Losses In Agricultural Production Research Articles

Responsiveness of the broad bean weevil,Bruchus rufimanus, toVicia fabagenotypes

AbstractThe broad bean weevil,Bruchus rufimanusBoh. (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), also called bruchid beetle, is a major pest ofVicia fabaL. (Fabaceae) given that larvae develop inside the seeds causing direct quality losses in agricultural products. Recurrent chemical applications are inappropriate because they represent a serious threat to pollinators in general. In addition, biological control approaches that have been attempted so far showed limited effectiveness, which makes studies of methods to control bruchid populations extremely important. Breeding resistant cultivars is the most adequate approach to achieve efficient levels of pest resistance and promote sustainable agriculture. To explore the mechanisms underlying bruchid resistance, we exploredB. rufimanusbehavior at different life stages and preference in plant feeding, oviposition, and larval survival into adulthood on a range of susceptible and resistant broad bean cultivars (genotypes), both in greenhouse experiments and in the field. Our greenhouse results showed that females, compared to males, prefer flowers from some genotypes over others, although the choices made did not correspond with egg‐laying preference. Egg‐laying preference was also affected by cultivars. This attraction for egg‐laying was associated with the number of seeds per pod produced by the genotypes. In the field flowering date influenced bruchid infestation. Also the survival of larvae into adulthood was greater in certain genotypes over others. The results of our study lay the groundwork for further analyses to finely dissectV. fabaresistance towards bruchids and pave the way for the development of methods to predict potential resistant genotypes in research and breeding programs.

Bacillus proteolyticus OSUB18 triggers induced systemic resistance against bacterial and fungal pathogens in Arabidopsis.

Pseudomonas syringae and Botrytis cinerea cause destructive bacterial speck and grey mold diseases in many plant species, leading to substantial economic losses in agricultural production. Our study discovered that the application of Bacillus proteolyticus strain OSUB18 as a root-drench enhanced the resistance of Arabidopsis plants against P. syringae and B. cinerea through activating Induced Systemic Resistance (ISR). The underlying mechanisms by which OSUB18 activates ISR were studied. Our results revealed that the Arabidopsis plants with OSUB18 root-drench showed the enhanced callose deposition and ROS production when inoculated with Pseudomonas syringae and Botrytis cinerea pathogens, respectively. Also, the increased salicylic acid (SA) levels were detected in the OSUB18 root-drenched plants compared with the water root-drenched plants after the P. syringae infection. In contrast, the OSUB18 root-drenched plants produced significantly higher levels of jasmonyl isoleucine (JA-Ile) than the water root-drenched control after the B. cinerea infection. The qRT-PCR analyses indicated that the ISR-responsive gene MYC2 and the ROS-responsive gene RBOHD were significantly upregulated in OSUB18 root-drenched plants upon both pathogen infections compared with the controls. Also, twenty-four hours after the bacterial or fungal inoculation, the OSUB18 root-drenched plants showed the upregulated expression levels of SA-related genes (PR1, PR2, PR5, EDS5, and SID2) or JA-related genes (PDF1.2, LOX3, JAR1 and COI1), respectively, which were consistent with the related hormone levels upon these two different pathogen infections. Moreover, OSUB18 can trigger ISR in jar1 or sid2 mutants but not in myc2 or npr1 mutants, depending on the pathogen's lifestyles. In addition, OSUB18 prompted the production of acetoin, which was reported as a novel rhizobacterial ISR elicitor. In summary, our studies discover that OSUB18 is a novel ISR inducer that primes plants' resistance against bacterial and fungal pathogens by enhancing the callose deposition and ROS accumulation, increasing the production of specific phytohormones and other metabolites involved in plant defense, and elevating the expression levels of multiple defense genes.

Socio-Economic Effect of Flooding in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area of Taraba State Using GIS Technique

Over the years, flooding has affected numerous aspects of the lives of the people in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area. The study aimed at assessing the effects of flood on socio-economic activities in Karim-Lamido Local Government Area of Taraba State using GIS techniques. The study employed questionnaires, oral interviews, personal observations and descriptive statistics to analyse data using pie charts and graphs to present data. ArcGIS 10.1 was used to analyse the flood vulnerability using LandSat images. The flood vulnerability analysis of Karim-Lamido indicates that about 80% of the area is flood vulnerable and the major stream order in Karim-Lamido is between 3-5. Results also revealed that rainfall received annually in the area and the proneness of the area to flood. In addition, loss of agricultural products, properties and lives were revealed as some of the negative effects of flooding in the study area. The result also revealed that the major effects of flood are the washing away of the community’s farms lands and their businesses equipment. Furthermore, the researchers recommend that the resettlement scheme programs should be embarked on by the government to resettle most of the communities in the study area. Additionally, for good area planning, individuals, corporate entities, and the government should provide adequate funding for disaster management organisations. Furthermore, a local flood warning system needs to be created. This will go a long way towards educating and preparing the people of Karim-Lamido for major flooding.

Intelligent Algorithm Optimization of Liquid Manure Spreading Control

The growth of field crops needs appropriate soil nutrients. As a basic fertilizer, liquid manure provides biological nutrients for crop growth and increases the content of organic matter in crops. However, improper spraying not only reduces soil fertility but also destroys soil structure. Therefore, the precise control of the amount of liquid manure is of great significance for agricultural production and weight loss. In this study, we first built the model of spraying control, then optimized the BP neural network algorithm through a genetic algorithm. The stability and efficiency of the optimized controller were compared with PID, fuzzy PID and BPNN-PID control. The simulation results show that the optimized algorithm has the shortest response time and lowest relative error. Finally, platform experiments were designed to verify the four control algorithms at four different vehicle speeds. The results show that, compared with other control algorithms, the control algorithm described here has good stability, short response time, small overshoot, and can achieve an accurate fertilizer application effect, providing an optimization scheme for research on the precise application of liquid manure.

Effect of farmland cost on the scale efficiency of agricultural production based on farmland price deviation

The relationship between agricultural production factor prices and production performance has long been a topic of academic discussion. However, current research has paid relatively little attention to the problem of scale efficiency losses in agricultural production caused by deviations in farmland prices. In order to explore the development direction needed to improve China's agricultural competitiveness, we analyzed the deviation mechanism of farmland prices in China and the loss of scale efficiency of agricultural production due to high farmland prices, starting from the perspective of farmland price deviation. Accordingly, based on 1188 micro-farm household survey samples, a threshold regression model was used to provide empirical support for our theoretical analysis in two dimensions: full samples and differentiation of farmland use types. The empirical results show that the problem of high farmland prices prevails throughout China, with the mean farmland price deviation (abbreviated as DEV) in Chinese provinces reaching 1.42, and it is especially high in Shandong (1.88), Henan (1.67), and Heilongjiang (1.59). The deviation is mainly caused by China's special resource endowment and farming culture. At the same time, the current scale efficiency of agricultural production in Chinese provinces is inadequate, with a mean value of only 0.70, and approximately 65% of farmers' actual input size is significantly lower than the optimal input size. The threshold effect test shows that the effect of farmland cost increase on agricultural production scale efficiency exhibits a structural shift from promoting to inhibiting as the degree of farmland price changes from low to high. In particular, in the scenario of overpriced farmland (DEV ≥ 1.16), farmland cost increase inhibits the growth of China's agricultural production scale efficiency. In addition, there is heterogeneity across farmland uses, with grain crops being more likely to be scale-efficient (0.74) than nongrain crops (0.62). The threshold regression results between the grain and nongrain groups further reveal that in the high farmland price scenario, grain crops are more severely inhibited by the rising cost of farmland than nongrain crops. Ultimately, we propose an optimal solution to improve the performance of agricultural production in China in two dimensions: reducing farmland cost and promoting service scale operation.

Flexible Weather Index Insurance Design with Penalized Splines

In this article, we propose a flexible framework for the design of weather index insurance (WII) based on penalized spline methods. The aim is to find the indemnity function that optimally characterizes the intricate relationship between agricultural production losses and weather variables and thus effectively improves policyholders’ utilities. We use B-spline functions to define the feasible set of the optimization problem and a penalty function to avoid the “overfitting” issue. The proposed design framework is applied to an empirical study in which we use precipitation and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) to construct an index insurance contract for corn producers in Illinois. Numerical evidence shows that the resulting optimal insurance contract effectively enhances policyholder’s utility, even in the absence of the government’s premium subsidy. In addition, the performance of our proposed index insurance is robust to a variety of key factors, and the general payment structure is highly interpretable for marketing purposes. All of these merits indicate its potential to increase efficiency of the agricultural insurance market and thus enhance social welfare.

Physiological, Morphological and Biochemical Responses of Exogenous Hydrogen Sulfide in Salt-Stressed Tomato Seedlings

Salinity causes yield and quality losses in agricultural production and therefore great economic losses around the world. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is known to play a crucial role to ease physiological and metabolic processes in plants, and also increases the tolerance of the plant against many abiotic stress conditions. In this study, we investigated the effects of H2S treatments (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 µM NaHS were applied as H2S donor) to the tomato seedlings to alleviate the harmful effects of salt stress (0, 75 and 150 mM NaCl). There was a significant decrease in plant growth and development in parallel with the increased salt level. Visible changes in plant development were observed after the dose of 75 mM NaCl in the tomato seedling. The effects of different doses of exogenous H2S treatment were found to be significant. H2S treatment increased the stress tolerance in tomato seedlings by arranging the mineral element and hormone content. Furthermore, H2S relieved the effect of stress in plants by increasing photosynthetic activity (photosynthesis rate (Pn), transpiration rate (Tr), stomatal conductivity (gs) and intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci)) of the plant. In addition, the effect of H2S on salt stress tolerance in tomato seedlings may be due to its positive effect on mineral element contents. As a result, based on the beneficial effects of H2S in tomato seedlings under salt stress, this treatment can be considered as an alternative resilience method for cultivation in saline soils or irrigation with low quality waters.

GENETIC ENGINEERING: AN EMERGING METHOD IN PLANT BREEDING

Abiotic stresses like drought, heat, and salinity are major causes of agricultural production losses worldwide. However, progress in developing genetically modified crops with better tolerance to these stresses has been slow. Modern agriculture faces various challenges, such as the complex field environment, diverse abiotic stress combinations, and global climatic changes. A combination of approaches is required to improve crop tolerance to abiotic stress significantly. These include understanding stress response and acclimation networks, testing under different growth conditions, using innovative techniques considering genetic and physiological variations in crops, and incorporating enzymes and proteins from other organisms.

Evolution of economic regulation of agricultural land use under the influence of urbanization processes in Ukraine

As of today, it can be stated that the significant anthropogenic load and urbanization contribute to the fact that the specific weight of agricultural land in Ukraine is decreasing every year. A significant amount of agricultural land is taken for housing, especially around large cities. It is also worth adding those lands that are removed for non-agricultural purposes, in particular, for road construction. Thus, the above-mentioned factors affect the decline of the agricultural potential of Ukraine. In order to improve the economic regulation of the urbanization of agricultural lands in Ukraine, the evolution of the legislation of the Ukrainian SSR and Ukraine regarding the losses of agricultural and forestry production was analyzed. The analysis of legislative acts regarding losses of agricultural and forestry production shows that for quite a long time, effective mechanisms and methods of their compensation have not been proposed, as a result of which the concept of "losses of agricultural production" was removed from the Land Code of Ukraine in 2022. The author suggested returning the concept of "agricultural production losses" to the legislation and approving a new procedure for compensation of losses, taking into account the modern realities of Ukraine.

CRISPR/Cas9-induced Mutation of Sex Peptide Receptor Gene Bdspr Affects Ovary, Egg Laying, and Female Fecundity in Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae).

The oriental fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) (Diptera: Tephritidae), is an invasive and polyphagous pest of horticultural crops, and it can cause huge economic losses in agricultural production. The rapid development of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology has provided new opportunities for the scientific control of agricultural pests. Here, we explore the applicability of the B. dorsalis sex peptide receptor (Bdspr) as a target gene for the CRISPR/Cas9-based sterile insect technique (SIT) in B. dorsalis. We screened two high-efficient single guide RNAs (sgRNAs) for gene editing. The results showed that both mutation efficiency and germline transmission rate were 100% in the surviving G0 females (8/8) from injected embryos, and that 75% of mosaically mutated G0 females (6/8) were sterile. The 50% of heterozygous G1 females (4/8) could not lay eggs; 100% of eggs laid by them could not survive; and 62.5% of individual females (5/8) had abnormal ovaries. These results indicate that Bdspr plays an important role in regulating fertility, egg viability, and ovary development in female B. dorsalis, suggesting that the spr gene can be used for CRISPR/Cas9-based SIT in B. dorsalis.

Hybrid Convolutional Neural Network for Plant Diseases Prediction

Plant diseases prediction is the essential technique to prevent the yield loss and gain high production of agricultural products. The monitoring of plant health continuously and detecting the diseases is a significant for sustainable agriculture. Manual system to monitor the diseases in plant is time consuming and report a lot of errors. There is high demand for technology to detect the plant diseases automatically. Recently image processing approach and deep learning approach are highly invited in detection of plant diseases. The diseases like late blight, bacterial spots, spots on Septoria leaf and yellow leaf curved are widely found in plants. These are the main reasons to affects the plants life and yield. To identify the diseases earliest, our research presents the hybrid method by combining the region based convolutional neural network (RCNN) and region based fully convolutional networks (RFCN) for classifying the diseases. First the leaf images of plants are collected and preprocessed to remove noisy data in image. Further data normalization, augmentation and removal of background noises are done. The images are divided as testing and training, training images are fed as input to deep learning architecture. First, we identify the region of interest (RoI) by using selective search. In every region, feature of convolutional neural network (CNN) is extracted independently for further classification. The plants such as tomato, potato and bell pepper are taken for this experiment. The plant input image is analyzed and classify as healthy plant or unhealthy plant. If the image is detected as unhealthy, then type of diseases the plant is affected will be displayed. Our proposed technique achieves 98.5% of accuracy in predicting the plant diseases.

Land use planning and problems of land use control and protection in Ukraine

The Concept of the National Target Program for Land Use and Conservation, approved by the Government in January 2022, identifies that the current state of land resources in the majority of the country is characterized as tense, sometimes even in crisis, with a tendency to deteriorate. One of the reasons for inefficient land use is the absence of a unified state system for their protection. This article explores the problems of improving the legal framework for special land protection in accordance with the provisions of Article 14 of the Constitution of Ukraine. It examines the state of scientific research on land use forecasting and planning, as well as the features of developing predictive (pre-project) documentation for land management. Legislative changes regarding the preservation of agricultural land agreements and the cancellation of compensation for agricultural production losses are analyzed. Proposals for reforming the system of control over land use and conservation are substantiated.

Feature fusion based artificial neural network model for disease detection of bean leaves

<abstract> <p>Plant diseases reduce yield and quality in agricultural production by 20–40%. Leaf diseases cause 42% of agricultural production losses. Image processing techniques based on artificial neural networks are used for the non-destructive detection of leaf diseases on the plant. Since leaf diseases have a complex structure, it is necessary to increase the accuracy and generalizability of the developed machine learning models. In this study, an artificial neural network model for bean leaf disease detection was developed by fusing descriptive vectors obtained from bean leaves with HOG (Histogram Oriented Gradient) feature extraction and transfer learning feature extraction methods. The model using feature fusion has higher accuracy than only HOG feature extraction and only transfer learning feature extraction models. Also, the feature fusion model converged to the solution faster. Feature fusion model had 98.33, 98.40 and 99.24% accuracy in training, validation, and test datasets, respectively. The study shows that the proposed method can effectively capture interclass distinguishing features faster and more accurately.</p> </abstract>

Study on Insect Pest Infestation of Guinea Corn (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) Stored in Food Ware-Houses, Sokoto Metropolis, Sokoto State, Nigeria

Insect pest infestation is still considered a major agricultural problem affecting millions of farmers in developing countries causing a huge loss and damage tons of agricultural products. A study was conducted to assess the rate of insect pest infestation of Guinea corn Stored in Food Ware-houses in Sokoto Metropolis Sokoto State-Nigeria. A total of three hundred and sixty (360) grain samples were examined for the infestation using compound light microscope and the result was analyzed using chi-square statistical test. The result of this study showed that 222/360 (61.67%) were positive for the infestation. There were significance difference between the infestation and nature of the food ware-house (P<0.05). The result of infestation in relation to the location were the samples are collected from the food ware-houses shows that, top location 106/120 (83.33%) has the highest rate of the Infestation, followed by the middle location 72/120 (60.00%) and the least Infestation was recorded in the bottom location of the food ware-houses 50/120 (41.67%). There is also a significance difference between the infestation and locations were the samples are collected from the food ware-house (P<0.05). Of the two species identified, Tribolium confusum is found in all the three food ware-houses with the frequency of 0.7, 0.6 and 0.4 respectively while Tribolium casteneum was found only in Kuffa/Old kara food ware-house with the frequency of 0.2. This may be related to the nature of food ware-houses. Improving sanitation, proper maintenance and fumigation of the food ware-house in and out during storage and while receiving new produce will help to reduce the rate of insect pest infestation in the study area, Sokoto State and Nigeria at large.

Isolation and Characterization of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid Degrading Bacteria from Rice Cultivated Soil in Kura Local Government Area of Kano State. Nigeria

2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) is a widely used pre-/post emergent systemic herbicide that controls broad-leaved weeds and other vegetation on rangelands purposely used for increasing agricultural yield, soil productivity, products quality, minimizing losses of agricultural products caused by crop pest. However, excessive use of this herbicide results in both soil and water pollution which is detrimental to humans, animals and the environment. Aboriginal bacteria normally occurring in low density in soil have been shown to degrade pesticides and other chemicals, such microbes have possibility for use in bioremediation of polluted environments. Isolation of 2,4-D degrading bacteria was accomplished through incubation experiments in mineral salt medium supplemented with 2,4-D. Aboriginal bacterial strain capable of using 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid as the sole carbon and energy source was isolated from Rice cultivated soil with a long-term history of herbicide use in Kura L.G.A, Kano State. The strain named K2-BUK-BCH was recognized as Pseudomonas plecoglossicida based on its 16S rRNA sequence analysis, morphological, and biochemical features. The degradation characteristics of strain K2-BUK-BCH were evaluated using one factor at a time approach (OFAT). The degradation conditions for 2,4-D were as follows: pH 8.0, 35°C, 200µgL-1 inoculum size, and 2,4-D concentration of 0.72gL-1.The degradation potential of 2,4-D was determine using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Up to 96.68% of the 2,4-D was degraded under optimal conditions after 6 days of incubation. Pseudomonas plecoglossicida sp was reported for the first time as able to degrade 2,4-D in Kano State, Nigeria. The isolated strain represents a great potential for bioremediation.

Entomopathogenic fungi of Fusarium

Uzrokujući direktne ili indirektne štete i prenoseći biljne bolesti, kukci stvaraju višestruke gubitke u poljoprivrednoj proizvodnji, što se očituje smanjenom kvalitetom i prinosom usjeva. Uz primjenu kemijskih insekticida, koji su najčešći u konvencionalnoj poljoprivredi, nastoje se pronaći odgovarajući alternativni načini suzbijanja štetnika koji su okolišno prihvatljivi. Jedan je od takvih načina biološka kontrola kukaca entomopatogenim gljivama, za koje je utvrđena iznimno visoka učinkovitost u suzbijanju mnogih vrsta kukaca. Cilj rada bio je navesti mogućnosti suzbijanja kukaca entomopatogenim gljivama roda Fusarium te prikazati njihov potencijal primjene, od tretiranja sjemena, tretiranja kukaca do tretiranja skladišta. Brojne vrste roda Fusarium pokazale su visoku učinkovitost suzbijanja kukaca u svim fazama njihovog razvoja te su pogodne za daljnja istraživanja.

Modelling crop production, river low flow, and sediment load trade-offs under agroforestry land-use scenarios in Nyangores catchment, Kenya

The largest impact of land-use change on catchment hydrology can be linked to deforestation. This change, driven by exponential population growth, intensified food and industrial production, has resulted in alterations in river flow regimes such as high peaks, reduced base flows, and silt deposition. To reverse this trend more extensive management practices are becoming increasingly important, but can also lead to severe losses in agricultural production. Land-use optimization tools can help catchment managers to explore numerous land-use configurations for the evaluation of trade-offs amongst various uses. In this study, the Soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) model was coupled with a genetic algorithm to identify land-use/management configurations with minimal trade-offs between environmental objectives (reduced sediment load, increased stream low flow) and the crop yields of maize and soybean in Nyangores catchment (Kenya). During the land-use optimization, areas under conventional agriculture could either remain as they are or change to agroforestry or conservation agriculture (CA), where the latter was represented by introducing contour farming and vegetative filter strips. From the sets of the resulting Pareto-optimal solutions we selected mid-range solutions, representing a fair compromise among all objectives, for further analysis. We found that a combined measure implementation strategy (agroforestry on certain sites and conservation agriculture on other sites within the catchment) proved to be superior over single measure implementation strategies. On the catchment scale, a 3.6% change to forests combined with a 35% change to CA resulted in highly reduced sediment loads (−78%), increased low flow (+14%) and only slightly decreased crop yields (<4%). There was a tendency of the genetic algorithm to implement more extensive management practices in the upper part of the catchment while leaving conventional agriculture in the lower part. Our study shows that a spatially targeted implementation strategy for different conservation management practices can remarkably improve environmental sustainability with only marginal trade-offs in crop production at the catchment-level. Incentive policies such as payments for ecosystem services (PES), considering upstream and downstream stakeholders, could offer a practical way to effect these changes.

Phytofabrication of Silver Nanoparticles and Their Potent Antifungal Activity against Phytopathogenic Fungi

Fungal plant pathogens cause huge losses in agricultural production by decreasing crop yield and quality. To reduce crop loss from fungal damage, various synthetic fungicides are applied indiscriminately in agricultural practice. The majority of synthetic fungicides are non-biodegradable, and several critical human health risks are associated with them. Green synthesis nanotechnology offers an effectual, cost-effective, ecofriendly, and innocuous method for the synthesis of green nanofungicides, an excellent replacement for synthetic chemical fungicides. Origanum majorana is an aromatic herb with immense pharmacological and medicinal properties. In this context, the present study used the leaves of O. majorana to synthesize silver nanoparticles. The biosynthesized particles showed an absorption peak at 441 nm with ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry (UV-Vis). The spectra obtained from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) of O. majorana extract and AgNPs showed a myriad of functional groups corresponding to vital biomolecules that act as capping and reducing agents. The synthesized silver nanoparticles were spheroidal, and their size measured between 8 nm and 42 nm, as depicted by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The energy-dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDX) showed a silver peak at 3 keV. The phytofabricated silver NPs demonstrated robust inhibitory activity on the mycelial growth of A. alternata f sp. lycopersici (87%), followed by Pestalotiopsis mangiferae (85%), Macrophomina phaseolina (78%), and Colletotrichum musae (75%). The minimum inhibitory concentration value for A. alternata. f sp. lycopersici and Pestalotiopsis mangiferae was 2 μg/mL, while the minimum fungicidal concentrations were 4 and 8 μg/mL, respectively. Additionally, the fabricated AgNPs induced severe damaging and destructive effects to the morphology of hyphae and conidia, as witnessed by scanning electron microscopy studies.

Exploring the potential of Fabiana imbricata Ruiz et Pav. (“Pichi”) against pest insects and pathogenic microorganisms for crop protection

• Fabiana imbricata extracts represents green insecticides for fruit fly control • Scopoletin is the main constituent of Fabiana imbricata active extract • Leaf fractions show repellency activity against Acanthoscelides obtectus adults • The extract has effect on detoxifiying enzimes such as carbolxyl esterases and acetylcholinesterase of Tenebrio molitor . • the components of these fractions could not inhibit the expression of acid and alkaline phosphatase in the intestine of T. molitor The loss of agricultural products by pests and microorganisms is intensely fought with synthetic products that can pose a serious threat to the environment, health, and foods. The use of plant-derived products in the management of these organisms is a sustainable and safe alternative. In this study, we investigated Fabiana imbricata , a very well-known species of Solanaceae found in the Patagonian region. The toxicological effects of its fractions were tested against Drosophila melanogaster and Tenebrio molitor . These fractions were also screened for repellency on Acanthoscelides obtectus and antimicrobial activity. Additionally, the mortality assay of D. melanogaster larvae revealed higher activity for the stem (LC 50 value of 7.5 µg/mL) and leaf (LC 50 value of 19.8 µg/mL) petroleum benzine fractions. T. molitor larvae needed to be exposed to a high concentration of stem fractions (200 and 300 µg/mL) to observe about 50 and 90% mortality, respectively. Moreover, repellency after 4 h of exposure was mainly observed with the stem dichloromethane fraction (conc. 100 µg/mL). The acetate fraction of the stem (FE-C) was responsible for the greatest growth inhibition of the tested bacteria ( E. coli, L. monocytogenes, L. innocua, Salmonella sp., and S. aureus ). Based on the findings, stem fractions were selected for studies of toxicity in non-target organisms and systemic effects on proteins and detoxification enzymes from T. molitor larvae. The fractions tested against adult bees were safe up to 500 µg/mL for 4 h of exposure and 48 h of observation. Total proteins and enzymes AChE, GST/GSH, and Carboxylase were significantly reduced, mainly with FE-C. In contrast, ACP and ALP were up-regulated, with the same fraction as the major inducer. The chemical profiles of the fractions analyzed by GC-MS and NMR showed that FE-C had scopoletin as the main component. Therefore, we selected this compound for in silico analysis of AChE docking, qualitative and quantitative study of insecticide-likeness, and toxicity prediction. The results indicated that scopoletin efficiently docked with the active site of AChE. Due to the high values ​​of Relative Drug Likelihood (RDL) (2.77) and Gaussian Scoring Function (GAU) (4.19) values, ​​it can consider as potential insecticide-likeness and the toxicity prediction study showed that this compound has low toxicity to mammals. These results demonstrate that FE-C has potential as an insecticidal agent against insect pests and can be of help in combating pathogenic microorganisms present in food.

An Overview of Agro-Waste Management in Light of the Water-Energy-Waste Nexus

It is urgent that we increase global food production to support population growth. Food production requires significant resources, amongst them water and energy. Therefore, any losses of food or other agricultural products also means a waste of water and energy resources. A significant amount of these losses occurs during the postharvest stage, primarily during processing and storage. This is considered avoidable food waste. The water-energy-waste nexus (WEW), and its relationship to food production, needs to be investigated from a circular bioeconomy lens. Furthermore, alternative uses of the wastes should be investigated. This review focuses on agro-wastes and their management as sources for bioactive compounds, biofertilizers, biomaterials, nanomaterials, pharmaceuticals and medicinal agents, and growth media, e.g., for plant tissue culture. We also investigated the potential contribution of agro-wastes to bioenergy production (bioethanol, biogas, and biofuel). Proper management of agro-wastes may support the mitigation of climate change, produce innovative bio-ingredients and biodegradable materials, and enhance green growth and a circular bioeconomy. We argue that the management of agro-wastes cannot be discussed without referring to the role of water and energy within the food system. Thus, this review focuses on agricultural wastes and their handling, applications, environmental impacts, and potential benefits in the agricultural and medical industries in light of the WEW nexus.