Global Agriculture Research Articles

Exogenous hydrogen sulfide alleviates chromium toxicity by modulating chromium, nutrients and reactive oxygen species accumulation, and antioxidant defence system in mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) seedlings

Chromium (Cr), a highly toxic redox-active metal cation in soil, seriously threatens global agriculture by affecting nutrient uptake and disturbing various physio-biochemical processes in plants, thereby reducing yields. Here, we examined the effects of different concentrations of Cr alone and in combination with hydrogen sulfide (H2S) application on the growth and physio-biochemical performance of two mungbeans (Vigna radiata L.) varieties, viz. Pusa Vishal (PV; Cr tolerant) and Pusa Ratna (PR; Cr sensitive), growing in a pot in hydroponics. Plants were grown in the pot experiment to examine their growth, enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant levels, electrolyte balance, and plasma membrane (PM) H+-ATPase activity. Furthermore, root anatomy and cell death were analysed 15 days after sowing both varieties in hydroponic systems. The Cr-induced accumulation of reactive oxygen species caused cell death and affected the root anatomy and growth of both varieties. However, the extent of alteration in anatomical features was less in PV than in PR. Exogenous application of H2S promoted plant growth, thereby improving plant antioxidant activities and reducing cell death by suppressing Cr accumulation and translocation. Seedlings of both cultivars treated with H2S exhibited enhanced photosynthesis, ion uptake, glutathione, and proline levels and reduced oxidative stress. Interestingly, H2S restricted the translocation of Cr to aerial parts of plants by improving the nutrient profile and viability of root cells, thereby relieving plants from oxidative bursts by activating the antioxidant machinery through triggering the ascorbate-glutathione cycle. Overall, H2S application improved the nutrient profile and ionic homeostasis of Cr-stressed mungbean plants. These results highlight the importance of H2S application in protecting crops against Cr toxicity. Our findings can be utilised to develop management strategies to improve heavy metal tolerance among crops.

The origin and dispersal of Firmiana danxiaensis among isolated specific landscapes

AbstractChina has the most numerous Danxia and Karst landscapes, which serve as special terrestrial islands harboring ample endemic species, though how did these endemic species spread among those isolated sites is still an unresolved issue. To address this question, we explored the phylogeographical structure and demographic history of Firmiana danxiaensis, a tree species endemic to Danxia and Karst landscapes. We collected 295 samples (28 populations) of F. danxiaensis. Plastid genomes were assembled for 25 representative samples. Sanger sequencing of four plastid regions and restriction‐site‐associated DNA sequencing were performed on the 28 populations. The phylogenetic tree constructed from plastid genomes and restriction site‐associated DNA sequencing (RAD‐seq) data supported that F. danxiaensis originated from Mount Danxia and Nanxiong Basin, spread to Karst landscapes near Yingde City, and then back to Danxia Mountain and the Nanxiong Basin. In the Nanxiong Basin, the latter arrivals captured the plastid of the former. Population analyses revealed strong population structure among and within Danxia and Karst landscapes, possibly due to low seed and pollen dispersal abilities of the species. The demographic and ecological niche modeling approaches suggested that F. danxiaensis have widely occurred in the southeast of China during the last glacial period, and later retreated to the cliffs of Danxia and Karst landscapes due to temperature rising and competition failure. The declining of the effective population size of the species throughout the postglacial period suggested that global warming, agriculture, and industrial civilizations could have affected the survival of this species, and more measures should be taken to conserve these species.

LCA Sensitivity Analysis of an Energy-Biochar Chain from an Italian Gasification Plant: Environmental Trade-offs Assessment

Due to its potential applications in bioenergy production, coproducts (bio-oil and syngas), mitigation of global warming, sustainable agriculture, pollutant removal, and other uses, biochar has drawn interest from all over the world. Producing and using soil-based biochar as a method of carbon sequestration could help reduce emissions while benefiting the soil and opening up possibilities for bioenergy production. However, to characterize the production cycle’s environmental and energy loads and confirm all of the advantages of biochar, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) represents a reliable tool for evaluation. This work is based on continuing the study of Marzeddu and Cappelli (Marzeddu, Cappelli, et al., 2021) to understand the environmental impact of an energy-biochar chain involving a gasification plant in Italy. In the LCA carried out in the previous paper for the characterization of biochar, which is used as a soil conditioner, soil carbon sequestration, nitrous oxide emissions, fertilizer use, and water use for irrigation were considered. The results showed that the use of gasification for energy and biochar is an attractive strategy for mitigating the environmental impact analysis, especially climate change, with a net decrease of about ‒8.3·103 kg CO2, eq. The previous study was lacking a sensitivity analysis. For this reason, a sensitivity analysis is proposed in this study to consistently assess the environmental trade-offs of the biochar and the amended soil. In specific for the upstream processes the sensitivity is addressed to the selection of a different type of woodchips, for the core process in terms of selection of different packing material, and to the entire cradle-to-grave perspective by improving the logistics of the transportation, the distances within the supply chain and the choice of BAT technology for the transportation vehicles. This study highlights strategic research developments that combine to find potential environmental trade-offs and thresholds towards using biochar and its final use as a soil conditioner.

115 A Challenging and Motivational Presentation to Past, Present and Future Animal and Forage Scientists and Professionals

Abstract Today’s 20-something graduate students will be close to 50-something professionals by midcentury. They have the opportunity, perhaps even the ethical and moral duty, to sustainably increase supply of animal source foods in humanity’s global food supply. The world these animal and forage science professionals will serve will contain perhaps 2 billion more human beings, with most of this increase coming from people living to 70 years old and beyond. Malnutrition, broadly and properly understood, is already an existential crisis today. Global agriculture will be required to produce not just more food, but food of greater nutritional value. Animal agriculture in general, and ruminant animal agriculture in particular, is an essential part of all food systems. Any sincere conversation about sustainable food systems must include efforts to increase the affordability and accessibility of culturally appropriate animal source foods. Improved livestock-cropping systems, which will include forages of various types, offer the potential to produce more food from the same land without increasingly expensive inputs of fertilizer and energy while stewarding precious resources. The unique ecological role of ruminant animals and their essential role in converting human-inedible biomass into high-quality sources of essential nutrition will be a fundamental part of these systems. The sustainable intensification of global animal agriculture must become a high priority of funding for research and teaching during the next two and one half decades. These realities exist, however, in a climate dominated by anti-animal agriculture messaging in media and political debates. What can we older professionals be doing to recruit, train and equip the next generation(s) of animal and forage scientists who must meet this challenge?

Flood impacts on global crop production: advances and limitations

Considering the anticipated rise in wet extremes due to climate change, effective management of flood risks in global agriculture necessitates an initial assessment of the impact of floods on crop production. Such estimation can inform the development of strategies to enhance the resilience of the global agricultural system against floods, particularly in the face of growing demand for food. To this end, a worldwide calculation of inundation areas’ return periods was conducted using a global river and inundation model output. This information was then linked to a global historical yield map, allowing for the identification of flood-induced crop yield changes. The findings revealed that for return periods over ten years, global average yield losses were estimated to be 4% for soy, 3% for rice, 2% for wheat, and 1% for maize. These losses amounted to a total production loss of 5.5 billion United States dollars during the 1982–2016 period. This first global estimation of flood impacts on crop production contributes to the advancement of flood risk management in agriculture, although the limitations identified in this study need to be addressed in future research.

A Bootstrap-Aggregating in Random Forest Model for Classification of Corn Plant Diseases and Pests

Control of diseases and pests of maize plants is a significant challenge to ensure global food security, self-sufficiency, and sustainable agriculture. Classification or early detection of diseases and pests of corn plants is intended to assist the control process. Random forest is a classification model in tree-based statistical learning in making decisions. This approach is an ensemble method that generates many decision trees and makes classification decisions based on the majority of trees selecting the same class. However, tree-based methods are often unstable when small changes or disturbances exist in the learning data. Such instability can produce significant variances and affect model performance. This study classifies diseases and pests of the corn plant using a random forest method based on bootstrap-aggregating. It fits multiple models of a single random forest, then combines the predictions from all models and determines the final result using majority voting. The results showed that the bootstrap aggregating could improve the classification of diseases and pests of maize using a random forest if the number of trees is optimal.

Climate change unequally affects nitrogen use and losses in global croplands.

Maintaining food production while reducing agricultural nitrogen pollution is a grand challenge under global climate change. Yet, the response of global agricultural nitrogen uses and losses to climate change on the temporal and spatial scales has not been fully characterized. Here, using historical data for 1961-2018 from over 150 countries, we show that global warming leads to small temporal but substantial spatial impacts on cropland nitrogen use and losses. Yield and nitrogen use efficiency increase in 29% and 56% of countries, respectively, whereas they reduce in the remaining countries compared with the situation without global warming in 2018. Precipitation and farm size changes would further intensify the spatial variations of nitrogen use and losses globally, but managing farm size could increase the global cropland nitrogen use efficiency to over 70% by 2100. Our results reveal the importance of reducing global inequalities of agricultural nitrogen use and losses to sustain global agriculture production and reduce agricultural pollution.

How to further develop the integrated planting and breeding mode: A case study of the western region of Shandong Province

AbstractUnder the climate change aggravating the issues of energy security and food shortage, global agriculture suffers from great pressure, and how to promote sustainable agriculture has become one of the hot issues of concern in academia. This paper focuses on China, where efforts are being made to develop sustainable agriculture, and takes the western part of Shandong Province as the target of study. Based on the identification of factors that affect the promotion of the local circular agriculture implementation, AMOS was applied to construct and test the structural equation model and to explore the interaction mechanism between each variable. The study breaks through the traditional modes of data collection and is based on the actual farming conditions of the farmers currently, choosing to obtain data by means of questionnaires and field surveys. The 24 selected factors were analyzed by SPSS and AMOS software, and the total model weight of each factor were calculated separately. The top five key factors affecting the advancement of the model, namely government policy encouragement, preferential agricultural loans support, participation of specialized agricultural organizations, estimated revenue of the mode and farmers' awareness of environmental protection, are obtained with weight of 6.08%, 5.60%, 5.59%, 5.26% and 5.09%, respectively. Combined with data to focus on analysis, this paper puts forward some relevant countermeasures and suggestions to promote the integrated planting and breeding mode in accordance with local conditions, which can provide beneficial reference for government departments to make relevant policies.

Reducing plastic film mulching and optimizing agronomic management can ensure food security and reduce carbon emissions in irrigated maize areas

Increasing crop yields to ensure food security while also reducing agriculture's environmental impacts to ensure green sustainable development are great challenges for global agriculture. Plastic film, widely used to improve crop yield, also creates plastic film residue pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that restricts the development of sustainable agriculture. So, one of those challenges is to reduce plastic film use while also ensuring food security, and thus promote green and sustainable development. A field experiment was conducted during 2017–2020 at 3 farmland areas, each with different altitudes and climate conditions, in northern Xinjiang, China. We investigated the effects on maize yield, economic returns, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of plastic film mulching (PFM) versus no mulching (NM) methods in drip-irrigated maize production. We also chose maize hybrids with 3 different maturation times and used 2 planting densities to further investigate how those differences more specifically affect maize yield, economic returns, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions under each mulching method. We found that by using maize varieties with a utilization rate of accumulated temperature (URAT) <86.6 % with NM, and increasing the planting density by 3 plants m−2, yields and economic returns improved and GHG emissions reduced by 33.1 %, compared to those of PFM maize. The maize varieties with URATs between 88.2 % to 89.2 %, had the lowest GHG emissions. We discovered that by matching the required accumulated temperatures of various maize varieties to environmental accumulated temperatures, along with filmless and higher density planting, and modern irrigation and fertilization practices, yields increased and residual plastic film pollution and carbon emissions reduced. Therefore, these advances in agronomic management are important steps toward reducing pollution and achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.

Sevenfold variation in global feeding capacity depends on diets, land use and nitrogen management.

Harvested food carries a fraction of the nitrogen applied through fertilization; the remainder is typically lost into the environment, impairing planetary sustainability. Using a global agriculture model that integrates key drivers of food production and nitrogen cycling, we simulated upper bounds to global feeding capacity-and associated nitrogen pollution-as a function of nitrogen limitation under organic and industrial fertilization regimes. We found that the current agricultural area could feed ~8-20 billion people under unconstrained industrial fertilization and ca. 3-14 billion under organic fertilization. These ranges are inversely correlated with animal proteins in human diets, and are a function of feed-food competition, grassland-to-cropland allocation and-in the case of organic fertilization-nitrogen use efficiency. Improved nitrogen use efficiency is required to bring nitrogen pollution within planetary sustainability limits and is also essential in narrowing down food productivity gaps between organic and industrial fertilization regimes.

The interaction of salinity and light regime modulates photosynthetic pigment content in edible halophytes in greenhouse and indoor farming.

Given its limited land and water use and the changing climate conditions, indoor farming of halophytes has a high potential to contribute significantly to global agriculture in the future. Notably, indoor farming and classical greenhouse cultivation differ in their light regime between artificial and solar lighting, which can influence plant metabolism, but how this affects the cultivation of halophytes has not yet been investigated. To address this question, we studied the yield and content of abscisic acid, carotenoids, and chlorophylls as well as chloride of three halophyte species (Cochlearia officinalis, Atriplex hortensis, and Salicornia europaea) differing in their salt tolerance mechanisms and following four salt treatments (no salt to 600 mM of NaCl) in two light regimes (greenhouse/indoor farming). In particular, salt treatment had a strong influence on chloride accumulation which is only slightly modified by the light regime. Moreover, fresh and dry mass was influenced by the light regime and salinity. Pigments exhibited different responses to salt treatment and light regime, reflecting their differing functions in the photosynthetic apparatus. We conclude that the interaction of light regime and salt treatment modulates the content of photosynthetic pigments. Our study highlights the potential applications of the cultivation of halophytes for indoor farming and underlines that it is a promising production system, which provides food alternatives for future diets.

Analysis of Ecological Agriculture from the Perspective of Maintaining the Biodiversity of Agricultural Lands

Abstract The intensification of agriculture, the specialization of production and the use of a wide range of agrochemicals has led to the loss of biodiversity on agricultural land, namely the cultivation of a small number of high-yielding varieties and short crop rotation. The loss of biodiversity and the homogenization of crops directly affects the productivity of agroecosystems and implicitly the sustainability of food systems. In this context, the article proposes an analysis of the evolution of ecological agriculture from the perspective of the need for a change in the structure and operation of agriculture to restore the biodiversity of agricultural land. The analysis is oriented towards the economic, social and environmental aspects given the fact that, often, ecological agriculture is proposed as a solution to ensure the food security of the world’s population. The analysis of data on global organic agriculture indicates that, in 2021, the total area of agricultural land cultivated in the organic system represented approximately 1.6% of the total agricultural land, the number of producers registered in organic agriculture reached approximately 3.7 million and the global market for organic products reached 125 billion euros. With regard to organic agriculture in Romania, in 2021, the total area cultivated in an ecological system was 578.7 thousand ha (3.2% of agricultural land cultivated organically in the EU), and the number of economic operators was 12,231. Given that the productions obtained in the ecological system are 20-40% lower than those in conventional agriculture, the integration of ecological practices in agriculture has the potential to increase the productions obtained and maintain biodiversity on agricultural land.

Body color selection of domesticated carp (Cyprinus carpio) in traditional agricultural systems: Insight provided by growth performance, nutritional quality, and genetic diversity

The body color retention of domesticated organisms in traditional agricultural systems results from long-term natural selection and human intervention, which usually encompasses the local understanding and management experience of the species. Exploiting the body color trait advantage and genetic potential of domesticated animals will help to select breeding stock, improve farmers' economic income, and provide insight into future sustainable agriculture design to utilize locally appropriate populations. In this study, the rice-fish coculture system, a Global Important Agriculture Heritage System (GIAHS) in Qingtian County, Zhejiang Province, China, was selected as the representative research system. Four body color (red, red-black, bronze and cyan) of the indigenous species Qingtian paddy field carp (Cyprinus carpio) were selected to compare the economic trait advantages such as the growth performance, nutritional quality of the fish, and the rice yield cocultured with the carp. Besides, the genetic resources and population structure of different body colors were also examined through mitochondrial D-loop gene. Our results show that there are two subgroups of the four populations (K = 2). Among them, the bronze-colored group occupied one subgroup with a large number of unique haplotypes, showing great genetic differentiation from other body color groups. The red and the red-black-colored groups have higher genetic diversity and more frequent gene flow between each other. The genetic diversity of the cyan and the bronze-colored groups were relatively low with more regionally restricted. Three economic indexes showed that the nutritive values of the carps with the four body colors were relatively similar and had no effect on rice yield under the same feeding conditions. Among them, the red-black-colored group had the best specific growth rate (SGR, P < 0.01), weight gain rate (WGR, P < 0.01) and linoleic acid content (P < 0.05). The cyan-colored group had the lowest WGR and SGR, but had the strongest paddy field survival ability (P < 0.01). In summary, the red-black-colored group are rich in genetic diversity and have the best breeding potential and environmental adaptability, which is the most suitable body color for paddy field cultivation.

Biodiversity of hymenopteran parasitoids

Parasitoid wasps are the most successful group of insect parasitoids, comprising more than half the known diversity of Hymenoptera and probably most of the unknown diversity. This lifestyle has enabled them to be used as pest control agents conferring substantial economic benefits to global agriculture. Major lineages of parasitoid wasps include Ichneumonoidea, Ceraphronoidea, Proctotrupomorpha, and a number of aculeate families. The parasitoid lifestyle arose only once among basal Hymenoptera, in the common ancestor of the Orussidae and Apocrita some 200+ Ma ago. The ancestral parasitoid wasp was probably an idiobiont on wood-living beetle larvae. From this comparatively simple biology, Hymenoptera radiated into an incredible diversity of hosts and parasitoid lifestyles, including hyperparasitoidism, kleptoparasitoidism, egg parasitoidism, and polyembryony, in several instances co-opting viruses to subdue their hosts. Many lineages evolved beyond the parasitoid niche, becoming secondarily herbivorous or predatory nest provisioners and eventually giving rise to most instances of insect societies.

Copernicus global crop productivity indicators: An evaluation based on regionally reported yields

Climate variability places significant pressure on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture. Information on crop-related climate and water indicators under climate change becomes essential. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) provides reliable information about climate change based on climate models, Earth Observations, and in situ data to support adaptation policies. Within this C3S context, the Global Agriculture Sectoral Information System (SIS) has developed a new product based on global crop productivity indicators to document the effects of climate variability on crop yield variability. This study focuses on the evaluation of climate-enhanced, earth observation (EO) based crop productivity indicators i.e., Total Weight Storage Organs (TWSO, equivalent to yield), Total Above Ground Production (TAGP). These variables provide insights into the Spatio-temporal variability of yield, productivity, and development of four major staple crops (rice, maize, soybean, and wheat) for their main production regions at the global scale for the period 2000–2018. In this study, the evaluation was carried out spatially and temporally for the United States of America, India, and China for the period 2000–2018, using reported yield statistics aggregated to the lowest available administrative level of each region. For almost all the crops in the three countries, the skilled error can be reduced by more than 25% for both the indicators TAGP and TWSO compared to the trend of reported yield, suggesting considerable performance in assessing interannual yield variability. Results indicated both indicators individually performed well in many important producing areas of the USA, India, and China. However, if we compare both the indicator’s performance in terms of production totals in the USA, India, and China, TAGP contributes ∼27–50% of total crop production in the USA and India, and ∼47–75% in China. While, TWSO contributes ∼24–41% in the USA and India, and 5–65% in China.

Developing Temperature-Resilient Plants: A Matter of Present and Future Concern for Sustainable Agriculture

Plants are decisive for nurturing life on Earth, but climate change threatens global food security, poverty decrease, and sustainable agriculture [...]

Crop Type Maps for Operational Global Agricultural Monitoring

Crop type maps identify the spatial distribution of crop types and underpin a large range of agricultural monitoring applications ranging from early warning of crop shortfalls, crop condition assessments, production forecasts, and damage assessment from extreme weather, to agricultural statistics, agricultural insurance, and climate mitigation and adaptation decisions. Despite their importance, harmonized, up-to-date global crop type maps of the main food commodities do not exist to date. To address this critical data gap of global-scale consistent, up-to-date crop type maps, we harmonized 24 national and regional datasets from 21 sources covering 66 countries to develop a set of Best Available Crop Specific masks (BACS) over the major production and export countries for wheat, maize, rice, and soybeans, in the context of the G20 Global Agriculture Monitoring Program, GEOGLAM.

When Food is Finance: Seeking Global Justice for Migrant Workers

The steady growth of international labour mobility has been one of the defining features of globalization. Alongside the liberalization of international trade, labour mobility has been a key dynamic propelling economic development in the new millennium. In recent years, migrant labour is increasingly regulated via temporary schemes, deepening and widening migrant precarity. This paper argues that a growing reliance on temporary migrant workers reflects the financialization of global agriculture. Drawing on conceptual debates among scholars of critical finance studies, migration governance and food systems, it explores the implications of financialization for social justice work, asking how a systemic understanding of the migrant experience with financial institutions and practices might enhance rights-based advocacy.

Compound impact of COVID-19, economy and climate on the spatial distribution of global agriculture and food security

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to unfold around the world, the per unit area yield of the world's three major crops (i.e. maize, rice and wheat) decreased simultaneously for the first time in 20 years, and nearly 2.37 billion people faced food insecurity in 2020. Around 119–124 million people were pushed back into extreme poverty. Drought is one of the natural hazards that mostly affect agricultural production, and 2020 is one of the three warmest years on record. When the pandemic, economic recession and extreme climate change occur simultaneously, food crisis will often be exacerbated. Due to the limited research on the geographic modelling of crops and food security at the country level, we investigated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic (COVID-19 incidence and mortality rate), economic (GDP and per capita GDP), climate (temperature change and drought), and their compound effects on three crop yields and food security in the world. On the basis of verifying the spatial autocorrelation, we used the global ordinary least squares model to select the explanatory variables. Then, geographically weighted regression (GWR) and multi-scale GWR (MGWR), were utilised to explore spatial non-stationary relationships. Results indicated that the MGWR was more efficient than the traditional GWR. On the whole, per capita GDP was the most important explanatory variable for most countries. However, the direct threats of COVID-19, temperature change and drought on crops and food security were small and localised. This study is the first to utilise advanced spatial methods to analyse the impacts of natural and human disasters on agriculture and food security in various countries, which can serve as a geographical guide for the World Food Organization, other relief agencies and policymakers to conduct food aid, health and medical assistance, financial support, climate change policy formulation, and anti-epidemic policy formulation.

Seasonal Phenology and Climate Associated Feeding Activity of Introduced Marchalina hellenica in Southeast Australia.

Invasive insects pose an increasing risk to global agriculture, environmental stability, and public health. Giant pine scale (GPS), Marchalina hellenica Gennadius (Hemiptera: Marchalinidae), is a phloem feeding scale insect endemic to the Eastern Mediterranean Basin, where it primarily feeds on Pinus halepensis and other Pinaceae. In 2014, GPS was detected in the southeast of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, infesting the novel host Pinus radiata. An eradication program was unsuccessful, and with this insect now established within the state, containment and management efforts are underway to stop its spread; however, there remains a need to understand the insect's phenology and behaviour in Australia to better inform control efforts. We documented the annual life cycle and seasonal fluctuations in activity of GPS in Australia over a 32 month period at two contrasting field sites. Onset and duration of life stages were comparable to seasons in Mediterranean conspecifics, although the results imply the timing of GPS life stage progression is broadening or accelerating. GPS density was higher in Australia compared to Mediterranean reports, possibly due to the absence of key natural predators, such as the silver fly, Neoleucopis kartliana Tanasijtshuk (Diptera, Chamaemyiidae). Insect density and honeydew production in the Australian GPS population studied varied among locations and between generations. Although insect activity was well explained by climate, conditions recorded inside infested bark fissures often provided the weakest explanation of GPS activity. Our findings suggest that GPS activity is strongly influenced by climate, and this may in part be related to changes in host quality. An improved understanding of how our changing climate is influencing the phenology of phloem feeding insects such as GPS will help with predictions as to where these insects are likely to flourish and assist with management programs for pest species.