Towards sustainable European grassland farming with Inno4Grass: an infrastructure for innovation and knowledge sharing

European agriculture is facing tremendous challenges related to the rapid decrease in farm populations, competitiveness on open markets and the preservation of natural resources. Grasslands, which are highly significant for nature conservation often face land-use competition with arable cropping, urbanisation and other uses. Farmers need dedicated innovations to improve the economic performance of grasslands and their effective implementation in practice. This requires co-creation of knowledge between researchers and farmland practitioners, as was broadly pointed out by the European Commission. This paper describes a novel approach for creating a collaborative space for grassland innovations contributing to profitability of European grassland farms while preserving environmental benefits. Innovative modes of collaboration between practice and science are enabled by an international thematic network across eight European member states. A methodology that serves to collect farmers’ innovative ideas and to stimulate collaboration among various stakeholders (farmers’ groups, extension services, education and research) including cross-border collaborations, where grassland-related knowledge is made available for local conditions. This interactive innovation model fosters knowledge exchange and establishes a farmland-specific information management system. The aim is to stimulate a renewed, collaborative innovation culture for European Union (EU) grasslands. The methods are conceptualised and put into practice by the thematic network project Inno4Grass funded under Horizon 2020.

Perceptions on Impacts of Competition of Eucalypt Plantations with Other Land Uses on the Rural Livelihood in the Western Gurage Watersheds, Central-South Ethiopia

Since recent years, conversions of croplands, grasslands or cash crop fields to eucalypt plantations are becoming common trends in Ethiopia. Reasons for the conversions are better return from eucalypt than crop farming. This study tried to assess the land use competition impacts of eucalypt plantations with other land uses in the Western Gurage Watersheds, Central-south Ethiopia. The specific objectives were to investigate households’ and experts’ perceptions on land use competition of eucalypt plantations; and to assess perceptions on impacts of eucalypt plantation and copping strategies. Samples from three woredas (districts) namely Cheha, Enemorna Ener, and Eza located in the Watersheds were used. These woredas were purposefully selected due to large coverage of the watersheds, extensive expansion of eucalypts farming and thereby high eucalypts pole production, incidences of serious competition of eucalypts with other uses, and the presences of road accessibility for data collection. To get detail information on perception of the households and experts, in-depth discussions with focus groups and key informant were employed. Individual farm households whose age were greater than 70 years old and knowledgeable persons to discuss on the issue of eucalypt plantations were selected purposefully with the guidance of each kebele (sub-district) chairpersons and district experts. Thereafter, three focus group discussions with farm households were conducted in the three districts. Key informant interviews were conducted with purposefully selected and well experienced individual farm households and experts in each district. The result showed that young farmers planted from 1000 to 5000 eucalypt seedlings on lands previously covered with crops. The young people resisted advice from elders and converted farmlands to eucalypt plantations. Previous practitioners (adoptees) who benefitted much from eucalypt products tended for further expansion. This, in turn, resulted in serious land use competition with farmland and grasslands. To mitigate such serious competition with food crops and grasslands, and to sustain the livelihood and environment, appropriate management, e.g. site selection and substitutions by horticultural and cash crops using micro irrigation schemes for market needs are recommended. Conducting in-depth participatory research and specific policy ratification and promulgation on eucalypt plantations will curb its serious land use competition with farm and grazing lands.

AN ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS DETERMINING LAND USE COMPETITION BETWEEN ENSET (PERENNIAL) AND CEREAL (ANNUAL) CROPS IN HADIYA ZONE THE CASE OF LEMO WOREADA (SNNPR)

This study is about assessment of factors determining land use competition between cereals and enset crops in Hadiya zone, Lemo woreda. The main objective of the study was to assess changes in land use and cropping pat-tern, farmers’ perception on land use and cropping pattern as well as factors that determine land use competition between cereals and enset crops. A substantial section of this paper discussed the trends of land use and cropping pattern changes since 2000 and the determinant factors of the changes. Attempts are also made to explore the responses of peasants on causes of land competition between cereals and enset. The findings indicated that there are changes in land use and cropping pattern in the study area. It revealed that land use changes in the study area in the last 20 years, 2000 to 2019, specifically cultivated land and residential area expanded by 0.34% and 0.019% annually respectively. On the other hand, grazing and wood lands has decreased by 0.143% and 0.11% annually respectively. There were changes in the cropping pattern. The land use competition in dega area was among barely, wheat, enset and bean, whereas, in woinadega area the competition was amongst wheat, teff, chats and enset. These crops were dominant crops in dega as well as woinadega areas. The major determinant factors of the changes in land use and cropping pattern were population pressure, farm size, profit maximization, access to market, access to extension services, damages caused by wild animals, distance of plots from home, pests and diseases, land ragmentations, physical infrastructure and crop specific input requirements.

DINAMIKA AGROINDUSTRI GULA INDONESIA: TINJAUAN ANALISIS SISTEM

AbstrakAgroindustri gula memiliki peran yang penting dan strategis bagi ekonomi masyarakat Indonesia sejak zaman penjajahan Belanda sampai dengan saat ini. Produksi gula mengalami stagnasi sejak tahun 1994, ditandai dengan produksi yang menurun sementara permintaan terus bergerak naik. Sementara itu, impor gula terus dilakukan dan cenderung meningkat seiring dengan permintaan yang terus bertambah. Artikel ini menganalisis kompleksitas persoalan yang mengakibatkan berbagai dinamika dalam agroindustri gula terutama stagnasi produksi gula nasional. Metode yang digunakan adalah dengan menggunakan pendekatan analisis sistem berdasarkan data sekunder dan literatur mengenai berbagai indikator yang terkait dengan agroindustri gula. Hasil pembahasan menunjukan bahwa dinamika agroindustri gula Indonesia yang cenderung mengalami kemunduran diakibatkan oleh inefisensi usahatani tebu, inefisiensi usaha pabrik gula/PG, dan distorsi oleh pasar gula internasional. Inefisiensi usahatani tebu berdampak langsung kepada inefisiensi PG dalam rantai agroindustri gula. Sementara itu, persoalan kompetisi penggunaan lahan antara tanaman padi dan tebu secara tidak langsung berimplikasi kepada inefisiensi PG. Inefisiensi agroindustri gula kemudian menjadi lebih kompleks dengan adanya distorsi harga gula di pasar internasional yang menjatuhkan harga gula dunia. Guna mengatasi dinamika persoalan di atasm pengembangan industri tebu sebaiknya dilakukan oleh pihak swasta dengan mengoptimalkan lahan pertanian di luar Jawa.Kata Kunci: tebu, analisis sistem, impor gula, usahatani, hargaAbstractSugar agroindustry has an important and strategic role for Indonesia since from the Dutch colonial era until present. Sugar production has been stagnating since 1994, indicated by decreasing production while demand continues to rise. Meanwhile, sugar import continues and tended increasing in line with growing demand. This article analyses the problems complexity of that have resulted various dynamics in sugar agroindustry, especially the stagnation of national sugar production. The method used is a systems analysis approach which based on secondary data and literature review on various indicators related to sugar agroindustry. The result show that the dynamics of Indonesia's sugar agroindustry which tends to decline caused by inefficiency in sugarcane farming, inefficiency of sugar factories/PG, and distortion by the international sugar market. Inefficiency in sugarcane farming has a direct impact on the inefficiency of PG in the sugar agroindustry chain. Meanwhile, the issue of land use competition between rice and sugar cane, indirectly has implications for PG inefficiency. Sugar agroindustry inefficiency then became more complex with the distortion of sugar prices on the international market which dropped international sugar prices. In order to overcome the problems, the development of sugarcane industry should be carried out by private sector by optimizing agricultural land outside Java.Keywords: sugarcane, system analysis, imported sugar, farming, price

Potential Economic Impacts of Allocating More Land for Bioenergy Biomass Production in Virginia

The growing attention to renewable energy and rural development has created greater demand for production of biomass feedstock for bioenergy. However, forest growth rates and the amount of land in most existing forests may not be sufficient to sustainably supply the forest biomass required to support existing forest products industries and the expanding bioenergy industry. Additionally, concerns about agricultural land use competition have dampened expansion of biomass production on agricultural land base. One of the ways to meet the growing forest biomass feedstock demand for bioenergy production is by allocating currently marginal non-forested land for growing bioenergy feedstocks. In Virginia, about 80% of forestland is under nonindustrial private forest ownership. The land use allocation decisions of these private owners are critical for the supply of the forest biomass feedstock to support bioenergy production. We apply a computable general equilibrium model to assess the economy-wide impacts of forestland owners’ willingness to plant pine on non-forested land for woody bioenergy in Virginia. We consider three counterfactual scenarios of biomass feedstock supply increase as intermediate demand for bioenergy production based on forestland owners’ willingness to accept biomass bid prices to set aside more non-forested land for biomass production in Virginia under general equilibrium conditions. Overall, the results show an increase in social welfare and household utility but a marginal decline in GDP. However, increased demand of biomass from logging sector depressed the manufacturing sector (the wood manufacturing sub-sector particularly), which also relies on the logging sector for its intermediate inputs. Results from this study provide insights into the bioenergy land use competition debate, and pathways towards sustainable bioenergy feedstock supply.