Land-based Production Research Articles

Is energy cropping in Europe compatible with biodiversity? – Opportunities and threats to biodiversity from land-based production of biomass for bioenergy purposes

Based on literature and six country studies (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, Slovakia) this paper discusses the compatibility of the EU 2020 targets for renewable energy with conservation of biodiversity.We conclude that increased demand for biomass for bioenergy purposes may lead to a continued conversion of valuable habitats into productive lands and to intensification, which both have negative effects on biodiversity. On the other hand, increased demand for biomass also provides opportunities for biodiversity, both within existing productive lands and in abandoned or degraded lands. Perennial crops may lead to increased diversity in crop patterns, lower input uses, and higher landscape structural diversity which may all have positive effects on biodiversity.In production forest opportunities exist to harvest primary wood residues. Removal of these forest residues under strict sustainability conditions may become economically attractive with increased biomass demand.An additional biomass potential is represented by recreation areas, road-side verges, semi-natural and natural areas and lands which have no other use because they have been abandoned, polluted or degraded.Whether effects of cropping of biomass and/or removal of biomass has positive or negative impact on biodiversity depends strongly on specific regional circumstances, the type of land and land use shifts involved and the associated management practices in general. However, it is clear that in the six countries studied certain types of biomass crops are likely to be more sustainable than others.

Key issues and options in accounting for carbon sequestration and temporary storage in life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting

Purpose Biological sequestration can increase the carbon stocks of non-atmospheric reservoirs (e.g. land and land-based products). Since this contained carbon is sequestered from, and retained outside, the atmosphere for a period of time, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is temporarily reduced and some radiative forcing is avoided. Carbon removal from the atmosphere and storage in the biosphere or anthroposphere, therefore, has the potential to mitigate climate change, even if the carbon storage and associated benefits might be temporary. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprinting (CF) are increasingly popular tools for the environmental assessment of products, that take into account their entire life cycle. There have been significant efforts to develop robust methods to account for the benefits, if any, of sequestration and temporary storage and release of biogenic carbon. However, there is still no overall consensus on the most appropriate ways of considering and quantifying it.

Livestock nutrition – a perspective on future needs in a resource-challenged planet

Global agriculture will be challenged by future population growth in the developing nations in Africa and Asia, concurrent with regional changes in climate that will adversely affect local crop and fodder production. The uncoupling of animal production from land area by global trade in high energy grains and protein meals, which has underpinned industrialised livestock production in the developed world, is forecast to continue in some population growth hotspots of the developing world. However, the projected rise in fossil fuel costs and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with their use will increasingly favour use of non-cereal energy sources, and the extent of feeding cereal grains to livestock in the developing world into the middle of this century is uncertain. Meeting the developing world’s growing demand for meat, milk and eggs in the face of the 3-fold challenge of population growth, climate change and fossil energy decline, demands a fresh vision, and the development of fresh technologies for animal nutrition in coming decades. How can high efficiency production be achieved from feeds of low metabolisability? This question is as critical for aquaculture as it is for land-based production. Enhancing ruminant capacity to generate animal product from crop by-products is fundamental in this achievement, but livestock access to crop residues will be in competition with the emerging second-generation (cellulosic) biofuels industry. Industrial technologies that treat crop residues to improve their nutritive value at source, not just as end-user treatments, will be required. There is scope to boost animal production and also reduce enteric greenhouse gas emissions (e.g. nitrate supplements) and the expanded capability in rumen microbiology may deliver targeted tools to mitigate emissions and increase energy yield from cellulosic feedstuffs. The greatest challenge of tomorrow’s nutritionist, however, is to provide local feed energy resources and enhanced nutrient utilisation, allowing a high yield of animal product without reliance on imported cereal grains and oilseed meals.

Metabolic engineering of omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in plants using an acyl-CoA Δ6-desaturase with ω3-preference from the marine microalga Micromonas pusilla

Long-chain (≥C 20) polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) EPA and DHA (20:5 Δ5,8,11,14,17 and 22:6 Δ4,7,10,13,16,19) have well-documented health benefits against coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and other disorders. Currently, the predominant sources of these fatty acids are marine fish and algal oils, but research is being conducted to ensure that a sustainable, land-based production system can be developed. We here describe the metabolic engineering of an artificial pathway that produces 26% EPA in leaf triacylglycerol using a newly-identified Δ6-desaturase from the marine microalga Micromonas pusilla. We also demonstrate that this enzyme appears to function as an acyl-CoA desaturase that has preference for ω3 substrates both in planta and in yeast. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that this desaturase shares highly conserved motifs with previously described acyl-CoA Δ6-desaturases.

Policies, Political-Economy, and Swidden in Southeast Asia

For centuries swidden was an important farming practice found across the girth of Southeast Asia. Today, however, these systems are changing and sometimes disappearing at a pace never before experienced. In order to explain the demise or transitioning of swidden we need to understand the rapid and massive changes that have and are occurring in the political and economic environment in which these farmers operate. Swidden farming has always been characterized by change, but since the onset of modern independent nation states, governments and markets in Southeast Asia have transformed the terms of swiddeners’ everyday lives to a degree that is significantly different from that ever experienced before. In this paper we identified six factors that have contributed to the demise or transformation of swidden systems, and support these arguments with examples from China (Xishuangbanna), Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. These trends include classifying swiddeners as ethnic minorities within nation-states, dividing the landscape into forest and permanent agriculture, expansion of forest departments and the rise of conservation, resettlement, privatization and commoditization of land and land-based production, and expansion of market infrastructure and the promotion of industrial agriculture. In addition we note a growing trend toward a transition from rural to urban livelihoods and expanding urban-labor markets.

Demographic transition and industrial revolution: A macroeconomic investigation

All industrialized countries have experienced a transition from high birth rates, land-based production and stagnant standards of living to low birth rates and sustained income growth. To develop a better understanding of these economic and demographic transformations and the link between them, we construct a general equilibrium framework merging the Hansen and Prescott [Hansen, Gary D., Prescott, Edward C., 2002. Malthus to Solow. American Economic Review 92 (4), 1205–1217] model of structural change with the Barro and Becker [Barro, Robert J., Becker, Gary S., 1989. Fertility choice in a model of economic growth. Econometrica 57 (2), 481–501] model of fertility choice. We find that when the historical changes of youth mortality and sector-specific productivity are introduced into the model, parameterized to capture key moments of 17th century England, it does remarkably well at generating the long-run features of economic and demographic development of England.

Environmental analysis of the Norwegian fishery and aquaculture industry—A preliminary study focusing on farmed salmon

This article addresses the present status of seafood-oriented environmental methods and analyses, and pinpoints areas for further development. A recent study of the CO2 emissions associated with the production of farmed salmon in Norway, following the life cycle from hatching to consumption, is presented. The study was initiated due to the increased focus on environmental impacts from food production among consumer organizations, retailers, and authorities. In general, several methods are being currently applied to measure environmental performance. Unfortunately, different methods provide quite different results. An additional challenge is that most of these methods were originally developed for land-based production. If assumptions about the performance of the seafood industry are established on the basis of incorrect information, consequences for both the management and the market level may not be desirable.

Getting the Last Gasp: Deliquification of Challenging Gas Wells

This article, written by Technology Editor Dennis Denney, contains highlights of paper IPTC 11651, "Getting the Last Gasp: Deliquification of Challenging Gas Wells," by A.V. Bondurant, SPE, B.D. Dotson, SPE, and P.O. Oyewole, SPE, BP plc, prepared for the 2007 International Petroleum Technology Conference, Dubai, 4–6 December. The paper has not been peer reviewed. A common characteristic of "challenging" unconventional gas resources—namely, low-permeability sands, shale, and coalbed methane (CBM)—is that the ultimate recovery depends on economic removal of liquids accumulation, generally termed "deliquification." The problem affects thousands of wells, and the solution involves not only technology development but also knowledge management and building resource capability. Industry is working on a variety of deliquification technologies for challenging gas, with developments ranging from adapting existing oilfield technologies to developing gas-specific technologies to developing "on the horizon" technologies. Examples in each stage of development are presented. Introduction A distinguishing characteristic of North American land-based gas production is the large number of low-rate wells. In the continental US, the majority of gas wells produce less than 100 Mscf/D. The low rates reflect the maturity of North American gas production and the predominance of challenging production from low-permeability-sand (<0.1 md), shale, and CBM reservoirs. Low-rate gas wells almost always cease production because of liquid accumulation in the wellbore. Consequently, deliquification is of great importance. From a worldwide perspective, the current need for deliquification of low-rate wells is more modest. As production from high-rate wells declines, similar technical and economic challenges will be faced outside North America and will benefit from the solutions developed there. For this study, a gas well is any well making 50 bbl/MMscf or less of stock-tank hydrocarbon liquids. An actively producing well is one having production reported in the second half of 2005. Production data from several eastern states, which tend to have very-low-rate gas wells, were not readily available and, therefore, were not included in this analysis. With these definitions, data were collected on 235,000 active producing gas wells in the major producing states for the second half of 2005. Approximately 150,000 wells that produce less than 100 Mscf/D/well pro-duce approximately 7.5 Bcf/D collectively, 10% of the North American gas consumption. Most of these wells either are impaired by liquid accumulation or are producing with some form of artificial lift for deliquification. Deliquification in North America involves a very large well count, with generally a small incremental effect on each well.

A methodology for integrated economic and environmental analysis of pollution from agriculture

This paper presents a methodology for analyzing the effect of policies focused at reducing pollution from agriculture. Such a methodology must take into account that agricultural pollution is an effect of a large set of interacting processes, covers many different substances, and may vary substantially due to shifts in natural and economic conditions. Thus, the methodology must both cover the specificities of the different processes/disciplines involved and foster integration across these in a consistent way. The basic challenge is to cover the non-linear fine-scale variations at different levels of land-based production systems. Our methodology is founded on the idea of partitioning. It implies structuring and simplifying existing variation in space and time into partitions that are considered homogeneous. These partitions are organized in a hierarchy, and the different processes involved are modeled at the relevant level. We have concluded that analyses with fairly high level of resolution are preferable. This way it is also possible to combine a systems perspective with disciplinary integrity. A modeling structure – ECECMOD (2.0) – based on the developed principles is documented. The paper also shows the ability of this structure to simulate choice of farming practices and emissions that are well in accordance with observations from four Norwegian regions with very different agricultural and natural conditions.

Is land-based sea bream production a feasible activity on the northwest mediterranean coast?. Analysis of production costs

Land-based production of sea bream (S. aurata) isone of the alternative types of aquaculture for different areas of theMediterranean coast, but its future development will mainly depend both on thecapacity to make this technology compatible with other uses of the land and thecapacity to make it cost-effective, especially in comparison with production incages. The present work analyzes all costs related to sea bream production inland-based facilities. With this aim in mind, a “standard facility”,growing 200 t per year of fish from 10 to 400 g, isdefined. It is assumed that there will be a collective utilization by some farmsof the infrastructure for intake, transport and outfall of water as well as theeffluent treatment system. The work is developed for a specific area, The EbroDelta in Spain, but intends to be a wide approach to the subject and to offergeneral conclusions. The average total production cost obtained, around four anda half euro per kg, allows us to consider that this type of technologyis feasible under the conditions considered. The different items that couldaffect this cost are also discussed. Feed and juveniles represent respectively30% and 25% of average total cost. Those costs differentiating betweenland-based and cage technology, i.e. oxygen and power, amount to only 6.3% ofthe average total cost.

A scenario analysis of China's land use and land cover change: incorporating biophysical information into input–output modeling

This paper assesses how the widely perceived changes in the economy and society of China will affect future land use at the regional level. It also shows the consequences of these changes on future inter-regional and international trade flows of land-based products. In order to conduct an integrated and consistent assessment, we develop a mixed input–output model characterized by strong biophysical linkages and the incorporation of supply-constraints to the major land-consuming sectors. The spatial aspect of the assessment is provided by a number of fairly large and detailed geographical databases implemented in a geographical information system, including biophysical attributes of land and demographic distribution.

Water pressure: irrigation, governance and land use intensification in Maungatapere, New Zealand

This paper considers the ways in which state-supported proposals for an irrigation scheme contributed to reorienting land use and community dynamics in Maungatapere, a semi-rural locality in Northland, New Zealand. This scheme was first proposed in the early 1980s — a time when key preoccupations of the state included protecting primary industry and promoting land-based production. Soon after, however, such intervention was seriously challenged by free-market philosophies, and state ownership and maintenance of irrigation schemes gave way to user pays and privatisation. At Maungatapere, these changes resulted in delays in approval for the irrigation scheme, a reduction in its area, and the eventual development of an infrastructure which was rapidly sold to private interests. We draw on historical evidence and 1997 survey data to explore land-owner decision-making and perceptions. Our analysis incorporates contemporary concerns for land use intensification, governance and community sustainability. We interpret the irrigation scheme as always having been an object of governance, from its initial conception as a community scheme in the context of assisted agriculture, through to its subsequent metamorphosis into a proprietary scheme reflecting a more market-oriented government vision. We conclude that a focus on one specific place offers insights into the processes whereby policy is translated into practices.

Impacts of mass movement erosion on land productivity: a review

Wherever people gain their livelihood in mountains and steeplands, the productive capacity of the soils they use is likely to be affected by mass movement erosion. The impacts of mass movement erosion on land productivity are significant but under-rated in the scientific literature. Impacts on cropping are here reported from 15 countries in south and southeast Asia, east Africa, the Caribbean and Melanesia, but accounts are generalized or anecdotal, and do not quantify crop loss or damage attributable to mass movement separately from that due to surface or fluvial erosion. Impacts on pastoral grazing have been studied in New Zealand, where production losses of up to 80% at field scale, and up to 20% at farm scale, have been measured. Studies in the Pacific Northwest coastal forests of North America show plantation forest wood volume declines by 35-50% on eroded sites. Mass movement impacts on production from tropical forests or agroforestry appear to be as yet undocumented.The reasons for lack of documentation are, first, that most soil erosion-productivity research has been done on gently sloping cropland, which is subject to surface rather than mass movement erosion. Secondly, geomorphological research in steeplands has dealt with mass movement as a hazard to human life, settlements and infrastructure -with limited identification of its contribution to sediment loads in rivers, and disregarding its impact on land productivity.We suggest there are many other countries where significant impacts are likely to occur, and that erosion-productivity studies should pay more attention to this type of erosion. Studies should not be restricted to cropland, but also extend to grazing land, plantation forestry, agro-forestry and traditional uses of natural forest as mass movement appears to affect all these forms of land-based production, particularly in densely populated steeplands whether tropical or temperate. Topics needing study are the documentation and costing of productivity losses, ways to reduce mass movement impacts on productivity, and ways to enhance recovery of soil on eroded areas (e.g., revegetation with fertility-building shrubs and legumes).

Cropland Retirement and Supply Control in the Great Plains

Supply control has been an important rationale for agricultural commodity policies for the past 60 yr. The principal policy instrument to provide supply control through successive agricultural legislation has been cropland retirement. Both annual (set-asides, cropland diversion, acreage reserve) and long term (Soil Bank, Conservation Reserve Program [CRP]) have been applied. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of annual commodity-specific and general long-term cropland retirement programs toward achieving the supply control objectives of agricultural policies. The analyses indicate that annual cropland retirement programs for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) have no effect on the amount of wheat produced in the Great Plains. Long-term land retirement programs, such as the CRP, have only limited supply control effectiveness for wheat production in the Great Plains states. Rationale for continuing the CRP includes increased reliance on it for supply control within the more market oriented policy for agriculture. While this analysis finds long-term cropland retirement programs to be more effective for supply control than annual wheat set-asides, the effectiveness of the CRP for controlling the wheat supply from the Great Plains is, at best, limited.

Emergence d'un nouveau systeme productif en agriculture

Les changements qui affectent le modèle de production agricole, dans le nouveau contexte économique, peuvent être caractéhsés par un renversement de quatre principes fondamentaux d'organisation. La séparation de la conception et de la production qui était le principe moteur du productivisme est relayé par l'adaptation de la production au marché avec une différenciation des produits (ce que nous désignons comme une logique de qualité). Mais la standardisation exige néanmoins une adaptation des techniques de la production de masse aux contextes locaux, notamment assurée par l'organisation professionnelle des producteurs. La transformation du métier exige de nouvelles formes d'organisation professionnelle. De nouvelles activitès ayant pour base les exploitations agricoles peuvent, dans certains cas, s'inscrirent dans une nouvelle vitalité des zones rurales.Issues of innovation in the agricultural sector arise from the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, the accompanying reform of socio‐structural policies, the establishment of an agri‐environmental policy and the adoption of quality indicators based on the geographic origin of production. This paper deals with the shift in management principles and the transformation of systems of innovation. This transformation is described as a shift from a productivist logic (Fordism in agriculture) to a logic of quality that takes into account the diversity of demand and the opportunities linked to the rural location of production. The evolution towards precision agriculture is contributing to this shift. This new logic of production harms, to some extent, the professional organisation of farmers. The paper uses a schematic analysis of the old and emergent production models to show the relationships between the old and new logic of organisation.Fordist principles, especially the separation of design and production, are generally standard in agri‐food production systems. But agriculture is characterised by land‐based production and a family workforce that leads to a specific role for the professional organisation of farmers. After an analysis of this professional and productivist model, we show how the analysis leads to a structural crisis. We focus mainly on the endogenous mechanisms of a quality crisis and its contribution to a professional crisis. However, the professional crisis is a different type compared to the tensions that appear in Fordist labour management. At this level, the analogy with Fordism is not much help.We use four principles that are generally used in the literature, to describe an alternative productive system. The main features of organisational change in agriculture can be integrated into this model. Nevertheless, in agriculture, the new principles seem to correspond to a rather wide variety of organisations. It is not easy to predict the consequences for rural employment from this agricultural model of production change.

Voluntary fish transport in land-based fish farms

Experiments were conducted to study voluntary fish transport of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), out of tanks through gates in the tank walls, in land-based production farms. In the experiments the following variables were tested: gate size, gate location and water flow. The experiments were carried out in a special designed R- and D-plant where three fish tanks were connected to a transport canal by gates at the bottom level of the tanks. In this system a recycling circuit could create a water flow in the transport canal and through the gates into the fish tanks.The largest gate size tested (60 × 50 cm) gave the best voluntary fish transport with an average of 70·6% of the fish moving out of the tank within 7 hr. Of the gate locations tested, the best voluntary fish transport was obtained in the cases where the gate was located in the middle and at the far end of the wall in a semi-square tank in relation to the flow direction. Of the water flows tested, the highest flow (100 litres/s) resulted in the best voluntary fish transport with, on average, 67·7% of the fish moved out of tank over a period of 7 hr. Factor interactions were observed between gate size and water flow, and between gate size and gate location.

New Zealand Agriculture and Changes in the Agriculture—Finance Relation during the 1980s

In the 1980s New Zealand agriculture was reinserted into the global economy by state policy which favoured global capital at the expense of other capital fractions. An important aspect to the latest internationalisation of agriculture are changes in the agriculture—finance relation, specifically the institutional arrangements through which capital is allocated to and appropriated from agriculture and agricultural processing. The developments in the agriculture—finance relation in the 1980s is outlined with a look especially at the state's retreat from lending to agriculture and new possibilities for corporate investment in land-based production. It is argued that the sale of the government agency, the Rural Banking and Finance Corporation (known as the Rural Bank) to New Zealand's largest listed corporation, Fletcher Challenge Ltd (a global corporation with extensive forestry and fishery interests in the Americas) is a development of major historical significance in the New Zealand context. The sale introduces the possibility of unified control over production, realisation, and reproduction spheres in New Zealand's agrocommodity chains. The paper ends with suggestions on the wider significance of the New Zealand development in the current international farm crisis.

The History and Development of Computer Based Safety Systems for Offshore Oil and Gas Production Platforms from the Sixties to the Present Day

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the history and development of computer-based safety systems for offshore oil and gas production platforms from the 1960s to the present days. The growing awareness of safety concepts throughout the industry has encouraged the production of a number of informative guidelines, leading standards embodying good engineering principles, and safety concepts. A large offshore oil and gas production platform has to provide all of the facilities of a typical land-based site production facility, all compacted together in a relative pinhead. The production facilities range from drilling and wellhead control to oil, gas, and water separation, and where necessary, gas compression and reinjection or export facilities. The certification by the regulatory authority of the safety systems enables production to start all maintenance actions being under strict control. In principle, a permit to work systems is operated with senior management personnel providing the logged documentation that enables the maintenance staff to work on particular areas of the equipment.

State, economy and crisis in New Zealand in the 1980s: implications for land-based production of a new mode of regulation

The paper examines the restructuring of land-based production in New Zealand following deregulation and opening of the New Zealand economy in the mid-1980s. The framework adopted situates New Zealand in the world capitalist order, establishes the partial structural isolation of the New Zealand economy in an earlier era of state policy, outlines the main features of New Zealand's agrocommodity chains before a major shift in state policy towards a more market-orientated philosophy of economic management and reviews the range of possibilities available to re-articulate the connections between production and consumption in a fully global context.