High-value Agricultural Products Research Articles

Stable Isotope Ratio Analysis for the Geographic Origin Discrimination of Greek Beans "Gigantes-Elefantes" (Phaseolus coccineus L.).

Adulteration of high-value agricultural products is a critical issue worldwide for consumers and industries. Discrimination of the geographical origin can verify food authenticity by reducing risk and detecting adulteration. Between agricultural products, beans are a very important crop cultivated worldwide that provides food rich in iron and vitamins, especially for people in third-world countries. The aim of this study is the construction of a map of the locally characteristic isotopic fingerprint of giant beans, "Fasolia Gigantes-Elefantes PGI", a Protected Geographical Indication product cultivated in the region of Kastoria and Prespes, Western Macedonia, Greece, with the ultimate goal of the discrimination of beans from the two areas. In total, 160 samples were collected from different fields in the Prespes region and 120 samples from Kastoria during each cultivation period (2020-2021 and 2021-2022). The light element (C, N, and S) isotope ratios were measured using Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS), and the results obtained were analyzed using chemometric techniques, including a one-way ANOVA and Binomial logistic regression. The mean values from the one-way ANOVA were δ15NAIR = 1.875‱, δ13CV-PDB = -25.483‱, and δ34SV-CDT = 4.779‱ for Kastoria and δ15NAIR = 1.654‱, δ13CV-PDB = -25.928‱, and δ34SV-CDT = -0.174‱ for Prespes, and showed that stable isotope ratios of C and S were statistically different for the areas studied while the Binomial logistic regression analysis that followed correctly classified more than 78% of the samples.

Establishment of health food safety evaluation method-In vivo genotoxicity evaluation by micronucleus assay

In recent years, various factors such as shifts in health consciousness, changes in lifestyle habits, increased focus on dietary intake, the promotion of alternative medical concepts, and advancements in life sciences and technology have propelled the robust growth of the health food industry. An increasing number of reports suggest that "functional foods," containing beneficial functional components, may enhance short-term well-being and are increasingly regarded as healthful. Building upon these findings, this study aims to enhance the production capacity of high-value agricultural products. However, for quality assurance, toxicity assessment of functional foods is imperative. There is a growing necessity to employ in vivo genotoxicity assays to evaluate the carcinogenic potential of these products. In this study, we tried to establish another in vivo genotoxicity evaluation platform via acridine orange induction. According to all results in this study, during the experiment, there were no statistically significant differences in BW between the negative control group and the normal control group (p > 0.05). Moreover, the clinical observations of the experimental mice showed that all mice survived until the end of the experiment, and no abnormal clinical symptoms were observed. The mouse’s food consumption in each group were monitored during the experiments. The food consumption of mice was recorded daily after the experiment. During the experiments, there were no significant difference between two groups on the food consumption. The percentage of RETs/1,000 RBCs in the negative control group was significantly decrease than the normal control group (p < 0.001). RETs/1,000 RBCs (‰) in ICR mice (n = 5/group) in the negative control group and the normal control group at 48th and 72th hours-experiment were respectively 18 ± 4.6 / 45.6 ± 4.0 (48th hours-experiment) and 19 ± 4.8 / 47.6 ± 4.8 (72th hours-experiment). The percentage of Mn-RETs/1,000 RETs in the negative control group was significantly increase than the normal control group (p < 0.001). Mn-RETs/1,000 RETs (‰) in ICR mice (n = 5/group) in the negative control group and the normal control group were 10.6 ± 2.1 / 0.4 ± 0.5 and 8.2 ± 1.8 / 0.4 ± 0.5, respectively. Taken all results of RET/RBCs (‰) and MN-RET/RETs (‰) together, the genotoxicity in the negative control group has been successfully induced. In light of these requirements, we propose utilizing the mammalian erythrocyte micronucleus assay to detect damage induced by test substances to erythroblast chromosomes. This study endeavors to establish a sensitive and stable method for quantifying micronuclei formation in erythrocytes in vivo. The resulting data will facilitate the evaluation of potential toxicity associated with agricultural functional products in the future.

Association Between Sociodemographic Factors and the Health Orientation of Urban Consumers Toward the Consumption of High-Value Agricultural Products in India

Association Between Sociodemographic Factors and the Health Orientation of Urban Consumers Toward the Consumption of High-Value Agricultural Products in India

Role of Health Orientation in the Consumption of High Value Agriculture Products: An Exploration of Urban Indian Consumers

The health landscape of India is changing fast due to the impacts of globalization and urbanization, bringing in changes in lifestyles and food consumption patterns in urban areas. The current study aims to explore the linkages between health orientation (HO) and the consumption trends of high-value agricultural products (HVAP) among urban Indian consumers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) have been conducted using the data collected through a primary survey of 385 individuals in Delhi. The results show that HO explains 54.8% of the total HVAP consumption. Within the HVAP basket, consumption of fruits, vegetables, milk, and eggs has been found to be affected more by HO, compared to meat and fish. The socio-economic factors, such as education, gender, family size, monthly income, etc. build the health orientation of consumers more significantly and thus have been found to be the dominant determining factors behind HVAP consumption.

The Determinants of Grape Storage: Evidence from Grape Growers in China

Storage of high-value agricultural products is essential to increase their added value. Exploring growers’ storage strategies for high-value agricultural products is helpful in developing the agricultural industry. In this paper, we analyzed the factors affecting growers’ storage decisions using Probit and Tobit models based on field data from 1026 grape growers in China. We conclude that the in-season price has a negative effect on growers’ storage decisions. Expected price, market risk perception and grape quality have a positive effect on storage decisions. Borrowing behavior has a positive effect on the storage decisions of large-scale growers. In addition, the higher the expected price and the greater the market risk perception, the more growers prefer long-term storage; and the better the quality of the grapes, the more growers tend to store grapes in the short term.

Untargeted Metabolomics Profiling of Bioactive Compounds under Varying Digestate Storage Conditions: Assessment of Antioxidant and Antifungal Activity.

The rapid development of biogas plants in China has generated large quantities of digestate. The disparity between the continuity of biogas plant operation and the seasonality of digestate utilization has led to the need to store digestate. Therefore, untargeted profiling of bioactive compounds in the digestate stored under aerobic and anaerobic conditions was performed. The antioxidant and antifungal activity of digestate stored under varying conditions was likewise assessed. The results delineated that digestate storage under varying conditions brought about the degradation of organic acids, alkenes, aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, ethers, amino acids and their derivatives, and esters, leading to the stabilization of digestate components. Together, these new data revealed that digestate storage for up to 20 days under aerobic conditions promotes glycine, serine, and threonine degradation pathways and enhances biotin and vitamins production. In contrast, anaerobic storage enhances the taurine and hypotaurine metabolic pathways and increases the derivation of antimicrobial substances, such as indole alkaloids. Moreover, digestate storage under anaerobic conditions promotes antioxidant and antifungal activity more than storage under aerobic conditions. These findings can contribute to the future development of high-value agricultural products from digestate and the sustainability of biogas plants. Further studies are required for the untargeted metabolomic of digestate under storage to explore the underlying mechanisms of promoting disease resistance by the digestate upon land application.

SUSTAINABILITY AND DIETARY CHANGE: AN ANALYSIS OF INDIAN FOOD CONSUMPTION PATTERNS

Indian consumption pattern is diversifying towards high value agricultural products in search of a nutritious and healthier diet. The study analyses the trends of changing Indian food baskets in terms of social (nutrition), economic (affordability of a healthy diet) and environmental (global warming potential) sustainability. In terms of nutrition, the study finds that against a recommended calorie intake of 2503 kcal, the highest monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) section of urban and rural population is consuming 3143 and 3184 kcal respectively. The lower MPCE section consumes only 65% of what is recommended as a healthy diet by LANCET. A comparison of the Indian diets with the LANCET recommended diet finds the environmental impact of the latter to be 1.3 times that of the actual intakes by Indians. The cost of the LANCET diet is 1.6 and 1.2 times the cost of the actual intake and recommended diets in India respectively. While the Indian diet is environmentally more sustainable, a nutritious diet of the global standard is beyond reach of the poor. Concerted efforts are required for facilitating an affordable, accessible and sustainable diet.

Emerging Trends for High-Value Agricultural Products in India: Production, Consumption and the Nutritional Fallout

High-value agricultural products (HVAP) have been gaining importance in India recently owing to their contribution towards improving farmers' income and consumers' health awareness. The study empirically examined the changing trends in the production and consumption of HVAP and the nutritional fallout in rural and urban India during 2000-2019 using regression analysis and calculation of growth rates. The results showed a growth rate of 4.3 percent in the production of HVAP and 9 percent for that per capita expenditure on food. However, the growth of per capita availability was 2.3, and 80 percent of the population had a nutritional intake lower than the recommended diet levels. The study pointed at the price effect, inadequate availability and nutritional gaps in the Indian diet.

ORGANIC AGRICULTURE POLICY IN TUYEN QUANG PROVINCE FOR THE PERIOD 2018-2021

Organic agricultural production has been taking place in many countries around the world with a strong shift from traditional agriculture to sustainable agriculture in order to create high-value agricultural products with food safety, environmental protection and climate change adaptation. Organic agricultural production is considered as the natural farming with strict control of irrigation water, unpolluted soil and no use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, growth stimulants and plant varieties, livestock and materials derived from genetically modified organisms. Organic agriculture is attracting the attention of the whole society and is the preferred choice of consumers today. Our Party and the State have timely worked out guidelines and policies to prioritize and support efforts to develop sustainable, environmentally friendly, productive and competitive agricultural products including the organic. Through a practical research, it shows that, in addition to the results in implementation of the organic agricultural production policy achieved in the period of 2018-2021 in Tuyen Quang province, there should be good orientations and solutions to facilitate further development of the organic agricultural production. Keywords: Organic Agriculture, Organic agricultural production, Policy on organic agricultural production, Consumers and Tuyen Quang province.

Exploring the volatile metabolome of conventional and organic walnut oils by solid-phase microextraction and analysis by GC-MS combined with chemometrics

It is challenging to establish a correlation between the agronomical practices and the volatile profile of high-value agricultural products. In this study, the volatile metabolome of walnut oils from conventional and organic farming type was explored by HS-SPME-GC-MS. The SPME protocol was optimized after evaluating the effects of extraction time, extraction temperature, and sample mass. The optimum parameters involved the extraction of 0.500 g walnut oil at 40 °C within 60 min. Twenty Greek walnut oils produced with conventional and organic farming were analyzed and 41 volatile compounds were identified. The determined compounds were semi-quantified, and further processed with chemometrics. Agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) and principal component analysis (PCA) were used. A robust classification model was developed using sparse partial least squares–discriminant analysis (sPLS-DA) for the discrimination of walnut oils into conventional and organic, establishing volatile markers that could be used to guarantee the type of farming.

Dynamics of Rural Growth in Bangladesh: Sustaining Poverty Reduction

The rural economy in Bangladesh has powerfully advanced economic growth and substantially reduced poverty, especially since 2000, but the remarkable transformation and unprecedented dynamism in rural Bangladesh remain an underexplored, underappreciated, and largely untold story. Dynamics of Rural Growth in Bangladesh: Sustaining Poverty Reduction tells that story and inquires what specific actions Bangladesh might take given the residual poverty and persistent malnutrition to accelerate and channel its rural dynamism to sustain the gains in eliminating poverty, achieving shared prosperity, and advancing national aspirations to achieve middle-income status. The central element of this study, undertaken with the Government of Bangladesh Planning Commission to address key questions elicited through extensive consultation, is an empirical analysis that illuminates the underlying dynamics of rural growth, particularly the role of agriculture and its relationship to the nonfarm economy. Using all sources of data available for the macro, meso, and micro household levels, the analysis provides new evidence on changes in the rural economy and the principal drivers of rural incomes. It also examines market performance for high-value agricultural products and agriculture nutrition linkages, based on new surveys and analysis. The resulting evidence, examined in light of the rich knowledge of rural development in Bangladesh, is used to delineate the implications for policy and the strategic priorities for sustaining future rural development, poverty reduction, food security, and nutrition. The effects of policy reforms, changes in technology, and investments in infrastructure and human capital described here, along with the persistent enterprise of rural Bangladeshi households, offer a compelling case study of how mutually reinforcing actions can trigger the highly-sought-after virtuous cycle of rural development. The findings clearly demonstrate the pro-poor nature of agricultural growth and its catalytic role in stimulating the rural nonfarm economy. They show that households have no linear or predictable pathway out of poverty; instead, they wisely employ a combination of farm and nonfarm income strategies to climb out of, and then stay out of, poverty. The results represent a strong contribution to the global thinking on rural transformation and on how agriculture in particular sustains the economic momentum that fosters poverty reduction and more widespread prosperity.

OPTIMIZATION OF A NEW CULTURE MEDIUM FOR THE LARGE-SCALE PRODUCTION OF PROTEIN-RICH ARTHROSPIRA PLATENSIS (OSCILLATORIALES, CYANOPHYCEAE).

Our aim was to develop a novel medium for the large-scale production of protein-rich Arthrospira with potential applications as a biofertilizer. The novel culture medium, termed as FM-II, was formulated using low-cost commercial chemicals and specifically designed to improve protein production. Both Arthrospira platensis and Arthrospira maxima were produced using FM-II and Arnon medium, which was used as a control. Photosynthetic status of the cells, which was checked by measuring chlorophyll fluorescence, biomass dry weight and protein content, was assessed daily. Arthrospira platensis had higher biomass and protein productivities than A.maxima when cultured in both control and FM-II media. Incorporation of varied micronutrients into FM-II formulation did not improve biomass productivity. Maximum biomass dry weight in FM-II and control medium was 2.9 and 2.5g·L-1 , respectively. Total protein content of the biomass ranged between 55% and 65%, suggesting potential for being used in the development of high-value agricultural products. As some nutrients were discarded unused, the initial content of phosphates and bicarbonates was reduced by 75% and 50%, respectively, without affecting the process productivity. Results reported herein could promote the production and utilization of Arthrospira platensis by significantly reducing productions costs and therefore increasing the feasibility of the process.

Achieving Food Authenticity and Traceability Using an Analytical Method Focusing on Stable Isotope Analysis.

High-value agricultural products are characterized by the geographical conditions of the production areas such as climatic and soil conditions. These products are protected by the geographical indication (GI) protection system, which has been introduced in more than 100 countries. Because GI products are expensive in the market, products are often mislabeled as GI. Thus, there is an urgent need for the development of analytical methods that enable the tracing of geographical origins of food materials. Stable isotope analysis is used to trace the geographical origin of food materials. In this study, we review the applications for tracing the geographical origin of agricultural products (especially rice, beef, and honey) focusing on an analytical method for analyzing stable isotopes (δD, δ13C, δ15N, δ18O, and δ34S).

Strategy for the development of agro-based clusters

Agriculture in developing countries is transforming from the production of cereal grains to high-value agricultural products (HVPs) and processing them to meet the standards demanded in the market. The production of HVPs is usually geographically clustered and, hence, such areas may be termed as agro-based clusters (ABCs). However, not all ABCs process products to meet high quality demand. We categorize ABCs into agriculture clusters (AC), where no processing is involved, and agro-industrial clusters (AIC) where processing, including value addition, is a significant activity to meet the quality requirements of export and supermarkets. The major challenge for developing countries is to develop ABCs and to transform their ACs into AICs. From the literature review on contract farming, ABCs, and industrial clusters (ICs), we conclude that although a few studies highlight individual components, no attempt has been made to formulate a consolidated strategy for this transformation. This study attempts to demonstrate that in addition to providing improved technologies and basic rural infrastructure, mobilizing stakeholders into various groups, such as farmers’ cooperatives and agro-processors’ associations; providing technological and managerial training of stakeholders through these groups; promoting their collective actions for innovations; and implementing an appropriate regulatory framework are the keys to transform ACs into AICs. Building from the differences and similarities between ABCs and ICs, we also conclude that the role of government support is much more important in the case of the former than in the latter.

A stochastic planning framework for the discovery of complementary, agricultural systems

One of the greatest 21st century challenges is meeting the need to feed a growing world population which is expected to increase by about 35% by 2050. To meet this challenge, it is necessary to make major improvements on current food production and distribution systems capabilities, as well as to adapt these systems to expected trends such as climate change. Changing climate patterns may present opportunities for unidentified, geographical regions with adequate climate patterns to produce high-value agricultural products in a profitable and sustainable manner.This paper focuses on the design and planning aspects of a discovery process to unearth agri-food supply chains capable of generating attractive return on investments. A stochastic optimization framework is used to develop planting and harvesting schedules for a set of identified regions with complementary weather characteristics. To address the high-level of variability in the problem context, a two-stage stochastic decomposition method is used to consider a larger number of scenarios. As part of the solution process, a modeling scheme is developed that learns past interactions between entering discretized, weather scenarios and optimal first-stage solutions. In this context, machine learning and dimensionality reduction techniques are used to iteratively estimate each region's probability of belonging to first-stage solutions based on previous solution-scenario results. The implementation of the stochastic framework is shown through a case study applied to multiple locations within the US southwest states of Arizona and New Mexico.

Characteristics of Farmer Adopters of High Value Horticultural Crops in Indonesia

Improving the participation of smallholder farmers in horticultural value chains to benefit from the rapidly growing demand for high value agricultural products is one strategy for raising farm income. However, smallholder farmer adoption of high value horticultural crops in Indonesian is under-researched. To address this knowledge gap, this study aims to examines the characteristics of farmers who adopted and those who did not adopt a new horticultural crop with respect to the household (farmer), farm and institutional characteristics. The unique data from a 2013 survey of 960 Indonesian farmers on Java Island that produce a variety of agricultural products was analysed using independent-sample t-tests. Basic statistical analysis showed relatively low adoption rates (10%) of new horticultural crops amongst 960 selected Indonesian farmers with different characteristics. The result showed that current low rates of horticultural crop adoption are associated with a variety of factors, such as lower levels of education among farmers, resource constraints, lack of information on horticultural crop production and low participation in farmer groups.Keywords: horticultural crops, smallholder farmer adoption, household

Combined fluorescence-transmittance imaging system for geographical authentication of patchouli oil.

Recently, demand for authentication technology is growing rapidly in an attempt to overcome counterfeiting of high-value agricultural products, such as patchouli oil. Fingerprinting methods based on spectroscopy are one such technology being used for authentication. However, the spectral datasets obtained are multivariate in nature; containing thousands of data points for a single sample, making data acquisition and processing time-consuming. Therefore, reduction and simplification in the number of variables used required is needed to provide a more rapid and applicable method. Color cameras, which can capture image in the visible region light, could be such an alternative spectral data acquisition approach. In this research, a simplified spectroscopy method was developed for origin authentication of patchouli oil. The system consists of front ultraviolet light induced (365 nm) fluorescence and a white LED-based backlighting imaging system that consecutively captures the fluorescence and transmittance characteristics of the oil in the visible region. From the captured images, features were extracted and analyzed using Principle Component Analysis (PCA) to identify important image features for discrimination of origin. From the samples measured, the samples clustered around three islands of origin in the PCA space. A classification model based on fluorescence and transmittance image features (color values) could discriminate origin classes with a total accuracy of 88.46%. A lower accuracy was found for the Java class due to low sample numbers. This result demonstrates that the proposed system has the potential to be a rapid authentication tool for determining the geographical origin of patchouli oils.

An engineered oilseed crop produces oil enriched in two very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids with potential health-promoting properties

Very long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (VLCPUFAs) are well recognized for their health benefits in humans and animals. Here we report that identification and characterization of a gene (EhELO1) encoding the first functional ELO type elongase (3-ketoacyl-CoA synthase) in higher plants that is involved in the biosynthesis of two VLCPUFAs docosadienoic acid (DDA, 22:2n-6) and docosatrienoic acid (DTA, 22:3n-3) that possess potential health-promoting properties. Functional analysis of the gene in yeast indicated that this novel enzyme could elongate a wide range of polyunsaturated fatty acids with 18–22 carbons and effectively catalyze the biosynthesis of DDA and DTA by the sequential elongations of linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, respectively. Seed-specific expression of this gene in oilseed crop Brassica carinata showed that the transgenic plants produced the level of DDA and DTA at approximately 30% of the total fatty acids in seeds, and the amount of the two fatty acids remained stable over four generations. The oilseed crop producing a high and sustained level of DDA and DTA provides an opportunity for high value agricultural products for nutritional and medical uses.

The making of virgin fruit: the molecular and genetic basis of parthenocarpy.

Fruit set-the commitment of an angiosperm plant to develop fruit-is a key developmental process that normally occurs following successful fertilization. Parthenocarpy arises when fruit automatically develop in the absence of fertilization. This review uses parthenocarpic fruit development as a focal device through which to recapitulate and understand the molecular effectors that mediate and regulate fruit set. The review demonstrates that studies of parthenocarpy are providing vital insight into plant development, signaling and, potentially, high-value agricultural products.

Temperature-regulating materials for advanced food packaging applications: a review

The use of temperature-regulating material (TRM)-based food packaging is recently trending in the food science and technology sectors. Although this technology is still not fully commercially viable, it has good potential to control the temperature of perishable and high-value agricultural products during transport. Scope and approach: Firstly, this paper describes all the aspects of TRM packaging, including their classification, various technical approaches, and commercial applications, with special focus on the direct integration of TRMs into food packaging systems. Secondly, to provide useful guidelines for future research in the field, this paper discusses some important aspects that still hinder the full exploitation of TRM technology within the food packaging industry. To make the TRM packaging systems commercially viable, future research needs to consider some important aspects including cost, consumer acceptance and confidence, regulatory aspects (e.g., labeling), and multi-functionality.