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Running head: ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC Name of the Student: Name of the University: Author Note:
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1ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC Proposal Critique This essay is about assessing crop management’s effect on the soil physical as well as biochemical quality in the winter wheat. The proposal aims in analyzing effect on crop management over biochemical as well as physical quality of soil in the winter. The review consists of sever elements: title, introduction, objectives, hypothesis, proposed methods such as data selection, soil testing, statistical data analysis, work schedule and budget.1Different standards are used for evaluating every element for showing the strengths as well the weaknesses along with how these could be improved. The title of the paper gives information of scope as well as nature of this paper along with question of this paper. The writer succeeded to explain first point through mentioning the effect which crop management could have over biochemical as well as physical quality of soil. The introduction of the paper is dependent mainly on using the relevant literature for achieving few things. At first, providing significant overview of the importance of this topic. Then, current knowledge for identifying gap in topic area as well as generating questions for filing the gap. And finally, using current literature along with correct format of citation. Then effective use of all the measurements provides a good introduction. The flow of introduction was clear that made this clear for reader in understanding.2The writer began with describing the impact of food demand all over the world. In the introduction it is stated that the conventional farmers of past few years has provided maximum of the food needs of the world with the 1Agegnehu, G., Srivastava, A.K. and Bird, M.I., 2017. The role of biochar and biochar-compost in improving soil quality and crop performance: A review.Applied soil ecology,119, pp.156-170. 2Akdemir, E., Anderson, S.H. and Udawatta, R.P., 2016. Influence of agroforestry buffers on soil hydraulic properties relative to row crop management.Soil Science,181(8), pp.368-376.
2ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC management practices, which focuses on use of pesticides as well as fertilizer, monocultures and less diverse rotations of crops. The writer stated that aim of farming practice is at intensification as well as non-renewable resources’ use has been unsustainable to environment. There was development of farming method which bans use of pesticides as well as synthetic fertilizers. Under the introduction part, there is a definition of soil quality is provided also which says that it is capacity of soil in functioning in ecosystem boundaries for sustaining biological productivity, maintaining environmental quality as well as promoting health of animal and plant.3The writer termed soil quality as essential indicator for land management as well as gives several functions of ecosystem to store and process water, recycling, waste’s assimilation, food’s quality and production of fiber and food. The paper provides relationship among quality of soil and agricultural sustainability by its environmental quality. The writer wrote in the paper that there are several functions that are performed by soil, which includes provides base for supporting growth of plant for ensuing food’s sustainable production as well as enhance quality of soil.4The writer also stated that there is challenge for the soil scientists for meeting food demands as well as practices of balance management and for protecting quality of soil and find optimum way for using resources of soil. According to this proposal, assessment of soil quality should reflect physical, biological and chemical properties, their processes along with their interactions. Depending on properties of 3Bai, Z., Caspari, T., Gonzalez, M.R., Batjes, N.H., Mäder, P., Bünemann, E.K., de Goede, R., Brussaard, L., Xu, M., Ferreira, C.S.S. and Reintam, E., 2018. Effects of agricultural management practices on soil quality: A review of long-term experiments for Europe and China.Agriculture, ecosystems & environment,265, pp.1-7. 4Butler, D.M., Bates, G.E. and Inwood, S.E.E., 2016. Tillage system and cover crop management impacts onsoilqualityandvegetablecropperformanceinorganicallymanagedproductionin Tennessee.HortScience,51(8), pp.1038-1044.
3ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC such soil, soil’s quality could be known.5Ultimate factor which affects quality of soil is land manager. It is also indicated in the paper that quality of soil is enhanced by decisions of land use as well as management which consider soil’s multiple functions as well as would be impaired by the decisions which focus on only singe functions like crop productivity. In the paper, based on the activities of management, soil quality could be measured by using the indicators, changes in the indicators could be used for determining if quality of soil changes in the management. While selecting biological indicators as well as datasets, soil’s living component is composed by microbial communities which respond to chemical and physical conditions of the soil making this good indicator.6This is essential for variety of microbial and biochemical analysis being used while considering management’s impact on quality of soil. It is also highlighted in the paper that no ideal index value is there, however quality assessments of soil could be based upon framework which prioritizes goals of management, identifies crucial soil function which are necessary to achieve the goals as well as selecting the indicators which provide information that is useful with respect to functioning of specific soil. Crop rotation as action of management improves the soil fertility, aeration and structure as several root depths while seasons of cultivation affect the structure of soil. Fertility management within organic farming depends on integrated long term approach instead of targeted short term 5Çerçioğlu, Melis, Stephen H. Anderson, Ranjith P. Udawatta, and Salah Alagele. "Effect of cover crop management on soil hydraulic properties."Geoderma343 (2019): 247-253. 6Dass, A., Chandra, S., Uphoff, N., Choudhary, A.K., Bhattacharyya, R. and Rana, K.S., 2017. Agronomicfortificationofricegrainswithsecondaryandmicronutrientsunderdifferingcrop management and soil moisture regimes in the north Indian Plains.Paddy and water environment,15(4), pp.745-760.
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4ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC solutionthatarecommonwithinconventionalagriculture.7Syntheticproducts’usehave generally negative effect for quality of soil as these reduce soil’s ability to function. This is mentioned in the paper that the organic products are used mainly for improving physical propertiesofthesoil.Hence,thereisneedforassessingcroprotation’seffect,fertility management as well as crop protection practices on soil quality of conventionally managed and organic farms. Most crucial section in the paper for evaluating the proposal is objectives section. As reviewer’s accuracy mainly depends on how it were specific within proposal. Objectives of proposal were well written and specific. It was essential in knowing effect of practices of crop management over quality of soil, considering need for sustainably maintaining soils’ quality for the current as well as future generations. Overall aim for this proposal is assessing soil quality’s biochemical indicators in organic as well as plots that are conventionally managed along with identifying practices of optimal management.8The writer used the general introduction for stating the objectives. Firstly, determining effects of conventional as well as organic farming practices over quality of soil by measuring as well as comparing biological and chemical indicators. pH, available P and K, organic C, total N, C/N, SOM are the chemical indicators and microbial functional diversity e.g. MicroResp™, soil basal respiration (SBR) and Nitrogen mineralizationare the biologicalindicatorsthat were measured for this paper. Secondly, investigation is done over effects of practices of soil management on physical properties of the 7Folberth, C., Elliott, J., Müller, C., Balkovic, J., Chryssanthacopoulos, J., Izaurralde, R.C., Jones, C.D., Khabarov, N., Liu, W., Reddy, A. and Schmid, E., 2016. Uncertainties in global crop model frameworks: effectsofcultivardistribution,cropmanagementandsoilhandlingoncropyield estimates.Biogeosciences Discussions, pp.1-30. 8Herencia, J.F., 2018. Soil quality indicators in response to long-term cover crop management in a Mediterranean organic olive system.Biological agriculture & horticulture,34(4), pp.211-231.
5ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC soil. And finally, for relating observed measurements for optimizing management practices.9The writer also used this for stating few questions such as,” how does soil quality measured under organic management compare with conventional management, what is the optimum management practice that will ensure the maintenance of soil quality, how do the values of biochemical indicators compare with optimum values reported in scientific literature and do any of the soil quality indicators have any form of correlation or relationship with one another?” The hypothesis for this paper is that here no effect is there for different practices of crop management over soil quality chemical, biological and physical indicators. Purpose to write clear data method is for proving the ability for answering research questions. This is like provide a path for the goals of the paper. The part of data collection was simple though. However the style could have been better. In the data selection method, experiment was said to be conducted at Nafferton Farm Factorial Systems Comparison (NFSC) trial at the Nafferton Experimental Farm of University of Newcastle. There were three factors such as crop rotation, fertility management as well as crop protection with comparison trails of factorial systems.10By combining the factors statistically gives around eight combinations of treatment in a system. Nafferton farm’s field plots were replicated by four times, working on overall 32plots. As mentioned in the data selection method by writer, soil samples were to be collected from wheat plot in June’s first week. There is also mention of collection of five soil cores for 9Kumari, R., Singh, R. and Kumar, N., 2019. Effect of crop residue management on soil organic carbon, and soil organic matter and crop yield: An overview. 10McCallister, R. and Nowak, P., 2018. 11 Whole-Soil Knowledge and Management: A Foundation of Soil Quality.Soil Quality and Soil Erosion, p.11.
6ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC every plot and mixed immediately in plastic bucket for forming single composite sample for every plot. The soil samples were to be sent for analysis to laboratory. These soil samples would be tested under appropriate conditions for testing. The writer also mentioned in the paper that many key indicators of soil quality would be accessed. Wide range of physical, chemical as well as biological indicators for soil quality were selected for allowing accurate comparison. The physical indicators used Bulk density (Standard metal soil core) and soil aggregate stability.11Biological indicators used soil functional diversity, mineralisable N and Soil Organic Matter (SOM). Chemical indicators used pH, K and P. Statistical analysis of the paper was precise. Statistical analysis, as per this paper, was to be conducted by using mixedeffect model of R within Statistical software. Both the interaction and main effects were to be identified with the analysis of the variance P- values by using nmle package of R within statistical software of R. Difference between several crop management were to be tested by post-hoc TukeyHSD test by using R Statistics’ linear hypothesis.12Also, in the paper, standard deviation as well as standard errors of means were to be determined. Schedule of work is crucial part of proposal as successful project meets the objectives of the paper under the budget in limited period of time. Work plan is introduced by the writer within the proposal. Soil sampling as well as soil drying were to be performed in first two weeks of June, and would be followed by the laboratory analysis by end of month of July. This 11Okeyo, J.M., Norton, J., Koala, S., Waswa, B., Kihara, J. and Bationo, A., 2016. Impact of reduced tillage and crop residue management on soil properties and crop yields in a long-term trial in western Kenya.Soil Research,54(6), pp.719-729. 12Patra, A.K., Mishra, K.N., Garnayak, L.M. and Mohanty, A.K., 2017. Influence of long-term organic nutrient management on soil quality and crop productivity in rice (Oryza sativa)-potato (Solanum tuberosum)-okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) cropping system under irrigated condition.Indian Journal of Agronomy,62(3), pp.268-274.
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7ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC dissertation would be submitted in the month of September as claimed by the writer. A gant chart is provided in this paper where details of every task within this paper is provided. The budget that is presented in this proposal is sensible and connected. Writer used simple, clear table for presenting the expected budget. He also provided detailed information about the analysis with estimated cost for each item. These budget calculations were based on the 32 samples of every biochemical analysis.13The writer estimated travel costs of 15trips by bus to the Nafferton farm. However, the writer said in his proposal that any costs exceeding allocated 500 pounds for the MSc projects would be covered by research account of his supervisor. This is crucial for proposal for containing section for the risk assessment as well as risk management. We could do it through identifying hazard’s level, followed by identification of likelihood of the compliance as well as determining level of risk.14How risks could be controlled by using any one of tools of risk management like SWOT analysis. However, there is no section of risk management in this proposal. In conclusion, I think this is fair to say that the proposal was quite moderate as this had mix among positives as well as negatives. The writer had several positives in the proposal: his objectives, statistical analysis as well. Budget in this proposal was properly laid and reasonable that gave general idea of direction of proposal. Outcomes that are produced from the proposal could answer questions of research. Literature review was also with relevant information about 13Rani, K., Sharma, P., Kumar, S., Wati, L., Kumar, R., Gurjar, D.S. and Kumar, D., 2019. Legumes for Sustainable Soil and Crop Management. InSustainable Management of Soil and Environment(pp. 193- 215). Springer, Singapore. 14Seal, A., Bera, R., Chowdhury, R.R., Mukhopadhyay, K., Mukherjee, S. and Dolui, A.K., 2017. Evaluation of an Organic Package of Practice Towards Green Gram Cultivation and Assessment of its Effectiveness in Terms of Crop Sustainability and Soil Quality Development.Turkish Journal of Agriculture-Food Science and Technology,5(5), pp.536-545.
8ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC the topic. However, few negatives could be highlighted in the proposal. We could better the negatives through using appropriate process. The schedule of work looked professional as there was attached of gant chart for planning the overall project. It is crucial in managing as well as analyzing risks of this proposal also.
9ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC References Agegnehu, G., Srivastava, A.K. and Bird, M.I., 2017. The role of biochar and biochar-compost in improving soil quality and crop performance: A review.Applied soil ecology,119, pp.156- 170. Akdemir, E., Anderson, S.H. and Udawatta, R.P., 2016. Influence of agroforestry buffers on soil hydraulic properties relative to row crop management.Soil Science,181(8), pp.368-376. Bai, Z., Caspari, T., Gonzalez, M.R., Batjes, N.H., Mäder, P., Bünemann, E.K., de Goede, R., Brussaard,L.,Xu,M.,Ferreira,C.S.S.andReintam,E.,2018.Effectsofagricultural management practices on soil quality: A review of long-term experiments for Europe and China.Agriculture, ecosystems & environment,265, pp.1-7. Butler, D.M., Bates, G.E. and Inwood, S.E.E., 2016. Tillage system and cover crop management impacts on soil quality and vegetable crop performance in organically managed production in Tennessee.HortScience,51(8), pp.1038-1044. Çerçioğlu, Melis, Stephen H. Anderson, Ranjith P. Udawatta, and Salah Alagele. "Effect of cover crop management on soil hydraulic properties."Geoderma343 (2019): 247-253. Dass, A., Chandra, S., Uphoff, N., Choudhary, A.K., Bhattacharyya, R. and Rana, K.S., 2017. Agronomic fortification of rice grains with secondary and micronutrients under differing crop managementandsoilmoistureregimesinthenorthIndianPlains.Paddyandwater environment,15(4), pp.745-760. Folberth, C., Elliott, J., Müller, C., Balkovic, J., Chryssanthacopoulos, J., Izaurralde, R.C., Jones, C.D., Khabarov, N., Liu, W., Reddy, A. and Schmid, E., 2016. Uncertainties in global crop
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10ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC model frameworks: effects of cultivar distribution, crop management and soil handling on crop yield estimates.Biogeosciences Discussions, pp.1-30. Herencia, J.F., 2018. Soil quality indicators in response to long-term cover crop management in a Mediterranean organic olive system.Biological agriculture & horticulture,34(4), pp.211-231. Kumari, R., Singh, R. and Kumar, N., 2019. Effect of crop residue management on soil organic carbon, and soil organic matter and crop yield: An overview. McCallister,R.andNowak,P.,2018.11Whole-SoilKnowledgeandManagement:A Foundation of Soil Quality.Soil Quality and Soil Erosion, p.11. Okeyo, J.M., Norton, J., Koala, S., Waswa, B., Kihara, J. and Bationo, A., 2016. Impact of reduced tillage and crop residue management on soil properties and crop yields in a long-term trial in western Kenya.Soil Research,54(6), pp.719-729. Patra, A.K., Mishra, K.N., Garnayak, L.M. and Mohanty, A.K., 2017. Influence of long-term organic nutrient management on soil quality and crop productivity in rice (Oryza sativa)-potato (Solanumtuberosum)-okra(Abelmoschusesculentus)croppingsystemunderirrigated condition.Indian Journal of Agronomy,62(3), pp.268-274. Rani, K., Sharma, P., Kumar, S., Wati, L., Kumar, R., Gurjar, D.S. and Kumar, D., 2019. Legumes for Sustainable Soil and Crop Management. InSustainable Management of Soil and Environment(pp. 193-215). Springer, Singapore. Seal, A., Bera, R., Chowdhury, R.R., Mukhopadhyay, K., Mukherjee, S. and Dolui, A.K., 2017. Evaluation of an Organic Package of Practice Towards Green Gram Cultivation and Assessment
11ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR MSC of its Effectiveness in Terms of Crop Sustainability and Soil Quality Development.Turkish Journal of Agriculture-Food Science and Technology,5(5), pp.536-545.