scholarly journals Refining the Spatial Scale for Maize Crop Agro-Climatological Suitability Conditions in a Region with Complex Topography towards a Smart and Sustainable Agriculture. Case Study: Central Romania (Cluj County)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2783
Author(s):  
Adina-Eliza Croitoru ◽  
Titus Cristian Man ◽  
Sorin Daniel Vâtcă ◽  
Bela Kobulniczky ◽  
Vlad Stoian

In the context of global climate change, the agricultural sector is one of the most responsive. This study focused on changes detected in temperature requirements for maize crops based on growing season length and the growing degree day indices in Central Romania (Cluj County). Daily air temperature data over the period 1981–2013 was derived from two databases with different spatial resolutions: Agri4Cast Resources Portal and ROmanian ClimAtic Dataset. Further analysis, performed for the entire period and three 10/13-y sub-periods, focused on calculating and mapping the area of arable land for each suitability zone. The main findings were: there were differences up to 16% in the area of suitability zones when switching from the results obtained based on the coarse spatial resolution to the improved one; the differences were larger for the shorter and more recent sub-periods than for the entire period or for the first decade; and there was considerable improvement of thermal conditions for maize crops in the focus region over the considered period—suitability zone I was not detected for the first sub-period and became dominant for the last one. It can be concluded that using or developing a better spatial resolution database is very important for maximizing the profitability of agriculture.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1452
Author(s):  
Evangelia Karasmanaki ◽  
Panagiota Dimopoulou ◽  
Zisis Vryzas ◽  
Philippos Karipidis ◽  
Georgios Tsantopoulos

Policymakers often assume that farmers with pro-environmental behavior are more likely to follow proper pesticide practices and thus, in order to improve the safety of their pesticide practices, they implement strategies and programs designed to raise environmental awareness among the general public. The aim of this paper is to examine whether pro-environmental behavior can instigate proper pesticide practices among farmers. According to our results, farmers’ environmental behavior does not affect their pesticide practices and thus strategies aiming at raising environmental awareness among the general public would not prompt them to follow proper pesticide practices. In addition, the respondents reported following overall proper practices such as wearing masks and appropriate clothes during sprayings as well as rinsing the empty containers by performing the triple-rinse method. However, they did not wear gloves during applications, and many disposed the remaining pesticide concentrate to non-arable land. To conclude, in order to improve farmers’ pesticide practices, strategies and programs specifically designed for farmers must be developed because those addressed to the general public would not be effective. Moreover, certain improper practices found in this study ought to be addressed by policymakers and actors involved in the agricultural sector.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amer S. Alnagar ◽  
Zuhal R. KADHIM

"The agricultural sector in Iraq suffers from the phenomenon of increasing losses in the main cereal crops, including yellow corn, and the low percentage of the Industrialized from them, due to a set of internal and external factors surrounding these crops during the chain of production and marketing processes that these crops go through, among these factors are what can be controlled others can not be controlled, making the crop at the pity of all these factors combined. This is a waste of the resources that were used in their production, in addition to the losses incurred by producers of these crops. The research aimed to estimate the economic effects of the loss of the yellow corn crop in Babil province by selecting a random sample of farmers and marketers of the crop and designing a special questionnaire form for each type of these producers. The results showed that the total lost quantities of the maize crop at the province level amounted to about 34 thousand tons, resulting in total financial losses of about 10 billion Iraqi dinars, as it was possible to benefit from them at the province level generally in establishing complementary or competitive projects meet the growing needs of consumers and benefit producers in the province. The lost areas as a result of the production loss amounted to about 6504 dunums, which could have been used to grow other crops or to expand the cultivation of the existing crop. Accordingly, the research recommended the necessity for agricultural extension agencies to take their role in holding educational seminars for farmers, which feed into the services needed by the crop and introduce them to the different types of loss and ways to reduce it and reduce waste in scarce productive resources, which has the effect of increasing production rates.."


Author(s):  
Barley Norton

This chapter addresses the cultural politics, history and revival of Vietnamese court orchestras, which were first established at the beginning of the Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1945). Based on fieldwork in the city of Hue, it considers the decolonizing processes that have enabled Vietnamese court orchestras to take their place alongside other East Asian court orchestras as a display of national identity in the global community of nations. The metaphor of ‘orchestrating the nation’ is used to refer to the ways in which Vietnamese orchestras have been harnessed for sociopolitical ends in several historical periods. Court orchestras as heritage have recourse to a generic, precolonial past, yet they are not entirely uncoupled from local roots. Through a case-study of the revival of the Nam Giao Sacrifice, a ritual for ‘venerating heaven’, the chapter addresses the dynamics of interaction and exchange between staged performances of national heritage and local Buddhist and ancestor worship rituals. It argues that with growing concern about global climate change, the spiritual and ecological resonances of the Nam Giao Sacrifice have provided opportunities for the Party-state to reassert its position as the supreme guardian of the nation and its people.


1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Schuftan

Today most foreign aid donors are genuinely committed to the idea that development in Third World countries should start with rural development. Therefore, a sizable proportion of their development funds are invested in rural projects. However, donors channel these funds through local governments (most often representing local bourgeois interests) that are not as committed to the principle of rural development. These governments are often also embarked in policies that are actually—directly or indirectly—expropriating the surpluses generated by agriculture and investing them in the other sectors of the economy. The peasants are therefore footing most of the bill of overall national development. This paper contends that, because of this state of affairs, foreign aid directed toward rural development is actually filling the investment gap left by an internal system of unequal returns to production in agriculture. In so doing, foreign aid is indirectly financing the development of the other sectors of the economy, even if this result is unintended. This perpetrates maldevelopment without redressing the basic exploitation process of peasants which lies at the core of underdevelopment. Evidence to support this hypothesis is presented using data from a primarily agricultural exporting country: the United Republic of Cameroon.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6879
Author(s):  
Hassan P. Ebrahimi ◽  
R. Sandra Schillo ◽  
Kelly Bronson

This study provides a model that supports systematic stakeholder inclusion in agricultural technology. Building on the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) literature and attempting to add precision to the conversation around inclusion in technology design and governance, this study develops a framework for determining which stakeholder groups to engage in RRI processes. We developed the model using a specific industry case study: identifying the relevant stakeholders in the Canadian digital agriculture ecosystem. The study uses literature and news article analysis to map stakeholders in the Canadian digital agricultural sector as a test case for the model. The study proposes a systematic framework which categorises stakeholders into individuals, industrial and societal groups with both direct engagement and supportive roles in digital agriculture. These groups are then plotted against three levels of impact or power in the agri-food system: micro, meso and macro.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4341
Author(s):  
Laima Česonienė ◽  
Daiva Šileikienė ◽  
Vitas Marozas ◽  
Laura Čiteikė

Twenty-six water bodies and 10 ponds were selected for this research. Anthropogenic loads were assessed according to pollution sources in individual water catchment basins. It was determined that 50% of the tested water bodies had Ntotal values that did not correspond to the good and very good ecological status classes, and 20% of the tested water bodies had Ptotal values that did not correspond to the good and very good ecological status classes. The lake basins and ponds received the largest amounts of pollution from agricultural sources with total nitrogen at 1554.13 t/year and phosphorus at 1.94 t/year, and from meadows and pastures with total nitrogen at 9.50 t/year and phosphorus at 0.20 t/year. The highest annual load of total nitrogen for lake basins on average per year was from agricultural pollution from arable land (98.85%), and the highest total phosphorus load was also from agricultural pollution from arable land (60%).


2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-195
Author(s):  
Almut Beringer ◽  
Steven Douglas

Global climate change and its impacts have ethical dimensions, for instance carbon footprint equity concerns. World issues, including the state of the ecosphere and biodiver­sity, regularly see political leaders, NGOs, business representatives, religious/spiritual orga­nizations, academics, and others engage in international aviation-dependent meetings to address critical challenges facing humanity and the planet. Yet, climate scientists and advocates call for an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 to cap the increase in global temperatures to 2ºC. Aviation emissions resulting from international meetings raise questions that are not silenced by GHG emissions offsetting. The era of climate change and ‘peak oil’ poses ethical challenges for holding international in-person religious and academic events, especially when the events propound an environmentalist concern and when aviation use is assumed. This paper raises ques­tions regarding the ecological impacts of large international events and focuses the ‘inconvenient truths’ associated with international aviation in the era of global warming. The Parliament of the World’s Religions, the largest multifaith gathering in the world, serves as a case study. The paper emphasizes the view that faith-based/faith-inspired organizations have a special responsibility for leadership in policy and praxis on the moral imperatives of sustainability, sustainable development and climate justice.


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