Agricultural Systems最新文献

{"title":"Adaptation strategies for winter wheat production at farmer fields under a changing climate: Employing crop and multiple global climate models","authors":"Muhammad Rizwan Shoukat ,&nbsp;Jingjing Wang ,&nbsp;Muhammad Habib-ur-Rahman ,&nbsp;Xin Hui ,&nbsp;Gerrit Hoogenboom ,&nbsp;Haijun Yan","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104066","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104066","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>CONTEXT</h3><p>Climate change profoundly affects agriculture through increased occurrences of extreme weather events, directly affecting crop growth and food security. The North China Plain (NCP), a significant region for winter wheat production, faces challenges from the changing climate, which could threaten agricultural output and sustainability.</p></div><div><h3>OBJECTIVE</h3><p>This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a warming climate, fluctuating precipitation, and rising CO₂ levels on winter wheat production in the NCP. Additionally, it developed adaptation strategies, such as modifying the timing of planting and adjusting irrigation and nitrogen fertilizer levels, to mitigate the negative impacts of a changing climate on grain production.</p></div><div><h3>METHODS</h3><p>Using the DSSAT CROPSIM CERES-Wheat and NWheat models, this study incorporated baseline climate data from 2001 to 2020 and future climate projections from 12 GCMs under the CMIP6 framework. The evaluation was segmented into four future terms (terms 1 to 4) spanning from 2021 to 2100, under two societal development scenarios known as Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs): SSP2–4.5 and SSP5–8.5.</p></div><div><h3>RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS</h3><p>The projections indicated an increase in temperature and precipitation over the century, with the most substantial changes under the SSP5–8.5 scenario. Term 1 (2021–2040) forecasts predicted mild temperature increases (0.89 °C increase in average maximum temperature, 0.74 °C in average minimum temperature) and an 8% increase in precipitation. Term 4 (2081–2100) projections indicated a more severe climate impact, with maximum temperatures rising by 3.19 °C, minimum temperatures by 3.07 °C, and seasonal precipitation increasing by 23%. These climatic changes are expected to reduce the winter wheat growing season by 4–17%, decrease grain numbers by 3–21%, and reduce yield by 4–20% compared to the baseline. However, the increase in CO₂ from terms 1 to 4 could enhance grain yield by 4–30% under SSP5–8.5, indicating a complex interaction between climatic factors and crop productivity. This study showed that adaptation strategies, including adjusting planting times (early October), irrigation levels (300–400 mm), and nitrogen fertilizer application (250–300 kg ha⁻¹), can effectively minimize the negative impacts of warming on grain yield.</p></div><div><h3>SIGNIFICANCE</h3><p>This study underscores the critical need for immediate and effective adaptation strategies to address the impact of climate change on agriculture. By adjusting agricultural practices, the negative effects on winter wheat production in the NCP can be mitigated, thereby contributing to regional food security in the face of ongoing climate challenges.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"220 ","pages":"Article 104066"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X24002166/pdfft?md5=71ea9f9ad4accab6d2337b21fd1c3151&pid=1-s2.0-S0308521X24002166-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141954531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The role of management and farming practices, yield gaps, nutrient balance, and institutional settings in the context of large-scale organic conversion in Bhutan","authors":"Tshotsho ,&nbsp;Christian Lippert ,&nbsp;Sabine Zikeli ,&nbsp;Tatjana Krimly ,&nbsp;Ayoub Barissoul ,&nbsp;Arndt Feuerbacher","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104057","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104057","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>CONTEXT</h3><p>In several lower middle income countries, organic agriculture (OA) has emerged as a top-down government initiative backed by strong political interest, which entails the risk of seriously neglecting the challenges faced by many organic farmers. In some cases, the promotion of OA, particularly large-scale OA conversion programs like in Sikkim and Bhutan, has received widespread attention. A system-level analysis of conversion to OA can provide a fair assessment and is desirable but rare. Often, there are serious issues with data paucity hindering deeper analyses of the feasibility of large-scale OA and its system-level challenges.</p></div><div><h3>OBJECTIVE</h3><p>This article aims to analyze the feasibility of large-scale conversion to OA by describing management and farming practices, yield gaps, nutrient balances, as well as the governance and the institutional setting of OA in Bhutan. Bhutan is a suitable case study given the generally good availability of data on the agricultural sector.</p></div><div><h3>DATA AND METHODS</h3><p>We conduct qualitative content analysis of annual, status, and consultation reports, and gray literature. We analyze the yield gap between organic and conventional farms using agricultural census data. A tentative aggregated nutrient balance at the district and organic village levels is also carried out relying on data from agricultural surveys and censuses and associated reports.</p></div><div><h3>RESULTS AND CONCLUSION</h3><p>OA in Bhutan requires compliance with the standard requirements defined in the Bhutan Organic Standard (BOS), which is part of the family of standards established by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). Farmers are increasingly opting for certified organic farming, with 6% and 3% of arable land being registered and certified, respectively, under the local organic assurance system (LOAS). The National Center for Organic Agriculture (NCOA) has instituted model organic villages (MOVs) and provides capacity building training and in-kind farm support to organic farmers. The results of the yield gap analysis show that yields in organic systems are between 18% to 45% lower across the three main agro-ecological zones compared to conventional cropping systems. This could exacerbate the country's food self-sufficiency. The results of the nutrient balance reveal a general nitrogen deficiency which could be mitigated with improved OA practices. OA faces many challenges, such as a shortage of funds for implementing organic programs, missing extension for OA, and a lack of research to improve the existing methods.</p></div><div><h3>SIGNIFICANCE</h3><p>This paper provides clarity on the challenges faced by farmers under state-driven large-scale OA conversion. Understanding the challenges of converting to OA in Bhutan can lead to transferable findings for many similar contexts characterized by smallholder farming systems.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"220 ","pages":"Article 104057"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X24002075/pdfft?md5=bc40a86139a9d37ec6c319ab18a579c5&pid=1-s2.0-S0308521X24002075-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141960640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Participatory AI for inclusive crop improvement","authors":"Violet Lasdun ,&nbsp;Davíd Güereña ,&nbsp;Berta Ortiz-Crespo ,&nbsp;Stephen Mutuvi ,&nbsp;Michael Selvaraj ,&nbsp;Teshale Assefa","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104054","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104054","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>CONTEXT</h3><p>Crop breeding in the Global South faces a ‘phenotyping bottleneck’ due to reliance on manual visual phenotyping, which is both error-prone and challenging to scale across multiple environments, inhibiting selection of germplasm adapted to farmer production environments. This limitation impedes rapid varietal turnover, crucial for maintaining high yields and food security under climate change. Low adoption of improved varieties results from a top-down system in which farmers have been more passive recipients than active participants in varietal development.</p></div><div><h3>OBJECTIVE</h3><p>A new suite of research at the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT seeks to democratize crop breeding by leveraging mobile phenotyping technologies for high-quality, decentralized data collection. This approach aims to resolve the inherent limitations and inconsistencies in traditional visual phenotyping methods, allowing for more accurate and efficient crop assessment. In parallel, the research seeks to harness multimodal data on farmer preferences to better tailor variety development xzto meet specific production and consumption goals.</p></div><div><h3>METHODS</h3><p>Novel mobile phenotyping tools were developed and field-tested on breeder stations in Colombia and Tanzania, and data from these trials were analyzed for quality and accuracy, and compared with traditional manual estimates and absolute ground truth data. Concurrently, Human-Centered Design (HCD) methods were applied to ensure the technology suits its context of use, and serves the nuanced requirements of breeders.</p></div><div><h3>RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS</h3><p>Computer vison (CV)-enabled mobile phenotyping achieved a significant reduction in scoring variation, attaining imagery-modeled trait accuracies with Pearson Correlation values between 0.88 and 0.95 with ground truth data, and reduced labor requirements with the ability to fully phenotype a breeder's plot (4 m × 3 m) in under a minute. With this technology, high-quality quantitative phenotyping data can be collected by anyone with a smartphone, expanding the potential to measure crop performance in decentralized on-farm environments and improving accuracy and speed of crop improvement on breeder stations.</p></div><div><h3>SIGNIFICANCE</h3><p>Inclusive innovations in mobile phenotyping technologies and AI-supported data collection enable rapid, accurate trait assessment and actively involve farmers in variety selection, aligning breeding programs with local needs and preferences. These advancements offer a timely solution for accelerating varietal turnover to mitigate climate change impacts, while ensuring developed varieties are both high-performing and culturally relevant.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"220 ","pages":"Article 104054"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141960641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of crop-livestock integration on direct and indirect contributions of beef systems to food security","authors":"C. Battheu-Noirfalise ,&nbsp;A. Mertens ,&nbsp;H. Soyeurt ,&nbsp;D. Stilmant ,&nbsp;E. Froidmont ,&nbsp;Y. Beckers","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104067","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104067","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>CONTEXT</h3><p>Beef production systems have been criticized for their low conversion efficiency of the human-edible feed and the agricultural land they use, impacting their ability to contribute directly to food security. However, beef cattle can also contribute indirectly to food security by transferring nutrients from permanent grasslands to marketed food crops through manure.</p></div><div><h3>OBJECTIVE</h3><p>The objective was to analyze the relations between direct and indirect contributions to food security and assess these two aspects for Walloon beef farms. We hypothesized that crop-livestock integration was positively associated with both contributions.</p></div><div><h3>METHODS</h3><p>We calculated indicators of direct and indirect contributions to food security and crop-livestock integration on farm accounting data of 73 Walloon beef farms. The direct contribution was represented with the net productivity, while the indirect contribution to food security was represented with two indicators. The first was the share of exported manure from the livestock subsystem to marketed crops. However, as this manure could be produced out of imported nitrogen, we calculated a nitrogen balance where natural N deposition and fixations are not taken into account, which enables a negative N surplus representing a “net” nitrogen export from livestock towards marketed crops. We calculated correlation coefficients between all indicators and performed a clustering on the indicators of food security contribution, at farm and livestock subsystem levels.</p></div><div><h3>RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS</h3><p>While the livestock subsystem of two farm types out of five did not contribute positively to food security, the presence of marketed crops resulted in a positive net productivity at farm level. In term of indirect contribution to food security, the share of marketed crops was linked with a higher share of exported manure. However, the higher the share of exported manure, the higher the N surplus of the livestock subsystem implying that the manure is produced out of imported nitrogen sources and not from the valorization of permanent grasslands' fertility. The indicators of crop-livestock integration were mainly associated with a low N surplus but the intra-consumption of crops was negatively associated with net productivity.</p></div><div><h3>SIGNIFICANCE</h3><p>Although they can provide manure to marketed crops, current beef cattle use imported N sources to do so and do not always contribute directly to food security. Those performances could be enhanced by combining a grass-based beef cattle subsystem that is self-sufficient in N and intra-consumes small amounts of crops with a marketed crops subsystem that uses manure exported from the livestock subsystem.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"220 ","pages":"Article 104067"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141944791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Improving smallholders' capacity building by creating an enabling environment for sustainable crop production","authors":"Yajuan Li ,&nbsp;Xinxin Zhang ,&nbsp;Qianni Huang ,&nbsp;Donasius Pathera ,&nbsp;Zhichao An ,&nbsp;Xiaoqiang Jiao ,&nbsp;Fusuo Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104083","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104083","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>CONTEXT</h3><p>Sustainably improving food production to meet the needs of a growing population necessitates a dual-pronged approach involving both top-down policy support from governments and grassroots support from social organizations. The combination of these two elements can yield comprehensive and systematic solutions for sustainable crop production, particularly in smallholder-dominated agriculture. However, integrating these approaches to empower smallholders with advanced agricultural technologies and enhance crop sustainability remains a subject that warrants further investigation.</p></div><div><h3>OBJECTIVES</h3><p>We explored collaborative practices for the integration of resources using a dual-pronged approach to empower smallholders for sustainable crop production.</p></div><div><h3>METHODS</h3><p>The DPSIR framework was applied to our case study. Using stratified and random sampling, 258 farmers were recruited from Quzhou, China. We divided the participants into three groups: six farmers who had worked with China-founded Science and Technology backyards (STBs) for 15 years as leading farmers (LF), 90 neighboring farmers (NF) who were closely related to LF, and 162 traditional farmers (TF) from three villages in Quzhou who were not related to STBs. An intervention experiment focusing on the LF and NF was conducted. Interviews were conducted with 258 farmers after harvesting wheat. In addition, we used statistical analyses to examine the differences in yield and economic and environmental benefits among the different groups. Multiple linear regression was used to determine how different factors affected wheat yield, net profit, and technology adoption. We used a mediation model to analyze the mechanisms by which enabling environmental creation affects sustainable production by empowering farmers.</p></div><div><h3>RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS</h3><p>Compared to TF, LF and NF increased social value by 31% and 25%, technology trust by 16% and 5%, and willingness to accept green production technologies and adoption behavior by 20% and 21%, respectively. In addition, LF and NF achieved wheat yield increases accompanied by net profit gains of 86% and 13%, respectively, and LF demonstrated 53% and 52% reductions in nitrogen surplus compared to TF and NF, respectively. The study found that the synergy of social organizations and government support promoted farmers' knowledge generation and sustainable agricultural production by increasing their social value and technology trust.</p></div><div><h3>SIGNIFICANCE</h3><p>This study underscores the pivotal role of STBs in bridging these two approaches and facilitating an environment that empowers smallholders for sustainable crop production. This study provides initial insights into a multi-actor, co-participation-based approach to promoting farmers' capacity, which provides important information for future agricultural policy development and implementation.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"220 ","pages":"Article 104083"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141944792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Complexity-aware principles for agri-food system interventions: Lessons from project encounters with complexity","authors":"Costanza Conti ,&nbsp;Andrew Hall ,&nbsp;Alastair Orr ,&nbsp;Caroline Hambloch ,&nbsp;Kai Mausch","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104080","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104080","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>CONTEXT</h3><p>Complexity has long been recognised as a key feature of agri-food systems. Yet, it remains largely theoretical or poorly addressed in practice, hampering the potential of international development projects to address agriculture and food-related challenges in the Global South.</p></div><div><h3>OBJECTIVE</h3><p>The paper identifies and examines six sources of complexity that can manifest in projects, namely: unpredictability; path dependencies; context-specific dynamics; power relations; multiple temporal and spatial scales. It then proposes and tests six agri-food system principles that could be drawn upon to more successfully navigate this complexity. The aim of the paper is to illustrate how these principles could help projects respond to the changing circumstances and unpredictable turns of agri-food systems contexts in a different way, which flexibly embraces complexity. This flexibility is essential in an age of uncertainty and transformation.</p></div><div><h3>METHODS</h3><p>Comparative case study analysis of six projects implemented by the CGIAR: aflatoxin control in groundnuts in Malawi (1), pigeonpea in Eastern and Southern Africa (2), sorghum beer in Kenya (3), sweet sorghum for biofuel in India (4), precooked beans in Uganda and Kenya (5), Smart Foods in India and Eastern Africa (6). The projects aimed to either increasing smallholder farmers' incomes or addressing food and nutrition security, or both. They were specifically selected as all they were affected by some of the sources of complexity, which hampered the projects to different extents. This makes the cases relevant for not only illustrating manifestations of complexity, but also help reflect on alternative strategies to tackle it.</p></div><div><h3>RESULTS AND CONCLUSION</h3><p>The analysis of the case studies reveals how complexity can frustrate objectives of development interventions under several aspects. It also serves to discuss how complexity can be more successfully navigated (within but also beyond the selected cases) by applying the set of proposed agri-food system principles. The principles are also presented as ways future interventions could avoid clinging to what is “known to work” and instead venture into more powerful pathways of change.</p></div><div><h3>SIGNIFICANCE</h3><p>The following complexity-aware principle are proposed: Welcome surprises and openly discuss trade-offs; Shun orthodoxies; Engage with context-specificity; Expose patterns of power; Embrace the lengthy nature of change; Understand the multi-scale (in terms of space and time) nature of agri-food systems contexts. These principles could be used by project designers and implementors to cope with the complexity and uncertainty that will inevitably be encountered in agri-food system interventions, and can no longer be ignored.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"220 ","pages":"Article 104080"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X24002300/pdfft?md5=d207f3a5ece0b831407599a2b640cc02&pid=1-s2.0-S0308521X24002300-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141959536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nitrogen fertilizer use and climate interactions: Implications for maize yields in Kansas","authors":"Na Huang ,&nbsp;Xiaomao Lin ,&nbsp;Fei Lun ,&nbsp;Ruiyun Zeng ,&nbsp;Gretchen F. Sassenrath ,&nbsp;Zhihua Pan","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104079","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104079","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>CONTEXT</h3><p>While climate change threatens maize growth and production, appropriate N fertilizer use (N) can help mitigate this threat and stabilize or improve maize yields. Accurate application of N fertilizer is of increasing interest as an adaptation measure for climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing economic returns.</p></div><div><h3>OBJECTIVE</h3><p>The objectives of this study are to: 1) clarify how maize yields respond to N fertilizer use under changes in temperature and precipitation, and 2) explore the effects of various climate conditions on N fertilizer use efficiency.</p></div><div><h3>METHODS</h3><p>We used a long-term and county-level maize N fertilizer use and climate dataset from 1981 to 2019 in Kansas to determine the impact of N fertilizer use on maize yield. We developed a panel data model with fixed effects, incorporating explanatory variables, including the interaction of growing-degree-days (GDD) with N fertilizer use (GDD_it*N_it), extreme-degree-days (EDD) with N fertilizer use (EDD_it*N_it), and precipitation (Precip) with N fertilizer use (Precip_it*Nit), along with a non-linear N-fertilizer use term. Then, the adaptive effects of N fertilizer use on climatic risks for maize were examined and the county-level results were aggregated into the nine crop reporting districts, as defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service.</p></div><div><h3>RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS</h3><p>Our results show that: 1) an increase in N fertilizer use magnified the negative effects of higher EDD on maize yield but enhanced the positive effects of higher GDD and precipitation on maize yield, impacts which were increasingly evident moving from western to eastern regions across Kansas; 2) hotter environments reduced maize yield by 7% in the west; conversely, warmer and wetter environmental conditions contributed to 2.4% yield gains in the southeast; changes in N fertilizer use impacted maize yield to a lesser extent than climate changes; and 3) under the averaged climate conditions, the optimal N fertilizer rate increased from northwestern (average 50 kg N ha⁻¹) to eastern (average 158 kg N ha⁻¹) regions in Kansas.</p></div><div><h3>SIGNIFICANCE</h3><p>Our results reveal the interaction between climate and N fertilization on maize yield and clarify how the efficiency of N fertilizer use is affected by various climatic conditions. Our findings highlight the quantifiable interactions between climate and N fertilizer use when evaluating dynamic N fertilizer applications and climate change adaptations.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"220 ","pages":"Article 104079"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X24002294/pdfft?md5=c8f07bc5316b0c26f3192ea8e2d36f76&pid=1-s2.0-S0308521X24002294-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141959548","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Legume choice and planting configuration influence intercrop nutrient and yield gains through complementarity and selection effects in legume-based wheat intercropping systems","authors":"Muhammad Ali Raza ,&nbsp;Atta Mohi Ud Din ,&nbsp;Ghulam Abbas Shah ,&nbsp;Wang Zhiqi ,&nbsp;Ling Yang Feng ,&nbsp;Hina Gul ,&nbsp;Hassan Shehryar Yasin ,&nbsp;Mohammad Shafiq ur Rahman ,&nbsp;Chen Juan ,&nbsp;Xue Liang ,&nbsp;Raheela Rehman ,&nbsp;Amal Mohamed Al Garawi ,&nbsp;Wopke van der Werf ,&nbsp;Ruijun Qin ,&nbsp;Liu Xin ,&nbsp;Muhammad Hayder Bin Khalid ,&nbsp;Ma Zhongming","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104081","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104081","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>CONTEXT</h3><p>By exploiting the complementarities between intercrops, cereal/legume intercropping provides an opportunity to increase legume production with sustained cereal yield. However, little is known about how legume choice and spatial configurations affect the performance and economic viability of legume-based wheat intercropping, especially in arid-irrigated conditions.</p></div><div><h3>OBJECTIVE</h3><p>We conducted this study to investigate the complementarity of three different legumes (chickpea, soybean, and pea) with wheat and determine the appropriate strip width for intercrops.</p></div><div><h3>METHODS</h3><p>A three-year study (2021−2023) was conducted to evaluate the effects of legume choice and spatial configuration (narrow strips of 0.6 m (NS) and partially wide strips of 1.2 m (pWS) for each intercrop) on wheat/soybean, wheat/pea, and wheat/chickpea intercropping, and results were compared with their sole systems for dry matter, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) uptake, yield, and economic returns. We also quantified the intensity of the net biodiversity effect (NE), complementarity effect (CE), and selection effect (SE) for yield, N (NE_N, CE_N, and SE_N), and P (NE_P, CE_P, and SE_P) gains of legume-based wheat intercropping systems.</p></div><div><h3>RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS</h3><p>Our results show that intercrops achieved the highest dry matter, nutrient uptake, and grain yield with pWS compared to NS. The intercropped chickpea, soybean, and pea achieved 67–71%, 55–62%, and 62–70% of their sole system yield. The intercropped wheat with chickpea, soybean, and pea produced 66–69%, 57–62%, and 62–66% of sole wheat yield, respectively. Results also confirmed a positive NE with both NS and pWS, mainly due to the higher CE, which ranges from 37% to 104% of NE under all intercropping systems. The nutrient uptake gain with NS and pWS ranged from −3.4 kg ha⁻¹ to 101.5 kg ha⁻¹ (NE_N) and − 0.2 kg ha⁻¹ to 13.8 kg ha⁻¹ (NE_P). On average, maximum LER (1.36), NE (1012 kg ha⁻¹), NE_N (86 kg ha⁻¹), and NE_P (12 kg ha⁻¹) were obtained with pWS in wheat/chickpea, followed by wheat/pea and wheat/soybean intercropping. Overall, wheat/pea intercropping with pWS generated the highest net profit (2014, 1533, and 1394 USD ha⁻¹ in 2021, 2022, and 2023, respectively), which was primarily linked to the high market price of pea than chickpea and soybean.</p></div><div><h3>SIGNIFICANCE</h3><p>These results imply that legume choice and spatial configurations influenced complementary and facilitation interactions between intercrops, and wheat/chickpea and wheat/pea intercropping with pWS could be adopted as a productive cropping strategy for obtaining higher and diverse crop yields with reduced land and nutrients than the sole wheat system.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"220 ","pages":"Article 104081"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141944794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Regional-scale trade-offs among beef production, emissions and land use impacts: A cattle diet composition perspective","authors":"R. Wang ,&nbsp;L. Puillet ,&nbsp;C. Pinsard ,&nbsp;P. Lescoat ,&nbsp;F. Accatino","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104048","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104048","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>CONTEXT</h3><p>Although playing a role in global food security, beef production systems cause concerns due to pressure on land for feed production and greenhouse gas emissions.</p></div><div><h3>OBJECTIVE</h3><p>We aimed at quantifying the trade-offs associated with different beef cattle diet compositions, considering beef meat production, greenhouse gas emissions, and land use impacts. In addition, we evaluated the influence of dry periods and grazing improvement for trade-off mitigation.</p></div><div><h3>METHODS</h3><p>We developed a model linking beef cattle diet composition to land use impact indicators (feed import requirements and feed-food competition indicators), beef production (proxied by total weight gain [WG]), and animal emissions in a year. We applied the model to the grassland-based beef cattle region of Bourbonnais, France, with a three-step analysis: (i) we explored the model outputs over a joint range of cereal and grass intake; (ii) we investigated the sensitivity of each feed type intake on the outputs; (iii) we simulated scenarios representing situations affecting cattle diet: <em>dry seasons</em> (−20% average crop and grass yield, grazing time, cattle growth rate and less cattle grass intake compensated by an equivalent increase of other feed types)<em>, grazing improvement</em> (increasing grass yield by 20% and its digestibility and gross energy content by 5%) and <em>mixed</em> (combining the previous scenarios).</p></div><div><h3>RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS</h3><p>Analysis (i) showed that more digestible diets conciliate production with emission reduction; however, they also cause undesired feed imports and feed-food competition. Analysis (ii) showed that, although present in the diet in relatively small quantities, oil protein crops as feed have high impact on model variables and outputs. In analysis (iii), compared to <em>baseline</em>, <em>dry seasons</em> decreases slightly in WG and emissions but increases feed-food competition (human-edible feed +149 g/kg WG) with extra feed importations; <em>Grazing improvement</em> increases WG (+6.02%) and decreases emissions (−3.03%), human-edible feed per WG (−37 g/kg WG) and food-competing land per WG (−5.7<span><math><mo>×</mo></math></span>10⁻⁵ ha/kg WG) with no additional impact on feed imports; <em>mixed</em> scenario, increases total WG (+1.22%); decreases emissions (−3.25%) with less feed-food competition and less importation than <em>baseline</em> scenario.</p></div><div><h3>SIGNIFICANCE</h3><p>Beef cattle diet composition, linked to land-use based management practices, is an effective tool to handle the trade-offs at the regional scale. Improving pasture quality alleviates the trade-offs by increasing production, reducing emission, feed-food competition and feed imports. Improving resilience of grasslands to droughts alleviates the negative impacts of dietary changes during dry periods.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"220 ","pages":"Article 104048"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X24001987/pdfft?md5=23c31e9f5f5f19b7beae0c8021e9fa58&pid=1-s2.0-S0308521X24001987-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141731826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Perceived resilience of community supported agriculture in Germany","authors":"Anna Rosman ,&nbsp;Joseph MacPherson ,&nbsp;Marie Arndt ,&nbsp;Katharina Helming","doi":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104068","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.agsy.2024.104068","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Context</h3><p>Amid an uncertain future with increasing environmental, economic, social, and institutional challenges, farmers in Germany need to find strategies to become more resilient through capacities of robustness, adaptability, and transformability. Parallel to that, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), an alternative food and value chain network in which producers and consumers share the risks involved in farming, is rapidly spreading in the country. CSA has the potential to address sustainability concerns while at the same time improving farm resilience.</p></div><div><h3>Objective</h3><p>The main objective of this study is to provide an understanding of how a CSA-structure on a farm may impact farm resilience. It also aims to investigate how CSA farmers in Germany perceive the resilience of their farms, its functions, and the challenges they may face in the future.</p></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><p>A mixed methodology was applied, consisting of a case study with one CSA farmer following the approach for a resilience assessment developed by <span><span>Meuwissen et al. (2019)</span></span>, and a survey with CSA farmers from Germany. The case study involved an in-depth interview, a resilience perception assessment and a Fuzzy-Cognitive-Mapping workshop, whose results were used as a starting point for developing the survey.</p></div><div><h3>Results and conclusion</h3><p>The case study revealed mechanisms for improving farm resilience through CSA, particularly through increased income security, risk protection, market independence, and satisfaction. These same resilience improving mechanisms could also be identified among the surveyed CSA farmers. Overall, CSA farmers showed a high level of perceived resilience in comparison to non-CSA farmers from a similar survey in a different study.</p></div><div><h3>Significance</h3><p>The study is the first of its kind to analyze CSA farmers in Germany through the lens of farm resilience theory. The study provides first insights to how transitioning to CSA affects the perceived resilience of farmers as well as underlying motivations. The results provide a strong indication that CSA could offer a viable strategy to help combat the resilience crisis, shedding thus a positive light on the current spread of the movement in Germany.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":7730,"journal":{"name":"Agricultural Systems","volume":"220 ","pages":"Article 104068"},"PeriodicalIF":6.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308521X2400218X/pdfft?md5=33d8c15a95cb4a700699709b12a9c53d&pid=1-s2.0-S0308521X2400218X-main.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141728893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}