Large Agricultural Projects Research Articles

The effect of geology and agricultural development on the groundwater, West Minia, Egypt

Fifty groundwater samples were collected from the Oligocene sand and Middle Eocene limestone aquifers and analyzed for major ions and stable isotopes. Aquifer sediment samples were examined to determine hydraulic properties, and sixty-six well logs were investigated to understand the subsurface geology. The study reveals that lithofacies, mineral composition, and geologic structures significantly influence groundwater quality and behavior. Karst features in the Middle Eocene limestone aquifer create subsurface caves, leading to challenges such as abrupt salinization and well failure. In the Oligocene aquifer, groundwater is predominantly of the sodium chloride type. In the Middle Eocene aquifer, 80 % of samples are sodium chloride, with variations of sodium bicarbonate (10 %) and sodium sulfate (10 %) types. Remote sensing from 2013 to 2021 shows significant agricultural expansion, with vegetation increasing by over 227 km². This growth, driven by large agricultural projects, has led to substantial groundwater consumption, resulting in a 5-meter decline in water levels within just one year (from 2020 to 2021). The over-extraction poses a risk to the aquifers, threatening long-term sustainability. Understanding the region's geology is crucial for mitigating these issues and ensuring sustainable groundwater management.

Roles of project steering committees in large agricultural projects in Cameroon

Purpose: This study investigated the effective functioning of an agricultural project steering committee, which is considered the driver of a large-scale project given critical roles entrusted to them. Method: A survey of 90 project owners who benefited from two large agricultural projects and members of steering committees was conducted, including semi-structured interviews with five experienced steering committee members. The collected data was analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25, comparing the response of project owners and steering committee members in relation to the function of the steering committee. Results: The result revealed that steering committee members’ top three functions were validation of project results, custodian of project governance and review of project performance. These functions differ from the suggestion from the literature that steering committee members' top three functions are to identify project priorities, identify and manage potential risks, and provide steering on budget, schedule, and quality. Implication: The work provides expert views on the steering committee in large scale agricultural projects as it clearly shows a misconstruction of their most essential functions, which may be attributed to limited formal communication between the steering committee and project owners and less clarity in their sphere of influence concerning the implementation of large-scale agricultural project. Therefore, roles and responsibilities in relation to functions of the steering committee should be defined at the onset of the project, with a clear indication of their sphere of influence to improve project management and guarantee success.

Agroecology in the Brazilian Amazon. A Review

Agroecological practices are alternatives for valuing and conserving the biodiversity of the Amazon as well as for integrating family farmers who survive from the exploitation of natural resources in the face of the expansion of large agricultural projects that have advanced in the region. In this respect, the objective of this study was to evaluate the scientific production related to agroecology in the Brazilian Amazon, in order to identify the main research gaps and set the foundations for new studies that will strengthen the debate on and policies to encourage sustainable agriculture. Our methodology was based on a systematic review of the literature using four academic research databases. The studies were published from 2000 to 2019. Through our database research, we obtained 36 articles that focused on agroecology in the Brazilian Amazon. Our results showed a certain level of diversity in terms of the geographic distribution of the municipalities included in the studies analyzed. Additionally, we detected diversity in terms of the dimensions addressed. For instance, reference was made to sustainable production systems based on agroecological principles, with emphasis on agroforestry systems. Additionally, socioeconomic and cultural aspects, such as the valuation of traditional knowledge and the importance of women in rural areas, were analyzed. Thus, the realization of in-depth studies that will analyze the process of agroecological transition with the use of different techniques, such as the statistical treatment of data and geoprocessing, can qualify agricultural production based on the agroecological practices in the Amazon.

Activities of the All-Union Research Institute of Grain Farming in the Framework of Combating Soil Erosion in Virgin Regions of Kazakhstan (1960–1970)

Introduction. The history of the contribution of Soviet scientists to the development of virgin and fallow lands in Kazakhstan is one of the relevant and new topics in the study of the history of the USSR in modern society. Methods and materials. Studying the history of a large agricultural project of the Soviet Union is necessary to develop new concepts in modern historical science. In Soviet and modern historiography, historians have studied virgin soil as a political and economic reform of the state. In this vein, the contribution of Soviet scientists who solved the issues of environmental and economic efficiency of this agrarian reform was not sufficiently represented. The works do not present the fight against land erosion, organized by the All-Union Research Institute of Grain Farming located in Northern Kazakhstan. Analysis. For scientific work and research of virgin lands, the opening of the AllUnion Scientific Research Institute of Grain Farming in Northern Kazakhstan was necessary. Famous agricultural scientists worked at the institute; they conducted their research in the fields of Tselinny Krai. Academician A.I. Baraev, breeder, academician V. Kuzmin were among them. They were engaged not only in scientific work, but also in a short time saved the virgin lands of Kazakhstan. Their direct scientific work was related to the fight against land erosion and the protection of soils from wind erosion. At the Institute, scientists created new soil tilling tools and seeders, improved a new farming system, and created new highly productive varieties of crops. The Institute defended dissertations on topics related to the fight against land erosion, and conducted many scientific projects. Results. The work with new sources of local archives of Kazakhstan makes it possible to talk about the enormous contribution of Soviet scientists in the development of virgin and long-fallow lands of the arid North Kazakhstan and the development of agriculture in this region. Their experience and scientific results were invaluable in the agricultural sector of the republic.

Spatial-Temporal Dynamics of Vegetation Cover in a Diversity Hotspot for the Conservation of Brazilian Cerrado

This work investigates the spatial-temporal dynamics of land use and vegetation covers in a conservation area of Cerrado, in the county of Currais, Piauí, in which the economy depends on large agricultural projects. We used maps of a 32-year time series (1985 to 2017) of land use and cover provided by the Brazilian Annual Land Use and Land Cover Mapping Project (MapBiomas). We assessed six classes of land uses and vegetation covers: forest, savanna, grassland, agriculture/pasture, non-vegetated area, and water bodies. There was a fast increase in pressure on natural ecosystems from 1985 and 2017, primarily from 2000. The land use for agriculture and pasture increased from 0.26% (726.93 ha) in 2000 to 16% (50,772.63 ha) in 2017. During this period, the native vegetation decreased 15.90%, with savannas suffering the largest loss in hectares of vegetation (41,663.73 ha), followed by the forests (9,837.35 ha). The grassland cover, non-vegetated area, and water bodies remained unchanged. These results provide essential information for decision making and can be used to guide public policies for the conservation, monitoring, and sustainable management of remnant vegetation areas.

BR-163: from “landless men” to “manless land”

In 1970, the Brazilian government started the project of building the large highways in the Amazon, highlighting the Transamazon, linking the region from East to West, and BR-163, known as Cuiabá-Santarém, from South to North — highways that crossed each other opened axes of penetration and integration. On the 16th of June, 1970, the Plan of National Integration (PIN) was created. The displacement of peasants from areas submitted to “demographic pressure” is made official and the speech of connecting the landless man of the Northeast to the manless land of the Amazon is put into practice in a chaotic and socially unfair way. In December 1974, the highway Cuiabá-Santarém was opened to the public. In Mato Grosso, the road would motivate the penetration of large agricultural projects and the colonization commanded by private groups. In the state of Pará, in the stretch between Santarém and Rurópolis (at the crossing of Cuiabá-Santarém and Transamazon), the colonization directed to small landowners is predominant, commanded by the National Institute of Colonization and Land Reform (INCRA). Along all the road, the appreciation of the land, the attraction of migratory currents and the land speculation had immediate impacts to the local population — especially the indigenous ones. Our final consideration allow us, for the sake of concluding, to claim that the successive changes in the “development plans” according to the political and economic conjunctures, contributed to the failure of the great majority of colonization projects. Our conclusion is directed to some variables that points to the unsustainability of the regional development model: An excluding model: in the effort of choosing an image which is revealing of the environment of the present frontier I would say that it is of exclusion. A productivist model: after twenty year it is agribusiness that, notably in Mato Grosso, has the strongest development, supported by the necessity of Brazil obtaining income from exportable goods such as soybean. Deforesting and continuous fragmentation of Amazon forest.

Timeliness affect the Net Farm Profit

Timeliness is very important in large agricultural projects, which are characterized by large areas requiring different numbers and sizes of agricultural equipment. In order to choose the best equipment, and give the right management decisions. The intelligent manager must be aware of the optimum planting time, because the varying in the time of planting on sawing date leads to loss of productivity called (Timeliness) may reach about half of the crop.Determining the optimum time for planting is important to reduce the costs of declining yield due to timeliness and to obtain the highest yield from the farm.This research aims to cover these point machine sizes and operational available time affected the crop net return. Timeliness coefficients’ equation was adjusted for famous Egyptian crops, for maximum crop yield to avoid the early or late establishment crop yield losses.

Lake extent changes in Basotu, Tanzania: a mixed-methods approach to understanding the impacts of anthropogenic influence and climate variability

Incompatible land use is a major contributor to ecosystem degradation, and is often exacerbated by climate change impacts. We investigate Lake Basotu, Tanzania as a case study where natural lake variability has been affected by agricultural land use. Comparisons between a satellite-derived history of lake surface area, local precipitation records, and corresponding anthropogenic activity show the impacts of agricultural and historical practices. We argue that insufficient consideration to the wider ecological impacts of large agricultural projects has lasting implications. This is particularly true in semi-arid environments where food production demands need to be continuously met. In the future, major conservation strategies should be investigated to maintain the environmental integrity and sustainability of freshwater resources.

Give us this day our daily water

The lines of the English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge ‘‘Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink.’’ so often mis-quoted as ‘‘. . . and not a drop to drink’’ exemplify the concern that although water is abundant on this planet, a resource that will never disappear, it is most often unusable, unavailable, or in the wrong place. All that, of course, from our anthropocentric viewpoint. The human race wants water that is potable, readily available and present in an adequate amount. The human race wants too much. It may, in the end, prove not possible to supply enough good water to everyone but it is a worthy aim to try and do so. At the present time billions, rather than millions, of people have water problems of varying severity. Perhaps no more than half of the world’s population has adequate access to safe water. Year by year improvements are made and more of the population gets access to water and sanitation. There is a long way to go but around the world improvements are being made. Not every attempt to help goes smoothly. Provision of pipe wells in Bangladesh gave plenty of water but it turned out it was contaminated with dangerous levels of arsenic. The scale was alarming, between 28 and 35 million people have had to rely on drinking-water with elevated levels of arsenic. In consequence the number of cases of skin lesions, including cancer related to drinking-water in that country is estimated at 1.5 million. Unfortunately, Bangladesh is not the only country with arsenic contamination of ground water. The element pollutes water in many other countries, including Argentina, Chile, China, India, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States. Similar health problems have been found in several of these countries. As is the way of legislators, special days and even years are set aside to try and focus people’s minds on the problems they are trying to solve. 2008 is the UN International Year of Sanitation. The World Water Day is the 22nd of March. This day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment andDevelopment (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro. It is flagged as a day for international observance but for most people that means that the ‘‘media’’ may run stories theymay read. In countries where water problems are life threatening, such a day may raise hopes. This does not matter so long so the governments who should be doing something do it and do not, as is the way of governments, talk about doing it. In the jargon of the United Nations General Assembly: they must set up and implement concrete activities as deemed appropriate in the national context. History records that the UN, let alone national governments, could do better. With provision of water comes something that is really even more important: sanitation, something unavailable to most of the world’s population. No lavatories and a large population gives an inevitable result – you have to be very careful when walking around where you put your feet. The problem here is that it is difficult to inspire people and get their help with such a mundane thing. Possibly a compulsory period of life in a sanitation-free environment would concentrate hearts and minds of the politicians who could help. New schools or large agricultural projects are

Colonial Moral Economy and the Discipline of Development: The Gezira Scheme and "Modern" Sudan

[T]he government . decided to reorganize their lands into a large agricultural project which the government itself, with all its power and authority would supervise. Suddenly they found their village alive with land surveyors, engineers, and inspectors.

The Multi-Dimensional Field: Applied Anthropology in Senegal

For the last three years I have been employed with a large agricultural project in Senegal. I have learned a great deal about things like gaps in approach between extension technicians and researchers, between the Francophone concept of "research and development," and the American terms "outreach" and "extension." I have also learned more about the macro dynamics of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in a country's development and the problems of communications related to bureaucracies. These are things that I would have expected to have to consider.