Substitution Of Crops Research Articles

Exploring the Role of Community Organisations as Environmental Vulnerability Insurance for Cacao Smallholders in Colombia

The future of replacing illicit crops with cacao in the South Pacific region of Colombia transcends the economic viability of these plantations. The process of social-ecological restoration is intrinsically linked to the role of local organisations and the support of international non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which introduce the main technical improvements conditional on the achievement of social improvements. The situation in the South Pacific region of Colombia, a territory historically characterised by illicit crop cultivation and inhabited by vulnerable Afro-Colombian communities, is analysed. This region is particularly significant for post-conflict agreements due to its high level of violence. This study analyses the determinants of differences in the selling price of cacao, assuming that the decision to sell dry cacao and access international markets is related to the support and assistance provided to farmers and their families than to their monetary value. The sustainable production of high-quality dry cacao, which is a main requirement for accessing international market prices, depends on access to adequate infrastructure. Inadequate access to high-quality production neutralises the substitution of illicit crops, and thus the environmental sustainability and social cohesion of the territory. The determinants of farmers’ ability to sell dry cacao are explored using a spatial econometric model that accounts for the influence of neighbouring areas. The findings indicate that enhancing producers' participation in community councils, supported by international NGOs, is crucial for addressing environmental risks.

Climate Crisis and Agricultural Response: Climate Resilient Crops for Sustainability in Food Production Systems

Climate change encompasses altered levels of temperature and humidity, variability in the rainfall pattern, fluctuations in weather parameters, rise in ambient CO2 levels, emission of greenhouse gases, global warming, etc. that results in extreme events and disasters as cyclones, floods, droughts, salinity, nutrient and heavy metal stress, change in arthropod diversity and emergence of new invasive pests. This results in un-usual effects in agro-ecosystems leading to changes in cropping patterns, crop diversity, and their interaction with biotic and abiotic stress factors, threatening livelihood, food, and nutritional security. Population displacement, declining food productivity, and vulnerable agro-ecosystems are the major consequences of altered meteorological events that occur due to climate change. Therefore, substitution of traditional crops with crops that exhibit resilience to climate crisis is the need of the hour. Smart breeding approaches and precision farming technologies as remote sensing and spectral analysis, artificial intelligence, machine learning, speed breeding, genome analysis, genetic manipulation, gene drive systems, system biology study, omics approaches, etc can make agricultural production climate resilient and sustainable. Response of biofortified crops under changing climate must also be assessed to improve the crop productivity and output.

In Vitro Propagation of Threatened Agave Species Using a Two-Stage System.

Agaves are plants with multiple possibilities of use and are naturally tolerant to low water availability conditions and high temperatures. This makes them species of great interest in the context of the necessary substitution of crops due to climate change. Unfortunately, the overexploitation of wild specimens has endangered many species of the genus that have not been domesticated or cultivated intensively. In vitro mass culture and propagation techniques have emerged as a very efficient option to produce agave plants that can be used without damage to the natural populations. A protocol is presented here for the in vitro micropropagation of agaves in a two-stage process. In the first step, clusters of slightly differentiated shoots are generated from stem segments cultivated on a semisolid medium added with cytokinin. In a second step, these shoot clusters are cultured in temporary immersion bioreactors where they grow and complete their differentiation, and then the shoots are rooted and transferred to soil. This protocol has been successfully applied to several threatened species of the Agave genus.

Women of Caño Indio Tibú - substitution of illicit crops and food security

Este artículo tiene como objetivo reconocer el papel de la mujer de Caño Indio Tibú en torno a la seguridad alimentaria en el marco del proceso de sustitución de cultivos de uso ilícito en el año 2017, utilizando como método el estudio de caso, entrevistas directas estructuradas y observación participante. En este sentido las familias de Caño Indio Tibú, viven una crisis alimentaria, debido a dos factores: uno, el incumplimiento por parte del Estado y dos, a la inexistencia de cultivos de pan coger en sus fincas. Así mismo, las mujeres de la vereda Caño Indio consideraron a partir de sus experiencias y de las actuales condiciones, que para llevar a cabo un proceso de sustitución de cultivos de uso ilícito en Colombia, es necesario garantizar en primera instancia procesos autónomos de seguridad alimentaria de las familias que acceden a estos proyectos de sustitución.

Influence of climate change knowledge on selection of indigenous adaptive strategies among cash crop farmers

Climate change continues to threaten humanity’s livelihoods, particularly those dependent on agriculture. Gradual changes in climate pose a significant threat to food security and sustainable agricultural productivity around the globe. This paper sought to investigate the influence of climate change knowledge on the selection of indigenous climate change adaptive strategies. The study was conducted in Vhembe district of Limpopo province, South Africa, in 2021. Structured questionnaires were administered to 300 emerging cash crop farmers during face-to-face interviews. Descriptive statistics were used to gain insight into the farmers’ knowledge of climate change. A multinomial logistic model was used to determine the influence of climate change knowledge on the selection of indigenous adaptation strategies. The study discovered that most farmers were aware of climate change and subsequently preferred crop diversification and substitution of crops as their ideal adaptation strategies. This study recommends that adaptation to climate change should be a collaborative effort among the farming community.

Effects of Biofuel Crop Expansion on Green Gross Domestic Product

Following Thailand’s Alternative Energy Development Plan, lands for sugarcane and oil palm are being expanded to support biofuel production, thus decreasing the availability of land for other crops. Not only does this lead to the change in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but also environmental consequences. This study assessed the effects of land expansion caused by biofuel promotion on Green GDP, which is the conventional GDP after adjusting for environmental damage. A static computable general equilibrium (CGE) model combined with life cycle impact assessment was used to estimate the effects of land expansion on economic transactions and conventional GDP. Results showed that compared with the business-as-usual scenario, expanding land for biofuel crops increased the Green GDP. However, rice cultivation and milling were adversely affected by the substitution of biofuel crops. Furthermore, expanding biofuel crops slightly reduced the production capacity of some industrial sectors. The Green GDP for biofuel crop expansion policies was greatest when abandoned rice fields were utilized for agriculture and lowest when forests were transformed. Using CGE to investigate the effects of policy on Green GDP yielded results that were comprehensive for decision making. The method presented in this study can be utilized for future Green GDP research focusing on other biofuel productions.

Economía campesina y sustitución voluntaria de cultivos de uso ilícito, municipio de Briceño (Antioquia)

The armed conflict, the crisis of the agrarian model and the expansion of illicit crops in Colombia has produced a reconfiguration of the territory, reflected in the peasant economy and the transformation of productive practices in rural areas. Such is the case of the town of Pueblo Nuevo, municipality of Briceño (Antioquia), which suffered the expansion of the armed conflict scenarios that affected its peasant economy, displaced in the search for an activity that guaranteed a minimum of wealth, undergoing transformations violent in economic, social and cultural relations.   In this sense, the research sought to understand how the peasant economy has developed within the framework of the Havana Peace Agreement, specifically the process of substitution of crops for illicit use in Pueblo Nuevo and its relationship with the social construction of the territory in the period 2016-2019. This was approached from the peasant economy and deepened the main Latin American interpretative categories where their evolution, permanence and configuration of particular rural contexts are shown, which link illicit crops as an alternative to traditional productive processes. This context, the persistence of traditional production systems in the contemporary world is recognized as an alternative for the reconfiguration of rural territories, the search for peace, and the collective affirmation of peasants in Pueblo Nuevo as subjects with deep roots in their territory. and forms of production, as with memory processes as a consequence of experiencing the conflict.

Socioeconomic Impact Assessment of Water Resources Conservation and Management to Protect Groundwater in Punjab, Pakistan

Water is the most important resource; it is utilized largely in agricultural production and is fundamental to ensuring global food security. This study aims to assess sustainable water management interventions and their impact on the farm economy. To increase water productivity, the most important adaptations that have been proposed are high-efficiency irrigation systems, drought-resistant varieties, the substitution of water-intensive crops with less water-demanding crops, the mulching of soil, zero tillage, and all on-farm operations that can save water, especially ground water. The recent analysis utilized farm survey data from 469 representative farmers along with secondary statistics. The data were collected via a multi-stage sampling technique to ensure the availability of representative farm populations based on a comprehensive site selection criterion. The TOA-MD model estimates the adoption rate of a proposed adaptation based on net farm returns. The impact of high-efficiency irrigation systems and the substitution of high delta crops for low delta crops had a positive impact on net farm returns and per capita income, and a negative impact on farm poverty in the study area. It is recommended that policymakers consult farmer representatives about agricultural and water-related issues so that all the policies can be implemented properly.

Cocalero women and peace policies in Colombia

BackgroundIllicit crop economies are shaped by gender arrangements that can play an important role in the experiences of illicit crop workers. In Colombia, the coca production -considered a war economy- granted peasant women a source of access to productive resources (land, credit and seeds) and paid work, conditions that are difficult to find in other legal agrarian economies. For this reason, policies pursuing a transition from war to peace, such as the ones that emerged from the 2016 Peace Agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla, must incorporate a gender perspective in order to acknowledge the social progress that women can achieve in war scenarios. MethodsThe empirical evidence comes from thirty-one in-depth and semi-structured interviews with cocalero peasants, social leaders and public officials; ethnographic fieldwork in two municipalities with the highest levels of illicit crop production (Puerto Asís and Tumaco); official documents of anti-drug and Alternative Development policies in Colombia, and other official information from the agencies in charge of implementing these policies; and data from the survey of participants of the National Comprehensive Program for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS) (National University of Colombia, 2019), and one dataset from the Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics (the Quality of Life Survey of 2018). For the analysis of the data we used an open-codification method and conducted hypothesis tests with Welch's correction. ResultsIn Colombia, women involved in the coca economy experience a degree of empowerment that leads to increased income, time control and decision-making power. When we compared the lived experience of cocalero women with what the National Crop Substitution Programme -PNIS- offers, we found that the programme falls short from offering viable gender-sensitive alternatives, producing a setback in women's empowerment. ConclusionIllicit crop economies in war contexts can be a source of social advancement for marginalized populations, particularly women. Thus, peace policies that do not recognise these advances, i.e. that do not incorporate a gender perspective in their design, deepen gender-based inequalities.

Influence of Farmers’ Socio-economic Characteristics in Selection of Climate Change Adaptive Strategies

Climate change is a global phenomenon that has been of great concern and its tackle is of outmost importance for food security and poverty alleviation among other things. This paper assessed the decisions informing selection of climate change adaptive strategies in Limpopo Province based on farmers’ socio-economic characteristics. Data was collected from all five districts of Limpopo province namely; Sekhukhune, Waterberg, Mopani, Capricorn and Vhembe. A questionnaire administered in a face to face interviews was used to collect data on various climate change adaptive strategies used by emerging farmers in Limpopo province of South Africa. The most identified strategies identified were crop diversification, substitution of crops, calendar redefinition, changing crop rotation patterns and fertilizer application. Results from the multinomial logistic regression model employed indicated that farmers’ socio-economic characteristics such as gender, age group, formal education, farming experience and household size significantly influenced farmers’ selection of climate change adaptive strategies. As a conclusion, farmers’ socio-economic characteristics are the major influencing factors determining selection of specific adaptive strategies. The study recommended that to enhance adaptive strategy uptake there should be a careful consideration of socio-economic characteristics that suits a need of specific farmers as farmers’ adaptation to climate change varies individually.

Slow violence and corporate greening in the war on drugs in Colombia

Abstract Next to a broader agrarian reform, the Peace Accord signed between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC-EP) and the Colombian Government (2016) was designed to support the voluntary substitution of illicit crops in an attempt to fight drug trafficking. In the municipality of Miranda (Northern Cauca), over 1300 peasant families agreed to eradicate their coca crops and stop their work in coca fields as part of the National Comprehensive Program for the Substitution of Illicit Crops (PNIS). Nearly three years later, the programme has shown little progress based on complementary evidence. First, it has only embraced 38% of the families who declared their will to replace illicit crops; and second, it has delayed commitments regarding access to land and financial and technical assistance for alternative projects. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, this article brings an insightful and original political ecology perspective to environmental peacebuilding, showing that the promised transformation for marginalized peasant communities has been neglected. We argue that initial solutions for substitution have not only been redirected to benefit green corporate agrarian projects but have also been gradually abandoned by the state, creating different forms of slow environmental violence.

Long-Term Trends and Policy Challenges in Chilean Agricultural Labor Markets

This paper identifies the major long-term trends in agricultural labor markets in Chile. The document shows the increasing aging, feminization, and seasonality of the agricultural labor force. Long-term projections are made regarding the evolution of labor supply and demand based on demographic and economic trends. These projections suggest the continuation of the already existing trends of a decreasing supply of labor and an increasing demand for agricultural labor, mostly driven by the substitution of crops into labor-intensive but higher-value export crops. Hence, the paper predicts a continuation of the trend of rapidly increasing labor costs in agriculture. The paper discusses the challenges imposed on farmers and policy-makers of confronting these rapidly growing labor costs by continually raising farm labor productivity.

Pilot monitoring of caatinga spatial-temporal dynamics through the action of agriculture and livestock in the brazilian semiarid

The Caatinga biome is one of the most threatened in Brazil because most of the native forest has been deforested for land use, mainly with pasture, for animal production. The objective of this research was to evaluate the changes caused by agricultural and livestock activities in a region with a predominance of the Caatinga biome, using remote sensing techniques. The study area comprised the municipality of Capoeiras-PE, where the main economic activity is dairy farming. 16 images covering the period from 1998 to 2018 of the Landsat-5 and Landsat-8 satellites were used, with a spatial resolution of 30 m, in which intense agricultural and livestock activity and degradation of the biome were observed in the boundaries of the municipality, through the index of normalized difference vegetation (NDVI) and leaf area index (LAI). NDVI lower than 0.264 was found associated with areas occupied by agriculture or by cattle, which became more evident over the years (1998–2018). In areas of intense agricultural and livestock activity, the LAI ranged from 0.00 to 0.51 m2 m−2, due to the infestation of the cochineal carmine pest and the soil compaction caused by trampling animal between the years 2008–2010. The substitution of pest-tolerant crops and the increase in the cattle herd led to the expansion of agriculture and livestock, resulting in the degradation of areas of the Caatinga biome.

Alternative performance targets for integrating cover crops as a proactive herbicide-resistance management tool

AbstractIntensified cover-cropping practices are increasingly viewed as a herbicide-resistance management tool but clear distinction between reactive and proactive resistance management performance targets is needed. We evaluated two proactive performance targets for integrating cover-cropping tactics, including (1) facilitation of reduced herbicide inputs and (2) reduced herbicide selection pressure. We conducted corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] field experiments in Pennsylvania and Delaware using synthetic weed seedbanks of horseweed [Conyza canadensis (L.) Cronquist] and smooth pigweed (Amaranthus hybridus L.) to assess winter and summer annual population dynamics, respectively. The effect of alternative cover crops was evaluated across a range of herbicide inputs. Cover crop biomass production ranged from 2,000 to 8,500 kg ha−1 in corn and 3,000 to 5,500 kg ha−1 in soybean. Experimental results demonstrated that herbicide-based tactics were the primary drivers of total weed biomass production, with cover-cropping tactics providing an additive weed-suppression benefit. Substitution of cover crops for PRE or POST herbicide programs did not reduce total weed control levels or cash crop yields but did result in lower net returns due to higher input costs. Cover-cropping tactics significantly reduced C. canadensis populations in three of four cover crop treatments and decreased the number of large rosettes (>7.6-cm diameter) at the time of preplant herbicide exposure. Substitution of cover crops for PRE herbicides resulted in increased selection pressure on POST herbicides, but reduced the number of large individuals (>10 cm) at POST applications. Collectively, our findings suggest that cover crops can reduce the intensity of selection pressure on POST herbicides, but the magnitude of the effect varies based on weed life-history traits. Additional work is needed to describe proactive resistance management concepts and performance targets for integrating cover crops so producers can apply these concepts in site-specific, within-field management practices.

Análisis del Costo-Beneficio, para el tránsito de cultivos de carácter ilícito, a cultivos lícitos para facilitar el desarrollo de los agronegocios en la región del Catatumbo

Objetivo: Contrastar el Costo/Beneficio del cultivo ilegal versus el cultivo legal, producto de la erradicación voluntaria en el Municipio de Hacarí, Norte de Santander. Método: La investigación se cimento en el paradigma positivista, metodología cuantitativa y enfoque correlacional. La población objeto de estudio se circunscribe a los encargados de las juntas de acción comunal del municipio y los cultivadores quienes abordaron la sustitución voluntaria del cultivo de la coca. La técnica de recolección de información aplicada, fue la encuesta a través de la aplicación de un cuestionario. Resultados: Se encontró que no existe información sobre las hectáreas, las rotaciones de cultivo e inversiones en insumos, además se pudo evidenciar el número de hectáreas sembradas con coca crecieron y que los cultivadores quienes sustituyeron no han recibido ayuda por parte del gobierno, asimismo, se evidenció que están aún hay presiones indebidas, con el agravante de que la sustitución ha sido voluntaria y con costos elevados. Discusiones: Pese a que existen programas del estado, todavía hay poca credibilidad en la solución al problema, los costos de insumos son cada vez elevados y se siente el descuido social de la región y la presión de los fuerzas al margen de la ley. Conclusiones: El cultivo por hectáreas de cultivos ilícitos genera más jornales que una de lícito, los cultivos ilícitos son más rentables en el tiempo. Las rastras del proceso investigativo asumido han arrojado respuestas esperanzadoras donde se demuestra técnicamente que existe un potencial agrícola aun no explotado en su totalidad, que es de uso legal y que resulta más atractivo que los cultivos de uso ilícito.

Land Access in the Development of Horticultural Crops in East Africa. A Case Study of Passion Fruit in Burundi, Kenya, and Rwanda

Rapid population growth in fertile agricultural lands of East Africa creates land scarcity, which has become a major hindrance to land access for the introduction of new horticultural crops. But their introduction in these areas is increasing, because of their high market price, which improves farmers’ income. As such, this research evaluated land access dynamics (availability, acquisition, and use changes) on the introduction of passion fruits in East Africa. The study used purposeful sampling to collect information from 171 passion fruit farmers from Burundi (60), Kenya (51), and Rwanda (60) through interviews during field surveys. Among the respondents from all three countries, inheritance and land purchase were the predominant modes of land access (>50% and >21%, respectively). Furthermore, the substitution of other crops by passion fruits was high (>60%) among Kenyan and Rwandan farmers, but low (18%) among Burundian farmers. Our findings indicate that land access influences the patterns of adoption of new crops, since, when limited in supply, it may require the acquisition of new land space, abandonment of other crops, or opting for mixed farming. As such, land access should be a consideration in the promotion of new crops for sustainable agricultural ventures.

Distributional and Economy-Wide Effects of Post-Conflict Policy in Colombia

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effects of agricultural policies that, as part of the peace accord in Colombia, have been proposed for the rural regions most affected by the armed conflict. Specifically, we are interested in their economy-wife and distributional effects. To that end, we use a newly built 2014 social accounting matrix for Colombia to calibrate an extended version of the well-known PEP 1-1 computable general equilibrium model. The policies we consider comprise an increase in total factorial productivity due to greater technical assistance and infrastructure construction, and production and employment subsidies in order to promote the substitution of illicit crops. It is found that value added, demand for labor, and factor incomes increase in the areas most affected by the conflict, while the opposite occurs in the other areas. Moreover, total rural income increases as long as the financing mechanism does not consider an increase in the taxation of rural incomes. In fact, we found that the distributional effects are strongly conditional on the financing mechanism that the government adopts.

LCA analysis of food waste co-digestion

The i-REXFO LIFE project designs an innovative business model with the objective of reducing significantly the amount of landfilled food waste. Given the availability of supermarket food waste in the Umbria region (Italy), the logistics is optimized using a Vehicle Routing Problem Solver, mass and energy balances of the biogas plant are partly calculated and partly measured from a real biogas plant. The data obtained from food waste transport and anaerobic co-digestion process are used as input for LCA analysis. The aim of the methodology is to assess the environmental and economic benefit of the substitution of energy crops (like corn silage) with food waste in anaerobic digestion. Two approaches are adopted: consequential LCA and attributional LCA. Only one impact category is taken into account: climate change. This decision has been taken to focus on two decision making criteria (economic feasibility and GHG emissions reduction). The results show that a reduction of 42% in the carbon footprint of the electricity produced from the biogas plant can be obtained by substituting about 9900 t of corn silage with 6600 t of food waste. Through the combined use of economic analysis and consequential LCA it has been possible to identify an optimized scenario in which: food waste produced from food industries is collected and used to produce energy in Expired Food Energy chains (EFE), while the food obtained from supermarkets is used to promote charity initiatives in actions aiming at the Reduction of Expired Food waste (REF).

Long‐term evapotranspiration rates for rainfed corn versus perennial bioenergy crops in a mesic landscape

AbstractPerennial cellulosic crops are promoted for their potential contributions to a sustainable energy future. However, a large‐scale perennial bioenergy production requires extensive land use changes through diversion of croplands or conversion of uncultivated lands, with potential implications for local and regional hydrology. To assess the impact of such land use conversions on ecosystem water use, we converted three 22 year‐old Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands and three 50+ year‐old conventionally tilled corn‐soybean crop fields (AGR) to either no‐till continuous maize (corn) or perennial (switchgrass or restored prairie) bioenergy crops. We also maintained one CRP grassland without conversion. We measured evapotranspiration (ET) rates on all fields for 9 years using eddy covariance methods. Results show that: (a) mean growing‐season ET rates for perennial crops were similar to the ET rate of the corn they replaced at the previously cultivated (AGR) field but ET rates for perennial crops at CRP fields were 5–9% higher than ET rate for corn on former CRP fields; and (b) mean nongrowing season ET rates for perennial fields were 11–15% lower than those for corn fields, regardless of land use history. On an annual basis, mean ET rates for perennial crops tended to be lower (4–7%) than ET rate of the corn that they replaced at AGR fields but ET rates for perennial crops and corn at CRP fields were similar. Over 9 years, mean ET rates for the same crop across land use histories were remarkably similar for corn, whereas for the perennial crops they were 4–10% higher at former CRP than at former AGR fields, mainly due to differences in growing season ET. Over the 9 years and across all fields, ET returned ~60% of the precipitation back to the atmosphere. These findings suggest that large‐scale substitution of perennial bioenergy crops for rainfed corn in mesic landscapes would have little if any (0 to −3%) impact on terrestrial water balances.

Sin zanahoria y con garrote: prevalencia del castigo en el diseño institucional de los programas de formalización para sustituir cultivos de uso ilícito en Colombia

Los programas de formalización de la propiedad creados como instrumento para la sustitución de cultivos de uso ilícito se sustentan en el supuesto de que existe una relación entre la seguridad de los derechos de propiedad de los campesinos y la disminución en las áreas que se utilizan para la siembra de cultivos de uso ilícito (incentivo positivo). Esto, por un lado, porque la propiedad conlleva el acceso a bienes públicos y recursos privados, ventajas que se obtienen solo cuando se tiene el dominio sobre un predio. Por otro, la política contiene incentivos negativos, los nuevos propietarios tienen poderosos motivos para no resembrar, puesto que hacerlo implicaría la aplicación de la extinción del dominio. En este artículo mostramos, desde el análisis institucional, que las ventajas de la formalización no son una consecuencia necesaria e inmediata de la titularidad del derecho de dominio, y que, por el contrario, la extinción del dominio sí tiene la potencialidad de ocurrir y de agravar la situación de la población vulnerable, la cual, sin la adecuada dotación de bienes, no podría cumplir por sí misma los compromisos de la formalización.