Use of biophysical methods to improve yields and quality of agricultural products
Faculty of Agriculture, Novi Sad (1,4,6)
Gama Trade, Belgrade-Moskva (2)
Victoria Group, Novi Sad (3)
Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad (5)
Banat’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Timisoara, Romania (7)
Until as recently as a century ago, the exposure of biological systems to radiation was limited only to the natural sources. Today, however, a broad range of radiation types and doses have found a wide variety of uses and applications, so much so that it would be difficult to make a list of all the areas of human activity in which radiation is used for one purpose or another. The study of radiation effects on individuals and populations as a whole has become important only with the development of methods and sources of man-made radiation. Given that what is present in this case are physical effects on biological systems (living organisms), all these methods can be placed under the heading of biophysical influences. In the last 50 years, the effects of extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) have been studied with great diligence. These fields are the ones most commonly found in the human environment and they have been used in our studies in this field. The present paper provides a brief review of the literature data and our findings on the effects of ELF-EMF on various crop species using the RIES (Resonant Impulse Electromagnetic Stimulation) method, developed at the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Novi Sad.