There’s a path forward in the San Joaquin Valley to benefit farmers, communities, and nature — but only if we plan ...and plant

An integrated hydrologic-economic-institutional water model was developed for the Rio Yaqui Basin, located in northwest Mexico, with the objective of assessing the impacts on agricultural economic benefits from strategies for allocating environmental flow. This paper focuses on the creation of simulation models that estimate the agricultural net benefits under different environmental flow scenarios and surface water allocation strategies. The results illustrate a trade-off between interannual variability of environmental flows and variability in agricultural benefits, corresponding to economic risk, for three allocation strategies. Results also show that environmental flow allocations affect groundwater levels through impacts on surface-ground water interactions.

This study examined the prominence of dragon fruit, focusing on its medicinal benefits, food and beverage applications, and essential products. By understanding the economic and health advantages associated with dragon fruit, the research provided insights into its value across various contexts, highlighting its potential to enrich production strategies. A total of 125 respondents participated in the study, which identified trends and patterns in consumer perceptions, offering insights into market dynamics and potential areas for development. A structured questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale was employed to systematically collect data on subjective opinions, quantifying perceptions regarding the economic and health benefits of dragon fruit. Descriptive statistics, including mean scores and standard deviations, summarized the data, indicating strong and weak perceptions that informed recommendations for enhancing dragon fruit production. The findings revealed significant economic and health benefits for Filipino farmers, despite challenges such as low market availability and poor visibility. While the crop is recognized as commercially viable and easy to grow, uncertainty regarding production costs and a lack of comprehensive information hinder its growth. Additionally, differing perceptions about dragon fruit’s uses in food, beverages, and personal care products highlighted a critical gap in knowledge that must be addressed. The study concluded with strategic recommendations for enhancing awareness through Information, Education, and Communication (IEC) initiatives, improving marketing strategies, diversifying product lines, and promoting gender inclusivity in dragon fruit farming to maximize its benefits for farmers in the Philippines.

Simulation of soil loss under different climatic conditions and agricultural farming economic benefits: The example of Yulin City on Loess Plateau

In Taiwan, agricultural water is frequently reduced or suspended for reallocation of water resources during drought. To cope with such a situation, the irrigation district of the Shihmen Reservoir in the northern Taiwan fully utilizes the functions of water ponds to regulate water resources, so that industrial and domestic water demands can be met. Constructing new water ponds is indeed able to increase water storage for irrigation. However, when it is compared with the method of dredging or excavating the existing water ponds, constructing new water ponds is not easily accepted by the public because of environmental protection and land acquisition. Dredging water ponds is adopted to obtain a larger storage capacity, so that more flexibility may be acquired in water allocation during drought. Furthermore, it is more practical from engineering point of view. This study presents a formulation of the pond-dredging problem for an irrigation system. The formulation is implemented as optimization programs and applied to the area irrigated by the eighth lateral of the Taoyuan Irrigation Association. The irrigation area is a paddy field of 2,283.8 hectares and consists of 32 water ponds storage capacity of which is analyzed as dredging is conducted. Two models are presented; the first minimizes the water extracted from the Reservoir in a cropping season; while the second maximizes agricultural financial net benefits. Various allowable dredging ratios are used in the two models for different case studies. The first model shows that the water supplied by the Reservoir decreases as the ratio increases, and it reaches the minimum (2,520.3 × 104m3) when the ratio is 0.5. The second model displays that the maximum agricultural financial net benefit increases as the ratio increases and it reaches the highest value (NT$ 6,996 × 104) when the ratio is 0.5, a result similar to that of the first model. However, the dredging priorities of 32 water ponds for the two models are different because of the optimization objectives. The simulation results provide references to the performance improvement of water ponds. With such improvement, water ponds can possess an optimal capacity, and an optimal regional water allocation during drought can be achieved.

The adoption of soil conservation practices by farmers offers the potential to greatly improve soil health and water quality at large geographic scales. In considering the potential benefits of soil conservation practices to improve ecological outcomes on farms, it is important to ascertain where farmers get their information about soil conservation and what type of information they are exposed to and by whom. One primary way that farmers learn about soil conservation practices is via agricultural trade publications (ATPs). We conducted a content analysis using a computational text analysis method to analyze all the online soil conservation coverage from four influential ATPs in Wisconsin. We focused on 10 different soil conservation practices and found that the most frequently covered soil conservation practices were tillage, manure, and grazing. Additionally, we analyzed the thematic categories for how each soil conservation practice was covered in terms of agricultural, environmental and economic benefits. Generally, articles tended to mention environmental and economic benefits more than agricultural benefits across all soil conservation practices. We also unpacked the subcategories of environmental benefits using cover crops practice as an example to demonstrate how it was covered in terms of subcategories such as biodiversity, sustainability, climate change, water quality, and soil health. Our analysis also looked at how agricultural technology was featured in the stories about soil conservation and found that this category was regularly mentioned for each practice. Finally, we examined the message sources for stories on soil conservation and found that extension and the federal government were the most the frequently cited entities. We also discussed how this form of computational content analysis can provide longitudinal insights about trends in a particular soil conservation practice like cover crops, which showed a clear upward trend in coverage in ATPs for the time period studied. These nuanced content analyses provide insights into what types of thematic categories are featured about soil conservation practices covered in ATPs in Wisconsin. Advocates of soil conservation practices can use our results to determine if some practices could benefit from more attention in ATPs as well as which benefits and themes have received more media coverage. Additionally, stakeholders from entities that serve as different message sources can determine how their organizations are doing as the spokespeople for the soil conservation practices being advocated.

Based on the agricultural data from 1990 to 2009 of Heilongjiang province, with Cobb-douglas production function, SPSS software using multiple regression equation for the establishment of agricultural investment main factors of influencing agricultural investment efficiency. Analysis showed that the biggest influence factors on agricultural investment efficiency are chemical fertilizer inputs, land sown area and labor. Meanwhile, analyzes the social benefit and ecological benefit of agricultural investment. At last, puts forward for improving agricultural investment benefit measures and suggestions, such as adjust the industrial structure, strengthen the government on rural infrastructure investment, strengthen the education and training of farmers.

This study aims to explore whether the dual-scale management model, formed by integrating service-scale management with land-scale management, can further break through the benefit limits of single land-scale management and unlock additional profit potential in agricultural scale operations. This study used data from a 2024 questionnaire survey of 2166 farming households in Anhui Province and employed a coupling coordination degree model to measure the level of dual-scale management. Subsequently, we utilized OLS regression and mediation effect models to empirically examine the impact of dual-scale management on agricultural operational benefit and their underlying mechanisms. We find that dual-scale management significantly improves agricultural operational benefit. Our measurements show that dual-scale management not only breaks through the upper limit of the optimal operating area inherent in single land-scale management but also yields a greater improvement in agricultural operational benefit than single land-scale management. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that dual-scale management significantly enhances the agricultural operational benefit of farmers in plain areas and farmers with fully developed high-standard farmland. Mechanism analysis indicates that dual-scale management enhances agricultural operational benefit through an endogenous efficiency improvement mechanism and an exogenous risk-burden-sharing mechanism. These findings suggest that fostering a synergistic development system for land-scale management and service-scale management is conducive to improving the economic returns for land scale operators and unlocking new dividend spaces for agricultural scale operation in China’s post-land transfer era.

The threats of climate change have compelled humans to consider the environmental impact of their decisions, including those relating to agricultural practices. Organic agriculture is believed to be a mitigating factor when it comes to climate change. This paper explores the perceptions of organic farmers regarding the benefits of organic agriculture, from a financial and non-financial perspective. It also highlights the trade-off between the perceived non-financial and financial benefits of organic agriculture. A convenience sample of 26 farmers was obtained. The utility of a convenience sample was necessary due to the unavailability of a complete database of organic farms in South Africa. Results indicated that the perceived non-financial benefits of organic agriculture were considered to be the most important consideration for the decision to farm organically. The results confirmed and augmented those found by other authors, namely that the environmental benefits of organic agriculture were considered to be very important to organic farmers.

The threats of climate change have compelled humans to consider the environmental impact of their decisions, including those relating to agricultural practices. Organic agriculture is believed to be a mitigating factor when it comes to climate change. This article explores the perceptions of organic farmers regarding the benefits of organic agriculture, from a financial and non-financial perspective. It also highlights the trade-off between the perceived non-financial and financial benefits of organic agriculture. A convenience sample of 26 farmers was obtained. The utility of a convenience sample was necessary due to the unavailability of a complete database of organic farms in South Africa. Results indicated that the perceived non-financial benefits of organic agriculture were considered to be the most important consideration for the decision to farm organically. The results confirmed and augmented those found by other authors, namely that the environmental benefits of organic agriculture were considered to be very important to organic farmers.

This study analyzes the factors affecting the perceptions of organic farmers in Kilis regarding the benefits of organic agriculture. For this reason, data was collected by conducting a face-to-face survey of 279 of 445 farmers in Kilis who produce organic olive oil. The multivariate PROBIT regression method was used for data analysis. According to the regression results, the increase in the age or experience of the farmer increases the probability of seeing the benefit of organic farming as preserving the organic components in the soil. On the other hand, women are more likely to see the conservation of organic components in the soil as a benefit of organic farming than men. As the income level increases, the cost emerges as a benefit of organic agriculture. Compared to women, men see the benefit of organic farming as reducing the cost of production. The effect of the independent variables used in the study on the dependent variable of producing highly competitive products is statistically insignificant. Farmers who make a living only from olive agriculture are more likely to see the environmentally friendly option as the benefit of organic agriculture, while the situation is the opposite for those who are members of the olive oil union. Compared to farmers with 10 years or less of experience, those with 21-25 and 26 or more years of experience are more likely to see health as the benefit of organic farming.

Global change impacts are likely to compromise agricultural benefits and the ecological status of rivers. The latter would be caused by modifications in fish population dynamics as fish species react in different ways against hydrological changes, and the establishment of alien and invasive fish species. To guarantee native fish sustainability, impact assessment studies should encompass habitat evaluations and competition assessment under future scenarios (i.e., including future hydrological scenarios and land use, and changes in agricultural demands). Moreover, their interplay with economic uses should also be considered, designing adaptation measures that take advantage of synergies and minimize trade-offs between them. Dam reoperation is a promising alternative to this end, given its direct and immediate impact on downstream streamflows and its absence of building costs. However, it requires consensus between water users, including native fish; thus, it should be carefully evaluated taking into account stakeholders’ views.This contribution presents a framework to develop dam reoperation strategies that simultaneously address global change impacts on agricultural benefits, native fish habitat and competition with invasive fish species in a water resource system. The developed methodological framework has been tested in the Serpis River Basin (Spain). The global change scenarios combined CMIP6 climate change projections with three land use scenarios: current crop surface and technology (reference), drip irrigation implementation and drip irrigation with changes in crop types and areas. Hydrological discharges associated with climate change scenarios were derived using the Témez conceptual hydrological model. Future crop water needs were estimated, for each climate scenario, using the AQUACROP model. The changes in the agricultural benefits related to these scenarios were obtained with a hydroeconomic model developed with the GAMS software. The effects in the availability of suitable habitat for native fish species (Eastern Iberian chub, Squalius valentinus and European eel, Anguilla anguilla) and its competition with invasive species (Bleak, Alburnus alburnus and Pumpkinseed, Lepomis gibbosus) were assessed by combining a 2D hydraulic model with the corresponding fuzzy logic-based habitat suitability models by species. The Pareto-optimal strategies for dam reoperation were obtained with the BORG-MOEA algorithm implemented using the Platypus Python library. The goals were the maximisation of the agricultural benefits and of native fish habitat, and the minimisation of the competition between the two groups of species.Our results suggest a trade-off between economic and ecological objectives and a positive relation between native fish habitat and native-invasive competition. They also indicate that economic and ecological sustainability could not be achieved by dam reoperation in the most pessimistic scenarios. However, dam reoperation shows a significant potential to contribute to climate change adaptation, entirely reverting its impacts in the most optimistic scenarios. It also shows synergies with land use scenarios, suggesting that dam reoperation could boost the positive impacts after the implementation of drip irrigation.Acknowledgements: This study has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the GoNEXUS project (grant agreement No 101003722); as well as from the SOS-WATER project, under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (GA No. 101059264).

A hydro-economic modelling framework for optimal management of groundwater nitrate pollution from agriculture

Herbicide-resistant transgenic crops — a benefit for agriculture

This article addresses the pressing issue of attracting Generation Z to the agriculture sector in the Czech Republic, a vital issue given its crucial role in ensuring food security and sustainability. During demographic changes and declining interest from younger generations to work in agriculture, it is essential to understand and meet the specific needs of this generation. This article examines the alignment between advertised employee benefits and the preferences of Generation Z, offers a new employee benefits categorization, and highlights possible interventions to increase the attractiveness of the agricultural sector in the labor market. Based on a literature review, quantitative content analysis of job advertisements, and a questionnaire survey, the research aims to evaluate the current offers of employee benefits in the agricultural sector in the Czech Republic in terms of their attractiveness and how they are perceived by Generation Z before then categorizing these employee benefits. The results show that benefits from the “Holiday and times off” category have the highest value for Generation Z and that, on the contrary, they value benefits from the “Benefits for work–life balance” category the least. A total of seven categories of employee benefits have been newly identified.

The collectivisation of producers, especially small and marginal farmers, into producer organisations has globally emerged as one of the most effective pathways to address various challenges in agriculture. Chinnakodur FPO was nurtured and handhold by ICAR-IIOR. Necessary capacity building was done and a pragmatic business plan was developed. The FPO has made a turnover of more than Rs.35 lakh during the first year and poised to develop into a self-sustainable corporate entity.