scholarly journals The Role of Selected Ecosystem Services in Different Farming Systems in Poland Regarding the Differentiation of Agricultural Land Structure

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6673
Author(s):  
Lidia Luty ◽  
Kamila Musiał ◽  
Monika Zioło

The functioning of various agroecosystems is nowadays shaped by different farming systems, which may impair their functions, as well as being beneficial to them. The benefits include ecosystem services, defined as economic and noneconomic values gained by humans from ecosystems, through supporting soil formation and nutrient circulation, and the impact of agriculture on climate and biodiversity. Their mutual flow and various disturbances depend on the agroecosystem’s management method, which is associated with the type of management of agricultural land (AL) in individual farms. This paper raises a problem of transformation in the structure of three main farming systems in Poland, in 2004–2018, in relation to the implementation of 16 selected ecosystem services and their scale. Special attention was given to organic farming, as the most environmentally friendly and sustainable. The analysis demonstrates the increase in ALs in that type of production during the analyzed period of time. Disparities of transformation associated with the type of agricultural system were noticeable at the regional level, which were presented in 16 Polish voivodeships. The results of the analysis confirm that the organic system, which is an important carrier of various ecosystem services, gained a stable position. Moreover, areas with integrated farming still do not exceed 0.5% of total agricultural lands in such voivodeships. The analysis of factors influencing the deterioration or disappearance of selected environmental services characterizing agricultural systems indicates the need to depart from an intensive conventional management system.

Author(s):  
Tamara Smovzhenko ◽  
Oryslava Korkuna ◽  
Ivan Korkuna ◽  
Ulyana Khromyak

Nowadays, according to decentralization and current legislation (Land Code of Ukraine, Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine «On Self-Governance»), the public lands have been transferred to the CTCs since 1 February 2018. In 2018/2019, 788 CTCs received communal ownership of 1.68 ha of public lands. According to the Draft Law «On Amendments to Several Legal Documents of Ukraine on Agricultural Lands Turnover», the consolidated territorial communities become the legal entities and can acquire property rights to agricultural land plots. Therefore, transferring the lands to be used by the newly created CTCs is currently an urgent issue that requires extended scientific and practical research. The paper aims to research the role of land reform in Ukraine and its impact on increase of CTCs’ budget revenues. The stages of land reform and the development of the land reform in Ukraine as well as its implementation strategy are outlined. The disparities of the integrated satellite map and the data of the Land Cadaster of Ukraine in terms of unregistered lands are defined. The amount of a CTC budget’s increased revenues due to the reform is estimated. Statistical data on small, medium, and large farmers and their interest in the land reform are analyzed. The terms of selling the land to foreign investors and conditions of participation in land auctions are examined. The mechanisms of land purchase, selling, and lease in line with the land reform are suggested. Generalizing the presented aspects of the land reform in Ukraine and their impact on economic activity of the newly created CTCs, it can be argued that the process is quite positive and necessary for both communities and businesses in order to get additional budget revenues for CTCs. The land reform improves the living standards of Ukrainian people through the disclosure of the country’s agricultural capacity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1034-1052
Author(s):  
Denis Yu. SAMYGIN

Subject. This article examines the impact of the natural and economic conditions and factors of Russia's regions on the development of agriculture. Objectives. The article aims to assess the role of climate forcing in the development of agriculture. Methods. For the study, I used the binning technique. An author-developed spatial database of Russia's regions for 2017–2019 was used as an information resource. The cadastral value of one hectare of agricultural land was used as an analytical expression of the natural and economic conditions of business activities. Results. The article describes a directly proportional dependence of and relationships between natural-and-economic conditions and achieved results in the production and consumption of quality products per capita. Conclusions. It is advisable to increase the amount of government support for regions with unfavorable production conditions, develop the competitive potential of the majority of farms in relation to products that are profitable for producers and consumers.


1992 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 971 ◽  
Author(s):  
MA Ewing ◽  
AD Bathgate ◽  
RJ French ◽  
CK Revell

Duplex soils are prominent in southern Australia and are generally low in fertility. Their agricultural performance is, therefore, suboptimal in most circumstances without an exogenous source of nitrogen. This is often supplied by legumes which are grown in rotation with non-leguminous crops. Both crop and pasture legumes are now widely used in southern Australia and the contribution that they make to the non-legume phase of rotations is through nitrogen fixation and through other mechanisms such as cereal disease breaks. We use a mathematical programming model, MIDAS (Model of an Integrated Farming Dryland Agricultural System), to investigate the role of legumes in the low rainfall wheatbelt of Western Australia. The impact of legumes on farm profitability is assessed with a special focus on the contribution of legumes grown on a duplex soil. By using the model, the sensitivity of rotation choice on this duplex soil to changes in biological and economic parameters is explored. We conclude that crop legumes, in particular, have a firmly established role on sandy-surfaced duplex soils in low rainfall regions and that substantial increases in both the productivity and legume content of pasture would be required to outperform rotations which include crop legumes.


Author(s):  
Megbowon Ebenezer ◽  
Saul Ngarava ◽  
Nsikak-Abasi Etim ◽  
Oluwabunmi Popoola

Government expenditure has been considered to be having an extent of impact on economic performance at both sectoral level and aggregate national level. Evidence from literature, however shows that this notion has not been generally accepted across countries and sectors. Considering the significance of agriculture in an economy most especially in Africa, and the consequent role of government, this study examines the impact of government expenditure on agricultural productivity in South Africa using annual time series data from 1983 to 2016. It is shown that there exists a long-run relationship between government expenditure on agriculture and agricultural productivity, and a positive significant effect only to be expected in the long-run. The finding underscores the non-negotiable role of the South African government funding of agricultural sector in an era of climate change and a highly commercialized agricultural system. Furthermore, considering the low and declining pattern of government expenditure in the sector in South Africa, the desired productivity growth impact will only be experienced in the long-run all things being equal. Improving government funding in the sector could accelerate the desired agricultural productivity in the short-term.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trinidad del Río-Mena ◽  
Louise Willemen ◽  
Anton Vrieling ◽  
Andy Nelson

Landscape processes fluctuate over time, influencing the intra-annual dynamics of ecosystem services. However, current ecosystem service assessments generally do not account for such changes. This study argues that information on the dynamics of ecosystem services is essential for understanding and monitoring the impact of land management. We studied two regulating ecosystem services (i. erosion prevention, ii. regulation of water flows) and two provisioning services (iii. provision of forage, iv. biomass for essential oil production) in thicket vegetation and agricultural fields in the Baviaanskloof, South Africa. Using models based on Sentinel-2 data, calibrated with field measurements, we estimated the monthly supply of ecosystem services and assessed their intra-annual variability within vegetation cover types. We illustrated how the dynamic supply of ecosystem services related to temporal variations in their demand. We also found large spatial variability of the ecosystem service supply within a single vegetation cover type. In contrast to thicket vegetation, agricultural land showed larger temporal and spatial variability in the ecosystem service supply due to the effect of more intensive management. Knowledge of intra-annual dynamics is essential to jointly assess the temporal variation of supply and demand throughout the year to evaluate if the provision of ecosystem services occurs when most needed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 739 ◽  
pp. 139893
Author(s):  
Elisa Terzaghi ◽  
Flavia De Nicola ◽  
Bruno E.L. Cerabolini ◽  
Rosa Posada-Baquero ◽  
Josè-J. Ortega-Calvo ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Carvalho ◽  
Alona Armstrong ◽  
Mark Ashby ◽  
Belinda Howell ◽  
Hannah Montag ◽  
...  

<p>According to the latest IPCC report, 70 to 85% of electricity generation worldwide will need to come from renewable sources of energy by 2050 if countries are to meet internationally agreed greenhouse gas emissions targets. In the rush to decarbonise energy supplies to meet such targets, solar parks (SPs) have proliferated around the world, with uncertain implications for the biodiversity and ecosystem service (ES) provision of hosting ecosystems. SPs necessitate significant land-use change that could disproportionately affect the local environment compared to other low-carbon sources.</p><p>In Britain, SPs are commonly built on intensive arable land and managed as grasslands. This offers both risks and opportunities for ecosystem health, yet evidence for assessing ecosystem consequences is scarce. Therefore, there is an urgent need to understand how net environmental gains can be integrated into land-use change for solar energy development to address the current biodiversity and climate crises.</p><p>We used vegetation data from over 70 SPs and 50 countryside survey plots (1 km<sup>2</sup>) in England and Wales to assess the effects of land-use change for SPs on plant diversity and ES provision. We assessed ten habitat indicator variables (e.g., species richness, larval food plants, forage grasses, bird food plants) associated to functionally important plant species that have the potential to enhance ecosystem service delivery.</p><p>SPs showed higher diversity of habitat indicator species than arable land and improved grasslands, with vegetation between solar arrays showing higher numbers of species important for ES provision (e.g., N-fixing species important for nutrient cycling) than vegetation under solar panels. Overall, the diversity of habitat indicator species seemed highly dependent on former land-use, showing SPs have the potential to enhance ecosystem services provision if built on degraded agricultural land.</p><p>Developing this understanding will enable optimisation of SP design and management to ensure delivery of ecosystem co-benefits from this growing land-use.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jharendu Pant

Abstract The Chitwan valley situated in the inner Terai, Nepal, is endowed with a favourable sub-tropical monsoonal climate, rich soil and abundant forest resources. Livelihoods of half of the population in Chitwan depend on farming. The average size of farm holdings is small (about 0.6 ha) with the agricultural system characterized by an integration of crop and livestock sub-systems. Recognizing the possible role of small-scale aquaculture in poverty alleviation in Nepal, the project "Women in Aquaculture in Nepal" aimed at the introduction and development of backyard pond aquaculture. It has been working with small-scale farming households of the traditional fishing communities of the Darai and Tharu in the Chitwan valley. The project has successfully demonstrated the role of backyard pond aquaculture to diversify the farming systems of traditional fishing communities in the Chitwan valley. Whilst farmers operated low-input aquaculture systems, there is scope for significantly increasing fish production through intensification.


Author(s):  
Nicola P. Randall ◽  
Barbara Smith

This chapter focuses on the role of farm management in biodiversity conservation (and the potential conflicts and synergies between them). It addresses the question of the relationship between productivity and biodiversity, and how this varies between spatial scale and agricultural system. Different methods of farm management for improved biodiversity and resource management on farmland are presented. The focus areas are reintroducing diversity, sustainable pest and nutrient management, and the role of alternative systems such as organic and biodynamic agriculture. Frameworks for regulating the biological impacts of agriculture (e.g. pesticide regulation, ecological engineering, and funding for conservation are also introduced. Other case studies may include organic farming systems, agroforestry systems, and perennial-based cropping systems, as well as the use of integrated pest management techniques.


Author(s):  
Nicola P. Randall ◽  
Barbara Smith

This chapter discusses biodiversity in farming systems, including a consideration of the ecological importance of non-agricultural habitats within farm systems. The chapter outlines patterns of biodiversity in space and time, as well as at varying levels (genetic, organismal, landscape), before exploring the impact of agriculture on biodiversity at local, regional, and global scales. Farmland is an artificial environment, often characterized by monocultures grown at a density that differs from natural growth patterns. This can generate instability, resistance to environmental change, susceptibility to pests, pollution, and impacts on other ecosystem services such as soil and water. The chapter ends with a discussion of the biological implications of continued agricultural change (e.g. specialization, intensification).


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