scholarly journals Sheep in the Vineyard: First Insights into a New Integrated Crop–Livestock System in Central Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12340
Author(s):  
Nicolas Schoof ◽  
Anita Kirmer ◽  
Jakob Hörl ◽  
Rainer Luick ◽  
Sabine Tischew ◽  
...  

The multiple land use of agricultural areas is a building block for increased land use efficiency. Unlike monoculture, integrated crop–livestock systems optimally improve ecosystem services, making it an important field of research and application for adapting land use and food systems that have sustainability deficits. The integration of sheep in viticulture production is described as a promising example of an integrated crop–livestock system. While some studies of the integration of sheep into vineyards are already available for other parts of the world, there is still no research on its implementation in Central European viticulture systems. In order to fill this gap of knowledge, we conducted standardized interviews with 34 winegrowers who already graze sheep in their vineyards. The method allowed a wider overview of the implementation of the integrated crop-livestock system than would have been possible with other approaches. Furthermore, the authors kept sheep in their own vineyard for three years to evaluate the statements of the survey participants. The period during which sheep graze in vineyards is quite heterogeneous in Central Europe. Some farms use sheep only during vine dormancy; others also let sheep graze during a certain period in summer. There are also viticulture training systems where grazing is almost continuously possible. In Central Europe, summer grazing normally requires operational adjustments such as lifting the wires of the training system and branches of the vine; otherwise, the vines could be damaged. This option seems to be tailored to the training system in use. Some interviewees mentioned that sheep not only use the accompanying vegetation as fodder and therefore control the undervine growth, but in some cases, they were also able to replace other work processes, such as defoliating the grape zone or cleaning undesired vine shoots near the ground. However, a high additional workload due to livestock keeping was also mentioned by some survey participants. Some of the interviewees cooperate with shepherds, which could help to solve this challenge. Finally, we summarize possible opportunities and risks of this integrated crop–livestock system. Integrating sheep in vineyards seems to be quite feasible in the period of vine dormancy, whereas more information and considerably more effort is needed to integrate sheep during the vegetation period. Further research is needed to answer open questions especially for the necessary adaptions of the common vine training system or the implementation of alternative systems more suitable to combine with livestock keeping. Some practitioners found opportunities to merchandize the use of sheep in wine sales. This potentially unique selling point could be a solution for a broader consideration of sheep in vineyards.

2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristiano Magalhães Pariz ◽  
Ciniro Costa ◽  
Carlos Alexandre Costa Crusciol ◽  
Paulo Roberto de Lima Meirelles ◽  
André Michel de Castilhos ◽  
...  

Abstract: The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of intercropping systems between corn and tropical forages, at different cutting heights, on silage production, light interception, land use efficiency, intercropping competition factors, and pasture production. In the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 crop seasons, two cultivation modalities were evaluated in the summer/autumn - monocropped corn with residual regrowth of signal grass (Urochloa decumbens) from the soil seed bank and corn intercropped with palisade grass (U. brizantha 'Marandu') -, in a factorial arrangement with two cutting heights for silage production - 0.20 and 0.45 m. After corn silage harvest, the forages were grazed by lambs in a semi-feedlot system, in the winter/spring. Monocropped corn and 0.45-m cutting height both reduced dry matter yield for silage. Corn intercropped with palisade grass improved land use efficiency from 13 to 31% compared with monocropped crop, with land equivalent ratio greater than 1. Palisade grass showed higher light interception than signal grass over the intercrop period with corn and provided greater forage yield for lambs to graze during winter/spring. Corn intercropped with palisade grass, compared with monocropped corn, especially at the cutting height of 0.45 m, is a viable option for improving silage and pasture production, as well as land use efficiency in the integrated crop-livestock system.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 715
Author(s):  
Yingkai Tang ◽  
Kun Wang ◽  
Xuanming Ji ◽  
He Xu ◽  
Yangqing Xiao

Rapid urbanization has provided a strong impetus for the economic growth of China, but it has also caused many problems such as inefficient urban land use and environmental pollution. With the popularization of the concept of green and sustainable development, the Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) assessment concept is widely accepted. The government and residents are paying more and more attention to environmental issues in urban development, and environmental protection has formed an important part of urban development. In this context, this study takes 26 cities in the Yangtze River Delta as examples to build an evaluation system for urban land-use efficiency under green development orientation. The evaluation system takes into account the inputs of land, capital, labor, and energy factors in the process of urban development. Based on emphasizing economic output, the social benefits and undesired outputs brought about by urban development are taken into account. This paper measures urban land use efficiency by the super-efficiency SBM model, and on this basis, analyses the spatial-temporal evolution characteristics of urban land-use efficiency. Further, this paper measures urban land use efficiency without considering undesired outputs and compares the two evaluation methods. Again, the comparison illustrates the rationality of urban land use efficiency evaluation system under green development orientation.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 303
Author(s):  
Xinhai Lu ◽  
Yifeng Tang ◽  
Shangan Ke

The construction and operation of high-speed rail (HSR) has become an important policy for China to achieve efficiency and fairness and promote high-quality economic growth. HSR promotes the flow of production factors such as labor and capital and affects economic growth, and may further affect urban land use efficiency (ULUE). To explore the impact of HSR on ULUE, this paper uses panel data of 284 cities in China from 2005 to 2018, and constructs Propensity Score Matching-Differences in Differences model to evaluate the effect of HSR on ULUE. The result of entire China demonstrates that the HSR could significantly improves the ULUE. Meanwhile, this paper also considers the heterogeneity of results caused by geographic location, urban levels and scales. It demonstrates that the HSR has a significantly positive effect on ULUE of Eastern, Central China, and large-sized cities. However, in Western China, in medium-sized, and small-sized cities, the impact of HSR on ULUE is not significant. This paper concludes that construction and operation of HSR should be linked to urban development planning and land use planning. Meanwhile, the cities with different geographical locations and scales should take advantage of HSR to improve ULUE and promote urban coordinated development.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 657
Author(s):  
Aiping Wang ◽  
Weifen Lin ◽  
Bei Liu ◽  
Hui Wang ◽  
Hong Xu

Frontier research primarily focuses on the effect of urban development models on land use efficiency, while ignoring the effect of new-type urban development on the green land use efficiency. Accordingly, this paper employs a super efficiency slacks-based measure (super-SBM) model with undesirable outputs to measure the green land use efficiency based on panel data from 152 prefecture-level cities for the period 2004–2017. We construct a difference-in-differences (DID) model in this paper to test the impact of smart city construction on the green utilization efficiency of urban land and its transmission mechanism. The results showed that: (1) The smart city construction significantly improved the green utilization efficiency of urban land, increasing the general efficiency by 15%. (2) There is significant city-size heterogeneity in the effect of smart city construction on improving green utilization efficiency of urban land. The policy effect is more obvious in mega cities and above than in very-large-sized cities. (3) The city-feature heterogeneity results reveal that, in cities with a higher level of human capital, financial development, and information infrastructure, the effectiveness of smart city construction in improving the green utilization efficiency of urban land are more obvious, and in cities with a higher level of financial development, the effects of the urban policy were more optimal. (4) The smart city construction promotes the green utilization efficiency of urban land through by the information industry development and the regional innovation capabilities.


Complexity ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Chen ◽  
Rui He ◽  
Qun Wu

With the rapid and unbalanced development of industry, a large amount of cultivated land is converted into industrial land with lower efficiency. The existing research is extensively concerned with industrial land use and industrial development in isolation, but little attention has been paid to the relationship between them. To help address this gap, the paper creates a new efficiency measure method for industrial land use combining Subvector Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) with spatial analysis approach. The proposed model has been verified by using the industrial land use data of 30 Chinese provinces from 2001 to 2013. The spatial autocorrelation relationship between industrial development and industrial land use efficiency is explored. Furthermore, this paper examines the effects of industrial development on industrial land use efficiency by spatial panel data model. The results indicate that the industrial land use efficiency and the industrial development level in the provinces of eastern region are higher than those of the western region. The spatial distribution of industrial land use efficiency shows remarkable positive spatial autocorrelation. However, the level of industrial development has obvious negative spatial autocorrelation since 2009. The improvement of industrial development has a significant positive impact on the industrial land use efficiency.


2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 747-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah H. E. van Zanten ◽  
Herman Mollenhorst ◽  
Cindy W. Klootwijk ◽  
Corina E. van Middelaar ◽  
Imke J. M. de Boer

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (7) ◽  
pp. 114-125
Author(s):  
Trang Nguyen Thi Thanh ◽  
Tuyen Tran Thi ◽  
Yen Hoang Phan Hai ◽  
Hoai Nguyen Thi

Nghe An is the largest province area in Viet Nam with many favorable conditions for developing farm economy. Researching on the farm economy in Nghe An is approached in the direction of sustainable development theory and from the farm owners. Base on principle of sustainable development to survey 150 farms, which were selected by two criteria group: distribution such as mountains, midland, coast plain and types of farms such as cultivation, animal husbandry, forestry, aquaculture. The content was collected focus on: land use, labor, product value, average farm income and land use efficiency,.... Based on the results analyzed, there are some problems in Nghe An farms development: the scale of farms are small, quality product is not high, dificulties in product consumption, there is not link between farms, environmental protection issues are not paid attention,… This is not meet the need of sustainable development. Some solutions are proposed, such as: expanding farm scale, creating the close links between farm owners and enterprises, applying the scientific advances in production, building the waste treatment facilities and developing specialized products by region advantage, etc.


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