scholarly journals Evaluating Sustainability in Traditional Silvopastoral Systems (caívas): Looking Beyond the Impact of Animals on Biodiversity

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3098 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Lúcia Hanisch ◽  
Raquel R. B. Negrelle ◽  
Rafael Araújo Bonatto ◽  
Evelyn Roberta Nimmo ◽  
André Eduardo Biscaia Lacerda
Keyword(s):  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Silvopastoral Systems ◽  
Southern Brazil ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
Strategic Option ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Productive Systems ◽  
The Impact

Caívas are traditional silvopastoral systems that occur in the Araucaria Forest biome, Southern Brazil, in which animal production and erva-mate extraction are integrated. Participatory research was conducted in caívas in the Northern Plateau, Santa Catarina State, to identify strategies to intensify pasture use and increase animal productivity. To better understand the outcomes of these strategies, a sustainability assessment was conducted in properties that participated in the research (improved caívas; IC) and those that did not (traditional caívas; TC). The Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems (SAFA) tool 2.0.0 for smallholders was chosen as it evaluates the productive unit as a whole using environmental, social, economic, and governance indicators and is tailored for small-scale production. All evaluated indicators showed higher scores for IC properties in relation to TC. In general, the SAFA analysis showed that when evaluated as productive systems, TCs are a strategic option for rural development, as 65% of their indicators were evaluated as good. With the support of rural outreach and research and the adoption of appropriate technologies, this percentage increased to 86% in ICs. These results confirm that with adequate support caívas can significantly contribute to the development of more sustainable livestock farming in Southern Brazil.

MODELLING THE IMPACT OF EROSION ON SOIL PRODUCTIVITY: A COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF APPROACHES ON DATA FROM SOUTHERN BRAZIL

1998 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. TENBERG ◽  
M. DA VEIGA ◽  
S. C. F. DECHEN ◽  
M. A. STOCKING
Keyword(s):  
Soil Properties ◽  
Crop Yields ◽  
Nutrient Loss ◽  
Soil Productivity ◽  
Southern Brazil ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Food And Agriculture Organization ◽  
Economic Analyses ◽  
United Nations Food ◽  
The Impact

Erosion changes soil properties, removes nutrients and alters crop yields. A knowledge of these impacts on soil productivity is needed for economic analyses of erosion and conservation. Based on a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization experimental design to monitor these changes, results are reported from four research sites in southern Brazil on Ferralsols and Cambisols, enabling the construction of erosion–yield–time and nutrient loss relationships. Plot experiments ran for up to seven years of natural erosion, followed by one or two years of maize cropping. A remarkably consistent composite erosion–yield relationship in logarithmic form was found, showing a sharp yield decline with initial soil loss. Soil ‘resilience’ was identified through erosion–time relationships, ‘sensitivity’ through erosion–yield equations. As erosion progressed, losses of nutrients, especially of organic carbon and calcium, were significant. In situ changes in soil properties were far less marked. Together with measured yield reductions caused by cumulative erosion, these results enabled the modelling of changes in soil productivity over time with respect to both soil quality and impact on yields. A production ‘half-life’ of between one and 39 years according to soil type and level of erosion was also identified.

scholarly journals Assessing Sustainability in Cattle Silvopastoral Systems in the Mexican Tropics Using the SAFA Framework

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Fernanda Pérez-Lombardini ◽  
Karen F. Mancera ◽  
Gerardo Suzán ◽  
Julio Campo ◽  
Javier Solorio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Silvopastoral Systems ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Sustainable Performance ◽  
Holistic Management ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Feasible Alternative ◽  
Cattle Farms ◽  
Mexican Tropics

The sub-humid native rainforest in Yucatan is one of the most endangered in Mexico. Cattle production is one of the main causes of land use change and silvopastoral systems are a feasible alternative. This work compares the sustainable performance of silvopastoral (native and intensive) and monoculture cattle farms in the state of Yucatan using the Sustainability Assessment for Food and Agriculture (SAFA) framework. Questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were applied in 9 farms. Responses were fed to the SAFA Tool to obtain sustainability polygons. Percentages of SAFA themes positively and negatively valuated were calculated. Native farms had positive ratings for Participation, Land, Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity, whereas intensive excelled on Holistic Management. Native farms had limited ratings for Decent Livelihood. Native farms (and one intensive silvopastoral farm) had the highest percentages of themes positively valuated compared to monocultures (and one intensive silvopastoral farm), which scored the lowest. Positive evaluations identified native systems as an option for sustainable production; however, areas of opportunity in all farms were discovered. This is the first comparative study using SAFA to evaluate differences in farming systems in the Mexican tropics, providing valuable information to generate policies and incentives on sustainable livestock production, as well as for improving evaluation tools for local application.

scholarly journals Assessing Sustainability of Organic Livestock Farming in Sicily: A Case Study Using the FAO SAFA Framework

Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 274
Author(s):  
Mariarita Cammarata ◽  
Giuseppe Timpanaro ◽  
Alessandro Scuderi
Keyword(s):  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Economic Resilience ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Food And Agriculture ◽  
Food And Agriculture Organization

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and pollutants, soil erosion and groundwater pollution are some of the negative aspects blamed on livestock farming, so their level of sustainability needs to be assessed, taking into account the territory in which they operate. The research focuses on the assessment of sustainability performance in the four dimensions of good governance: environmental integrity, economic resilience and social well-being, considered by the ‘‘Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture Systems’’ (SAFA) tool developed by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The objective of applying this methodology is to highlight the sustainability dimensions in which the ten analyzed farms are weakest and the ones in which they show the most strength, in order to provide farmers a tool to understand the criticalities on which to intervene. The farms considered follow the principles of agroecology and organic farming, which are decisive in the pursuit of sustainable development. The overall results show a satisfactory level of sustainability with high prospects for improvement, in line with the EU commitments undertaken in the Green Deal and the Millennium Development Goals. Livestock farms must, therefore, be encouraged and accompanied with targeted technical assistance strategies and appropriate agroecological protocols.

scholarly journals Impact of improved small-scale livestock farming on human nutrition

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Emran Hossain ◽  
Md. Ahasanul Hoque ◽  
Emanuele Giorgi ◽  
Guillaume Fournié ◽  
Goutam Buddha Das ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Dietary Diversity ◽  
Controlled Trial ◽  
Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Micronutrient Deficiencies ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
Randomised Controlled ◽  
The Impact

AbstractMicronutrient deficiencies and stunting rates are high in many low-income countries. Increasing and diversifying food intake are often challenging for small-scale farmers in lowland areas as flooding often results in crop losses and drowning of livestock. A cluster-randomised controlled trial was conducted over 12-months in Bangladesh, involving 150 small-scale duck rearing households, including 50 control, and 50 households each in two intervention arms. Interventions focussing on improving duck health and duck nutrition were applied on a village level. Data analysis focussed on assessing the impact of interventions on duck mortality, sales and consumption, and on dietary diversity of household members. Improved duck rearing increased the consumption and the sales of ducks. Household selling more ducks were more likely to purchase and consume milk products, contributing to an improved households’ dietary diversity. Our results suggest that improving duck rearing can provide a suitable and sustainable alternative to maintain and improve dietary diversity of households in flood-prone areas.

scholarly journals Environmental life cycle assessment of yellow mealworm (Tenebrio molitor) production for human consumption in Austria – a comparison of mealworm and broiler as protein source

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moritz Dreyer ◽  
Stefan Hörtenhuber ◽  
Werner Zollitsch ◽  
Henry Jäger ◽  
Lisa-Marie Schaden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Production System ◽  
Tenebrio Molitor ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Environmental Life Cycle Assessment ◽  
On Farm ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Freshwater Eutrophication

Abstract Purpose Global food production needs to increase to provide enough food for over 9 billion people living by 2050. Traditional animal production is among the leading causes for climate change and occupation of land. Edible insects might be a sustainable protein supply to humans, but environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) studies on them are scarce. This study performs an LCA of a small-scale production system of yellow mealworms (Tenebrio molitor) in Central Europe that are supplied with organic feedstuff. Methods A combined ReCiPe midpoint (H) and CED method is used to estimate the potential environmental impacts from cradle-to-gate. Impact categories include global warming potential (GWP), non-renewable energy use (NREU), agricultural land occupation (ALOP), terrestrial acidification potential (TAP) and freshwater eutrophication potential (FEP). The robustness of the results is tested via sensitivity analyses and Monte Carlo simulations. Results and discussion Impacts related to the production of 1 kg of edible mealworm protein amount to 20.4 kg CO2-eq (GWP), 213.66 MJ-eq (NREU), 22.38 m2 (ALOP), 159.52 g SO2-eq (TAP) and 12.41 g P-eq (FEP). Upstream feed production and on-farm energy demand related to the heating of the facilities are identified as environmental hot-spots: Depending on the impact category, feed supply contributes up to 90% and on-farm heating accounts for up to 65% of overall impacts. The organic mealworm production system is contrasted with a selected Austrian organic broiler production system, to which it compares favourably (18–72% lower impacts per category), with the exception of freshwater eutrophication (6% higher impacts). Conclusions This case study shows that the Austrian mealworm production system compares favourably to traditional livestock systems. Compared to LCAs from large-scale T. molitor rearing facilities in France and in the Netherlands, however, the Austrian production system cannot compete for the reasons of production scale, feed conversion efficiency and type of production system. Nevertheless, the investigated mealworms represent a sustainable protein alternative that should be added to the Western diet.

Comparative Analysis of Beneficiaries and Non-beneficiaries about Scientific Livestock Farming Practices

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akshita Chadda ◽  
Y.S. Jadoun ◽  
Jaswinder Singh ◽  
S.K. Kansal
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Rural Women ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Knowledge Level ◽  
Farming Practices ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
Self Help ◽  
Self Help Groups ◽  
The Impact

Background: Punjab being a productive state in agriculture and livestock farming, various institutions are actively involved in Self Help Group formation for socio- economic development of low-income group. Rural women are engaged in small-scale entrepreneurship programme with the help of Self Help Groups. The present study was conducted to assess the impact of livestock based Self Help Groups on knowledge level regarding the scientific livestock farming practices among the beneficiaries of Self Help Groups and non-beneficiaries. Methods: The study was undertaken in Ludhiana district of Punjab. A multistage random sampling procedure was applied to draw the sample for the study. For meeting the objective; 120 beneficiaries and 60 non-beneficiaries were subjected to structured interview schedule. Result: The study revealed that majority of the beneficiaries (50.00%) and non-beneficiaries (55.00%) had medium level of knowledge regarding overall scientific livestock farming practices. Knowledge Index was higher in case of beneficiaries (61.46) than that of non-beneficiaries (56.68). Self Help Groups had made a significant positive impact on knowledge level of the beneficiaries and thus helped in improving overall socio-economic conditions of the rural women.

scholarly journals CURRENT STATUS AND PROBLEMS OF VIETNAMESE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

2019 ◽  
pp. 23-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huong Le Thi Mai ◽  
Hung Tran Van
Keyword(s):  
Labor Productivity ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Viet Nam ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Actual Situation ◽  
Livestock Farming

Basing on the secondary data collected from the General Statistics Office of Viet Nam, this article describes the actual situation in Vietnamese agricultural sector through the contribution of agriculture to the economic growth and GDP of Vietnam, the export value of agricultural sector in the total export value of Vietnam, labor productivity of the agricultural sector and investments in the agricultural sector. Beside many achievements, the agricultural sector is currently facing a lot of challenging issues: (a) labor productivity is still low; (b) the use of funds is inefficient although capital investment in agriculture increased rapidly over the years; (c) the growth rate of agricultural sector is still low due to small-scale production; (e) disease issues, sanitary and phytosanitary safety; (f) food safety, (g) environmental pollution from cultivation and livestock farming have not been strictly controlled. Stemming from all these facts, this article proposes some recommendations which can contribute to overcoming the problems and developing the agricultural sector in the future.

Economic feasibility analysis of small-scale aquaculture of the endemic snail Pomacea patula catemacensis (Baker 1922) from southeast Mexico

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
Miguel Ángel Mejía-Ramírez ◽  
Verónica Valadez Rocha ◽  
Carlos Iván Pérez-Rostro
Keyword(s):  
Production System ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Return Rate ◽  
Economic Feasibility ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Present Value ◽  
Base Scenario ◽  
The Impact

The snail Pomacea patula catemacensis is an endemic mollusk from the southeast Gulf of Mexico, which is commercially exploited and in decline since 2010. This decline is associated with an increasing market demand and illegal capture. We designed a small-scale production system for P. p. catemacensis and determined its financial feasibility for a base scenario. We used information gathered from stakeholders and stochastic modeling to predict the impact of uncertain variables on the economic indicators to assess the financial viability under varying conditions. The small-scale intensive production system, designed to yield 3.9 tons/year of unshelled product, requires an investment of about US $65,000. The production unit was financially assessed using the Modified Internal Return Rate and The Net Present Value of cash flow, considering a 14% discount rate and a 7% reinvestment rate. We obtained a Net Present Value of $67,000 and a Modified Internal Return Rate of 20% for the base scenario, which indicates the viability of the project. A Monte Carlo simulation was run to assess the robustness of the project to variability of three parameters: labor cost, energy cost, and market price; with random and simultaneous variation, resulting in 95% probability of getting a Modified Internal Return Rate larger than the current interest rate (8%) and a low probability (2.8%) to be financially unviable. This production system is worthy of consideration as an option to reduce the fishing pressure on the tegogolo natural populations of the Catemaco Lake while satisfying the market demand.

Methodological approaches to assessing the impact of agro-industrial enterprises on the development of territorial communities

2020 ◽  
pp. 14-22
Author(s):  
Mykola Butko ◽  
Valeriy Kolosha ◽  
Oleh Rasskazov
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
The State ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Integrated Development ◽  
Industrial Enterprises ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
The Impact

The agro-industrial complex of Ukraine is one of the most relevant segments of the national economy, which provides an adequate level of food security of the regions and the state as a whole, as well as forms a significant amount of domestic expert material. However, institutional miscalculations of the state, underestimation of the peculiarities of the formation and functioning of domestic and foreign food markets, as well as ignoring the role of local governments and civil society institutions in rural development, led to agricultural enrichment, dominance of small-scale production, lack of motivation for integrated development formations, and depopulation of rural areas. The essence of modern EU agricultural policy in the third millennium and the need for our country to join it are studied. Methodological approaches to assessing the impact of agro-industrial enterprises on the integrated development of territorial communities in the context of decentralization of power are developed. The multifaceted nature of the process of functioning of agro-industrial production in the direction of ensuring the development of communities determines the influence of a significant number of factors. Generalizing scientific approaches in this area, all factors can be combined into several aggregate groups: production, consumption, social, institutional, and environmental orientation. The proposed methodological approaches to assessing such impact, in addition, provide an opportunity to develop areas for long-term mutually beneficial development of the entities in this system. The purpose of such promising parameters should be to develop mechanisms to ensure the production of high-quality food products, primarily for domestic consumption; to improve the level and quality of life of rural residents; to improve the system of management of territorial communities and formation of effective schemes of their interaction with business entities; to stimulate the activity of the population of the territories as a locomotive of these processes; to ensure the improvement of the ecological condition of settlements and environmental protection.

Particular Forms of Management of Agro – Industrial Complex in the Sustainable Development of Agriculture

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 639
Author(s):  
Baglan AIMURZINA ◽  
Mazken KAMENOVA ◽  
Ainura OMAROVA ◽  
Galina PESTUNOVA ◽  
Ainur KARIPOVA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Crop Production ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Agricultural Products ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Investment Activity ◽  
The Impact

In this paper it is noted that the important problem of the existing economic relations in the agrarian sphere is the choice of forms of management. The practice of reforms in agriculture has shown that more than 80% of gross output in Kazakhstan is currently produced by "households" and peasant (farmer) farms which provides further increase in the production of agricultural products namely crop production and increase its economic efficiency. Currently the agricultural sector has a tendency to small-scale production. As the situation has shown one of the main factors negatively influencing investment activity is financial instability of the majority of agricultural producers, low level of its profitability and significant risks.  Factors of low profit growth of the agricultural sector are related to the peculiarities of demand for agricultural products and seasonality of production in this industry. The analysis of the structure of gross agricultural production of the Republic of Kazakhstan by categories of farms, the returnability of agricultural production for 2012-2016 shows the impact of the price and yield of grain on the level of farm income. Proposals for further improvement of grain pricing are given.

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