Increase Agriculture Sustainability Research Articles

Soil quality index using the CASH methodology and Rainforest Alliance Scorecard in the coffee zone of the Caldas department, Colombia

The Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health (CASH) methodology provides a broad approach to evaluate soil health, helping farmers and researchers to identify management practices that can enhance soil health and increase agricultural sustainability in coffee crops. When integrated with regenerative agriculture strategies such as cover cropping, intercropping, agroforestry, and crop rotation, these practices can effectively enhance soil health and productivity. The aim of this research was to develop a soil health index using the CASH approach adjusted to the conditions of the coffee zone in the Caldas department (Colombia) and to adapt the index of the Rainforest Alliance Scorecard guidelines. A database containing 3,332 soil analyses from different coffee zones in the department was used, carried out between 2005 and 2021. The index obtained with historical data shows that 66% of the properties were classified as Bronze, 18% Silver, and 16% Gold, whereas the validation data showed that 49% of the properties were classified as Bronze, 21% Silver, and 30% Gold. The most important variables identified in soil health were organic matter content, organic carbon stock, CO2 equivalent, pH, bulk density, and nutrient content related to N, P, K, Ca, and Mg. CASH can be employed to evaluate the soil health status in the field using quantitative indicators linked to the Rainforest Scorecard and is a useful tool to promote regenerative practices in soil adjusted to Caldas coffee zones.

The Effect Of Casgot Fertilizer On The Growth Of Cucumber Plants

Regular use of organic fertilizer can improve soil health, reduce erosion, and increase agricultural sustainability by reducing dependence on synthetic chemicals. Kasgot fertilizer or used maggot fertilizer is a type of organic fertilizer produced from maggot droppings (larva lalat Black Soldier Fly) after they decompose organic waste. This fertilizer is rich in essential nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and contains various beneficial microorganisms that help increase soil fertility. This research aims to determine the effect of cassava fertilizer on the growth of cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus L.).This study used non-factorial RAK with 4 administration dose levels, namely: M0= 0 grams/planting hole, M1= 5 grams/planting hole, M2= 10 grams/planting hole and M3= 20 grams/planting hole. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance tests on the parameters of plant height, number of leaves and root weight. The results of the research showed that the parameters of plant height and number of leaves showed significant differences between plants aged 2 WAP and 4 WAP, while root weight did not have a significant difference between treatments and each replication. Additional doses or other organic materials are needed to increase the macro nutrients available in the soil.

Hedgerows have contrasting effects on pollinators and natural enemies and limited spillover effects on apple production

Agricultural intensification has resulted in a decline in insect biodiversity and threatens the provision of valuable ecosystem services. Agri-environment schemes (AESs) have been implemented in an effort to conserve biodiversity on farmland and increase agricultural sustainability, but their effectiveness can vary widely. To better determine which factors influence AES effectiveness, the relative roles of local habitat features, habitat quality, and landscape context need to be further explored. The aim of this study was to determine the most important factors influencing field margin AES effectiveness in commercial apple orchards, in terms of arthropod biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service provision. We surveyed wild bees and aphid natural enemies in field margins and apple trees in 20 orchards, ten bordered by hedgerow field margins (an AES) and ten with herbaceous field margins (no hedgerows present, not an AES). We considered field margin floral resources and the cover of semi-natural habitat in the surrounding landscape as indicators of local habitat quality and landscape context, respectively. We furthermore quantified pollination and pest control as measures of ecosystem service delivery and the relationship between arthropod communities and apple yield (initial and final fruit set) and quality. We found that hedgerow presence strongly predicted both pollinator and natural enemy communities and that these relationships were more pronounced than those with local habitat quality and landscape context. Hedgerows were negatively related to wild bee richness and abundance within the orchard, and positively related to natural enemy richness and abundance at the field margin but not within the orchard. We found no relationships between local and landscape factors and ecosystem service delivery, and no relationship between wild bee communities and apple yield, suggesting that apple is not pollen limited in our study system. There was, however, a negative relationship between natural enemy richness and initial fruit set. We conclude that annually cut hedgerows can benefit the conservation of natural enemies, but have limited arthropod-mediated private benefits for apple production, and likely need to be supplemented with additional local habitat resources for the conservation of wild bees. Our findings indicate that local habitat factors can strongly influence biodiversity regardless of landscape context, but that AESs likely need to be designed with separate biodiversity and ecosystem service targets, and specific taxonomic groups, in mind.

Effect of Conservation Tillage and Precision Nitrogen Management on Wheat: A Review

The most significant source of protein in the world is wheat, which accounts for roughly 21% of daily dietary protein requirements on average. With more than 60% of the population living in rural regions, the wheat crop system in Indian agriculture represents the backbone and the future of the country's economy. By speeding the oxidation and disintegration of organic matter, which results in the deterioration of soil characteristics, intensive ploughing causes a decrease in soil organic matter. To conserve resources, slow down soil degradation, adjust cropping systems to climate extremes, and increase agricultural sustainability over the long term, conservation agriculture (CA), which involves minimising soil disturbances, is widely supported. One of the greatest restrictions for CA is the immobilisation of N, which is mostly related to the presence of a continuous residue cover on the soil surface. The employment of some technologies, such as the SPAD metre, NDVI sensor, site-specific nutrient management through soil test crop response, nutrient expert LCC, etc., during the growing season for precision N management aids in meeting the crop's nitrogen needs with the least amount of environmental impact. This study aims to examine the research studies where precision nitrogen management technologies were applied in conservation agriculture and discuss the effects of these tools and techniques on wheat growth, productivity, and nutrient usage efficiency (NUE).

Amino Acid and Carbohydrate Metabolism Are Coordinated to Maintain Energetic Balance during Drought in Sugarcane.

The ability to expand crop plantations without irrigation is a major goal to increase agriculture sustainability. To achieve this end, we need to understand the mechanisms that govern plant growth responses under drought conditions. In this study, we combined physiological, transcriptomic, and genomic data to provide a comprehensive picture of drought and recovery responses in the leaves and roots of sugarcane. Transcriptomic profiling using oligoarrays and RNA-seq identified 2898 (out of 21,902) and 46,062 (out of 373,869) transcripts as differentially expressed, respectively. Co-expression analysis revealed modules enriched in photosynthesis, small molecule metabolism, alpha-amino acid metabolism, trehalose biosynthesis, serine family amino acid metabolism, and carbohydrate transport. Together, our findings reveal that carbohydrate metabolism is coordinated with the degradation of amino acids to provide carbon skeletons to the tricarboxylic acid cycle. This coordination may help to maintain energetic balance during drought stress adaptation, facilitating recovery after the stress is alleviated. Our results shed light on candidate regulatory elements and pave the way to biotechnology strategies towards the development of drought-tolerant sugarcane plants.

Cattle Grazing Benefits Farmland Bird Community Composition in Oil Palm Plantations

Oil palm expansion has caused considerable biodiversity loss as rainforest has been converted to plantation. However, it is still possible to mitigate such biodiversity losses and increase agricultural sustainability by introducing sustainable oil palm farming practices. One such method is the use of biological control agents for understory weed management in place of herbicides. Integrating cattle into oil palm plantation management to control undergrowth is expected to improve biodiversity (including avian diversity) in oil palm plantations. This study investigated the association between cattle grazing and farmland bird species composition in oil palm plantations. We used point transect sampling to survey farmland birds in 45 oil palm plantations which were divided into systematically and non-systematically cattle grazed plantations and control plantations (without cattle grazing). We found that both oil palm plantations with systematic (P=0.001) and non-systematic (P=0.005) cattle grazing had greater avian diversity than plantations without cattle grazing. Based on feeding guild, avian insectivores made up the majority of farmland birds observed. Bird species composition was determined by four attributes in our model: number of cattle, selective weeding frequency, age of oil palm stand, and palm height. We conclude that systematic grazing can improve avian diversity in oil palm plantations. We stress, that cattle integration into oil palm agriculture can provide an excellent means of maximising agricultural land use efficiency as well as increasing biodiversity in agricultural landscapes by increasing habitat complexity.

Short‐term Impacts on Soil‐quality Assessment in Alternative Land Uses of Traditional Paddy Fields in Southern Brazil

AbstractNo‐till, crop diversity and integrated crop–livestock systems are proposed managements to increase agriculture sustainability in the rice paddies of the Southern Brazilian lowlands and avoid degradation in the region. Because soil is considered a key medium in which management modifications can be measured, our study aimed to evaluate soil‐quality impacts by measuring carbon and nitrogen stocks and microbial activity 18 months after the adoption of different paddy‐farming systems in an Albaqualf soil of Southern Brazil. The treatments consisted of five paddy‐farming systems with a range of vegetation diversity (both in time and in space) and grazing seasons. In addition, a reference area (i.e. native forest) was sampled for comparison. We verified that soil quality was affected over the short term through the adoption of no‐till, crop diversity and integrated grazing practices. However, during the study period, only the system with low anthropic and/or mechanical intervention and high plant diversity differed from the traditional paddy land‐use approach in Brazil in terms of soil‐quality effects. This system achieved a carbon management index of 49 (approximately half that of the native forest) and had the highest enzymatic activity (similar to native forest). These outcomes were primarily due to an increase in the particulate organic matter fraction of the soil carbon stock (4·6 Mg ha−1 more than in rice monocropping). To evaluate changes in soil quality over the long term, additional studies are required. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Bradyrhizobium inoculation alters indigenous AMF community assemblages and interacts positively with AMF inoculum to improve cowpea performance

Legumes are a major component in sustainable agricultural systems since they can fix atmospheric nitrogen and form effective associations with both nitrogen fixing bacteria (NFB) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). However, the impact of NFB inoculation on the indigenous AMF community structure in legumes has been overlooked. In the current study, we investigated the influence of a Bradhyrhizobium isolate together with a commercial mycorrhizal inoculum on the performance of cowpea, along with its endophytic mycorrhizal community structure. A three-way factorial randomized design was established in sterilized and non-sterilized soils, including control plants (without inoculation), inoculated plants with a Bradyrhizobium (NFB) strain, a commercial mycorrhizal inoculum (AMF) and their combination (AMF+/NFB+). All inoculation treatments under sterile and non-sterile soil conditions resulted in a significant increase in the shoot biomass, which was positively correlated with AMF colonization, and the number of nodules found in cowpea roots. Mycorrhizal colonization and nodule formation in control plants grown in non-sterilized soils, suggested an active and functional local mycorrhizal and rhizobial community in the soil, which was further supported by the molecular fingerprints. Growth of control plants in sterile soil resulted in lower shoot biomass that was in line with the absence of the respective microbial assemblages. Interestingly, the local AMF community pattern of cowpea roots was drastically altered after the NFB application. Molecular fingerprinting, through cloning of PCR amplified sequences of 18sRNA revealed that cowpea plants were colonized by Rhizophagus, Funneliformis, Claroideoglomus and Paraglomus related species. The results support the notion that the introduced Bradyrhizobium strain interacted drastically with the indigenous AMF community, leading to a more diverse colonization pattern of cowpea roots. These findings enhance our understanding of how these microorganisms interact to affect plant performance and increase agricultural sustainability.

Exploring soil microbial 16S rRNA sequence data to increase carbon yield and nitrogen efficiency of a bioenergy crop

AbstractCrop residues returned to the soil are important for the preservation of soil quality, health, and biodiversity, and they increase agriculture sustainability by recycling nutrients. Sugarcane is a bioenergy crop that produces huge amounts of straw (also known as trash) every year. In addition to straw, the ethanol industry also generates large volumes of vinasse, a liquid residue of ethanol production, which is recycled in sugarcane fields as fertilizer. However, both straw and vinasse have an impact on N2O fluxes from the soil. Nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas that is a primary concern in biofuel sustainability. Because bacteria and archaea are the main drivers of N redox processes in soil, in this study we propose the identification of taxa related with N2O fluxes by combining functional responses (N2O release) and the abundance of these microorganisms in soil. Using a large‐scale in situ experiment with ten treatments, an intensive gas monitoring approach, high‐throughput sequencing of soil microbial 16S rRNA gene and powerful statistical methods, we identified microbes related to N2O fluxes in soil with sugarcane crops. In addition to the classical denitrifiers, we identified taxa within the phylum Firmicutes and mostly uncharacterized taxa recently described as important drivers of N2O consumption. Treatments with straw and vinasse also allowed the identification of taxa with potential biotechnological properties that might improve the sustainability of bioethanol by increasing C yields and improving N efficiency in sugarcane fields.

Amplifying the benefits of agroecology by using the right cultivars

Tropical soils are particularly vulnerable to fertility losses due to their low capacity to retain organic matter and mineral nutrients. This urges the development of new agricultural practices to manage mineral nutrients and organic matter in a more sustainable way while relying less on fertilizer inputs. Two methods pertaining to ecological engineering and agroecology have been tested with some success: (1) the addition of biochar to the soil, and (2) the maintenance of higher earthworm densities. However, modern crop varieties have been selected to be adapted to agricultural practices and to the soil conditions they lead to and common cultivars might not be adapted to new practices. Using rice as a model plant, we compared the responsiveness to biochar and earthworms of five rice cultivars with contrasted selection histories. These cultivars had contrasted responsivenesses to earthworms, biochar, and the combination of both. The mean relative increase in grain biomass, among all treatments and cultivars, was 94% and 32%, respectively, with and without fertilization. Choosing the best combination of cultivar and treatment led to a more than fourfold increase in this mean benefit (a 437% and a 353% relative increase in grain biomass, respectively, with and without fertilization). Besides, the more rustic cultivar, a local landrace adapted to diverse and difficult conditions, responded the best to earthworms in terms of total biomass, while a modern common cultivar responded the best in term of grain biomass. This suggests that cultivars could be selected to amplify the benefit of biochar- and earthworm-based practices. Overall, selecting new cultivars interacting more closely with soil organisms and soil heterogeneity could increase agriculture sustainability, fostering the positive feedback loop between soils and plants that has evolved in natural ecosystems.

Testing Moran's theorem in an agroecosystem

The abundance and reproductive effort of populations frequently fluctuate across space and time, a phenomenon known as spatial synchrony. Knowledge of the causes of this behavior underlies the ability to manage species, protect the health of humans and the environment, and increase agricultural sustainability. We used an agroecosystem to test Moran's theorem – spatial synchrony results from environmental entrainment. The controlled conditions of the agroecosystem allowed us to create a highly correlated environment while negating the effects of the alternative hypotheses: dispersal and trophic interactions. Under such conditions, synchrony of fruit production by 4288 trees was high over six years in a 32.5 ha pistachio orchard and occurred at similar temporal frequency as weather patterns demonstrating the Moran effect. The spatial synchrony of fruit production was less than the presumed synchrony of the environment supporting research from microcosms and observational studies showing the Moran effect is degraded by local mechanisms. Indeed even under the homogeneous environment of this system, synchrony declined significantly with distance among trees. We present evidence suggesting that the correlation of the local environment affects intrinsic dynamics to cause these patterns. Our findings demonstrate that the Moran effect is, at minimum, partially responsible for the synchronous fruit production in this system. Agroecosystems are often overlooked in basic ecological research; this experiment provides an example of their comparative advantages for the study of some ecological questions.

Relationships between reproductive output, morpho-physiological traits and life span in Lesquerella (Brassicaceae)

The development of perennial industrial crops could contribute to increase agriculture sustainability and yield stability in arid environments. Since perennial plants allocate resources preferentially to perpetuation and to structural and functional characters that provide drought tolerance, they tend to have lower reproductive output (yield) than their congeneric annuals. Four species of Lesquerella native to arid regions were evaluated to understand the relationships between reproduction, drought tolerance, and their association with the plant's life span. We assessed the following set of characters (defined as plant strategies): phenology, gas exchange, specific leaf area, leaf area ratio, total biomass and biomass allocation. Annual ( Lesquerella gracilis and Lesquerella angustifolia) and perennial ( Lesquerella mendocina and Lesquerella pinetorum) species were compared under water limiting conditions. Within this set of species differences in structural and functional characters were observed. The annual, L. gracilis showed a plant strategy characterized by high reproductive output, harvest index (HI) and specific leaf area (SLA). L. mendocina (perennial), produced more total biomass, but had a low reproductive output, and also showed characters that provide drought tolerance (high allocation to roots-root mass ratio (RMR), and storage-total non structural carbohydrates (TNC) and low SLA). The annual L. angustifolia and the perennial L. pinetorum had intermediate plant strategies (i.e. intermediate values of traits typically related with annual or perennial life span). In the case of L. pinetorum we found some traits common to L. mendocina: long vegetative period, high biomass, CO 2 assimilation rate (A), and water use efficiency (WUE), and low SLA. The high reproductive output in L. pinetorum was a result of both, higher total biomass and longer growing season compared to the annuals, and of higher HI in relation to the other perennial. These differences in plant strategies among perennial Lesquerella show that there are different combinations of traits that could be used as criteria for the selection of a perennial crop in programs of domestication for Patagonia and others arid lands.