Soybean production is currently insufficient to meet global demand, highlighting the need for strategies to enhance growth. Melatonin (MT) has emerged as a promising solution due to its growth-promoting properties. This study investigated the effects of a dual MT treatment—combining seed soaking and foliar spraying—on soybean carbon and nitrogen metabolism using metabolomics analysis. The results demonstrated that MT treatment significantly upregulated the TCA cycle, providing energy and precursors for amino acid and carbohydrate synthesis. Key amino acid pathways, includin ..read more

Semantic segmentation in biological images is increasingly common, particularly in smart agriculture, where deep learning model precision is tied to image labeling quality. However, research has largely focused on improving models rather than analyzing image labeling quality. We proposed a method for quantitatively assessing labeling quality in semantically segmented biological images using attribute agreement analysis. This method evaluates labeling variation, including internal, external, and overall labeling quality, and labeling bias between labeling results and standards through case stud ..read more

Potato is an important food crop in China, and its planting area and output rank first in the world. Due to the labor intensity and low efficiency of manual harvesting, mechanized harvesting has become an inevitable solution for the development of the potato industry. In this paper, on the basis of elaborating on mechanized harvesting operation modes for potatoes, the research progress of key technologies, such as top-killing potato seedlings, low-loss digging with reduced obstruction, limiting the depths of rows, high-efficiency separation, sorting tons of packages, and intelligent harvesting ..read more

Autonomous driving solutions for agricultural machinery have advanced rapidly; however, large-wheeled harvesters present unique challenges compared to traditional vehicles. Specifically, the 5.4 m cutting width, 9.2 m minimum turning diameter, and rear-wheel–steered configuration demand specialized path tracking and steering methods. To address these challenges, this study developed an integrated system combining feedforward PID and Look-Ahead Ackermann (LAA) algorithms with sensors, actuators, and an embedded control platform. Field experiments indicated that the system maintained a ..read more

The discourse surrounding the determinants of agricultural competitiveness is extensively examined at both the farm and sectoral tiers within the European Union. The competitiveness of Slovak farms is currently strongly influenced not only by internal factors such as productivity, innovation, and management, but also by external factors, especially political and economic decisions at the EU level. Financial support from the EU plays a key role in enhancing the competitiveness of Slovak farms. Therefore, we examined the impact of subsidies, i.e., financial support, on the competitive position o ..read more

Many olive orchards are rainfed and located on poor and sloping soil. Tillage is the most common soil management system, leaving the soil vulnerable to erosion. Pruning is a frequently used field operation in olive orchards that generates biomass; thus, pruning residue can be shredded and used as mulch to cover and nourish the soil. Several strategies using pruning residue mulch and spontaneous groundcovers were established to study their effect on controlling runoff, erosion and soil organic carbon (SOC) loss under simulated rainfall. The simulation trials were conducted under two different i ..read more

With the rapid development of China’s rural economy, rural collective economic organizations have played a significant role in increasing farmers’ income and promoting rural revitalization. This study aims to explore the impact of farmers’ participation in skills training organized by rural collective economic organizations on their livelihood capital and the underlying mechanisms. Using tracking survey data from rural households in Chongzhou City, Sichuan Province, in 2023, the paper employs empirical analysis methods, including OLS and mediation effect analysis ..read more

To address the stability of the power supply to agricultural facilities and greenhouses in remote areas, this paper proposes a solution based on the bus voltage fluctuation issue in an islanded photovoltaic-storage DC microgrid. Traditional power supply methods often struggle to meet demand due to significant fluctuations in solar irradiance and load. To resolve this, an improved sliding-mode linear active disturbance rejection control (ISMLADRC) strategy is designed, significantly enhancing the response speed of the microgrid control system while improving its adaptability in complex agricult ..read more

The research hypothesis assumes that Fusarium culmorum infection affects the baking value of wheat. The aim of the research was to determine the effect of the cultivar on the rheological properties of wheat dough in response to Fusarium culmorum infection of wheat. A two-factor experiment conducted during the 2018–2020 growing seasons in Osiny, Poland, was set up using the completely randomized block design with three replications. The first factor was winter wheat cultivars (six cultivars), while the second factor was inoculation (two levels—Fusarium culmorum and ..read more

A wheat growth and counting analysis model based on instance segmentation is proposed in this study to address the challenges of wheat growth monitoring and yield prediction in high-density agricultural environments. The model integrates the transformer architecture with a symmetric attention mechanism and employs a symmetric diffusion module for precise segmentation and growth measurement of wheat instances. By introducing an aggregated loss function, the model effectively optimizes both segmentation accuracy and growth measurement performance. Experimental results show that the proposed mode ..read more