Food Security Assurance Research Articles

Assessing the Role of Agroforestry-Livelihood-Food Security Nexus in the Madhupur Sal Forest of Bangladesh

Agroforestry practices play an inevitable role in reinforcing the livelihood of millions of small-scale farmers while ensuring sustainable food security throughout the world. The significance of practicing various strategies of agroforestry models in densely populated countries like Bangladesh is highly recognized according to livelihood functionalities. To achieve the sustainable goals of the United Nations, identifying potential agroforestry practices along with their impacts towards socio-economic, and ecological demands is crucial. Socio-economic interactions are highly influenced by livelihood improvement and assurance of food security for the participants. Madhupur Sal forest is one of the major sources of diversified combination agroforestry systems practiced by the people around it. Age, education, annual income, and agroforestry knowledge had a significant relationship with the farmers' opinions on socio-economic development through agroforestry practices. Sustainable livelihood capitals (Human, Social, Physical, Financial, and Natural) were improved in each model we determined, and agroforestry multi-functionally increased food security ensuring 94% yearly food sufficiency, and 6% sufficiency for two-thirds of the year according to the response variables. This study depicted various prospects for livelihood enhancement and food security concerning diverse agroforestry models.

Integrating Genomics and Phenomics in Agricultural Breeding: A Comprehensive Review

One of the key roles of plant breeders is to improve crop productivity through development of varieties with desirable traits to feed the growing population. The merger of genomics and phenomics - where genomics refer to the study of an organism’s entire DNA sequence and phenomonics is the full explanation of observable characteristics has given a new face to breeding strategies. This paper provides information about this technique from beginning up to now, which implicates high-throughput phenotyping, genomic selection, artificial intelligence platform for crop improvement. It seems that coronal genomics and phenotypical imaging results in transgenic or super climate-resilient plants, therefore improving yield under sustainable conditions. Despite its bright future there are certain issues like data standardization, ethical concerns, and resource restraints that need considering. Development later on gets people thinking about technical fields such as inter-disciplinary researches as well as policy supports that have ability to bring these powerful technologies into assurance of food security together with sustainable agriculture initially collaboration doesn’t need manufacturing centres of technology including genome and phenome data can help breeders achieve wrists precisions in crops development which will result in having robust agricultural systems able to overcome environmental stressors.

Mosquitoes harvested from rice fields as alternative protein ingredient in broiler feed: insights from the first pilot study.

Global population continuous growth and increasing consumers' demands for protein-rich diets have posed sustainability challenges for traditional livestock feed sources. Consequently, exploring alternative and sustainable protein sources has become imperative to address the environmental burden and resource limitations associated with conventional ingredients. With respect to food security assurance, insects have emerged as a promising solution due to their exceptional nutritional profile, rapid reproduction rates, and low environmental impact. In the present pilot study, 10% of a soybean meal-based diet was replaced by adult mosquitoes harvested from rice fields. The objective was to assess the effect of this partial substitution on meat quality aspects and consumer acceptance. A total of 40 Cobb hybrid broiler chickens were randomly placed in a control and a mosquito-fed group. The study was conducted for 42 days and carcass physicochemical, nutritional, and microbiological characteristics, as well as sensory attributes were evaluated. Overall, results regarding quality attributes were comparable between the control and the treatment group. The organoleptic evaluation showed that the thighs from the mosquito-fed group had the highest overall consumer acceptance. These outcomes indicate that mosquitoes could be successfully used as a protein source for broiler feed without compromising the quality and acceptability of the meat.

Biochar induced trade-offs and synergies between ecosystem services and crop productivity

Biochar amendment offers a chance for sustainable agriculture. However, the effectiveness of biochar relies on its physical and chemical properties, which are heavily affected by biochar production conditions and management practices. Therefore, substantial uncertainties regarding the use of biochar exist in agricultural systems globally. This study provides the first quantitative evaluation of the impacts of biochar characteristics and management practices on key ecosystem services by performing a second-order meta-analysis based on 34,628 paired observations in biochar-amended and unamended systems. Overall, biochar enhances phytotoxicity alleviation, physiology regulation, soil remediation and carbon sequestration, and microbial functional gene abundance. However, some prominent trade-offs exist between crop productivity and ecosystem service deliveries including for nutrient cycling, microbial function, climate change mitigation, and the soil microbial community. The adoption of low C:N biochar produced at high pyrolysis temperatures from sewage sludge-derived feedstock, in combination with a moderate application rate and inorganic fertilizer input, shows potential for achieving synergistic promotion of crop productivity and ecosystem services. These outcomes highlight the need for judicious implementation of biochar-based solutions to site-specific soil constraints. The quantified synergy and tradeoff relationships will aid the establishment of a sustainable biochar development framework that strengthens necessary ecosystem services commensurate with food security assurance.

The In Vitro Antibacterial Activity of Argirium SUNc against Most Common Pathogenic and Spoilage Food Bacteria.

Foodborne diseases are one of the main issues for human health, and antibacterial packaging plays a major role in food security assurance. Silver ultra nanoparticles (Argirium SUNc) are antimicrobial agents that have a wide spectrum of action, including against pathogenic bacteria and spoilage fungi. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antibacterial activity of Argirium SUNc on the bacteria most commonly found in food: Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, and Salmonella typhimurium. In this regard, an in vitro study was carried out by assessing the Argirium SUNc effectiveness on different concentrations of each tested microbial strain and at different time intervals. The data showed that the antimicrobial activity of Argirium SUNc was directly related to the microbial concentration and varied depending on the microbial species. Moreover, a greater effectiveness against Gram-negative bacteria than Gram-positive bacteria was observed. These preliminary results provided important information on the silver nanoparticles spectrum of action, and this is an aspect that appears particularly promising for obtaining a viable alternative to traditional antimicrobials to be used against the pathogens and spoilage agents most commonly found in the food chain, harmful both to health and quality aspects.

Features of ensuring food security in the arctic territories of North America

In recent decades, the Arctic region has become an important geopolitical object, leading to an increase in research on various areas of state activity in this region. This article summarizes the features of the functioning of food systems and the assurance of food security for the population of the Arctic territories in North American countries. It concludes that there is a need to improve data collection and monitoring of factors that ensure the food security of the Arctic territories at the macro-regional level.

Insights into the Fungicide Prothioconazole and Its Metabolite in Wheat: Residue Behavior and Risk Assessment

To clarify the residue formation of prothioconazole and its main metabolite in wheat plants, the uptake, translocation, and metabolism of prothioconazole in wheat roots and leaves were investigated by nutrient solution culture and the spraying method. The results showed that prothioconazole and its metabolites showed a trend of increasing and then decreasing in wheat plants under two treatment methods, and the concentration of prothioconazole and its metabolites was higher in the high-concentration group (5000 μg/mL) than in the low-concentration group (1000 μg/mL). The transferability from stem to leaf was stronger than that from root to stem. In the nutrient solution culture, prothioconazole and its metabolites were mainly enriched in wheat roots. The concentration of prothioconazole in wheat roots increases with the increase in prothioconazole concentration and was significantly higher than the prothioconazole concentration on stems and leaves. In wheat leaves in the spraying method, prothioconazole and its metabolites were conducted from leaves to stems and roots up to the nutrient solution. Prothioconazole-desthio was detectable in wheat nutrient solution, while prothioconazole was not detected. Analysis of actual samples of 9 wheat grains and 28 flours showed that the residues of prothioconazole and its metabolites met the maximum residue limit (0.1 mg/mL) set in China and by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. The results will provide a theoretical basis for the scientific use of prothioconazole and food security assurance.

Attention Mechanism-Combined LSTM for Grain Yield Prediction in China Using Multi-Source Satellite Imagery

Grain yield prediction affects policy making in various aspects such as agricultural production planning, food security assurance, and adjustment of foreign trade. Accurately predicting grain yield is of great significance in ensuring global food security. This paper is based on the MODIS remote sensing image data products from 2010 to 2020, and adds band information such as vegetation index and temperature to form composite remote sensing data as a dataset. Aiming at the lack of models for large-scale forecasting and the need for human intervention in traditional models, this paper proposes a grain production estimation model based on deep learning. First, image cropping and yield mapping techniques are used to process the data to generate training samples. Then the channel and spatial attention mechanism (convolutional block attention module, CBAM) is added to extract spatial information in different remote sensing bands to improve the efficiency of the model. Long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks are added to obtain feature information in the time dimension. Finally, a national-scale grain yield prediction model is constructed. After the study, it was found that the LSTM model using a combination of multi-source satellite images and an attention mechanism can effectively predict grain yield in China. Furthermore, the proposed model was tested on data from 2018 to 2020 showing an average R2 of 0.940 and an average RMSE of 80,020 tons, indicating that it can predict Chinese grain yield better. The model proposed in this paper extracts grain yield information directly from the composite remote sensing data, and solves the problem of small-scale research and imprecise yield prediction in an end-to-end manner.

Adoption of Smart Farming Technology Among Rice Farmers

Application of smart farming technology in rice farming activity is relevant in facing the challenges in achieving food security and improving the wellbeing of farmers. In Malaysia, food security is synonymous with the adequacy of rice domestic supply for the Malaysian population. Therefore, to achieve the target set in Sustainable Development Goal 2 which is to achieve zero hunger, the rice sector needs to be more competitive by encouraging farmers to utilize modern technology. Smart farming is an emerging concept of farm management that combines information and communication technologies into modern machinery like IoT, drones, and Artificial Intelligence to increase the value of agricultural products as well as reduce the cost of production while improving the well-being of farmers through income increment. Therefore, this study is conducted to explore the adoption of smart farming among paddy farmers in one of the country’s granary areas which is in Barat Laut Selangor under the administration of the Integrated Agriculture Development Area. This study will employ qualitative methods and interviews will be conducted. This study is urgently needed due to the twofold agenda: Malaysia is moving towards a high-income country and the importance for food security assurance has been acknowledged.

Comparative Analysis of the Degree of Food Security Assurance at Global Level

Comparative Analysis of the Degree of Food Security Assurance at Global Level

Delineating Groundwater Potential Zones in Hyper-Arid Regions Using the Applications of Remote Sensing and GIS Modeling in the Eastern Desert, Egypt

The increasing demand for freshwater supplies and the effects of climate change in arid and hyper-arid regions are pushing governments to explore new water resources for food security assurance. Groundwater is one of the most valuable water resources in these regions, which are facing water scarcity due to climatic conditions and limited rainfall. In this manuscript, we provide an integrated approach of remote sensing, geographic information systems, and analytical hierarchical process (AHP) to identify the groundwater potential zone in the central Eastern Desert, Egypt. A knowledge-driven GIS-technique-based method for distinguishing groundwater potential zones used multi-criteria decision analysis and AHP. Ten factors influencing groundwater were considered in this study, including elevation, slope steepness, rainfall, drainage density, lineament density, the distance from major fractures, land use/land cover, lithology, soil type, and the distance from the channel network. Three classes of groundwater prospective zones were identified, namely good potential (3.5%), moderate potential (7.8%), and poor potential (88.6%) zones. Well data from the study area were used to cross-validate the results with 82.5% accuracy. During the last 8 years, the static water level of the Quaternary alluvium aquifer greatly decreased (14 m) due to excessive over pumping in the El-Dir area, with no recorded recharges reaching this site. Since 1997, there has been a noticeable decline in major rainfall storms as a result of climate change. The current study introduces a cost-effective multidisciplinary approach to exploring groundwater resources, especially in arid environments. Moreover, a significant modern recharge for shallow groundwater aquifers is taking place, even in hyper-arid conditions.

Composite materials for innovative urban farming of alternative food sources (macroalgae and crickets)

Facing an inexorable growth of the human population along with substantial environmental changes, the assurance of food security is a major challenge of the present century. To ensure responsible food consumption and production (SDG 12), new approaches in the food system are required. Thus, environmentally controlled, sustainable production of alternative food sources are of key interest for both urban agriculture and food research. To face the current challenge of integrating food production systems within existing structures, multidisciplinary discourses are required. Here, we bring together novel technologies and indoor farming techniques with the aim of supporting the development of sustainable food production systems. For this purpose, we investigated the feasibility of 10 composite materials for their innovative use as structural support in macroalgal cultivation (settlement substrates) and cricket rearing (housing). Considering material resistance, rigidity, and direct material-organism interactions, the bio-based composite polylactic acid (PLA) was identified as a suitable material for joint farming. For macroalgae cultivation, PLA sustained the corrosive cultivation conditions and provided a suitable substrate without affecting the macroalgal physiology or nutritional composition (carotenoids and chlorophylls). For cricket rearing, PLA provided a suitable and recyclable shelter, which was quickly accepted by the animals without any observed harm. In contrast, other common composite components like phenolic resin or aramid were found to be unsuitable due to being harmful for the cultivated organisms or instable toward the applied sterilization procedure. This multidisciplinary study not only provides profound insights in the developing field of urban indoor food production from a new perspective, but also bridges material science and farming approaches to develop new sustainable and resilient food production systems.

Climate change, dietary shift, and traditional norms in the western Himalayan region, India

ABSTRACT Climate change is the new normal of modern times, complicating the assurance of food security to the vulnerable peoples, especially the local communities with deep-rooted customary beliefs associated with the dietary habits of the Himalayan region. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the climate-induced impacts on traditional communities is not yet fully understood for evidence-based policy formation. Hence, this study aims (i) to analyze the perception of local people towards climate change, (ii) to investigate the perception of local communities toward traditional dietary habits, and (iii) to explore the changes observed in socio-cultural beliefs system due to dietary shift. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 75 in-depth qualitative interviews. The results of the grounded theory approach show that climate change has a localized meaning. Further, environmental change has significantly affected local food choices, which have an implication on the customary belief system attached to the local communities, irrespective of the socio-demography of the communities. The current study concludes that traditional knowledge is significant in addressing the issue of climate change. Therefore, the local society’s socio-ecological beliefs must be integrated for effective food security and climate change adaptation strategies.

Assurance of food security on the market of poultry meat and meat products

Assurance of food security on the market of poultry meat and meat products

Development of an Integrated Model to Assess the Impact of Agricultural Practices and Land Use on Agricultural Production in Morocco under Climate Stress over the Next Twenty Years

Climate change is one of the major risks facing developing countries in Africa for which agriculture is a predominant part in the economy. Alterations in rainfall patterns and increasing temperatures projected by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) could lead to a decline in agricultural production in many areas requiring significant changes in agricultural practices and land distribution. The study provided estimates of the economic impacts of climate change, compared these with historical impacts of drought spells, and estimated the extent to which the current Moroccan agricultural development and investment strategy, the Plan Maroc Vert, helps in agricultural adaptation to climate change and uncertainty. The aim of this study was to quantify the effects of climate change on the overall economy by using an integrated framework incorporating a computable general equilibrium model. A concomitant factor to climate change will be the increase in population and its distribution and level of consumption, which will also influence agricultural production strategies, the conversion of agricultural land, the type of irrigation, and technological development. We demonstrated how changes in cereal production and area, affluence, and climate (rainfall and temperature) can be acquired for 12 regions of Morocco and used to develop and validate an earth system model in relation to the environment and socio-economic level, which projects their impact on current and potential land use over the next 20 years. We used different mathematical equations based on cereal area and production, population, consumption (kg/person), and change in climate (temperature and rainfall) in bour and irrigated areas for the growing season of 2014 in 12 regions to project agricultural land use over the next 20 years. Therefore, several possible scenarios were investigated to explore how variations in climate change, socio-economic level, and technological development will affect the future of agricultural land use over the next 20 years, which in turn could have important implications for human well-being. Among the 12 Moroccan regions, only 4 had a surplus of cereal production compared to their local consumption. The increase in population will generate a cereal deficit in 2024 and 2034, thus lowering the average annual quantity available per capita of cereals from 204.75 to 160.61 kg/p in 2014 and 2034, respectively. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the amount of cereals per person by 5 kg/p and 25 kg/p so that the 2014 production could satisfy the population projected in 2024 and 2034. We found that cereal production will decrease with increasing temperature and decreasing precipitation according to the simulated scenarios, which might not satisfy the growing population in 2024 and 2034. This study provides a practical tool that can be used to provide policy makers with advice on food security assurance policy based on our current knowledge of the impending onset of climate change, including socio-economic statistics and the agricultural constraints of cereals in the 12 regions of Morocco.

INTEGRATED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT IN MAIZE PRODUCTION – A REVIEW

Maize is one of the main staple crops of Nepalese diet grown throughout the country during summer season as single crop or relayed with millet. This short review article analyses the previous works & studies on impact of INM in maize production. Long-time research which was conducted in different areas has shown that in addition to natural resources deterioration, abiotic-biotic stress, deficiency of several macro & micro nutrients is also an essential factor which influences yield reduction, productivity declination, and shrinkage in net profit. Therefore, Integrated use of chemical and organic fertilizer on yield and yield attributes component of maize is very crucial for assurance of food security & food self-sufficiency. Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) aims at adjustment of soil fertility and plant nutrient supply to an optimum level for sustaining the desired crop productivity through optimization of benefit from all possible sources of plant nutrients. The integrated use of major plant nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potash) along with different organic carbon sources (animal manures and plant residues) together with bio-fertilizers (beneficial microbes) significantly improves maize growth, yield and yield components together with grower’s income.

The respective roles of modern and paleo recharge to alluvium aquifers in continental rift basins: A case study from El Qaa plain, Sinai, Egypt

Even though assessment of aquifer characterization and recharge mechanisms in rift-related basins, especially in arid environments, is essential for developing sustainable management strategies and food security assurance, a little attention has been paid to understand these parameters. In this manuscript, we utilize an integrated remote sensing, hydrological and isotopic approach together with previously published data to better understand the aquifer characteristics and the respective roles of modern and paleo recharge to the post-Miocene alluvium aquifer in El Qaa plain, which represents the eastern margin of the Gulf of Suez continental rift basin. Our findings indicate that: (1) the alluvium aquifer is largely formed of sand and gravels intercalated with silt and clay lenses and exceeds 500 m thick, (2) the groundwater salinity gradually increases towards the Gulf of Suez (from 402 to 5613 mg/l) with increasing the distance from the crystalline rocks bounding the alluvium-dominated plain, (3) isotopic analysis reveals that all of the groundwater samples show mixed isotopic signature between modern and paleo waters (δ18O: −6.79 to −4.433‰, and δ2H: −46.36 to −21.99‰). Basin-scale hydrological parameters show that the aquifer receives an annual modern recharge of 39 × 106 m3 and isotopic mass balance calculations indicate that the modern water ranges between 20 and 70% of the total volume of water in the aquifer. We suggest three dam locations along the southernmost basins in El Qaa plain to enhance the modern recharge to the aquifer and to harvest surface runoff of an annual volume of 737 × 103 m3 sufficient to supply freshwater to 13 thousands of the residents of south Sinai. The present study suggests that topographically-driven modern recharge to rift-related basins is taking place with significant amounts even under hyper-arid conditions and calls for paying special attention to investigate the response of these aquifers to climate variability.

Crop Classification Based on Temporal Signatures of Sentinel-1 Observations over Navarre Province, Spain

Crop classification provides relevant information for crop management, food security assurance and agricultural policy design. The availability of Sentinel-1 image time series, with a very short revisit time and high spatial resolution, has great potential for crop classification in regions with pervasive cloud cover. Dense image time series enable the implementation of supervised crop classification schemes based on the comparison of the time series of the element to classify with the temporal signatures of the considered crops. The main objective of this study is to investigate the performance of a supervised crop classification approach based on crop temporal signatures obtained from Sentinel-1 time series in a challenging case study with a large number of crops and a high heterogeneity in terms of agro-climatic conditions and field sizes. The case study considered a large dataset on the Spanish province of Navarre in the framework of the verification of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies. Navarre presents a large agro-climatic diversity with persistent cloud cover areas, and therefore, the technique was implemented both at the provincial and regional scale. In total, 14 crop classes were considered, including different winter crops, summer crops, permanent crops and fallow. Classification results varied depending on the set of input features considered, obtaining Overall Accuracies higher than 70% when the three (VH, VV and VH/VV) channels were used as the input. Crops exhibiting singularities in their temporal signatures were more easily identified, with barley, rice, corn and wheat achieving F1-scores above 75%. The size of fields severely affected classification performance, with ~14% better classification performance for larger fields (>1 ha) in comparison to smaller fields (<0.5 ha). Results improved when agro-climatic diversity was taken into account through regional stratification. It was observed that regions with a higher diversity of crop types, management techniques and a larger proportion of fallow fields obtained lower accuracies. The approach is simple and can be easily implemented operationally to aid CAP inspection procedures or for other purposes.

COVID-19 Risks to Malaysian Food Security Assurance

COVID-19 Risks to Malaysian Food Security Assurance

Survivability of Probiotic Bacteria in Model Systems of Non-Fermented and Fermented Coconut and Hemp Milks

This study aimed at determining the survivability of probiotic bacteria cultures in model non-dairy beverages subjected or not to the fermentation and storage processes, representing milk substitutes. The experimental material included milks produced from desiccated coconut and non-dehulled seeds of hemp (Cannabis sativa L.). The plant milks were subjected to chemical and microbiological evaluation immediately after preparation as well as on day 7, 14, and 21 of their cold storage. Study results proved that the produced and modified plant non-dairy beverages could be the matrix for probiotic bacteria. The fermentation process contributed to increased survivability of Lactobacillus casei subsp. rhamnosus in both coconut and hemp milk. During 21-day storage of inoculated milk substitutes, the best survivability of Lactobacillus casei was determined in the fermented coconut milk. On day 21 of cold storage, the number of viable Lactobacillus casei cells in the fermented coconut and hemp milks ensured meeting the therapeutic criterion. Due to their nutritional composition and cell count of bacteria having a beneficial effect on the human body, the analyzed groceries—offering an alternative to milk—represent a category of novel food products and their manufacture will contribute to the sustainable development of food production and to food security assurance.