Assessing land, nutrients and monetary value associated with postharvest loss of persimmon in Brazil: pathways toward sustainability in agri-food systems

Land and water footprints associated with rice and maize losses in Brazil

Estimating the potential for nutrition and energy production derived from maize (Zea mays L.) and rice (Oryza sativa L.) losses in Brazil

A research was conducted to assess honey bee colony losses in Brazil, including their likely causes. Beekeepers responded to two complete annual questionnaires (n=268 in 2018 and n=254 in 2019). There was a total of 175,003 hives of Africanized honey bees (Apis mellifera Linnaeus), (µ=335 hives per beekeeper, min=9 and Max=3,600), of which 27.2% were lost. A Generalized Linear Model (GLM) for total loss (TL) and a Wald method for average loss (AL) were used to estimate 95% confidence intervals (CI) for loss rates based on year: 2018, TL=30.5%, CI (28.5-32.4), AL=39.5, CI (37.0-41.9); and 2019, TL=23.8%, CI (22.5-25.2), AL=31.3%, CI (29.5-33.1). Pesticides were speculated to be the leading cause of colony losses (47.3%), followed by climate (drought, flood, rain: 11.6%), malnutrition (lack of flowering, lack of energy and/or protein source, wrong nutrition: 9.7%), absconding (10.2%), mismanagement (wrong migratory activity, migration to mangrove, beekeeper’s personal problems: 7.9%), predators (3.9%), queen problems (2.8%), and varroa (1.6%). Other parasites, theft, toxic pollen (Brazilian sacbrood) and bushfires accounted for the remaining 5% of losses. Due to tropical temperatures, there is no substantial winter loss. In contrast, the highest incidence of losses occurred from September to January, coinciding with the intense agricultural activity. In summary, according to participants, there were significantly higher losses in 2018 compared to 2019, with pesticides alleged to be the main cause of honey bee colony losses in Brazil. However, beekeepers usually multiply colonies during the following season, sustaining pollination and honey production, thereby supporting agricultural activity.

This study aimed to determine an optimum formula for producing gluten-free pasta using banana flour. A mixture design experiment was conducted, and three factors were analyzed, 40-60% banana flour, 7-27% modified starch, and 23-43% water. The most appropriate formula included 40% banana flour, 27% modified starch, and 33% water. The nutritional profile of this gluten-free pasta per 100 grams was 469.29 kilocalories of total energy, 4.71 grams of protein, 7.60 grams of dietary fiber, 26.69 micrograms of vitamin A, 0.039 milligrams of vitamin B, 0.093 milligrams of vitamin B2, 60.30 milligrams of calcium, and 1.33 milligrams of iron. Further, these pasta products exhibited prebiotic properties and their overall preference score was at a moderate level of 7.02. Consequently, the gluten-free pasta made using banana flour differed from the commercial product due to its soft and flexible texture. Altogether, the pasta was nutritious and had prebiotic properties.

Water, land and carbon footprints of sheep and chicken meat produced in Tunisia under different farming systems

Various decision support methods are used to support the sustainable use of natural resources, but there is little evidence about these methods' actual performances. In this study, 35 carefully selected papers assessing the sustainable use of natural resources were evaluated. The evaluated papers utilized one of the following methods: optimization, cost- benefit analysis (CBA) and monetary valuation methods, multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) or hybrid approaches. Each method supported sustainability in a different manner. Optimization and CBA case studies rarely involved stakeholders and social sustainability was less processed. Monetary valuation case studies showed a regular participation of the general public, but in a passive role. Experts and stakeholders with an active role were typical participants in MCDA and hybrid case studies. Internationally and nationally defined indicators of sustainability were scarcely used because indicators were frequently defined by stakeholders or the authors of the studied papers. It was presumed that international and national indicators were unsuitable for local use. Sustainability indicators typically took both the quantitative and qualitative form, including gaps and uncertainties. MCDA could be a suitable method for assessing sustainability because it has no strict requirements on the form of the data, and the participation of stakeholders is comprehensive. For the problem structuring phase, however, MCDA might not provide efficient tools. The ideal method for assessing the sustainable use of natural resources could be a hybrid of two methods with different approaches: qualitative methods could be used in the problem structuring process, whereas quantitative methods could be used when priorities and thresholds are assessed.

In 2014, an online survey was launched to assess impacts of bee losses in Brazil (honeybees, stingless bees, and solitary bees). Events from January 2013 to December 2017 were collected on a website http://www.semabelhasemalimento.com.br/beealert as well as in apps for smartphones and tablets. In total, 322 post-confirmed qualified reports (287 for honeybee, 33 for stingless bee, 2 for solitary bee) were included in our analyses. Overall, 19,296 of 37,453 colonies and nests were lost (estimated > 1 billion bees). Losses were highest for Africanized honeybees (Apis mellifera), followed by stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula. Honeybee 95% confidence intervals (CI) for loss rates on the basis of year, 5-year interval, regions, and operation sizes were estimated using a generalized linear model (GLM) for total loss (TL) and a Wald method for average losses (AL). Other species losses were mentioned in the text. Based on information from respondents, pesticide exposures were suspected as the main cause of nest and colony losses. In Sao Paulo State, which accounted for 45.7% of total reports, neonicotinoids and fipronil led pesticide are listed in 55.9% of reports (fipronil, clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam are widely used in sugar cane plantations and orange groves in this state).

Longitudinal association of vitamin B-6, folate, and vitamin B-12 with depressive symptoms among older adults over time

Soil, water and nutrient loss under simulated rainfall patterns in an area fertilised with chicken litter

In addition to challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss, the sustainability and resilience of agrifood systems worldwide are currently challenged by new threats, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war. Furthermore, the resilience and sustainability of our agrifood systems need to be enhanced in ways that simultaneously increase agricultural production, decrease post-harvest food losses and food waste, protect the climate, environment and health, and preserve biodiversity. The precarious situation of agrifood systems is also illustrated by the fact that overall, around 3 billion people worldwide still do not have regular access to a healthy diet. This results in various forms of malnutrition, as well as increasing number of people suffering from overweight and obesity, and diet-related, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) around the world. Findings from microbiome research have shown that the human gut microbiome plays a key role in nutrition and diet-related diseases and thus human health. Furthermore, the microbiome of soils, plants, and animals play an equally important role in environmental health and agricultural production. Upcoming, microbiome-based solutions hold great potential for more resilient, sustainable, and productive agrifood systems and open avenues toward preventive health management. Microbiome-based solutions will also be key to make better use of natural resources and increase the resilience of agrifood systems to future emerging and already-known crises. To realize the promises of microbiome science and innovation, there is a need to invest in enhancing the role of microbiomes in agrifood systems in a holistic One Health approach and to accelerate knowledge translation and implementation.

In a globalized economy, the use of natural resources is determined by the demand of modern production and consumption systems, and by infrastructure development. Sustainable natural resource use will require good governance and management based on sound scientific information, data and indicators. There is a rich literature on natural resource management, yet the national and global scale and macro-economic policy making has been underrepresented. We provide an overview of the scholarly literature on multi-scale governance of natural resources, focusing on the information required by relevant actors from local to global scale. Global natural resource use is largely determined by national, regional, and local policies. We observe that in recent decades, the development of public policies of natural resource use has been fostered by an “inspiration cycle” between the research, policy and statistics community, fostering social learning. Effective natural resource policies require adequate monitoring tools, in particular indicators for the use of materials, energy, land, and water as well as waste and GHG emissions of national economies. We summarize the state-of-the-art of the application of accounting methods and data sources for national material flow accounts and indicators, including territorial and product-life-cycle based approaches. We show how accounts on natural resource use can inform the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and argue that information on natural resource use, and in particular footprint indicators, will be indispensable for a consistent implementation of the SDGs. We recognize that improving the knowledge base for global natural resource use will require further institutional development including at national and international levels, for which we outline options.

Relevance of the research topic. The urgency of the study is due to the fact that the implementation of sustainable development goals adapted to national conditions, ensuring the practical transition of the country and its regions to the model of sustainable development requires the use of all opportunities and resources, improving the natural resource and socio-economic potential public policy. Such tasks are at the present stage of reforming the administrative-territorial structure of the country. Formulation of the problem. One of the main tasks of administrative-territorial reform is to reformat the relations and powers between administrative-territorial units, create amalgamated territorial communities (ATC) and give them expanded rights to manage their own sustainable development. Therefore, there is a need for methodological justification of the process and conditions for the most effective use of natural resources and socio-economic potential of the territories as a basis for their balanced development. Analysis of recent research and publications. Modern aspects of solving the problems of decentralization and reforming the administrative-territorial system in the country are such scientists as Pavlyuk A.P., Oliynyk D.I., Batalov O.A., Datsko O.I., Murkovych L.L., Molodozhen Yu.B. etc. [1-4]. The results of our own research on the problem are given in [5-11]. Selection of unexplored parts of the general problem. As there is inequality in the provision of basic conditions, which include the availability of natural resources, demographic situation, socio-economic potential, the problem of developing systemic mechanisms to promote the creation of financially viable and self-sufficient communities and their infrastructure as a basis for sustainable development of the territory and the country as a whole. Problem statement, research goals. The above circumstances determine the feasibility of determining the levers and mechanisms for sustainable infrastructure development of the amalgamated territorial communities. Method and methodology of research. In the process of conducting research, general scientific (analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, analytical grouping) and special (abstraction, modeling, etc.) methods of studying economic phenomena and processes were used. Presentation of the main material. The study of the dynamics of state support for infrastructural development of OTG, development expenditures (capital expenditures) and the effectiveness of the current mechanism for calculating the infrastructure subvention on the example of Zaporizhzhya region was conducted. There is a relationship between the volume of infrastructure subvention and development expenditures (capital expenditures). It is established that the current mechanism for determining the size of the infrastructure subvention, when it is determined depending on the size of the rural population and the area of UTC is ineffective. It is proved that it is necessary to assess the parameters of sustainable development of UTC not only by traditional components, which are economic, environmental and social, but also by the infrastructural component. For this purpose, an integrated indicator of sustainable infrastructural development of each individual UTC, district or region is proposed, which would allow comparing UTC indicators not only within the district or region, but also between regions of Ukraine. The integrated indicator for assessing the level of infrastructural sustainable development takes into account two components: external influence in the form of infrastructure subvention and internal opportunities of UTC in the form of development expenditures. In turn, the size of the state infrastructure subvention in accordance with the current procedure is determined by the area of UTC and the rural population, but in the proposed model it is advisable to recalculate not the rural population (as it is provided), but the total population of UTC in accordance with actual spending. The apparatus of fuzzy set theory was used to estimate the integrated indicator of the sustainability of infrastructural development. A comparison of indicators of infrastructural development of UTC of Zaporizhzhya region during 2016 - 2018 (unclear values of indicators which showed that by increasing the level of self-sufficiency and break-even OTG can increase the level of sustainability of infrastructural development. The use of own funds in the form of capital expenditures increases efficiency).

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are being used across the world to generate efficiency gains for farmers. This has led to an information and data explosion with an associated boom in new applications, tools, actors, business models, and entire industries. Agri-food systems are being transformed. Beyond the technological developments, data for and from farmers has become a growth area, driving expectations and investments in big data, blockchain technology, precision agriculture, farmer profiling and e-extension. Investing in data-driven agriculture is expected to increase agricultural production and productivity, help adapt to or mitigate the effects of climate change, bring about more economic and efficient use of natural resources, reduce risk and improve resilience in farming, and make agri-food market chains much more efficient. Ultimately, it will contribute to worldwide food and nutrition security. Smallholders in particular have much to gain from data – small improvements in their operations are likely to provide larger gains at household level, proportionally, and, if the improvements are widely adopted, the whole agricultural sector in many countries that depend on smallholder agri-food systems can be transformed. However, for smallholders to benefit from data-driven agriculture, tools and applications need to be designed for their specific situations and capacities; they – and the organizations that support them – need to grow their capacities to become smart data users and managers; measures are needed to ensure that farmer-generated data is not exploited or misused; and smallholders, usually the least powerful parts of a value chain, must grasp every opportunity to be included in the collective data flows within agri-food systems This white paper discusses the huge opportunities and the main challenges of data-driven agriculture for smallholder farmers, illustrates some data and agri-food system drivers that can help make data-driven agriculture more smallholder-friendly and proposes a few institutional and policy approaches to develop a data ecosystem that can enable farmers to fully harness the power of data. The paper is a contribution towards the Collective Action on Farmers’ Data Rights being developed through the Global Forum on Agricultural Research and Innovation (GFAR), with the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). It is co-published by the three organizations. With a preface by Mark Holderness, Executive Secretary, GFAR, and special thanks to: Martin Parr (GODAN), Andre Laperriere (GODAN), Hugo Besemer (Wageningen University).

How China is mitigating resource curse through infrastructural development?

The greater access to the urban and globalized world may be endangering the livelihood of traditional peoples, generating impacts on food and agri-food system. Therefore, aiming to infer these possible impacts of development and adaptation strategies of traditional peoples on new socioeconomic demands, the study was conducted with the Kalunga Quilombo remnants, in the state of Goias, andartisanal fishermen from Apeu Salvador Island, in the state of Para. Through quantitative and qualitative evaluations, the goal of this study was to understand the impacts on traditional communities due to increased urbanization, greater access to the market economy and public policy. Qualitative evaluations have been applied to identify local socioeconomic conditions, food habits, production for self-consump-tion and ways of natural resources usages, through the food 24h recall, local people reports and field ob-servations. Quantitative evaluation was performed through isotope analysis of interviewee’s fingernails and assessment of the influence factors on local food. The use of isotopic ecology allowed evaluatingthe diet regarding the source of origin of food products, natural or industrial, and characterizing foodhabits according to the level of the trophic chain, as well as the presence of meat, fish and others. Thecombination of qualitative and quantitative research methods allowed identifying elements of agri-food and changes in the forms of use of natural resources in the most accessible communities. In contrastto this pattern of transformation, in some communities, it was identified a scenario of resistance of the traditional way of life and reorganization through incentives to local agro-extractive production. Based on fish production in Apeu Salvador and cassava flour in the Kalunga community, the maintenance ofwork and encouragement to local autonomy are alternatives that may enhance the adjustment and adaptation to global changes of modernity. Thus, although some of the results reveal the change in food habits and use of natural resources, under certain conditions the impacts of development on traditional peoples can be bypassed. Despite the relativity, the interferences of modernity on the agri-food systemof traditional communities are real and need to be properly taken into account by external interventionsand public policies.