains. These supply chains are symbiotic. Changes in the demand for crops, agronomic technology, and knowledge about water will modify the water infrastructure, irrigation technology, land‐use and crop production patterns, and the pricing of water and related commodities. The parameters that guide investment in water innovation and the design of the water supply chain depend on political, economic, and technological considerations that have coevolved over time with water and crop systems. Evidence from California and elsewhere supports the findings of the paper.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

NASA NTRS2016

Veggie: Space Vegetables for the International Space Station and Beyond

The Veggie vegetable production system was launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014. Veggie was designed by ORBITEC to be a compact, low mass, low power vegetable production system for astronaut crews. Veggie consists of a light cap containing red, blue, and green LEDs, an extensible transparent bellows, and a baseplate with a root mat reservoir. Seeds are planted in plant pillows, small growing bags that interface with the reservoir. The Veggie technology validation test, VEG-01, was initiated with the first test crop of 'Outredgeous' red romaine lettuce. Prior to flight, lettuce seeds were sanitized and planted in a substrate of arcillite (baked ceramic) mixed with controlled release fertilizer. Upon initiation, astronauts open the packaged plant pillows, install them in the Veggie hardware, and prime the system with water. Operations include plant thinning, watering, and photography. Plants were grown on the ISS for 33 days, harvested, and returned frozen to Earth for analysis. Ground controls were conducted at Kennedy Space Center in controlled environment chambers reproducing ISS conditions of temperature, relative humidity, and CO2. Returned plant samples were analyzed for microbial food safety and chemistry including elements, antioxidants, anthocyanins and phenolics. In addition the entire plant microbiome was sequenced, and returned plant pillows were analyzed via x-ray tomography. Food safety analyses allowed us to gain approvals for future consumption of lettuce by the flight surgeons and the payload safety office. A second crop of lettuce was grown in 2015, and the crew consumed half the produce, with the remainder frozen for later analysis. This growth test was followed by testing of a new crop in Veggie, zinnias. Zinnias were grown to test a longer duration flowering crop in preparation for tests of tomatoes and other fruiting crops in the future. Zinnias were harvested in February. Samples from the second harvest of lettuce and the zinnia harvest are frozen on the ISS and will return with the next cargo return flight. Some challenges occurred in all tests, especially in the area of watering, with plants receiving insufficient or excess water leading to stressed growth. Zinnia plants were also challenged with fungal growth. Initial tests with Veggie have given us great insight into future crop production scenarios as we work to develop regular supplemental salad crop production on ISS and larger food production systems for our journey to Mars. Funding for this research comes from NASA's Space Biology Program.

Food Safety↗

NASA NTRS2004

Advanced Life Support Project: Crop Experiments at Kennedy Space Center

Crop production systems provide bioregenerative technologies to complement human crew life support requirements on long duration space missions. Kennedy Space Center has lead NASA's research on crop production systems that produce high value fresh foods, provide atmospheric regeneration, and perform water processing. As the emphasis on early missions to Mars has developed, our research focused on modular, scalable systems for transit missions, which can be developed into larger autonomous, bioregenerative systems for subsequent surface missions. Components of these scalable systems will include development of efficient light generating or collecting technologies, low mass plant growth chambers, and capability to operate in the high energy background radiation and reduced atmospheric pressures of space. These systems will be integrated with air, water, and thermal subsystems in an operational system. Extensive crop testing has been done for both staple and salad crops, but limited data is available on specific cultivar selection and breadboard testing to meet nominal Mars mission profiles of a 500-600 day surface mission. The recent research emphasis at Kennedy Space Center has shifted from staple crops, such as wheat, soybean and rice, toward short cycle salad crops such as lettuce, onion, radish, tomato, pepper, and strawberry. This paper will review the results of crop experiments to support the Exploration Initiative and the ongoing development of supporting technologies, and give an overview of capabilities of the newly opened Space Life Science (SLS) Lab at Kennedy Space Center. The 9662 square m (104,000 square ft) SLS Lab was built by the State of Florida and supports all NASA research that had been performed in Hanger-L. In addition to NASA research, the SLS Lab houses the Florida Space Research Institute (FSRI), responsible for co-managing the facility, and the University of Florida (UF) has established the Space Agriculture and Biotechnology Research and Education (SABRE) Center with several faculty.

Sager, John C.↗

NASA NTRS2014

Examining the Link Between Food Prices and Food Insecurity: a Multi-Level Analysis of Maize Price and Birthweight in Kenya

In developing countries where many poor people rely on rainfed, locally produced food for the majority of their caloric intake, shifts in climate and weather patterns can dramatically reduce agricultural productivity. The reduction in agricultural productivity reduces overall food availability and ultimately impacts food accessibility, putting millions of people at risk for malnutrition. In this project we focus on Kenya where roughly a third of households are food insecure. We examine the relationship of the price of maize and low birth weight to help quantify the impact of local food prices on one outcome of household food insecurity. Using spatially referenced data from recent Kenyan Demographic and Health Survey datasets, price data, livelihood information, and a remotely sensed-based measure of local growing season productivity, we develop a dataset linking pregnancies occurring from 2001 to 2008 to the spatially and temporally relevant maize price data. We construct several regression models to examine the impact of local maize prices and remotely sensed based estimates of crop production on infant birth weight - specifically low birth weight. The results of the models highlight the importance of including community crop production to evaluate maize price impacts on low birth weight outcomes. Also, because of the positive correlation between pre-pregnancy maize prices and birth weight, the results suggest that some households may benefit from high prices or that high prices may impact the number of conceptions. More generally, our work demonstrates that multilevel models that account for community-level variation are important for disentangling these complex relationships and can contribute to the discussion of how to design more effective food policies.

Low birth weight↗

DOE OSTI2021

Assessing the Impacts of Recent Crop Expansion on Water Quality in the Missouri River Basin Using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool

The Missouri River Basin (MORB) has experienced a resurgence of grassland conversion to crop production, which raised concerns on water quality. We applied the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to address how this conversion would impact water quality. We designed three crop production scenarios representing conversion of grassland to: (a) continuous corn; (b) corn/soybean rotation; and (c) corn/wheat rotation to assess the impact. The SWAT model results showed: (a) the lower MORB produced high total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) load before conversion (baseline) due mainly to high precipitation and high agricultural activity; (b) the greatest percentage increases of TN and TP occurred in the North and South Dakotas, coinciding with the highest amount of grassland conversion to cropland; and (c) grassland conversion to continuous corn resulted in the greatest increase in TN and TP loads, followed by conversion to corn/soybean and then conversion to corn/wheat. Although the greatest percentage increases of TN and TP occurred in the North and South Dakotas, these areas still contributed relatively low TN and TP to total basin loads after conversion. However, watersheds, predominantly in the lower MORB continued to be “hotspots” that contributed the greatest amounts of TN and TP to the total basin loads—driven by a combination of grassland conversion, high precipitation, and loading from pre-existing cropland. At the watershed outlet, the TN and TP loads were increased by 6.4% (13,800 t/yr) and 8.7% (3,400 t/yr), respectively, during the 2008–2016 period for the conversion to continuous corn scenario.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2025

Root and Leaf Traits of Alfalfa Exhibit Distinct Responses to Soil Microbial Communities and Environmental Stresses

Ongoing climate change is negatively impacting crop productivity globally. Past research has highlighted that a diverse soil microbial community and variation in plant traits for resource acquisition can mitigate the negative impacts of climate change factors on crop productivity. This study investigates the effects of two major environmental stressors—drought and salinity stress, on plant productivity, biomass allocation, and root and leaf trait responses under distinct soil microbial diversities. Our results showed that salinity stress had stronger negative impacts on plant productivity than drought stress. Shoot biomass decreased by 30% and 32.5% under drought and salinity stress, respectively, whereas the root biomass decreased by 32% only under salinity stress. Soil microbial diversity did not affect plant productivity. Next, root traits were mainly impacted by drought and salinity stress, whereas leaf traits were impacted by both environmental stresses and soil microbial diversity. Specific root length and specific root area decreased under drought, and root tissue density was minimal under salinity stress. Root traits were not affected by soil microbial communities. In contrast, the leaf nitrogen content increased, whereas pheophytin content (a breakdown product of chlorophyll) decreased when plants were grown in diverse microbial communities under environmental stresses, especially drought. These results highlight the importance of soil microbial diversity in impacting plant traits in response to environmental stresses. We showed that the soil microbial diversity influences both aboveground and belowground plant traits, indicating the need for better management practices to conserve and promote soil microbial diversity.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

DOE OSTI2021

Integrated Landscape Management to Reduce Biomass Feedstock Access Costs

Using geospatial, machine learning, and optimization techniques, a field scoring and design framework known as the bioenergy Landscape Environmental Assessment and Design System (bioLEADS) was developed and used to show through modelling that it is possible to reduce biomass feedstock access costs, improve field revenue, and shift intensive row crop production away from subfield areas susceptible to erosion and low in soil organic carbon. The purpose of bioLEADS is to automate agricultural field selection and subfield allocation to perennial energy crop production while incorporating reduced biomass feedstock access costs to support attaining the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) cost targets.

09 BIOMASS FUELS↗

DOE OSTI2026

Data for Impacts of Legacy and Contemporary Nitrogen Inputs on N2O and CO2 Emissions in Miscanthus and Maize Cultivated Soils

Nutrient inputs influence the sustainability of bioenergy crop production through contemporary (shortly after addition) and legacy effects (persisting over years) on microbial nitrogen (N) and carbon cycling, which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. However, the relative importance of contemporary and legacy effects and how that could vary by crop functional types is poorly understood. Considering its rhizomatous roots and perennial growth, we hypothesized that Miscanthus × giganteu s ( M × g ) would be more sensitive to legacy N fertilization and the historical context of its environment than an annual crop like maize. To test this hypothesis, we examined the effects of legacy and contemporary N inputs on nitrous oxide (N2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, as well as key N cycling genes in soils where M × g and maize were grown. A 150-day soil incubation experiment was conducted using soils from a long-term M × g and maize fertility experiment with three historic N fertilization rates (0, 112, and 336 kg N ha−1 year−1) and a contemporary amendment (60 mg N kg−1) with negative control (0 mg N kg−1). We observed significant increases in cumulative N2O emissions in M × g soils relative to maize soils, particularly at higher legacy fertilization rates, while contemporary N had no significant effect. Bacterial amoA gene abundance, which plays a significant role in nitrification in nutrient-rich soils, also increased with higher legacy fertilization rates in M × g soils but was unaffected by the contemporary N. In maize soils, legacy and contemporary N did not significantly affect N2O emissions, but cumulative CO2 emissions and amoA gene abundance significantly increased. The abundances of norB genes were not significantly influenced by either legacy fertilization or contemporary N amendments in either soil. Our findings demonstrate the greater importance of fertilization history over contemporary N in mediating soil N2O emissions, particularly for perennial bioenergy crops.

Carbon↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Microgreens Food Safety Evaluation

Microgreens have been recently identified as a new type of pick and eat salad crop that can be utilized in space crop production systems. The majority of traditionally grown leafy green crops can be grown as microgreens, in addition to crops such as legumes (e.g. pea shoots), sunflower, buckwheat, most herbs, and corn, presenting hundreds of microgreen crop options. With a wide variety of flavors, exceptional nutritional density, short growth cycles (7-14 days), and unmatched volume optimization potential, microgreens present as an interesting option for sustainable production of nutritious and flavorful crops in space. The food safety aspects of microgreens have been investigated by USDA in recent years, however, an assessment for crew consumption purposes has not yet been conducted to capture the variety of microgreen cultivar types grown in spaceflight relevant environmental conditions and hardware that could be a part of the astronaut diet. Seed sanitation methods will be developed for each microgreen cultivar to sanitize the seed coat and ensure viable germination and plant growth. Food safety analysis will be performed on 24 different fast-growing cultivars of microgreens by performing aerobic plate counts (APC), fungal counts, and select pathogen screening of edible plant tissue before and after treatment with ProSan sanitizing produce wash. Additional avenues of investigation into microgreens food safety will be undertaken to understand impacts of plant height at time of harvest (able to be manipulated by light spectrum), seed density at time of planting, and role of blue light in food safety metrics of microgreens (n=6-12 microgreen cultivars tested, depending on variable). These findings will be included in the Space Crop Production Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) plan. This new work is currently postponed due to Covid-19.

M E Hummerick↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Microbiology of Microgreens Grown in Controlled Environment Chambers under ISS Conditions

Microgreens have been identified as a new type of pick-and-eat salad crop that can be utilized in space crop production systems. The majority of traditionally grown leafy green crops can be grown as microgreens, in addition to crops such as legumes, sunflower, buckwheat, most herbs, and corn, presenting hundreds of microgreen crop options. Notably, microgreens are nutrient dense, high in beneficial compounds like antioxidants, Vitamins C and K, and exhibit a variety of desirable flavors and textures.The short growth cycles (7-14 days), low water requirements and volume optimization potential make them a viable option for sustainable production of nutritious and flavorful crops in space.The crop production team at Kennedy Space Center is investigating the food safety aspects of microgreens grown under spaceflight relevant conditions for crew consumption. Microbiological analysis and screening for potential foodborne pathogens was performed on over 20 varieties of microgreens that have demonstrated positive horticultural attributes.Additionally, a comparison of microgreens grown hydroponically under ISS environmental conditions and similar varieties from local markets was completed to collect baseline data on the microbial load on microgreens. In aneffort to improve microgreen quality, strategies to reduce the microbial load were tested, including bulk seed sanitization, harvest age, exposure to high blue light, and post-harvest chemical disinfection. The efficacy of a citric acid-based produce wash currently used for ISS grown produce and 1% H2O2were investigated at different exposure times for reduction in bacterial and fungal counts on a variety of microgreens. Limited log reduction was achieved depending on exposure time.Our testing also demonstrated that seed sanitization impacted microbial load on microgreens and systems.

Mary E. Hummerick↗

NASA NTRS1993

Robotics in a controlled, ecological life support system

Controlled, Ecological Life Support Systems (CELSS) that utilize plants to provide food, water and oxygen could consume considerable amounts of labor unless crop production, recovery and processing are automated. Robotic manipulators equipped with special end-effectors and programmed to perform the sensing and materials handling tasks would minimize the amount of astronaut labor required. The Human Rated Test Facility (HRTF) planned for Johnson Space Center could discover and demonstrate techniques of crop production which can be reliably integrated with machinery to minimize labor requirements. Before the physical components (shelves, lighting fixtures, etc.) can be selected, a systems analysis must be performed to determine which alternative processes should be followed and how the materials handling tasks should be automated. Given that the current procedures used to grow crops in a CELSS may not be the best methods to automate, then what are the alternatives? How may plants be grown, harvested, processed for food, and the inedible components recycled? What commercial technologies current exist? What research efforts are underway to develop new technologies which might satisfy the need for automation in a CELSS? The answers to these questions should prove enlightening and provide some of the information necessary to perform the systems analysis. The planting, culturing, gathering, threshing and separation, food processing, and recovery of inedible portions of wheat were studied. The basic biological and materials handling processes of each task are defined and discussed. Current practices at Johnson Space Center and other NASA centers are described and compared to common production practices in the plant production industry. Technologies currently being researched which might be applicable are identified and illustrated. Finally, based on this knowledge, several scenarios are proposed for automating the tasks for wheat.

Miles, Gaines E.↗

DOE OSTI2024

Factors affecting the production of sugarcane yield and sucrose accumulation: suggested potential biological solutions

Environmental stresses are the main constraints on agricultural productivity and food security worldwide. This issue is worsened by abrupt and severe changes in global climate. The formation of sugarcane yield and the accumulation of sucrose are significantly influenced by biotic and abiotic stresses. Understanding the biochemical, physiological, and environmental phenomena associated with these stresses is essential to increase crop production. This review explores the effect of environmental factors on sucrose content and sugarcane yield and highlights the negative effects of insufficient water supply, temperature fluctuations, insect pests, and diseases. This article also explains the mechanism of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the role of different metabolites under environmental stresses, and highlights the function of environmental stress-related resistance genes in sugarcane. This review further discusses sugarcane crop improvement approaches, with a focus on endophytic mechanism and consortium endophyte application in sugarcane plants. Endophytes are vital in plant defense; they produce bioactive molecules that act as biocontrol agents to enhance plant immune systems and modify environmental responses through interaction with plants. This review provides an overview of internal mechanisms to enhance sugarcane plant growth and environmental resistance and offers new ideas for improving sugarcane plant fitness and crop productivity.

Mehdi, Faisal↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Harvesting Microgreens in Microgravity: Analysis of Six Different Methods

In long duration space missions, crops will be used to supplement the astronaut diet. One such proposed crop type is microgreens, the young seedlings of edible plants that are known for their high nutritional levels, intense flavors, colorful appearance, and variety of textures. While these characteristics make microgreens a great candidate for space crop production, their small size presents a unique challenge within the microgravity environment. To ensure that astronauts will be able to harvest microgreens in microgravity with ease while avoiding the introduction of debris to the spacecraft cabin, multiple harvesting methods were developed by the Space Crop Production Team at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Three parabolic flights were conducted in November and December of 2021 and during those flights three different microgreen cutting methods (guillotine, pepper grinder, scissors) as well as two different bagging methods (attached and manual) were tested. In each flight, the microgreens were contained inside of a glovebox and footage of all the microgreen harvests was recorded. The cutting and bagging method combination that introduced the lowest average number of particulates into the glovebox was the scissors with attached bagging, closely followed by the pepper grinder with attached bagging. However, the scissors with attached bagging may had introduced fewer particulates into the glovebox because on average, 27% of the microgreens were never cut using the scissors method, so there were fewer free-floating particulates generated. The cutting and bagging method combination that left the lowest average percentage of microgreens remaining on the hardware post-harvest was the pepper grinder with an attached bag. Future directions include involving microgreen harvests in analog environments and further development of the different microgreen cutting and bagging methods. This research was funded by multiple NASA grants at the Kennedy Space Center.

Haley O Boles↗

NASA NTRS2016

Reevaluating Suitability Estimates Based on Dynamics of Cropland Expansion in the Brazilian Amazon

Agricultural suitability maps are a key input for land use zoning and projections of cropland expansion. Suitability assessments typically consider edaphic conditions, climate, crop characteristics, and sometimes incorporate accessibility to transportation and market infrastructure. However, correct weighting among these disparate factors is challenging, given rapid development of new crop varieties, irrigation, and road networks, as well as changing global demand for agricultural commodities. Here, we compared three independent assessments of cropland suitability to spatial and temporal dynamics of agricultural expansion in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso during 2001 2012. We found that areas of recent cropland expansion identified using satellite data were generally designated as low to moderate suitability for rainfed crop production. Our analysis highlighted the abrupt nature of suitability boundaries, rather than smooth gradients of agricultural potential, with little additional cropland expansion beyond the extent of the flattest areas (0-2% slope). Satellite-based estimates of the interannual variability in the use of existing crop areas also provided an alternate means to assess suitability. On average, cropland areas in the Cerrado biome had higher utilization (84%) than croplands in the Amazon region of northern Mato Grosso (74%). Areas of more recent expansion had lower utilization than croplands established before 2002, providing empirical evidence for lower suitability or alternative management strategies (e.g., pasture soya rotations) for lands undergoing more recent land use transitions. This unplanted reserve constitutes a large area of potentially available cropland (PAC)without further expansion, within the management limits imposed for pest management and fallow cycles. Using two key constraints on future cropland expansion, slope and restrictions on further deforestation of Amazon or Cerrado vegetation, we found little available flat land for further legal expansion of crop production in Mato Grosso. Dynamics of cropland expansion from more than a decade of satellite observations indicated narrow ranges of suitability criteria, restricting PAC under current policy conditions, and emphasizing the advantages of field-scale information to assess suitability and utilization.

Morton, Douglas C.↗

DOE OSTI2025

Comprehensive Evaluation of Agrivoltaics Research: Breadth, Depth, and Insights for Future Research

Agrivoltaics integrates agricultural production with solar energy generation to address challenges related to land use, food security, and renewable energy development. This study provides the most comprehensive evaluation to date of global agrivoltaic research, aiming to classify the literature, identify strengths and gaps, and guide future work. We systematically screened over 3000 English-language publications through 2023 for relevant agrivoltaic publications. A total of 670 studies were categorized in the InSPIRE Data Portal across five agrivoltaic activities and multiple hierarchical themes, including physical, biological, technological, social, and crosscutting domains. We found that research was concentrated on crop production, microclimate dynamics, and PV performance, with gaps in areas like human health, wildlife, policy, and standardized methodologies. Although the U.S. emphasizes animal grazing and habitat-based systems in practice, most U.S.-based studies focused disproportionately on crop production. The analysis revealed uneven geographic and topical representation and highlighted a lack of integrated, interdisciplinary approaches. This study concludes that while agrivoltaic research has grown rapidly, more coordinated efforts could support standardized data collection, address overlooked ecological and social impacts, and align research focus with real-world system implementation, ultimately improving the scalability and successful deployment of agrivoltaic systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

DOE OSTI2025

Feeding from the sun—Successes and prospects in bioengineering photosynthesis for food security

There is an urgent need for increased crop productivity to reduce food insecurity and improve sustainability. Photosynthesis converts sunlight energy into carbohydrates, providing the source of nearly all of humanity’s food. Photosynthesis is a key target for improvement, owing to inherent inefficiencies in the biochemical process. Over the last decade of advancements in bioengineering, strategies to increase the efficiency of photosynthesis were tested with proven enhancements to crop yields in field trials. Simple strategies like increasing the content of photosynthetic proteins have reliably increased photosynthesis and productivity in crops, as have more complex strategies such as bypassing photorespiration. While insertion of carbon-concentrating mechanisms into C3 plants remains an engineering challenge, modeling suggests that achieving that would have the greatest gain for crop improvement. This review discusses the many successes in improving photosynthesis achieved over the past decade and quantifies the potential for future engineering targets to increase crop productivity.

Long, Stephen P. [University of Illinois, Urbana, ↗