World Food Production Research Articles

Educação Ambiental e a pequena propriedade rural: uma perspectiva de agricultura sustentável para a mulher campesina

Este artigo traz uma breve reflexão sobre a educação levando em conta a mulher do campo num contexto de desenvolvimento sustentável, trazemos algumas considerações sobre a educação brasileira, a educação do campo e a educação ambiental objetivando absorver da mulher campesina uma consciência crítica de seus direitos como cidadã e de seus deveres como agente de produção, incutindo nesta mulher uma preocupação com uma produção economicamente viável e ecologicamente sustentável que lhe permitaviver no campo e do campo em harmonia com a biodiversidade. A violência constitui-se o maior desafio enfrentado pela mulher nas atividades campesinas. O problema da degradação ambiental afeta primeiro as crianças, que nascerão hoje, que futuramente herdarão a terra e seu futuro está em nossas mãos. Asmulheres produzem 60 a 80% dos alimentos na maioria dos países em desenvolvimento e respondem por metade da produção mundial de alimentos. No entanto, apenas recentemente o seu papel fundamental como produtores e fornecedores de alimentos e a sua contribuição vital para a segurança alimentar das famílias receberam a atenção que merecem.

Building and evaluation of a dynamic model for assessing impact of smallholder endowments on food security in agricultural systems in highland areas of central America (SASHACA)

Smallholder agricultural systems have an important role in world food production. Agricultural smallholders in highland areas of the Mesoamerican dry-corridor are central to improve farming systems. The key issue is that the subsistence smallholders are joint producer-consumers, with insufficient food production due to extreme environmental and weather conditions or incomes to supplement their own production from market sources. Modelling offers an approach for testing and improving knowledge about complex systems. The aim of this paper is to describe and assess a biophysical and socio-economic model of the smallholder agricultural systems based on maize-bean intercropping in highland areas of Central America. A Vensim® DSS system dynamics model was developed for assessing the impact of Smallholder endowments on food security and to identify critical points to achieve sustainable food security and poverty alleviation in Agricultural Systems in Highland Areas of Central America (SASHACA). The SASHACA model integrates scientific and practical knowledge of crop management, labour, soil water content, soil nitrogen, food consumption and economic components of the system. Model evaluation was conducted through a wide set of tests for assessment of dynamic models and statistical comparison of simulated versus observed data derived from surveys. The model simulates realistic outputs and presents logical behavioural representation. The maximum relative uncertainty of output variables ranged from 30% to 53% for univariate and multivariate sensitivity analyses respectively. The model proved to be adequate for assessing food security under scenarios in low data availability areas. The SASHACA model could be adapted to simulate a wide range of smallholder agricultural systems in highland areas of Central America, and potentially in other locations.

Bread wastes to energy: Sequential lactic and photo-fermentation for hydrogen production

One third of the World's entire food production is lost or wasted every year. Biohydrogen production offers a possibility to re-use this resource; in particular, bread and bakery products wastes, due to their composition (up to 70% of carbohydrates, mostly starch), represent an appropriate source of nutrients for microorganisms. The aim of this work was to convert bread wastes into hydrogen with a sequential system composed of lactic fermentation and photofermentation, with a minimum number of treatments to the substrate. The best results were provided by Lactobacillus amylovorus DSM 20532, followed by photofermentation by Rhodopseudomonas palustris 42OL, supplemented with ferric citrate and magnesium sulfate. The process led to 3.1 mol H2 mol−1 glucose, among the highest yields obtained on starch containing substrates, with an energy recovery of 54 MJ t−1 dry waste. This study promotes the re-use of energy-containing food wastes for improving circular economy.

Interactions between Food Security and Land Use in the Context of Global Change

Increases in human population and per-capita consumption are putting enormous pressure on land resources. About 38% of the Earth’s land area is being used in agricultural production [1], with about half (ca. 31%) of the remaining land being under forest cover [2] and the other half being less suitable for agricultural production due to edaphic, topographic and/or climatic factors. Despite the fact that over the last three decades the world food production has doubled [3], about 1 in 9 people in the world is still undernourished [4]. This poses the global challenge of increasing food security without exacerbating serious environmental problems, such as loss of biodiversity [5], greenhouse gas emissions [6], soil degradation [7], and alteration of hydrological cycles [8], among many others. While these issues are of global relevance, we recognize that they are local in nature since their effects are felt locally, while the actions on the land are performed by local actors whose decisions are driven not only by global [9,10], but also by regional [11] and local [12] forces.

Injury Activates Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Phosphorylation of JAV1-JAZ8-WRKY51 Complex for Jasmonate Biosynthesis

Insect herbivory causes severe damage to plants and threatens the world's food production. During evolutionary adaptation, plants have evolved sophisticated mechanisms to rapidly accumulate a key defense hormone, jasmonate (JA), that triggers plant defense against herbivory. However, little is known about how plants initially activate JA biosynthesis at encounter with herbivory. Here, we uncover that a novel JAV1-JAZ8-WRKY51 (JJW) complex controls JA biosynthesis to defend against insect attack. In healthy plants, the JJW complex represses JA biosynthesis to restrain JA at a low basal level to ensure proper plant growth. When plants are injured by insect attack, injury rapidly triggers calcium influxes to activate calmodulin-dependent phosphorylation of JAV1, which disintegrates JJW complex and activates JA biosynthesis, giving rise to the rapid burst of JA for plant defense. Our findings offer new insights into the highly sophisticated defense systems evolved by plants to defend against herbivory.

Proteomics Improves the New Understanding of Honeybee Biology.

The honeybee is one of the most valuable insect pollinators, playing a key role in pollinating wild vegetation and agricultural crops, with significant contribution to the world's food production. Although honeybees have long been studied as model for social evolution, honeybee biology at the molecular level remained poorly understood until the year 2006. With the availability of the honeybee genome sequence and technological advancements in protein separation, mass spectrometry, and bioinformatics, aspects of honeybee biology such as developmental biology, physiology, behavior, neurobiology, and immunology have been explored to new depths at molecular and biochemical levels. This Review comprehensively summarizes the recent progress in honeybee biology using proteomics to study developmental physiology, task transition, and physiological changes in some of the organs, tissues, and cells based on achievements from the authors' laboratory in this field. The research advances of honeybee proteomics provide new insights for understanding of honeybee biology and future research directions.

INTEGRASI PASAR BERAS INDONESIA DENGAN PASAR BERAS INTERNASIONAL

The food crisis that was triggered by climate change has swept the world lately. Climate change is affecting the pattern of the world that led to changes in the pattern of agricultural production as well. Changes in the pattern of production results in world food production schedule was delayed, and along with these changes, many countries export so that world food prices increase. Rising world food prices starting from US and then spread in the other parts of the world, including Indonesia. However, it is unknown how big relatedness of International food prices changes with food prices in Indonesia. This paper aims to analyze the connectedness between domestic rice market with international market, how long shock in international rice impact on the domestic market and to analyze interlinkage in domestic primary rice market. Using data rice price in indonesia and international rice price of FAO, writer found that market rice integrated both in domestic and foreign, so the fluctuations in both markets would affect each other Keywords: Food Crisis, Production Pattern, Domestic and International Market Integration

INTEGRASI PASAR BERAS INDONESIA DENGAN PASAR BERAS INTERNASIONAL

The food crisis that was triggered by climate change has swept the world lately. Climate change is affecting the pattern of the world that led to changes in the pattern of agricultural production as well. Changes in the pattern of production results in world food production schedule was delayed, and along with these changes, many countries export so that world food prices increase. Rising world food prices starting from US and then spread in the other parts of the world, including Indonesia. However, it is unknown how big relatedness of International food prices changes with food prices in Indonesia. This paper aims to analyze the connectedness between domestic rice market with international market, how long shock in international rice impact on the domestic market and to analyze interlinkage in domestic primary rice market. Using data rice price in indonesia and international rice price of FAO, writer found that market rice integrated both in domestic and foreign, so the fluctuations in both markets would affect each other Keywords: Food Crisis, Production Pattern, Domestic and International Market Integration

Production vs. consumption management for sustainable agricultural resources

At 35%, world food production wastage is jeopardising the sustainability of global resources and the future of food security, especially considering that agriculture uses 60% and 37% of the world water and land resources. Ironically, rural populations are most exposed to poverty and hunger when they feed the world. Through a literature review, this paper will demonstrate that supply management, based on consumption, is a solution to food wastage and can in parallel, improve rural wealth, introduce sustainable agricultural practices, resolve major urban pressures and bring about global climate change adaptation. The concepts presented in this paper confront modern world agricultural policies as production management systems are being abolished throughout the world, including Canada.

A Weather Generator-Based Statistical Downscaling Tool for Site-Specific Assessment of Climate Change Impacts

Abstract. Statistical downscaling approaches are usually used to bridge the gap between climate model outputs and data requirements of impact models such as crop and soil erosion models. This study synthesizes, integrates, and standardizes a statistical downscaling method that was initially developed in 2005 and subsequently evaluated and improved during the last decade. A new downscaling software program, Generator for Point Climate Change (GPCC), has been developed to automate and visualize the method to assist end users with detailed technical and user documentation. GPCC readily generates daily time series of climate change scenarios for local and site-specific climate change impact studies using monthly projections from global climate models or regional climate models. The downscaled variables include precipitation and maximum and minimum temperatures. This software provides a simple but effective climate downscaling tool for assessing the impacts of climate change on crop production, soil hydrology, and soil erosion at a field scale. The tool can also provide an alternative downscaling method to facilitate the international collaborative efforts of the Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP) for simulation of world food production and food security assessment. The detailed downscaling methods, their scientific bases, and the advantages of GPCC over other commonly used downscaling methods are presented. GPCC is written in the Matlab language, and a standalone version can be run on Windows XP or above without Matlab software. The tool has a graphical user interface that is simple and easy to generate downscaled climates as well as to visualize downscaled outputs. Each interface tab and key button and their functions are described to facilitate its widespread application. Keywords: Agricultural system models, Climate change impacts, Generator for point climate change, Interface, Statistical downscaling, Stochastic weather generator.

Food crisis as factor of future value of the agricultural land

At the present stage of human development, food is one of the most acute problems. Over the past 30-40 years, the growth rate of population in many countries of the world is ahead of the growth rate of agricultural production, which leads to acute shortage of food. This is especially true of developing countries, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of the population of the planet that is under-eating and starving. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), in the world now about half a billion people are constantly hungry and twice asleep. Insufficient consumption affects children in particular. Nearly 300 million children in Asia, Africa and Latin America are lagging behind in physical and mental development as a result of poor nutrition. Every day from hunger there are about 12 thousand people dying. According to FAO, food products around the world are produced in general enough to feed the entire population of the Earth. However, the main reason for the global food crisis is not that products are distributed among countries irrelevant to the population, although such a problem exists. Researchers believe that the food crisis is caused by the coincidence of demographic, environmental and energy problems with the effects of adverse weather conditions, as well as a colossal increase in military spending. Investigated the interconnection between the dynamics of population growth and world food production volumes with the areas of agricultural land and the possible influence of projected changes in agricultural land use on increasing the cost of agricultural land is substantiated. It was investigated that the average national land rent in Ukraine would increase by 25.5%. This in turn will lead to an increase in the value of agricultural land in Ukraine. Keywords : land cost, expert appraisal, agricultural land, deficiency, world food production.

The matter of extreme national importance

It is reported on the history of the development of the domestic agricultural machinery industry. It is noted that the beginning of the modern development of the industry was laid down by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of April 1, 1921, in which it is recognized as «... a matter of extreme national importance». It sets out a set of measures to create the industry as the basis for the de-velopment of the country's agriculture. The head institute All-Union scientific research Institute of agri-cultural engineering (VISKhOM), profile research institution, leading specialized design bureaus, student design bureaus and various factories are being created in different regions of the country. Being the lead-ing complex center for scientific research and practical development of new and promising agricultural technology, including the training of scientific personnel, the Institute VISKhOM played a major role in the development of domestic agricultural machinery and integrated mechanization of the country's agri-culture in the 20s and 30s, in its restoration to Postwar years of the last century. Achievement in 1947 of pre-war production of agricultural machinery. It is noted that the Institute VISKhOM developed and pro-duced in the industry a large number of new machines; many monographs and collections of articles and other scientific papers have been published, scientific and technical reports on the results of their imple-mentation of R&D have been compiled. Scientific and technical assistance was provided to design bu-reaus and factories of the industry in the creation and production of new equipment, according to method-ological and normative documentation. Significant is its contribution to the development and implemen-ta-tion of systems of machinery and technology in the country's agriculture. The UN General Assembly rec-ognized the need to increase the world's food production. Russia has a unique agrarian potential and can provide itself with quality, renewable products and its supply to the world market. It is noted that a number of problems of the domestic agro-industrial complex remain unresolved, for example, its insufficient support by the state, the liquidation of scientific research institutes of the industry, including VISKhOM and a number of factories. There is a need for a large-scale revival of the domestic agricultural machinery industry as an effective scientific and production system for the creation and production of modern ma-chinery of high quality and reliability for our agriculture with an extensive set of crops and with various technologies. The future of Russia's agriculture is the use of modern machine technologies as the basis for the country's food security and the competitiveness of Russian food in the domestic and world markets.

Environment:A Futuristic View

The earth today is experiencing environmental conditions unprecedented in the history of the planet. Biodiversity is the basis of ecosystem services for human well-being. Reports indicate that the earth has indeed entered into a phase of mass extinction, and that the ecological footprint has substantially exceeded the biocapacity of the earth. It is argued that the ecological footprint must be reduced through sustainable development which should keep nature at its core. Anthropogenic activities have led to global environmental change which is adversely affecting human well-being. Global warming may result in a temperature rise of 4-5°C; the world food production may substantially decline, and the sea level may rise by up to 195 cm by 2100, inundating vast coastal areas. Almost four billion people are facing water scarcity. Three of the nine Rockstrom's planetary boundaries have already been exceeded. However, the encouraging fact is that the nations have agreed to limit global warming to 1.5°C, which gives us hope.

Microbial Phosphorus Solubilization and Its Potential for Use in Sustainable Agriculture.

The use of excess conventional Phosphorus (P) fertilizers to improve agricultural productivity, in order to meet constantly increasing global food demand, potentially causes surface and ground water pollution, waterway eutrophication, soil fertility depletion, and accumulation of toxic elements such as high concentration of selenium (Se), arsenic (As) in the soil. Quite a number of soil microorganisms are capable of solubilizing/mineralizing insoluble soil phosphate to release soluble P and making it available to plants. These microorganisms improve the growth and yield of a wide variety of crops. Thus, inoculating seeds/crops/soil with Phosphate Solubilizing Microorganisms (PSM) is a promising strategy to improve world food production without causing any environmental hazard. Despite their great significance in soil fertility improvement, phosphorus-solubilizing microorganisms have yet to replace conventional chemical fertilizers in commercial agriculture. A better understanding of recent developments in PSM functional diversity, colonizing ability, mode of actions and judicious application should facilitate their use as reliable components of sustainable agricultural systems. In this review, we discussed various soil microorganisms that have the ability to solubilize phosphorus and hence have the potential to be used as bio fertilizers. The mechanisms of inorganic phosphate solubilization by PSM and the mechanisms of organic phosphorus mineralization are highlighted together with some factors that determine the success of this technology. Finally we provide some indications that the use of PSM will promote sustainable agriculture and conclude that this technology is ready for commercial exploitation in various regions worldwide.

Formetanate toxicity and changes in antioxidant enzyme system of Apis mellifera larvae.

Substantial percentage of world food production depends on pollinating service of honeybees that directly depends on their health status. Among other factors, the success of bee colonies depends on health of developed larvae. The crucial phase of larval development is the first 6days after hatching when a worker larva grows exponentially and larvae are potentially exposed to xenobiotics via diet. In the present study, we determined the lethal concentration LC50 (72h) following single dietary exposure of honeybee larvae to formetanate under laboratory conditions, being also the first report available in scientific literature. Activities of antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) were also measured in the homogenates of in vitro reared honeybee larvae after single formetanate exposure. Decreased specific activity of SOD and increased activities of CAT and GST suggest the induction of oxidative stress. Higher levels of thiobarbituric reactive species in all samples supported this fact. Comparing determined larval toxicity (LC50 of 206.01mga.i./kg diet) with adult toxicity data, we can suppose that the larvae may be less sensitive to formetanate than the adult bees.

Irrigated Sugarbeet Sucrose Content in Relation to Growing Season Climatic Conditions in the Northwest U.S.

The potential effects of changing climate on world food production have become a political and scientific focus. This study was conducted to investigate linkages between seasonal climatic conditions and sugarbeet sucrose content in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon. Sucrose content of irrigated sugarbeets delivered to 74 receiving stations in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon from 1997 through 2014, and daily climate data (growing degree days [GDD] and accumulated alfalfa reference crop evapotranspiration, maximum air temperature, minimum air temperature and mean air temperature, global solar radiation, accumulated growing degree days, and mean relative humidity) from regional weather stations were collected and analyzed using various regression techniques to investigate linkages between climate variables and sugarbeet sucrose content. Ninety-nine climatic parameters were analyzed with 34 having correlations with sugarbeet sucrose content > |0.3|. The most important climatic parameter related to mean sucrose content was early stage sugarbeet growth (late April to mid-May). In general, as temperature and GDD increased sucrose content decreased. Results indicate increases in both early season and mid-season temperatures will lead to decreases in sugarbeet sucrose concentrations. However, if sugarbeet root yields increase due to increasing temperatures and GDD accumulation, the sucrose yield changes would be buffered.

Terminal heat stress-responsive genes analysis in heat susceptible HDR77 genotype of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by using semi-quantative RTPCR

Abiotic stresses particularly heat stress constitutes a serious threat to the world food production in bread wheat. In the present study, candidate gene expression analysis of HDR77 genotype (which is a susceptible genotype based on electrolyte leakage experiment) was carried out and only those candidate genes which were showing two fold change differences were selected from previous research papers These genes were run over cDNA of HDR 77genotype used as template and intensity of bands was checked by semi-quantative RT PCR. Few genes like HSP 80 gene, MADS WP12 gene, HSP 26.6B gene, WRKY53b gene, WRKY72-a gene, HSP26 gene and WRKY 72b gene were upregulated whereas TaVRT- MADS gene, NAC gene and WRKY 10 gene were down-regulated . The heat stress responsive genes will increase our understanding of molecular basis for heat tolerance in different wheat genotypes and future improvement of heat tolerance in wheat and other crops.

Revival of domestic agricultural engineering is an urgent and important task of the state

The United Nations Organization has called for the need to increase world food production by 70% to 2050. Russia has 9% of world agricultural land and 2% of population of the world, and could not only provide itself with the quality production, but supply the world market. However, today the state support of our agriculture and enterprises producing agricultural machinery is insufficient. One of the most important conditions of agricultural development is a large-scale revival of domestic agricultural engineering, one of the oldest industries of the country. The article presents extracts from the history of this industry, gives an overview of main features and development trends of domestic and foreign agricultural engineering. It is noted that in recent years production and development of domestic agricultural machinery has been reduced significantly. Being its key customer and consumer, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation stopped formerly active and useful participation in the development of technical means. Import of foreign machinery increased. But the imported machines do not always sufficiently conform to our conditions. The development of domestic production of agricultural machinery and its use are to be granted the status of top-priority task of the state. A set of measures is proposed for the implementation of this task. These measures will provide the necessary level of food security of the country, the welfare of population, the growth of food exports and raising Russia’s international standing.

Interdependencia económica mundial y procesos de resistencia campesina en un mundo globalizado: la experiencia de la Vía Campesina internacional

En el artículo analizaremos la globalización de la economía mundial y las formasde resistencia campesina generadas desde mediados de los años de 1990,problematizando así la emergencia de conflictos sociales desencadenados porlos procesos de globalización, y la novedad en el ámbito de la acción colectivarural que fue la creación de una organización internacional de campesinos.Analizaremos a La Vía Campesina (LVC), movimiento mundial que pretende nuclearpequeños productores rurales frente al accionar de instituciones como laOrganización Mundial del Comercio en la producción mundial de alimentos. Elobjetivo del trabajo es ver de manera breve cómo la globalización afecta las formasde vida campesinas en el mundo; cómo esos campesinos procuran resistira este proceso organizándose a escala mundial e internacionalizando su lucha.Para ello, examinaremos cómo se da el nacimiento de la organización a partirde documentos, entrevistas y sus cuestionamientos al proceso de globalizacióncapitalista-neoliberal.

Pollinators and Global Food Security: the Need for Holistic Global Stewardship

Over the past decades, both wild and domesticated insect pollinators are in dramatic decline, which puts at stake the existence of species, ecosystem resilience and global food security. Globally, 87 of major food crops depend on animal pollination. Together these account for 35 % of the world food production volume. Pollinator mediated crops are indispensable for essential micronutrients in the human diet. Many ornamental plants as well as crops for fibre, fodder, biofuels, timber and phytopharmaceuticals also depend on insect pollinators. This article aims to map the current situation of pollinators worldwide, with a focus on the critical role of pollinators in the human food chain and ecosystem sustainability, their intrinsic and extrinsic value, as well as the causes of their declines and the interventions needed to conserve them, in order to develop an argument for the importance of conserving and restoring pollinator populations and diversity. The present pollinator crisis threatens global and local food security, can worsen the problems of hidden hunger, erodes ecosystem resilience, and can destabilise ecosystems that form our life support system. An integrated approach that simultaneously addresses the key drivers is needed. This includes creation and restoration of floral and nesting resources, a global phase out of prophylactic use of neonicotinoids and fipronil, improvement of test protocols in authorisation of agrochemicals, and restoration and maintenance of independence in regulatory science. The authors argue that an international treaty for global pollinator stewardship and pollinator ecosystem restoration should be initiated in order to systemically counteract the current crisis.