Recent Applications and Biological Activities in Aquaculture and Agriculture

Global situation in Sub-Saharan countriesEconomic development in the Sub-Saharan countries is strongly linked to the agricultural sector, which constitutes the major part of gross national product (GNP) in most of these countries. However, agricultural productivity and production in the area are very low due to erratic rainfall and especially the low level of soil fertility (Penning de Vries & Djitèye, 199; van Keulen & Breman, 1990). Considered world-wide, it is one of the regions with the most unfavourable combination of low agricultural productivity and high population growth. The potential for economic development is limited, because of environmental, agro-technical, socio-economic and institutional constraints.Natural resource degradation is most directly linked to (Oldeman et al., 1991)practicing non-sustainable land use systems, particularly agricultural production techniques without application of mineral or organic fertilisers (24% of the crop land);over-exploitation of pasture (49% of the area);over-exploitation of woody resources (27% of the woody land).The most important single cause of degradation is the depletion of soil nutrients, including organic matter. Land degradation has serious consequences for agricultural productivity and production, and the availability of arable land. It has been estimated that the availability of arable land will decrease from the current 0.28 ha per capita to 0.17 ha in 2025 (WRI, 1990) and 0.15 ha in 2050 (FAO 1991)The situation in MaliThe economic situation in Mali is characterized by a low GNP per capita (around $270 per annum). The primary sector is the most important one, contributing 46% to GNP, mainly from arable farming and livestock activities (DNSI, 1992). More than 80 % of the work force is employed in the agricultural sector, which generates around 75% of the export revenues.Low soil fertility and degradation of natural resources are the most important constraints for agricultural development in Mali. For example, in Southern Mali, the value of the nutrients (at current fertilizer prices, based on replacement value) lost in traditional cropping systems has been estimated (van der Pol, 1992) at about half the value of the gross margin. Hence, a large part of farmers' income originates from soil depletion.The study area is the 'Cercle de Koutiala' in Southern Mali, with a total area of 9075 km 2and 286 244 inhabitants, i.e. a population density of about 31 per km 2(BCR, 1991). The Cercle de Koutiala is located at the border of the Soudano-Sahelian zone with monomodal rainfall at an average of 980 mm/year (Sivakumar et al. , 1984). Six main types of soils have been distinguished, with shallow gravelly soils, not suitable for arable farming, occupying the largest area (62%).Study objectives and methodologyThe specific objectives of the study are:definition of agricultural production techniques at different levels of sustainability;formulation and analysis of a scenario for sustainable agricultural development in the Cercle de Koutiala;exploration of the potentials and constraints for future land use in the Cercle de Koutiala, based on optimum natural resource management;analysis of the actual situation, including non-sustainable production techniques at farm household level;comparison between development options (in terms of production and land use) for situations with and without the possibilities for practicing non-sustainable production techniques;identification of policy measures to stimulate adoption of sustainable agricultural production techniques at farm household level.The research methodology is based on a systems-analysis approach, using linear programming at regional (aggregate) and farm (micro) level. Model structure and procedures are presented in Chapter 3. The different steps followed in the analysis of the results are:a scenario based on sustainable intensive agricultural production techniques is analysed with a regional model in Chapter 4 to explore the agricultural development perspective for the Cercle de Koutiala;results of the Farm Household Model, based on non-sustainable agricultural production techniques, are analysed in Chapter 5, with emphasis on the structure of production, (land use), the level of production and the degree of sustainability of the land use systems practiced by different household types;results at farm level have been aggregated to the regional level on the basis of the total number of different types of farm households in the region for comparison with the development perspectives under sustainable conditions;policy measures aiming at stimulating the adoption of sustainable technical options are defined, and their impact on farm household behaviour is analysed in Chapter 6;the influence of some policy measures on aggregate production of cereals at the regional level is analysed as well as its effect on market and price equilibrium.Sustainable production systemsThe basic question in the present study is: how to realise the transition from the current non-sustainable practices (associated with ' soil mining ' ) to sustainable intensive cropping systems? To answer that question, a sustainable agricultural development scenario has been defined, based on sustainable agricultural production techniques. For definition of those production techniques, sustainability has been operationalized as 'equilibrium of nutrient balances (including soil organic matter)' to avoid soil nutrient depletion. The resulting land use systems are characterized by strong integration of arable farming, animal husbandry and forestry. Sensitivity analyses have been carried out to analyse the effects of variation in 'level of sustainability' on the level of productivity of cropping systems. The scenario based on "absolutely (no soil nutrient depletion allowed)" sustainable intensive production techniques (SP1) results in the highest level of agricultural production and net revenue, despite higher expenditures on inputs, especially for chemical fertilizer. With increasing levels of soil nutrient depletion (application of 25, 50 and 75 % of the chemical fertilizer needed for equilibrium), productivity and net revenue decrease, the cultivated area increases (extensification), and net revenue per unit area and per capita decrease.Non-sustainable production systemsThe farm household model was applied to analyse the effects of the inclusion of non-sustainable production techniques on regional development. The results indicate large differences among farm household types in terms of agricultural productivity and farm management strategy. Farm household types were defined on the basis of access to resources and the degree of mechanisation (animal traction). When maximising net revenue and utility, the level of production and net revenue are appreciably higher for households of type A (well-endowed) than for those of types B and C (less endowed). Comparison of the results of the absolutely sustainable scenario (SP1) with those of scenario SB1 (actual situation) shows large differences in allocation of natural resources (land use), production and level of sustainability. Adoption of intensive, sustainable production techniques requires some major actions at farm household level:efficient land resource management, i.e. land use adapted to land qualities and suitability;integration of silviculture to satisfy wood requirements;intensification of livestock systems through introduction of high-quality supplementary feed. This leads to the conclusion that complementary policy measures are indispensable to stimulate adoption of sustainable and intensive technical production techniques.Policy measuresPolicy measures have been identified and their impact on farm household behaviour has been analysed using a farm household model. The policy measures considered include: price policy, market development policy, credit policy, natural resources management policy, and agricultural intensification policy. The policy measures could be classified in four main types on the basis of their effects on net revenue and sustainability level:policy measures having a strong positive effect on both net revenue and sustainability level;policy measures having a moderately positive effect on net revenue and sustainability level;policy measures having a moderately positive effect on net revenue and a negative effect on sustainability level;policy measures having a negative effect on both net revenue and sustainability level.Results indicate that several policy measures can have a strong effect on farm household behaviour. However, farm households vary strongly in their reactions to policy measures. Farm households of type A, for example, show an adoption rate of sustainable intensive production techniques of about 40% (expressed as the proportion of the area cultivated with these techniques) compared to 20% and 11% for types B and C, respectively. However, even when implementing the most effective policy measures, farm households generally combine non-sustainable and sustainable production techniques. The rate of adoption of sustainable intensive techniques strongly depends on their profitability. Hence, all policy measures that contribute to improved profitability of the alternative production techniques, by reducing their cost/benefit ratio, will stimulate increased rates of adoption at the farm household level. At the regional level, the most effective policy measures have a strong impact on development objectives through increasing the level of production and net revenue per ha and per capita. These policy measures also have a strong positive impact on the rate of adoption of sustainable and intensive production techniques at the farm household level. Some policy measures also induce changes in total production and hence in the demand/supply balance of cereals at the regional level. This may lead to price changes causing a new market equilibrium.The analyses of the effects of policy measures at farm household and regional level illustrate the potential role of such models in policy support in the macro-economic policy formulation process.From non-sustainability to strong sustainability: what are the possibilities for on-farm practices?The results from the regional model indicate that when sustainable intensive cropping systems are introduced, using high input levels, particularly of chemical fertilizers, high levels of production can be attained. However, such sustainable intensive systems cannot be adopted in the short term because of technical, socio-economic and institutional constraints. These constraints are mainly linked to availability of mineral fertilizers and profitability of their use.Therefore, what is required to realize the transition from the current non-sustainable practices to strong or absolute sustainability? Sustainable agricultural development requires at least a change in farm household behaviour by adopting sustainable and intensive production techniques.In the short and medium term, farm households can adapt by introducing improved, intensified forage production techniques (leguminous species), which will have a positive impact on soil fertility and livestock feed supply. For the long term, the results of the analysis of effects of policy measures have indicated that the rate of adoption of sustainable technologies can be increased through appropriate policy measures.Thus, a set of policy measures is necessary to stimulate introduction of sustainable agriculture practices at the farm level such as: increasing profitability of the use of mineral fertilizers, land improvement, improved land tenure regulations, decentralization of the responsibilities for implementation of development measures, coordination of development activities at regional level, stimulation of investments in rural areas, and of scientific and technical research oriented towards sustainable agricultural development.The Cercle de Koutiala is one of the regions in Mali with high agricultural potential, but agricultural production growth should not be realised on the basis of soil nutrient depletion, since that will trigger land degradation and environmental problems in the long term. Macro-economic policy measures are necessary to provide incentives to farm households to adopt sustainable and intensive production techniques. Only in that way will it be possible for the Cercle de Koutiala to maintain its important place in Mali's sustainable agricultural development process.

Nonfarm Activities and Household Production Choices in Smallholder Agriculture in Vietnam

The Mekong Delta (MD) is the most important area for agriculture and aquaculture production in Vietnam, especially in terms of the production of rice, fruits, shrimp and catfish. However, intensification of rice and shrimp production on both alluvial soils and acid sulphate soils (ASS) has resulted in degradation of soil and water environments. Results of the studies on water quality showed that surface water in two branches of the Mekong River had high biological oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand and nitrate concentrations, which exceeded the limits of the Vietnamese standard for surface water. In ASS areas, water in the canals showed high levels of aluminium, iron and manganese, and toxic metals such as Arsenic, Cadmium, Copper, Nickel, Lead and Zinc. The concentrations of these metals were higher than that in non ASS areas. For shrimp cultivation, rice-shrimp and extensive shrimp systems were more sustainable in-terms of soil and water quality when compared to the intensive shrimp system. In ASS areas, shrimp cultivation had high risk of failure due to low pH and low alkalinity. Based on recent studies, rice rotation with upland crops and compost amendment were the best practices for maintaining soil fertility and improving rice yield in the intensive rice cultivation areas. Organic amendment also improved soil properties and fruit yields in fruit orchards. In intensive vegetable growing areas, soil available phosphate was very high due to high phosphate fertilization, therefore reducing P fertilizer application is a strategy to both save P resources and reduce production costs for farmers. Further studies on the approaches for sustainability in agriculture and aquaculture production in the MD are needed to adapt to climate change.

A salient theme in D. Gale Johnson’s work is the importance of agricultural development for general prosperity and for economic diversification (e.g., Johnson 2000). Johnson has also noted that most of the world’s poor are engaged in farming, so that a key focus of development policy is to raise the incomes of farmers. From a global perspective, increasing the productivity of agriculture, given the fixity of land, is necessary for both poverty reduction and the development of the nonagricultural sector. At the level of the world, agricultural productivity gains, poverty reduction, and the growth of the nonfarm sector are complements. However, the question remains whether these observations imply that every poor country should focus its public resources on agricultural development in order to raise the incomes of people now engaged in farming and whether such a policy is necessary for obtaining economic diversity. In this article, we use the experience of India over the past 30 years to address the issue of whether agricultural technical change actually leads to economic diversification and income growth within the rural sector in the context of an open-economy country in which there are cross-area trade and capital flows. We focus in particular on the rural sector because this is the sector in which linkages between agricultural and nonagricultural sectors are thought to be the strongest. We exploit the fact that India has maintained a policy of openness with respect to agricultural technology over this period, permitting and actively supporting agricultural development, and has moved to a reformed regime in which goods are traded and capital is more mobile in the 1990s. Evidence on the relationship between agricultural growth and nonfarm

Development strategies increasingly emphasize agricultural development, employment, and equity; it is therefore important to examine the role of education in light of these new emphases. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the conclusions of a number of studies of the effect of a farmer's educational level and exposure to extension services on his productivity. Eighteen studies conducted in low-income countries provided 37 sets of farm data that allow a statistical estimation of the effect of education. The overall conclusion of this paper is that farm productivity increases as a result of a farmer's completing at least 4 additional years of elementary education rather than none. Also, the effects of education were much more likely to be positive in modernizing agricultural environments than in traditional ones.

Shenggen FanInternational Food Policy Research Institute and Institute of AgriculturalEconomics of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural SciencesLinxiu ZhangCenter for Chinese Agricultural Policy of the Chinese Academy of SciencesXiaobo ZhangInternational Food Policy Research InstituteI. IntroductionChina is one of the few countries in the developing world that has madeprogress in reducing its total number of poor over the past 25 years.

Sustainable aquafeed and aquaculture production systems as impacted by challenges of global food security and climate change

Both aquaculture and agriculture are essential for food security in Europe, but they face different challenges and opportunities. A sustainable and balanced approach that considers both sectors is needed to ensure that Europe can meet its food needs while protecting the environment and promoting economic growth. This research is aimed at studying the economic analyses of the effect of aquaculture versus agriculture production on future food security in the EU27 region from the era between 1990 and 2023. Resolve challenges of endogeneity, employing econometric estimators such as the robust least squares (RLS), two-stage least squares (2SLS), and ordinary least squares (OLS), producing crucial insights. The analysis reveals that in the EU27 region, agricultural production has a higher impact than aquaculture production on influencing food security. Moreover, in the EU13 developing countries, aquaculture production has a higher impact on food security than in the EU14 developing countries. On the other hand, in the EU14 developed countries, agriculture production plays a significant role in food security in comparison with the EU13 developing countries. From another perspective, economic growth, governance, and fossil fuel consumption variables play a significant role in food security in the EU13 members compared with the EU14 members. Based on the study’s findings, policymakers in the EU27 region are advised to provide policies targeted at advancing the aquaculture sector top priority to achieve food security in the future, especially in EU14 developed countries. Additionally, this study suggests that decision-makers in the EU13 members need to improve the efficiency of agriculture production to meet the food security targets.

The increase of fishery production nationally and internationally may impact on the potential emergence of a variety of environmental problems. The application of sustainable aquaculture is urgently needed by breeding fish for commercial purposes in a manner such that it has a minimum impact on the environment, contributing to the development of local communities and generating economic benefits. The design of the cage and farming practice in aquaculture activities are the important steps to ensure that farming activity is still observed in order to anticipate the risk of organic enrichment caused by the activities. The application of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) on the Stratified Double Floating Net Cage (SDFNC) integrated with biomonitoring are an appropriate solution to the ongoing productive farming practices. IMTA is an aquaculture practice using more than one species of biotas which have ecologically mutual relationship as a part of the food chain in the area at the same time. The application of IMTA allows farmers to get several aquaculture products in the same area without increasing the horizontal area of the farms. At first, the SDFNC has been applied for farming Cyprinus carpio and Tilapia niloticus as polyculture system in freshwater ecosystem of Rawapening Lake, Central Java. Its operation has been able to increase the production capacity of at least 75% of conventional cages. The application of SDFNC-IMTA using milkfish (Chanos Chanos), seaweed (Kappaphycus alvarezii), and white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) has been able to minimize the impact and maintain the water ecosystem in the Gulf Awerange, South Sulawesi.

Ecuador is a mega-diverse country in natural resources, however, agricultural production is managed by an important group of people who survive their activities in unfavorable conditions, due to different aspects that relate to the geographical area, climate, production mechanisms and marketing opportunities that in many cases do not result in adequate benefit. The skills and skills developed in the field are an important strength in resource management, and training processes for resource reinforcement are a priority. The objective of this research was to analyze the agricultural and aquaculture activities of the economically active population of Puna Island. The methodology was based on a non-experimental field-type design, with a descriptive and longitudinal level, the mixed methodological perspective. A survey was carried out that brings together aspects related to agricultural and aquaculture production of this population. The results show that the economic labor force in these areas lies in the population over 35 years of age, little economic income from a marketing especially to intermediaries.

Essential oils and their applications in agriculture and agricultural products: A literature analysis through VOSviewer

The quality and safety of agricultural products has always been a long-term problem that plagues the government and academia. Many scholars discuss the possibility of controlling the quality and safety of agricultural products from the external measure of strengthening government supervision of agricultural production and planting, but it is difficult to avoid the embarrassing situation of “supervision failure”. At the same time, due to the decentralized and fragmented characteristics of China’s agricultural operations, the government’s comprehensive supervision on the quality and safety of agricultural products will produce extremely high supervision costs. In this context, exploring the market incentive and restraint mechanism of agricultural product quality and safety control is a hot topic of general concern of the government and academia.Based on the perspective of branding, this paper explores the impact of brand premium on rice quality and safety from the perspective of pesticide application through the theoretical and empirical analysis. The main research conclusions include: Firstly, traditional rice production is still dominated by traditional production and management methods, and the level of branded production is still at a low level as a whole. Secondly, the excess profits brought by brand premium can make up for the externality of agricultural safety production, allowing farmers to generate endogenous prices to encourage high-quality and safe agricultural production, thereby promoting the improvement of agricultural product quality and safety. Finally, there are certain boundary conditions for brand premium to promote the quality and safety of agricultural products. Only when the brand-specific assets restrict the production behavior of farmers, can the brand premium improve the quality and safety of agricultural products to the greatest extent. This paper thinks that in the process of agricultural product branding development, we should focus on the right and responsibility docking of brand subjects, and strengthen the binding effect of brand reputation, so as to give full play to the role of price mechanism in the promotion of agricultural product quality and safety.The innovation of this paper lies in the following three points: Firstly, scholars mostly explore the ways to improve the quality of agricultural products from the aspects of government supervision and the characteristics of farmers’ endowments, but there is a lack of discussion on the marketization mechanism of quality and safety improvement. This paper focuses on the price mechanism to solve the quality and safety problems, and the research perspective has certain novelty. Secondly, the existing discussion on the brand and quality safety of agricultural products lacks in-depth mechanism analysis and corresponding empirical support. This paper adds the correlation analysis of asset specificity and quality and safety cognition, and further clarifies the boundary conditions for brand premium to improve the quality and safety of agricultural products. Thirdly, in the process of analysis, we also pay attention to the differences of brand with different property rights in improving the quality and safety of agricultural products, and the relevant research is more specific and detailed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the hypothesis that a common basis for rapid growth in agricultural output and productivity lies in a remarkable adaptation of agricultural technology to the sharply contrasting factor proportions in the two countries. It is hypothesized that an important aspect of this adaptation was the ability to generate a continuous sequence of induced innovations in agricultural technology biased towards saving the limiting factors. In Japan these innovations were primarily biological and chemical. In the United States they were primarily mechanical.

The small multiple use water bodies or multiple use aquaculture resources (MAR) constitute the largest potential aquaculture resources available in the country but the present aquaculture use has been limited due to lack of policy attentions. The aquaculture in such water bodies generates wide range of benefits to the users and communities. To assess the status of aquaculture and benefits out of it, a study was conducted during 2009-2010 in the interior and coastal areas of Odisha representing three categories of the management system i.e. community-based, group-based and private management. It was found that the aquaculture production and productivity were low but produces wide range of social and community benefits. About 43 percent of the fish produced were consumed by the villagers and each household consumed around 2.7 kg of fish from MAR. The members and non-members of the management were equally benefited out of it. The community services like village function, temple maintenance, road repair etc., were also partially sponsored by aquaculture activities.

Primary production is the synthesis of organic substances by autotrophic organisms from atmospheric or aqueous carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) (see Sect. 5.1). Primary productivity, which is the rate at which energy is converted into organic substances, depends on internal (genetic) and external (ecophysiological) factors. Figure