Permanent Crops Research Articles

PRODUCTION ARRANGEMENTS FOR TEMPORARY AND PERMANENT CROPS IN THE MUNICIPALITIES OF SANTARÉM AND MOJUÍ DOS CAMPOS - PARÁ

In the northern region of Brazil, the municipalities of Santarém and Mojuí dos Campos have been experimenting with the transformation of a productive system formerly based on traditional family agriculture to large scale mechanized agriculture. A new agricultural frontier has established itself in the region, driven by favorable conditions of climate, topography, and low land cost, and since then has attracted an increasing number of grain farmers from various regions of the country. Thus, the objective of this article is to analyze the dynamics of the permanent and temporary crop production chains in the municipalities of Santarém and Mojuí dos Campos, in the western region of the state of Pará, as well as identify the main factors that interfere in this productive chain. For this purpose, quantitative data were collected from the IBGE System of Automatic Recovery (Sidra) and the information was collected in the database of Municipal Agricultural Production (PAM). We concluded with the present research that grain productivity in Santarém and Mojuí dos Campos shows itself to be growing in recent years due to the high prices of soybeans and corn in the international market.

PRELIMINARY MODEL OF POTENTIAL AREAS FOR RESTORATION FOR THE INTER-ANDEAN VALLEY OF CAUCA RIVER (COLOMBIA, SOUTH AMERICA) BASED ON HABITAT SUITABILITY MODELS

Tropical dry forests (TDF) are highly susceptible to land degradation. The inter-Andean Valley of the Cauca River (IVCR) has the most fragmented Colombian dry forests, and their restoration is essential. Here, potential areas for restoration were identified using a habitat suitability modeling (HSM) approach. TDF vascular plants and bioclimatic predictors were used. Species were selected based on threatened status, endemism, and priority level for conservation. Two sets of predictors were chosen using Variance Inflation Factor (VIF) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Then, with a maximum entropy algorithm, PCA and VIF models were projected for the selected species. These models were evaluated via true skill statistics (TSS) and area under the curve (AUC) statistical metrics. Models with good performance (TSS, AUC, standard deviation, variance) were ensembled, and a preliminary model where areas with suitable bioclimatic conditions for the selected species were generated. Results show that nearly 45 % of the IVCR has suitable conditions for the selected species. Although potential conflicts may arise in areas under permanent or semipermanent crops which represent more than 80 % of the IVCR, cropland mosaics, and natural and seminatural land covers might provide alternative solutions to reduce the land-use conflict. The potential areas for restoration identified in this study may provide a comprehensive framework for environmental impact and regional risk assessments related to the current land use and land cover change dynamics. Also, they may provide relevant information for designing landscape restoration programs as an adaptive strategy toward climate change.

Water Framework Directive micropollutant monitoring mirrors catchment land use: Importance of agricultural and urban sources revealed

River monitoring programs worldwide consistently unveil micropollutant concentrations (pesticide, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals) exceeding regulatory quality targets with deteriorating effects on aquatic communities. However, both the composition and individual concentrations of micropollutants are likely to vary with the catchment land use, in particular regarding urban and agricultural area as the primary sources of micropollutants. In this study, we used a dataset of 109 governmental monitoring sites with micropollutants monitored across the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, to investigate the relationship between high-resolution catchment land use (distinguishing urban, forested and grassland area as well as 22 different agricultural crop types) and 39 micropollutants using Linear Mixed Models (LMMs). Ecotoxicological risks were indicated for mixtures of pharmaceutical and industrial chemicals for 100 % and for pesticides for 55 % of the sites. The proportion of urban area in the catchment was positively related with concentrations of most pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals (R2 up to 0.54), whereas the proportions of grassland and forested areas generally showed negative relations. Cropland overall showed weak positive relationships with micropollutant concentrations (R2 up to 0.29). Individual crop types, particularly vegetables and permanent crops, showed higher relations (R2 up to 0.46). The findings suggest that crop type-specific pesticide applications are mirrored in the detected micropollutant concentrations. This highlights the need for high-resolution spatial land use to investigate the magnitude and dynamics of micropollutant exposure and relevant pollution sources, which would remain undetected with highly aggregated land use classifications. Moreover, the findings imply the need for tailored management measures to reduce micropollutant concentrations from different sources and their related ecological effects. Urban point sources, could be managed by advanced wastewater treatment. The reduction of diffuse pollution from agricultural land uses requires additional measures, to prevent pesticides from entering the environment and exceeding regulatory quality targets.

A Spatial Multicriteria Analysis for a Regional Assessment of Eligible Areas for Sustainable Agrivoltaic Systems in Italy

Agrivoltaics’ share of renewable generation is relevant for countries to achieve their energy transition targets. Agrivoltaics is the dual and synergistic use of the land by agricultural crop production and photovoltaic (PV) systems. For their development around a country, a fundamental step is to determine which areas are suitable. This research work has developed a methodological framework for a reliable agrivoltaic land eligibility analysis at regional scale based on a spatial multicriteria analysis (i.e., GIS/MCDM-AHP). The challenging step has been to select a set of relevant criteria, also based on experts’ knowledge, able to capture the factors that can affect both the solar PV potential and agriculture-oriented factors. On the basis of these criteria, properly weighted, a 30 m-resolution land eligibility map for agrivoltaic systems has been generated for the NUTS-2 regions of Italy. We have found that Italy has an eligible area of 10.7 million hectares and a capacity potential of 6435 GW, assuming an installed power density of 0.6 MW/ha. Thus, a land coverage of only 1.24% of this area would allow to reach the national 80 GW target of new renewable capacity to achieve the country’s decarbonisation and energy transition objectives by 2030. The potential of installed capacity results at GW scale for the main land categories of arable land and permanent crops if they are just covered by only 5% with agrivoltaic systems. Thus, the impact of agrivoltaic systems development on land occupation can be considered marginal especially in relation to benefits generated for both the energy and agricultural sectors. Such a method is essentially targeted to regional authorities for planning the sustainable development of agrivoltaic systems at the local level.

Investigation the implications of climate change on crop water requirements in Western Nile Delta, Egypt

Investigation the implications of climate change on crop water requirements in Western Nile Delta, Egypt

Оценка длительного воздействия бессменного выращивания различных сельскохо зяйственных культур на микробные сообщества почвы

The study of soil microbial communities under different agricultural crops (flax, clover, barley, potato, winter rye) grown in permanent cropping and crop rotation was carried out. The effect of permanent cropping and crop rotation on the taxonomic profile of the prokaryotic and fungal components of the soil microbiome was studied. The effect of permanent cropping and crop rotation on the metabolic intensity and stability of soil biota in the absence of mineral and organic fertilisers was assessed. The subject of the research was the long-term experience established in 1912 by Professor A.G. Doyarenko at the Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy, founded in 1912 by Professor A.G. Doyarenko. It was shown that the highest OUT (operational taxonomic units) values for fungi were found in soils under fallow and crop rotation. For prokaryotes, however, the crop rotation variant had the lowest number of OTUs. Ascomycetes were found to be the dominant fungal taxon in all samples studied. Prokaryotes were dominated by Proteobacteria and Acidobacteriota, followed by Actinobacteriota and Firmicutes, and Chloroflexi were represented to a lesser extent. Among the archaea, the Crenarcheota phylum was dominant. It was shown that continuous cultivation of crops generally has a negative effect on the functioning of the microbial community. With an optimal metabolic coefficient of 0.2 in monoculture, they reached 0.6. The sustainability of the soil microbial community is reduced by the continuous cultivation of potatoes, flax and clover without organic and mineral fertilizers, as well as by the “perpetual fallow” option. Particularly unfavorable conditions were found in potato monoculture. Continuous cultivation of cereals, especially winter rye, does not lead to a significant decrease in the activity of soil biota and the stability of soil microbial communities. Crop rotation makes it possible to optimize microbiological processes in the soil and to increase the stability of the soil microbial community.

Mapping hydropower expansion and cash crop dynamics in Colombia using Landsat time series

Satellite-based monitoring provides insights on synergies and trade-offs between energy production and land use and land cover (LULC) changes (LULCC) around hydropower dams. Using Landsat data, we mapped LULCC related to hydropower expansion to understand change dynamics of cash crop production in the Magdalena River basin (Colombian Andes). We leveraged secondary map products and an active learning routine to produce thematically detailed LULC maps, for 2009, 2015, and 2020, including key cash crops (rice and oil palm). Our area-adjusted accuracy assessment revealed high overall and class-specific user’s and producer’s accuracies, exceeding 80% for oil palm, rice, non-agricultural vegetation, wetlands, and grasslands, and accuracies of ∼60% for other temporary and permanent crops. We identified substantial losses of rice (10,6%) and grasslands (25,9%) in El Quimbo due to reservoir flooding. For Hidrosogamoso, there was a loss of wetlands downstream. Our products provide the basis for balancing social, economic, and environmental trade-offs related to conflicting land uses.

The effectiveness of technologies with autumn tillage

The article shows the yield of spring soft wheat in 16 different technologies, differing in its place in the crop rotation, the type of basic tillage and the use of nitrogen fertilizer. When plowing with the removal of sowing from fallow, the yield decreased from 2,24 t/ha by 1,4-1,5 times – to 1,63 and 1,52 t/ha, and with permanent cultivation, grain harvest in relation to wheat by fallow decreased by 1,6 times to 1,38 t/ha. On a fertilized background, on the 2nd and 3rd wheat, the decrease occurred by 1,2-1,4 times: from 2,33 t/ha per fallow to 1,86 and 1,88 t/ha. The permanent crop provided grain harvest in t/ha of 1,38 in the control and 1,60 against the background of N40. During surface autumn tillage, the place of wheat in the crop rotation was also of great importance, since the yield without fertilizer decreased from 1,89 t/ha for a couple to 1,42-1,22 in the following fields and to 1,16 t/ha for permanent cultivation. When applying fertilizer, the yield dropped from 2,13 t/ha per fallow to 1,60-1,73 in the following crops and to 1,45 in permanently grown wheat. The preservation of the number of productive stems at the level of 362 pieces per 1 m2 contributed to the formation of a high yield of wheat by fallow during plowing. The number of grains in the ear was of great importance, which equaled 18,7-19,5 pieces in fallow with 13-17 in other technologies.

STUDY ON THE USE OF AGRICULTURAL LAND IN THE NORTH-WEST DEVELOPMENT REGION OF ROMANIA BASED ON THE SOCIOLOGICAL SURVEY

The paper aims to present the situation of agricultural lands and the effects of their management on the sustainable development of agriculture in the North-West Development Region of Romania, at the level of 2023. The study is based on data taken through the sociological survey method based on a questionnaire, of a number of 276 respondents. The collected data were interpreted for the following indicators: the type of agriculture practiced, agricultural techniques applied, the involvement of agricultural farms in associative forms, the surface of agricultural land, irrigation of agricultural land, fragmentation of agricultural land, types of crops and the use of modern technologies for a digital agriculture. After analysing the data, it is observed that a predominantly conventional and mixed agriculture is practiced, using an average of 150 hectares per farm. Due to the large presence of arable land, the main crops are field crops, represented by cereals and fodder plants. Permanent crops represented in particular by permanent meadows are owned by the majority of farmers (87.3%), and horticultural crops are present in only 27.17% of farms. Modern technologies have a high potential in the development of the region and must be exploited more in the future.

Addition of biochar decreased soil respiration in a permanent no-till cover crop system for organic soybean production

The increase in soil carbon sequestration under long-term no-till (NT) and cover crop management has been shown to form part of a sustainable agricultural management practice system. Along with the increase in soil organic carbon (SOC), soil respiration in this system was also enhanced by the increased soil temperature through the decomposition that causes carbon loss from the soil. To overcome this issue, biochar can be applied. However, the addition of biochar into this system is not well studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of this system on soil respiration. The experiment was conducted at the Center for International Field Agriculture Research & Education, Ibaraki University. Long-term tillage practices, such as NT and moldboard plowing (MP), cover crops such as rye (RY) and fallow (FA), and biochar application such as with biochar (WB) and no biochar (NB) were applied to a split–split plot in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The daily CO2 flux was measured every week at 9:00–11:00 a.m. The daily soil respiration was affected by tillage and cover crop with NT practice had significantly higher daily CO2 flux than that of MP (23.8%–107.4% and 38.0%–107.8%), while RY had higher flux than that of FA (11.9%–81.2% and 34.9%–65.4%) in 2020 and 2021 soybean growing season, respectively. Additionally, in the 2020 cover crop growing season RY also increased daily CO2 flux approximately 41.8%–88.2% compared to FA. Biochar addition significantly reduced soil respiration in soybean and cover crop seasons compared to NB by 24.0%–50.7% and by 25.9%–48.3%, respectively. This reduction in soil respiration by the biochar decreased annual CO2 emissions by 17.6% and 13.0% in 2020 and 2021. The values of these emissions ranged from 9.6 Mg ha−1 for MP FA WB to 18.9 Mg ha−1 for MP RY NB in 2020 and from 7.5 Mg ha−1 for MP FA WB to 13.7 Mg ha−1 for NT FA NB in 2021. This study highlights the crucial role of biochar in reducing soil respiration and enhancing SOC sequestration. The addition of biochar into this system was able to reduce soil respiration by regulating the soil temperature, soil moisture, and protect the SOC from decomposition. Biochar addition also increased the SOC and decreased the soil bulk density, which improves soil porosity. Therefore, these findings would be very useful to be included within the global scenario of soil organic matter management.

Ten-Year Impact of Cover Crops on Soil Organic Matter Quantity and Quality in Semi-Arid Vineyards

Soil organic matter depletion is a significant concern in agricultural soils, impacting crucial aspects of ecosystem health, especially soil properties such as fertility and soil moisture retention. Adopting sustainable soil management practices, such as cover crops, can mitigate this issue. In this study, we analyzed the soil organic carbon (SOC) content and quality in vineyards using two distinct management methods: permanent spontaneous cover crops and conventional tillage. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) was quantified and chemically characterized using UV–visible spectroscopy. Our results showed an increase of 4.7 Mg C/ha in the carbon stock (50 cm depth) after 10 years of implementing vegetation covers compared with tilled soil. Additionally, cover crop management increased less humified soluble carbon in surface soil layers, while tillage transformed the solubilized carbon. This finding is important because tilled soil becomes more accessible to microbial degradation and leaching, which, in the long term, leads to a SOM content decrease. In conclusion, an increase in carbon stock was observed when using cover crops due to the incorporation of fresh organic matter, whereas tilled soils showed a depletion of carbon stock, including the mobilization of more stable carbon.

Influence of crop rotations and cotton monoculture on cotton field weediness

The paper proves that crop rotation and cotton monoculture turned out to be the best agro technical measures in reducing the number of weeds against the control variant which was found by the authors as a result of long-term studies of cotton crop rotations. The results of the studies showed that permanent cotton crop without and with mineral fertilizers in the absence of crop rotation contribute to a significant increase in the number of annual and perennial weeds. Development of crop rotations with strict alternation of cotton with the main predecessors in the cotton complex, as well as appropriate agro-technical measures significantly reduce the weed infestation of cotton field during the entire cotton growing season.

Software tool for calculating the predicted environmental concentrations (PEC) of plant protection products (PPP) in soil for permanent and annual crops: Bug fixing & update report VITO NV

Software tool for calculating the predicted environmental concentrations (PEC) of plant protection products (PPP) in soil for permanent and annual crops: Bug fixing & update report VITO NV

Effects of agriculture on river biota differ between crop types and organism groups

While the general effects of agricultural land use on riverine biota are well documented, the differential effects of specific crop types on different riverine organism groups, remain largely unexplored. Here we used recently published land use data distinguishing between specific crop types and a Germany-wide dataset of 7748 sites on the ecological status of macroinvertebrates, macrophytes and diatoms and applied generalized linear mixed models to unravel the associations between land use types, crop types, and the ecological status. For all organism groups, associations of specific crop types with biota were stronger than those of urban land use. For macroinvertebrates and macrophytes, strong negative associations were found for pesticide intensive permanent crops, while intensively fertilized crops (maize, intensive cereals) affected diatoms most. These differential associations highlight the importance of distinguishing between crop types and organism groups and the urgency to buffer rivers against agricultural stressors at the catchment scales and to expand sustainably managed agriculture.

THE IMPACT OF ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL SHOCKS ON POLISH FARMS IN 2010-2019

The research aimed to determine the level of robustness of Polish farms on the example of selected economic and environmental shocks. The current state of knowledge about the concept of resilience is presented, and a research gap regarding the measurement of resilience is identified. Based on the available literature, it was indicated what economic and environmental shocks Polish farms were exposed to in 2010-2019. Then, robustness indicators available in the literature were used to determine the level of resilience of individual groups of farms, divided by type of production. The indicators were calculated based on publicly available data from the FADN database and were related to the dynamics of profitability of economic units. The study showed that the impact of the indicated shocks is noticeable. Moreover, it was found that most of the surveyed farms were able to return to astable state within a year of the shock, indicating that they could be considered resilient. Based on the research conducted, it can be concluded that farms dealing with permanent crops are the most resilient to economic and environmental shocks.

Agricultural Engineering Technologies in the Control of Frost Damage in Permanent Plantations

The occurrence of late spring frosts due to climate change causes great damage to plantation production worldwide. The main objective of the paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of the problem and to outline effective protective measures against late spring frosts. The nature of frost depends on regional, altitudinal, and geographic differences, but they all share a common problem: they remove heat, resulting in the freezing of new plant growth and flowers. Tissue freezing is affected by critical temperatures and the frost type, intensity, and duration. Protection against late spring frosts can be broadly divided into three categories: active, passive, and chemical measures. In the field of agricultural engineering, various techniques have been thoroughly researched, and their effectiveness has been confirmed by research. These include various sprinkler systems, different heating devices, and large-diameter fans. Conclusive findings are being made on the performance of these systems in sub-zero temperatures and their cost-effectiveness. Climate change increases the importance of protecting permanent crops from late spring frosts and requires advances in agricultural technology to meet changing production demands and challenges.

Reduced grazing and changes in the area of agroforestry in Europe

Agroforestry integrates woody vegetation with crop and/or livestock production to benefit from the ecological and economic interactions. The objective of this paper is to systematically determine the spatial distribution of agroforestry in the EU, and changes in the areas and types of agroforestry from 2009 to 2018. This was achieved using the Land Use/Cover Area Statistical (LUCAS) dataset. Agroforestry was categorised into silvopastoral, silvoarable, agrosilvopastoral, grazed permanent crops, intercropped permanent crops and kitchen gardens systems. In our categorisation of ‘agroforestry’, sites combing trees and shrubs with understorey grass or forage were required to show evidence of grazing. In 2018, the total area of agroforestry in the EU28 was 114,621 km2 equivalent to 6.4% of the utilised agricultural area (UAA), and a majority located in the Mediterranean bioregion. Silvopastoral was the most widespread system, representing 81% of the total agroforestry area (5% of UAA), with almost a third of that area present in Spain. An initial analysis of the LUCAS data suggested that the area of agroforestry increased from 2009 to 2012, before declining from 2012 to 2018. However our subsequent analysis suggests that the area of agroforestry in 2009 was underestimated due to a mis-categorisation of some grazing areas. After making corrections, we calculated that the area of agroforestry (using the above definitions) in the EU23 (a full-time sequence for the EU28 is unavailable) declined by 47% between 2009 and 2018. This decline is primarily due to a reduction in outdoor grazing, perhaps driven by reduced livestock numbers and/or permanent livestock housing. The only agroforestry system showing an increase was kitchen gardens (7%). The paper highlights the usefulness of the LUCAS dataset for studying the extent of agroforestry in Europe, but also potential limitations in terms of the consistency of the location of data points and the categorisation of grazing. The paper also argues that although the area of within-field agroforestry may be declining, the drive towards net zero greenhouse gas emissions may be re-establishing the link between increased tree cover and food production at a farm-level.

Evaluating Autoencoders as a Dimensionality Reduction Mechanism to Support Clustering Brazilian Agricultural Diversity

Brazilian agricultural production presents high spatial diversity, challenging the conception of public policies. This article proposes an approach for grouping Brazilian municipalities according to their agricultural production. We combine a feature extraction using autoencoders and clustering based on k-means and Self-Organizing Maps. We used panel data from IBGE’s annual estimates of the production value of permanent and temporary crops, animal products, aquaculture, plant extractivism, forestry, planted areas, and herd population between 1999 and 2018. We analyzed different structures of simple stacked and incomplete autoencoders, varying the number of layers and neurons in each, and evaluated the asymmetric exponential linear loss function to handle the sparse data. We applied the Isomap, Kernel PCA, Truncated SVD, and MDS dimensionality reduction methods for comparative purposes. Results showed that the autoencoders could extract characteristics from the transformed raw data to allow the clustering of municipalities to reveal regional and evenintra-regional patterns. The autoencoders improved comparative performance as the intrinsic dimensionality increased.

Is the Direct Soil Application of Two-Phase Olive Mill Waste (Alperujo) Compatible with Soil Quality Protection?

In Spain and other Mediterranean countries, significant quantities of semi-solid olive mill waste are generated, which should be preferentially applied to agricultural soils to close nutrient cycles. However, two-phase olive mill waste (termed alperujo in Spanish) is known to pose risks to soil quality and plant production when applied to soil in large quantities. Alperujo has high contents of polyphenol substances, which can inhibit microbial growth and are also phytotoxic in nature. However, when applied in appropriate quantities and following specific methods, it is possible that the practice may not pose any risks, and this requires evaluation. As a waste management option, direct application of alperujo can supply plant nutrients and organic matter to degradation-prone Mediterranean soils. In order to validate this circular economy fertilization and soil protection strategy, an 18-month field experiment was undertaken, applying moderate quantities of alperujo on permanent crop groves throughout the Spanish region of Valencia. Eleven experimental parcels with permanent crops managed by farmers were identified to test two scenarios: a single application of 10 t/ha, and a second application of 10 t/ha after 10 months. Soil chemical parameters were assessed at 0, 6, 10, and 18 months. Soil organic carbon, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, pH, electrical conductivity, nitrates, and polyphenol contents were modified by alperujo application, but these effects were highly transient in nature, with generally no lasting effects after 4–6 months for either application scenario. Also, qualitative evaluations carried out by farmers revealed few effects, although some reductions in erosive processes and improvements in plant vigor were noted. As such, based on the measured parameters, it is concluded that the direct soil application of alperujo olive mill wastes at low application rates did not lead to any lasting detrimental effects on soil quality or compromise the productivity of permanent crops in this Mediterranean region.

Improved learning by using a modified activation function of a Convolutional Neural Network in multi-spectral image classification

The Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm is used to classify multispectral images of labelled EuroSAT data from Sentinel-2 satellite. The main objective of this study to examine the role of newly proposed activation function, Modified Rectified Linear Unit (MReLU) in improving multi-spectral image classification accuracy. The experimental design deployed a 5-layer CNN with activation function Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) and the MReLU having 27 learning rates ranged from 0.0001 to 0.01 with 10 % increment and 8 optimizers. ReLU has a diminishing gradient problem since it does not consider the significant information present in the negative values of the convolution layer for different spectral bands. In order to overcome this short coming, we have designed the MReLU which allows the absolute values of the small negative gradient and thereby introducing higher nonlinearity in the output. The experimental results show that the image classification accuracy of the CNN with ReLU and MReLU activation functions is definitely higher than the pre-trained ResNet-50 model which is a complex and computationally expensive architecture. The MReLU has advantage over ReLU in land use classification, particularly in the Industrial, Herbaceous Vegetation, and Permanent Crop classes where accuracies were typically low. In summary, this paper highlights the importance of deploying a suitable activation function and hyperparameter tuning in the CNN model for improving the accuracy of multispectral image classification.