Food Crop Production Research Articles

Buckwheat Production and Value-Added Processing: A Review of Potential Western Washington Cropping and Food System Applications

Increasing cropping system diversity can promote agricultural sustainability; however, identifying suitable alternative crops for regional growing conditions, supply chains, and markets is challenging. This review considers the potential for buckwheat production and consumption in western Washington (WWA). Buckwheat production is modest in WWA but is promising as a weed suppressive summer crop in organic systems and a short-season alternative to cereal grains. Key challenges for production in the region include flood sensitivity and sensitivity to heat at seed set, which should be breeding targets in WWA. Other production challenges include access to suitable production, storage, and transportation equipment. Regarding end-use qualities, buckwheat is composed of ash (1.1–3.1%), moisture (7.6–11.7%), crude fat (0.9–5.4%), crude fiber (0.8–10.6%), protein (6.8–17.9%), and starch (65.6–76.8%). Information about buckwheat fraction (starch and protein) functionality is limited. Buckwheat has been tested in an array of products, including pasta, noodles, cakes, cookies, bread, and beer. To enhance the quality of buckwheat food products, various enzymes and activation ingredients including transglutaminase, xanthan gum, and calcium hydroxide have been explored. Simultaneously addressing these research gaps for food products and crop production systems will be critical to successfully investing in and developing a regional supply chain in WWA.

Improved crop productivity and soil properties under varying planting densities of Pentaclethra macrophylla Benth. and Acacia auriculiformis A. Cunn. in Congo Basin

Soil fertility depletion is a major constraint to agricultural production in the Congo Basin and is aggravated by climate change. Therefore, agroforestry systems (AFS) are used to improve soil fertility and crop productivity. Indeed, Pentaclethra macrophylla and Acacia auriculiformis are among the most agroforestry species used in this basin. However, smallholders are limited in their choice of agroforestry species and the spacing. Hence, this study comparatively evaluated the effects of P. macrophylla (native) and A. auriculiformis (exotic) legume tree species on soil macronutrients and food crops’ yield during four cropping seasons. To do this, a multifactor trial design was implemented in Lobilo catchment, Congo Basin, with two tree species, four tree planting densities (T1: 2500 trees × ha−1, T2: 625 trees × ha−1, T3: 278 trees × ha−1; and T0: crop monoculture), and three intercrops (cassava, maize, and peanut). The results revealed that both agroforestry species did not significantly differ regarding their impact on soil macronutrients. The total nitrogen and the pH in soil have increased with the cropping seasons. With regard to the food crops, cassava and maize yield were greater under P. macrophylla than under A. auriculiformis. However, the 2500 trees × ha−1 density negatively affected food crops’ yield and did not allow food crop production after the second cropping season. To maximize the positive effects of these AFS, it is essential to plant or co-plant these two agroforestry species at 625 trees × ha−1 density. Future research could investigate other native species and include water and light interactions.

Penentuan Order Quantity Bahan Baku Pupuk Bersubsidi Jenis Npk Menggunakan Metode EOQ Di Pt. XYZ

Fertilizer has an important role in supporting the productivity of food crops. The Indonesian government provides subsidized fertilizers in an effort to support the fulfillment of national food needs. The number of subsidized fertilizer needs targeted by the government increases every year. Therefore, appropriate inventory planning is needed to realize the subsidized fertilizer production target that has been set by the government. The type of NPK fertilizer is one of the concerns because this type of subsidized fertilizer has a high demand rate, but its production figure is still far from the realization target. So that in this study the author aims to conduct a comparative analysis of inventory with the policies set by the company, namely Minimum-maximum with the Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) method. The EOQ method considers several costs, such as holding costs, raw material prices, and ordering costs. There are several outputs produced by the authors in this study, such as the frequency of orders, safety stock, reorder points, and total inventory costs. With this policy, the total cost of raw material inventory that must be spent for the manufacture of NPK fertilizer is Rp 4,257,606,170. And by using the EOQ method, it can save the company's total inventory cost of Rp. 121,368,688 or 2.77%.

Agroclimate zone analysis for the suitability of rice plantation in Donggala District

As one of the supporting districts for regional food security, the productivity of food crops in Donggala Regency needs to be continuously improved. Climate type information is closely related to business development in agriculture, especially rice plants. This study aims to determine the type and distribution of agro-climatic zones for rice land suitability in Donggala Regency. This study uses the climate classification method according to Oldeman by calculating the number of wet months and dry months for one year which is then mapped using the Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) method. The data used in this study are rainfall data for 10 years (2011-2020) from 15 points of BMKG rain observation posts as well as the Planting Calendar for rice plants from the Ministry of Agriculture. The results showed that Donggala Regency has 3 Oldeman climate types, namely type A in Rio Pakava District with the suitability of continuous rice cultivation but low production, B in Banawa Selatan and Sojol Districts with the suitability of continuous rice planting with high production when harvested during drought season. Type E in the Districts of Central Banawa, Banawa, Tanantovea, Labuan, Sindue, Sindue Tobata, Sindue Tombusabora, Balaesang, Balaesang Tanjung, North Sojol and Dampelas which is too dry, so that only one planting period of crops is possible. In areas with climate type E it is recommended to optimize irrigation to meet the water needs of rice plants. The agro-climate zone map made using the IDW interpolation method can describe the distribution of climate types as a whole, especially in areas where there are no rain gauge posts such as in Pinembani District.

Farm Sustainability Assessment and Model: Achieving Food Security through the Food Estate Program in North Sumatra

Improving food crop production is critical for achieving food security. The Food Estate (FE) program initiated by the government seeks to accomplish this through extensive and intensive farming practices while taking sustainability into consideration. In this paper, a multidimensional scaling (MDS) approach to determine the status and model of agricultural sustainability of the FE program was adopted. Three scenarios were developed to improve the sustainability status based on primary data from interviews with 50 farmers in Ria-Ria Village, Pollung District, North Sumatra. The findings indicate that the farming status is at a moderate sustainability, and improving all aspects can significantly increase the sustainability value. The study suggests that the government should prioritize the improvement of all aspects to raise the sustainability status of FE farming in order to achieve food security.

Trend assessment of changing climate patterns over the major agro-climatic zones of Sindh and Punjab

The agriculture sector, due to its significant dependence on climate patterns and water availability, is highly vulnerable to changing climate patterns. Pakistan is an agrarian economy with 30% of its land area under cultivation and 93% of its water resources being utilized for agricultural production. Therefore, the changing climate patterns may adversely affect the agriculture and water resources of the country. This study was conducted to assess the climate variations over the major agro-climatic zones of Sindh and Punjab, which serve as an important hub for the production of major food and cash crops in Pakistan. For this purpose, the climate data of 21 stations were analyzed using the Mann–Kendall test and Sen's slope estimator method for the period 1990–2022. The results obtained from the analysis revealed that, in Sindh, the mean annual temperature rose by ~0.1 to 1.4°C, with ~0.1 to 1.2°C in cotton-wheat Sindh and 0.8 to 1.4°C in rice-other Sindh during the study period. Similarly, in Punjab, the mean annual temperature increased by ~0.1 to 1.0°C, with 0.6 to 0.9°C in cotton-wheat Punjab and 0.2 to 0.6°C in rainfed Punjab. Seasonally, warming was found to be highest during the spring season. The precipitation analysis showed a rising annual precipitation trend in Sindh (+30 to +60 mm) and Punjab (+100 to 300 mm), while the monsoon precipitation increased by ~50 to 200 mm. For winter precipitation, an upward trend was found in mixed Punjab, while the remaining stations showed a declining pattern. Conclusively, the warming temperatures as found in the analysis may result in increased irrigation requirements, soil moisture desiccation, and wilting of crops, ultimately leading to low crop yield and threatening the livelihoods of local farmers. On the other hand, the increasing precipitation may favor national agriculture in terms of less freshwater withdrawals. However, it may also result in increased rainfall-induced floods inundating the crop fields and causing water logging and soil salinization. The study outcomes comprehensively highlighted the prevailing climate trends over the important agro-climatic zones of Pakistan, which may aid in devising an effective climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy to ensure the state of water and food security in the country.

Sugarcane Plantations and the Alienation of Land from Smallholder Farmers through Out-grower Schemes in Busoga Sub-Region in Eastern Uganda

Despite wide research on land grabbing in Africa, much of the existing literature restricts the practice mainly to a situation where land is leased or sold to outside investors for the production of food and biofuel for export to the western world. This paper extends the debate further by examining how local sugarcane companies and individuals in Busoga Region in Eastern Uganda force smallholder farmers to surrender their land willingly through the out-grower schemes based on contract farming or private sugarcane production. Using a qualitative methodology that relied mainly on interviews of key informants and documentary reviews, the paper analyses the nature of the contemporary land alienations through contract farming between plantation agriculturalists and smallholder farmers, and how it has affected the livelihood of the peasants in the Busoga region especially when it comes to the production of sugarcane for sale at the expense of food for local consumption. The findings show that in the areas where sugarcane production through the out-grower schemes is the dominant economic activity, land alienation for sugarcane growing is rampant as the sugar companies and the agro-business farmers lure local peasants who mainly own land on customary tenure to grow sugarcane at the expense of producing food crops. The paper concludes that this is a new form of land grabbing in Uganda.

Influence of Dykes’ Characteristics on Food Crop Production in Lower River Nyando Basin, Kenya

Dykes minimise flood risks among riparian communities. In Nyando basin, Kenya, dykes were constructed to minimise flood impacts on human activities in the riparian plains. The dyke characteristics could change the rate of silting. In spite of these dynamics, some farmers now use fertilisers as a new way of coping with nutrient deficiency. Several researches have been done in Kenya on the effects of floods on human activities; however, there is no clear link between dyke characteristics like period of existence, length and height and their influence on food crop production. The dykes in Nyando have reduced floods in the region; however, it is not clearly understood how the dyke characteristics influence the food crop. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the influence of dyke characteristics on food crop production. Planning Theory was used. Descriptive cross-sectional research design applied. The target population stood at 34,460 households. At least 384 Household heads were recruited via simple random sampling and a questionnaire administered, while purposive sampling was useful in identifying relevant experts in the field of study. Primary data was obtained by interviewing key informants and focused group discussions. Other tools include observation and photography. Secondary data was obtained from publications and print media, and SPSS was utilised in data analysis. Qualitative data was analysed by coding and organisation of data into themes and sub-themes where generalisation was made. The results from the multiple coefficients of determination (R2) indicated that 45.4% (R2 = .454, p = .039) of the variation in the general crop yield was explainable by the combined change in Dyke Characteristics. The dykes’ characteristics significantly influenced crop production

The modelling of tomato crop response to the climate change with different irrigation schemes

The inequality between available water supplies and growing water demand from diverse sectors, as well as the predicted climate changes are putting significant pressures on Egypt’s food security. There is a nation-wide demand for new scientifically proven on-farm practices to boost water productivity of major food crops. The objective of this study was to explore the use of various deficit irrigation schemes to improve water productivity ( WP) of tomato cultivated in Egypt under distinct climate change scenarios, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, in three time-steps of the reference period (2006– 2016), 2030s, and 2050s. The AquaCrop model was used to simulate the influence of climate change on the tomato crop, as well as two deficit irrigation application schemes for the full growing season and the regulated application for the initial and maturity crop stages. With the same irrigation method, the predicted WP increased in a general pattern across all climate change scenarios. The combination of irrigation schedule with the 80% deficit irrigation can enhance WP near the optimum level (approximately 2.2 kg∙m–3), especially during early and mature stages of the crop, saving up to 16% of water. The results showed that the expected temperature rise by 2050s would reduce the crop growth cycle by 3– 11 days for all irrigation treatments, resulting in a 1–6% decrease in crop evapotranspiration ( ETc) and affecting the dry tomato yield with different patterns of increase and decrease due to climate change.

State of climate smart agriculture (CSA) practices in the North Central and Northwest zones Nigeria

Agriculture is exposed to climate change. This is particularly the case for developing countries like Nigeria, which suffer from persistent food insecurity today while also facing substantial population growth and a high exposure to the adverse consequences of global warming. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices seek to mitigate agriculture’s contribution to climate change while building resilience and adaptation to the impacts of climate change and increasing the production of food crops. CSA is an approach to identify production systems that can best respond to the impacts of climate change and to adjust these systems to suit local conditions. In this study, we use descriptive statistics to characterize socio-economic characteristics of smallholder farmers in four states in Nigeria and identify the major needs, practices and constrains to CSA. Our results reveal that the mean farmer is an adult (40 years) male that has 10 members in their household and 12 years of farming experience, cultivating an area of 3 ha. The majority (87.2%) of farmers has adopted at least one climate resilient trait in crops. Farmers greatest needs on climate smart adaptation, mitigation and profitability were solutions to reduce in-season crop loss (56%), increase water use efficiency (42%) and increase productivity (54%), respectively. Our study intends to provide to a better understanding of the needs and motivations of local farming communities and a better understanding of their motivation to engage in CSA to develop and deploy more tailored initiatives for improving the resilience and productivity of smallholder farming systems.

A Machine Learning-Based Approach for Crop Price Prediction

Agriculture is associated with the production of essential food crops for decades and is the one which is playing an important role in the economy of a country as well as in life of an individual. Due to various uncertain variations in the climatic conditions such as rain and other affecting factors, crop prices vary in an unusual pattern. This variation of prices without the knowledge of the farmer may lead to losses in the economy of the individual who is involved in agriculture. In this paper, we have discussed a well-designed system which accurately predicts the crop prices of future months. We have used a Supervised Machine Learning algorithm that is Decision Tree Regression technique for the design of the prediction model as the data is of continuous form. The parameters, which are considered in the dataset, include crop name, month, year, rainfall and wholesale price index (WPI). We have considered the data of 22 crops in total with 4 parameters. We have developed a user-friendly user interface consisting of 22 crop profiles with the predicted prices. Our results show that the regression model achieved an accuracy of 97.32% which will help the farmer on decision of future crop selection for the growth and also hyperinflation can be avoided.

Impact of varied NPK fertilizer application rates and seed quantities on barley yield and soil nutrient availability in chestnut soil of Azerbaijan

In the Gobustan district of Azerbaijan, the cultivation of barley is influenced by a complex interplay of soil properties, climate change effects, and agricultural practices. This study explores the impact of varying NPK fertilizer application rates and seed quantities, under natural climatic conditions, on barley yield and soil nutrient availability within Chestnut soils. The district's unique Chestnut soils, combined with evolving precipitation patterns due to climate change and the role of agricultural irrigation, create intricate challenges for successful barley farming. The experiment, conducted from 2016 to 2019, utilized a randomized complete block design with four replications to investigate the "Celilabad-19" barley variety. The results reveal a significant positive correlation between nitrogen application and grain yield. Notably, treatment 140-N60P45K45 (140 kg seed rate, 60 kg N/ha, 45 kg P/ha and 45 kg K/ha) demonstrated the highest average grain yield of 5.14 t/ha. The years 2017-2018 exhibited higher yields, possibly due to favorable climate conditions. Soil analyses indicated that higher NPK application rates led to elevated soil nutrient levels. However, nutrient content declined as plants progressed through growth stages, emphasizing the dynamic nutrient exchange between plants and soil. This study underscores the importance of adaptive agricultural strategies that consider climate variability and changing environmental conditions. The findings offer insights into sustainable cultivation practices essential for food security and crop production in the evolving climate of the Gobustan district.

How cereal yield is influenced by eco-environmental factors? ARDL and spectral causality analysis for Turkey

Food crop production and energy consumption scenarios through environmental factors are a critical concern for humanity. To this end, this study focuses on cereal yield in Turkey influenced by climate change, energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and eco-environmental factors. The objective is finding evidence for an influence level of cereal yield through its determiners, which has not been effectively discussed in literature yet. To fill the gap, a time-series autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) analysis and spectral causality relationships are conducted in the short-run, medium-run, and long-run. Data is collected annually by various institutions, from 1960 to 2019. The ARDL findings reveal that there is a cointegration between the variables and a long-run correlation between cereal yield and eco-environmental variables. While, energy consumption positively affects cereal yield, climate change has varying effects, and CO2 emissions negatively affect it. This study shows that environmental and economic factors in Turkey are critical for cereal yield. The Turkish government should encourage agriculture incentives for productive cereal supply. Increasing renewable energy consumption can be a powerful strategy in Turkey not only for increasing cereal yield but also for the negative influences of climate change. Therefore, the used economic model can serve an example for any countries.

Optimizing the use of submergence and drought tolerant rice varieties to reduce the impact of climate change on swampland

The swamplands are one among the possibe suboptimal land for agriculture. The land consists of tidal swamplands and freshwater land that are wide obstainable in Indonesia. The hydrotopography of tidal swampland is powerfully influenced by tide and neap tide of water, whereas in freshwater land it’s for the most part determined by precipitation. Drought, flooding or deep inundation, and shifts in rainfall patterns as a result of extreme temperature change have an impact on agriculture in decreasing food crop production, significantly for rice in swamplands. One strategy in anticipating the impact of climate change in agriculture, particularly food crops (rice) is to use submergence and drought tolerant varieties still as early maturing rice varieties. Rice varieties tolerant of submergence in swamplands like Inpara 3, Inpara 4, Inpara 5, Inpari 29, and Inpari 30 Ciherang sub1. Whereas drought tolerant varieties such as Inpari 18, Inpari 19, Inpari 20, Inpago 4, Inpago 5, Inpago 6, Inpago-8, and Inpago Lipigo-4. In addition to avoiding drought, early-maturing aged rice varieties such as Hipa 6 Jete, Inpari Si Denuk are often used, Inpari-34 Salin Agritan, Cakra Buana Agritan, Inpari 12 and Inpari 13. The purpose of this paper is to explain how planting submergence and drought-tolerant rice varieties can reduce the effects of climate change on swamp agriculture. It is expected to significantly reduce the effects of climate change for agriculture in swamplands by treating submergence and drought tolerance and early maturing varieties.

EVALUASI KEBERMANFAATAN KEBIJAKAN PEMBANGUNAN INFRASTRUKTUR JALAN TOL TRANS JAWA (CIPALI) BERDASARKAN TINJAUAN ASPEK EKONOMI DAN LINGKUNGAN

National development aims to improve people's welfare and encourage economic growth. Cipali toll road has become one of Java's main distribution routes for goods and public transportation. This policy paper proposes to provide an overview of the impact and benefits of the construction of the Cikopo-Palimanan toll road on economic and environmental aspects and to develop policy recommendations to overcome the issues/problems faced. The analysis approach carried out in this research is first, Statistical Trend Analysis and Spatial Trend Analysis of land use via the Google Earth platform with the hotspot analysis method. The results show that the Cipali Toll Road constructions can improve the economy of areas affected by development at a macro level with an average LPE above 5%. However, there were changes in land use in the period 2010-2022, which resulted in the area of rice fields decreasing from 1,001 hectares to 999 hectares. One of the expected policy recommendations is the synchronization of toll road construction policies with policies to increase national food crop production, through the development of toll road alternatives.

Ammonia mitigation measures reduce greenhouse gas emissions from an integrated manure-cropland system

Increasing use of manure nutrients in crop production and decreasing the input of chemical fertilizers, is a promising way to achieve a more circular economy and more sustainable food systems. The integrated effects of amended composting manure with additives and a 50% substitution of chemical fertilizer nitrogen (N) input by amended manure N input to cropland were proved to halve ammonia (NH3) emissions from an integrate manure-cropland system. However, the accompanied impacts of these measures on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the integrate manure-cropland system have not been well quantified. Here, we examined the effects of improved manure storage and treatment and its usage at field on GHG emissions from a system perspective, based on a two-year experiment in the North China Plain (NCP). Manure storage and treatment included natural storage (NS) and composting with straw, with or without amendment by zeolite (Z) and superphosphate (SP). Manure products were applied as basal fertilizer for both crops. Results showed that CH4 was the dominant GHG source in the natural storage treatment, whereas N2O dominated in the manure composting treatments. Amending manure with straw, Z and SP stimulated 15–48 times N2O emission and decreased CH4 emissions by 82%–91% during storage and treatment. Replacement of 50% synthetic fertilizer N by manure N decreased total system GHG emissions by 25%–34%. Differences between composted manure treatments in total system GHG emissions were relatively small, although comparatively higher in amended manure treatments; however, they promoted greater soil organic carbon sink activity, resulting in no significant difference in net global warming potential (GWP) and greenhouse gas emission intensity (GHGI). Application of amended manure produced high nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in the integrated crop–manure system. The NH3 mitigation approach of replacing 50% of synthetic fertilizer N by amended manure N synergistically decreased total GHG emissions, increased system NUE and also increased the net economic benefit by 5%–11% over the 2 years of the experiment.

The Role of the Libyan Agricultural Sector in the Development: an Analytical Study

Background: The Libyan economy depends on oil, which contributes more than 45% of GDP and earn the country more than 90% of its foreign exchange. While Agriculture activities producing only 3- 5% of the GDP and employs around 6% of the workforce. The low agricultural productivity of most of the crops cultivated together with rising demand for food has turned Libya into a net food importer.
 Objectives: an advanced development of productivity of food crops especially cereals, olives and date palm needs a very trusted data that enhance the efforts of agriculture development. So the present study aims to analyze the UN data.
 Data collection: data were collected from FAO and another UN reports.
 Results: the agriculture sector shared only (0.7 – 1.1%) of the total Libyan GDP during the period of 2000 - 2018. The highest ratio recoded in 2000 and 2005 gaining 1004.4 and 1268.5 USD million dollars. the crop land area ranged between (2,050,000 – 2,150,000 ha) during the period 2000 – 2018. The per capita crop land ranged (0.31 0.4 ha). The percentage of area equipped for irrigation in land area ranged (2.6 – 3.0%). The area of agriculture land ranged (15,350,000 – 15,450,000 ha) during the same period. While the area of forest land recorded (217,000 ha) during the same period. the total percentage of workforce in agriculture sector ranged between (18.4 – 24%). The percentage of women share in agriculture employment recorded (35.9 – 40.8 %) of the total agriculture workforce during the same period. the percentage of gross fixed capital formation (agriculture, forestry and fishing) as a share of value added recorded (6.9 -15.7%). the pesticide use per cropland area recorded (0.51 – 1.34 kg per ha) during the period 2000 - 2018. the total consumption of chemical fertilizers ranged (8.3 -25.6) (kg per ha) during the same period. fruits recorded the highest amount of the total agriculture production (696,000 tons) followed by vegetables (682,000 tons). the total agriculture production recorded (2,210,000 tons) in 2018. the total food exports, 2018 recorded (43 USD millions), fish recorded the highest value (36 USD millions) followed by fruits and vegetables (6 USD millions). the total food imports recorded (3167 USD millions), cereals recorded the highest value (975 USD millions) followed by dairy (420 USD millions) while, beverage was the lowest (81USD millions). Wheat recorded the highest amount among cereal crop imports (1461.8 thousand tons) followed by maize (784.3 thousand tons) and rice (101.2 thousand tons). Moreover. water stress percentage ranged (615.4 – 817.1%) during the period 2000 – 2018

Agricultural expansion and trade-off decision making using analytic hierarchy process in Ghana

The current study sought to investigate the factors influencing the conversion of forest lands to agricultural areas, which is primarily a result of agricultural expansion. This phenomenon is recognized as a significant driver of land use and land cover change in Ghana. Data was collected from land managers (commercial and subsistence farmers) who are major decision-makers on accelerated farm land expansion in districts known for large-scale food and tree crop production. The method used for data collection was the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). APH was used to assess factors that influence farmers' decisions to expand their farms. These are economic, environmental, social, and policy factors that were weighted to determine the most important factors of agricultural expansion. Study results showed that economic factors were weighted above other factors in terms of importance when it came to making decisions on farm expansion. Environmental and social factors were second and third, respectively, while policy factors were weighted as the least important factors. The study provides valuable insight into key factors that influence land managers farm expansion decisions and how land-use change can be addressed. The study concludes that the Analytic Hierarchy Process is a useful method for analyzing multiple factors considered by farmers when expanding their farms, despite its limitations.

Community-based mechanisms underlying the root cadmium uptake regulated by Cd-tolerant strains in rice (Oryza sativa. L).

In recent years, the problem of Cd pollution in paddy fields has become more and more serious, which seriously threatens the safe production of food crops and human health. Using microorganisms to reduce cadmium pollution in rice fields is a green, safe and efficient method, the complicated interactions between the microbes in rice roots throughout the process of cadmium absorption by rice roots are poorly understood. In this investigation, a hydroponic pot experiment was used to examine the effects of bacteria R3 (Herbaspirillum sp) and T4 (Bacillus cereus) on cadmium uptake and the endophytic bacterial community in rice roots. The results showed that compared with CK (Uninoculated bacterial liquid), the two strains had significant inhibitory or promotive effects on cadmium uptake in rice plant, respectively. Among them, the decrease of cadmium content in rice plants by R3 strain reached 78.57-79.39%, and the increase of cadmium content in rice plants by T4 strain reached 140.49-158.19%. Further investigation showed that the cadmium content and root cadmium enrichment coefficient of rice plants were significantly negatively correlated with the relative abundances of Burkholderia and Acidovorax, and significantly positively correlated with the relative abundances of Achromobacter, Agromyces and Acidocella. Moreover, a more complex network of microbes in rice roots inhibited rice plants from absorbing cadmium. These results suggest that cadmium uptake by rice plants is closely related to the endophytic bacterial community of roots. This study provides a reference scheme for the safe production of crops in cadmium contaminated paddies and lays a solid theoretical foundation for subsequent field applications.

Climate-smart peatland management and the potential for synergies between food security and climate change objectives in Indonesia

Tropical peatlands lie at a nexus of competing sustainable development demands of enhancing food security, mitigating climate change, improving resilience and supporting rural livelihoods. Meeting United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) requires balancing these various demands. Progress in meeting SDGs has been slow in low to middle income countries because of difficulties in identifying and quantifying the trade offs associated with natural resource exploitation, including on extensive areas of tropical peatlands.Here, by using secondary data from the literature, Indonesian and international agencies, we examine how land-use allocation in Indonesia has developed over the last three decades by investigating trends of key food and woody crops (oil palm and rubber) and evaluate the role that peatland provinces have played in food security and climate forcing. Overall, food crop production has been marginal in peatland provinces compared to monoculture woody crops, with the latter associated with increased carbon emissions from land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF) over the last thirty years. Our analysis shows that synergies between responses to looming food security and climate change crises can also promote less damaging forms of tropical peatland management. For instance, the conversion of degraded shallow peatlands to agroecological practices (e.g., paludiculture) can be promoted. However, we stress that peatland conservation and restoration must remain the top priority. Impediments due to lack of a common definition for peatland and planning/management units, the use of multiple sectoral maps by different government agencies and uncoordinated sectoral policy targets can, however, hinder the implementation of less damaging peatland management.