{"title":"Did Covid-19 Impacted Market Arrivals and Prices of Major Food Commodities in India: Evidence from Extended Time Series Analysis","authors":"Dinesh Chand Meena, Purushottam Sharma, Md. Ejaz Anwer","doi":"10.1007/s40003-023-00695-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40003-023-00695-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown policy significantly impacted all sectors of the economy, including agriculture. It disrupted the market’s normal functions in multiple ways; hence, this study was conducted using extended time series data to estimate the impact of the nationwide lockdown on market arrivals, price margin, and wholesale and retail prices of major food commodities. The study employed the multiple policy interventions interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) model to estimate pre-and post-intervention price trends change following lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. The results indicated that most agricultural commodities witnessed a substantial decrease in market arrivals, and there were heterogeneous effects on price margins across commodities and lockdown periods. ITSA results reveal that wholesale and retail prices for wheat and rice decreased significantly due to record crop harvests in 2019–20 and free distribution through Government welfare programs (PMGKAY). In contrast, the wholesale and retail price of pulses dal and mustard oil increased significantly during the lockdown period of 2020 and 2021. Overall, the Government managed the lockdown in 2021 better than in 2020, enabling access to essential goods and services, transportation and other conveniences. Furthermore, the study suggests policies to enhance the supply chain’s responsiveness and resilience to future pandemics and natural disasters, given the lessons learned from the COVID-19 lockdown.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7553,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139794828","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Methyl Jasmonate Treatment Relieves Chilling Injury and Improves the Postharvest Quality of Snap Bean by Regulating Antioxidant Metabolism","authors":"Na Lv, Li Li, Na Wang, Chang-Jie Guo, Hao Zhang","doi":"10.1007/s40003-024-00696-9","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s40003-024-00696-9","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":7553,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139829953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Na Lv, Li Li, Na Wang, Chang-jie Guo, Hao-yan Zhang
{"title":"Methyl Jasmonate Treatment Relieves Chilling Injury and Improves the Postharvest Quality of Snap Bean by Regulating Antioxidant Metabolism","authors":"Na Lv, Li Li, Na Wang, Chang-jie Guo, Hao-yan Zhang","doi":"10.1007/s40003-024-00696-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40003-024-00696-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Snap bean (<i>Phaseolus vulgaris</i> L.) is very sensitive to low temperature during postharvest storage. Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) is a volatile hormone ubiquitous in many kinds of plants and plays important role in regulating plant physiological functions. The alleviating effect of MeJA treatment on chilling injury (CI) in postharvest snap bean was studied. We found MeJA treatment markedly decreased the index of chilling injury, electrolyte leakage and content of malondialdehyde. MeJA-treated snap bean exhibited higher levels of total soluble solids and titratable acidity. Similarly, MeJA could prevent the degradation of chlorophyll and ascorbic acid. Not only total antioxidant capacity but also metal chelating ability of MeJA-treated snap bean was stronger than untreated control. MeJA-treated snap bean showed higher scavenging activities on superoxide radical (O<sub>2</sub><sup>.-</sup>), hydroxyl radical (·OH) and 1,1-diphenyl-2-trinitrophenylhydrazine radical either. MeJA application stimulated the activities of ascorbate peroxidase (APX), peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in snap bean. In conclusion, this study reveals MeJA can be used to relieve chilling injury and maintain the quality of snap bean during low-temperature storage. 8 µM MeJA is the optimal concentration to alleviate chilling injury of snap bean.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7553,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139889643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Potential of Wheat dwarf virus (Geminiviridae: Mastrevirus) Truncated Promoter for Improvement of Transgene Expression in Rice","authors":"Marzieh Taghi-Malekshahi, Khalil Alami-Saeid, Esmaeel Ghasemi-Goojani, Mohamad Hamed Ghodoum Parizipour","doi":"10.1007/s40003-023-00689-0","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40003-023-00689-0","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p><i>Wheat dwarf virus</i> (WDV) is a monocotyledonous plant-infecting virus that causes economical loss to cereal cultivations annually. The objective of this study was to use <i>Cauliflower mosaic virus</i> 35S promoter in combination with WDV large intergenic region (LIR) in rice (<i>Oryza sativa</i> L.) plant. Herein, a partial sequence from the genome of an Iranian isolate of WDV was used to synthesize a promoter for improvement of transgene expression in rice cultivars including Champa, Hashemi and Najafi. The promoter was cloned into pCAMBIA1304 and transferred into rice cells using <i>in planta</i> method. PCR, hygromycin resistance and in vivo expression of green fluorescent protein (mGFP5) were used for evaluating the efficiency of the synthesized promoter. The results showed that the WDV LIR can act as an efficient promoter for transgene expression in rice plant. Moreover, a significant difference was found between transformation rates in different rice cultivars; thus, Champa and Najafi cultivars showed the highest and lowest rate of transformation, respectively. WDV LIR was used to design a novel promoter for gene expression in rice cells. PCR assay, phenotypic experiment (antibiotic selection and GFP expression) and nucleotide sequencing showed that LIR is a promising source for the improvement of transgene expression within cells of monocotyledonous plants.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7553,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140490020","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Khasru Alam, Jiaul H. Paik, Soumen Saha, Raviraj V. Suresh
{"title":"TAR: A Highly Accurate Machine-Learning Model to Predict the Cocoon Shell Weight of Tasar Silkworm Antheraea Mylitta","authors":"Khasru Alam, Jiaul H. Paik, Soumen Saha, Raviraj V. Suresh","doi":"10.1007/s40003-023-00687-2","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40003-023-00687-2","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>In this paper, we propose a machine-learning model for predicting the shell weight of silkworm cocoons <i>Antheraea mylitta D.</i> (<i>Saturnidae</i>) without cutting open the cocoon. Our proposed work uses a topology adaptive kernel regression (TAR) to predict the shell weight of cocoons based on a set of non-invasive easy-to-measure cocoon features. We evaluate our model on four datasets from different families of cocoons. The evaluation shows that the proposed model accurately predicts the shell weight and outperforms well-known models, including neural network-based regression.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7553,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139591901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Economic Analysis of Poultry Farming Using ANN Approach in the Rainfed Areas of Jammu Region of South Asia","authors":"Vipal Bhagat, Sudhakar Dwivedi","doi":"10.1007/s40003-023-00684-5","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40003-023-00684-5","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>India’s growth story is not in consonance with that of the development. Agriculture is non-remunerative in India, and the situation turns out to be lot grimmer if we take into account the varying degree of land areas. Rainfed areas are such areas where the remunerative potential of the farmers is relatively more precarious. In this context, the present study was conducted on poultry farming in the rainfed areas of the Jammu region of South Asia, respectively. Four districts, i.e. Jammu, Kathua, Rajouri and Udhampur, were purposively selected for the study. Production function analysis along with marginal value productivity was employed to carry out the monetary impact of the different inputs to the total production. To rule out the errors on account of skewed population of the research sample, the artificial neural network (ANN) approach using sensitivity analysis was also being conducted. The study revealed the net returns to be highest in case of Kathua region on account of the reasons like easy availability and accessibility of input requirements, proximity to the Punjab state, etc. Further, production function analysis pointed out that the chick cost, feed cost and veterinary care were significant factors. Sensitivity analysis revealed the importance of veterinary care in Kathua and Rajouri district and quality of feed in Jammu and Udhampur districts, respectively. Looking at the findings of the study, the study concluded that due care must be given to the veterinary care and quality of chicks, to make the poultry enterprise more remunerative in the rainfed regions.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7553,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2024-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139387891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Daniel Grigorie Dinu, Vitale Nuzzo, Giulia Gestri, Giuseppe Montanaro, Laura Rustioni
{"title":"Image-based Appraisal of Woody Starch Reserves in Grapevine","authors":"Daniel Grigorie Dinu, Vitale Nuzzo, Giulia Gestri, Giuseppe Montanaro, Laura Rustioni","doi":"10.1007/s40003-023-00680-9","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40003-023-00680-9","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Maintaining stable yield in a climate change scenario requires the implementation of adaptive strategies for vine and vineyard management. Knowing the level of starch stored in perennial vine organs may help to reduce the risk of environmental constraints. Therefore, the development of decision support tools is important to assist winegrowers. The aim of this work was to test the possibility of estimating the starch content in grapevine woody tissues using digital imaging analysis. A colorimetric index (CI) based on red (<i>R</i>), green (<i>G</i>), and blue (<i>B</i>) mean pixel values was proposed and compared with an existing spectrophotometric index (SI). Shoots of three grapevine cultivars were collected during the 2020 dormant season and forced to produce new rooted cuttings. From these cuttings, a total of 73 internodes were sampled and their woody sections stained with Lugol’s iodine solution and CI and SI determined. In the three varieties, the CI well correlated with the SI (Spearman’s test ranged from − 0.84 to − 0.93, <i>p</i> < 0.0001). The resulting CI-based model developed can accurately (<i>R</i><sup>2</sup> = 0.84) predict the SI confirming it is a reliable method for the digital determination of woody reserves in grapevine, supporting management decisions in viticulture.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7553,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s40003-023-00680-9.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139156263","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Miguel Nolasco, Gustavo Ovando, Silvina Sayago, Mónica Bocco
{"title":"Efficient and Sustainable Crop Intensification: An Assessment of Phenofit Algorithm and Envelope Crop Classification Method for its Monitoring","authors":"Miguel Nolasco, Gustavo Ovando, Silvina Sayago, Mónica Bocco","doi":"10.1007/s40003-023-00685-4","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40003-023-00685-4","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>To optimize use of land, farmers need to make decisions regarding grain varieties, rotation, different crop management systems, and whether to sow a single or double crop in a calendar year. In Córdoba (Argentina), the predominant crops are wheat, soybean and maize, sown as single crop (SC) or double crop (DC) sequences (wheat–soybean or wheat–maize). The objective of this work was to compare Phenofit algorithm and Envelope Crop Classification (ECC) method to identify the presence of SC or DC using MODIS-NDVI temporal series. Calibration and validation were carried out using field data acquired from 2015 to 2018. NDVI signatures of each plot were compared with SC and DC temporal NDVI profiles and the class membership was determined when at least 50% of values fell inside of one profile and the difference between classes was positive. The results showed that the ECC/Phenofit present overall accuracy between 96/90 and 98/92% and Kappa coefficients from 91/82 to 97/95%, respectively. On average, when the ECC was applied, the percentages of the study area detected as DC were between 18.3 and 28.7%, for the considered periods, while the area occupied with SC decreased from 64 to 49.5%. ECC and Phenofit are very good methods for detecting double crop.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7553,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139161133","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Hygor Kristoph Muniz Nunes Alves, Alexandre Maniçoba da Rosa Ferraz Jardim, George do Nascimento Araújo Júnior, Luciana Sandra Bastos de Souza, Carlos André Alves de Souza, Cleber Pereira Alves, Renan Matheus Cordeiro Leite, Ênio Farias de França e Silva, Fleming Sena Campos, Thieres George Freire da Silva
{"title":"How Multiple Agricultural Production Systems Alter the Growth and Development of the Forage Cactus in a Semi-arid Environment","authors":"Hygor Kristoph Muniz Nunes Alves, Alexandre Maniçoba da Rosa Ferraz Jardim, George do Nascimento Araújo Júnior, Luciana Sandra Bastos de Souza, Carlos André Alves de Souza, Cleber Pereira Alves, Renan Matheus Cordeiro Leite, Ênio Farias de França e Silva, Fleming Sena Campos, Thieres George Freire da Silva","doi":"10.1007/s40003-023-00681-8","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40003-023-00681-8","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Different agronomic practices can change the morphological and productive responses of forage cactus to the cultivation environment. Therefore, studying the effects of the management adopted is essential to improve crop performance. The objective was to evaluate how the phenology, the morphophysiological indicators, and the cutting moment of cactus forage are influenced by different agronomic practices. Four experiments were evaluated in the Brazilian semi-arid region between 2017 and 2020, using the following practices: cactus clones [<i>Opuntia</i> (OEM) and <i>Nopalea</i> (MIU and IPA)]; water availability (0%, 40%, 80%, 100% and 120% of crop evapotranspiration—ET<sub>c</sub>); mulch levels (0, 5, 10, 15 and 18 Mg ha<sup>−1</sup>); and intercropping [OEM/millet (cv. IPA Bulk-1-BF)]. Every 30 and 90 days, respectively, biometric and biomass data of the cultures were collected. Data were subjected to statistical analysis, and sigmoid regression models were generated. On average, the highest DM accumulation was observed in the OEM clone (0.0097 Mg ha<sup>−1</sup> °C day<sup>−1</sup>) regardless of the system. The 80%ETc regimen favoured higher rates for <i>Nopalea</i> cacti. The exclusive cultivation of palm with cover favoured greater emission of cladodes (0.0583 units °C day<sup>−1</sup>) in relation to the intercropping. Regardless of the condition, the MIU cactus showed more phenophases. The adoption of practices reduced the cutting time of the cactus to 1225 °C day. Thus, management interventions must be adopted considering the cactus species present in the system, in order to improve the performance of the crop in the cultivation environment.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7553,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139161718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nikrooz Bagheri, Ali Rajabipour, Alireza Sabzevari
{"title":"Zoning Suitable Land for the Cultivation of Rice, Wheat, and Barley by Integration of Artificial Intelligent Methods and Spatial Data","authors":"Nikrooz Bagheri, Ali Rajabipour, Alireza Sabzevari","doi":"10.1007/s40003-023-00686-3","DOIUrl":"10.1007/s40003-023-00686-3","url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Determination of suitable land for cultivating different crops is an essential action for increasing agricultural productivity. The present research is carried out to zone suitable lands for cultivating rice, wheat, and barley by integrating intelligent methods and spatial data in the Silakhor plane of Iran. Machine learning methods, including artificial neural network and random forest in integration with geographic information system data, are used for zoning. The nine agro ecological parameters were used as input layers. The suitability level as an output layer is classified into four classes: very suitable (S1), suitable (S2), relatively unsuitable (S3), and not suitable (N). The 720 samples were considered to evaluate the models. The 70% of sample data were used for training, 15% for testing, and 15% for validation. The coefficient of variation, root mean square error, and area under the ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristics) curve were obtained to evaluate the performance of the models. Based on the results, both methods have sufficient validity to assess the land suitability of rice, wheat, and barley in the studied area. By using the ANN model, 56.1%, 67.1%, and 80.7% of the studied areas were suitable for cultivating rice, wheat, and barley, respectively. By using the RF model, 58.6%, 58.3%, and 62.6% of the studied areas were suitable for cultivating rice, wheat, and barley, respectively.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7553,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2023-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138944182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}