Analyzing the relationship between water pollution and economic activity for a more effective pollution control policy in Bali Province, Indonesia

An adequate water supply is essential for the continued and sustainable growth of the Balinese economy. In addition to mounting water demand, Bali’s water supply has been constrained by high levels of water pollution. Despite being paid great attention, Bali’s earlier efforts to control water pollution yet to prove effective, mainly owing to their reliance on traditional methods and regulations that focus on water pollution being linked to discrete sets of economic activity (e.g., processing industries, livestock farming, and hotels). However, an economy of a region/country comprises a set of sectoral activities, which are interconnected through supply chains; thus, water pollution could be well explained by examining the entire sectoral economic activities and their environmental performance. Therefore, determining the structural relationships between water pollution and economic activity serves as an important basis for more effective forms of pollution control for the Balinese economy. In this study, accordingly, we employed an environmentally extended input–output model to establish the links between water pollution and the production processes of the entire economy. Using biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) as a proxy for water quality in our analysis, we estimated that 246.9 kt of BOD were produced from Bali’s economic activity in 2007. Further, we identified the chief BOD-emitting sectors and found that intermediate demand and household demand were the major causes of BOD discharge in the economy. We also accounted for the indirect role of each sector in total BOD emissions. Moreover, we categorized the sectors into four groups based on their direct and indirect BOD emission characteristics and offered appropriate policy measures for each group. Managing demand (i.e., lowering household consumption and exports) and shifting input suppliers (i.e., from polluters to non-polluters) are effective measures to control pollution for Categories I and II, respectively; clean production and abatement is advised for Category III; and a hybrid approach (i.e., demand management and abatement technology) is recommended for Category IV.

Pasture weed biology and management in Brazil

The livestock production model historically practiced in Brazil has a strong extractive bias, wherein the premise is to produce livestock with absolutely no concern for the preservation or renewal of environmental resources. The absence of technical criteria for the use of pastures has generated low productivity rates, making the activity unsustainable from both economic and environmental points of view. This scenario led the several sectors linked to the production chain to develop a package of strategies to solve the problems faced by livestock farmers. This package of strategies is conventionally called postmodern or corporate farming, in which the extractive process gives way to the business logic of avoiding waste and recovering profit margins mainly through pasture perpetuation. However, there is still a technical gap in corporate cattle farming related to problems caused by pasture weeds because all the concepts applied are derived or copied from concepts generated in agriculture. Furthermore, few researchers have studied or scientific articles written on elucidating the real problem of weeds in livestock production. Thus, the goal of the present review was to present some aspects related to weed ecology, their interference, and management alternatives in pasture areas, thereby collaborating with corporate livestock farming in Brazil because solutions to weed problems are crucial to increase commitment in all sectors of the production chain.

Management of Nitrogen Flow in Livestock Waste System Towards an Efficient Circular Economy in Agriculture.

The race is on to achieve high level of efficiency in the attainment of circular economy in Agriculture especially with the aim of sustainable nitrogen management. This cycle in the agricultural sector cuts across livestock farming, agriculture induced waste generation, recycling and utilization, energy generation, crop production, ecosystem protection and environmental management through the mitigation of climate changes. In this work, we access the process and functionalities of livestock waste generated from the piggery farm and the combinations with other by-products such as biochar and ash in comparison with mineral fertilisation (MN) as sources of nitrogen (N) applied in agricultural soil. The experiment was performed in a controlled environment with wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown in a neutral and an acidic soil. Pig manure was used as the primary feedstock, fed, and processed to biogas and nutrient rich digestate by anaerobic digestion process. The digestate generated were amended with biochar and ash. In the course of the cultivation period, pig manure digestate with other co-amendments showed a positive influence on mobile potassium and phosphorus contents, biomass yield and nitrogen use efficiency. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the form of methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide released in both soil types from the amendments were significantly lower when compared to mineral nitrogen treatment. The amendments did not have any significant influence on dehydrogenase activity, especially in the acid soil with the pH negatively influencing the enzymatic activities. The pig manure and pig manure digestate treatments showed positive response in the soil microbial biomass-C in the two soil types when compared to other co-amendments. Application of single use amendment application or in combination with biochar and ash as a means of waste management can enhance the N flow to meet up with crop needs, reduce GHG emissions and reduce potential agriculture’s negative environmental footprint.

Role of Bioaerosols on the Short-Distance Transmission of Multidrug-Resistant Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in a Chicken Farm Environment

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a dynamic and tenacious pathogenic bacterium which is prevalent in livestock farming environments. This study investigated the possibility of MRSA spread via bioaerosol transmission from an indoor chicken farm environment to outdoors downwind (up to 50 m). The concentration of total airborne bacteria colony formation units (CFUs) was decreased with increasing sampling distance ranging from 9.18 × 101 to 3.67 × 103 per air volume (m3). Among the 21 MRSA isolates, 15 were isolated from indoor chicken sheds and exposure square areas, whereas 6 were isolated from downwind bioaerosol samples. Molecular characterization revealed that all of them carried the staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) VIII, and they were remarkably linked with the hospital-associated MRSA group. Spa typing analysis determined that all MRSA isolates belonged to spa type t002. Virulence analysis showed that 100% of total isolates possessed exfoliative toxin A (eta), whereas 38.09% and 23.80% strains carried exfoliative toxin B (etb) and enterotoxin A (entA). Additionally, all of these MRSA isolates carried multidrug resistance properties and showed their resistance against chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, clindamycin, tetracycline, and erythromycin. In addition, chi-squared statistical analysis displayed a significant distributional relationship of gene phenotypes between MRSA isolates from chicken farm indoor and downwind bioaerosol samples. The results of this study revealed that chicken farm indoor air might act as a hotspot of MRSA local community-level outbreak, wherein the short-distance dispersal of MRSA could be supported by bioaerosols.

Livestock Farmer Demography and Adaptive Capacity to Climate Change and Variability in Limpopo and Mpumalanga Province of South Africa

The study investigated the demographic characteristics of smallholder livestock farmers in Limpopo and Mpumalanga Province of South Africa and their effect on the capacity of the farmers to adapt to climate change and variability. Respondents were mainly heads (58.7%) and parents (25.7%) to heads of households and were mostly male (63.4%) with good health (97.8%) associated with high adaptive capacity to climate change and variability. Regarding socio-economic status, four in five (81.5%) of the livestock farmers had only secondary education at most, and incomes were generally low, probably associated with low capacity to adapt to climate change and variability. On the contrary, the quality of housing for the livestock farmers was either top (48.5% of farmers) or medium (47.4%). Some 45.9% of farmers owned 4 to 5 rooms, 44.5% owned six or more rooms, with 88.5% of them having financed their houses. Almost all the respondents (97.3%) had access to electricity, and these suggest the high capacity to adapt to climate change and variability. With regards to aspects of livestock farming, one male (40.1% of households) and female (39.3%) member was fit to work in farming, livestock was owned by heads (52.9% of the households) and by children (29.0%), affirming the high capacity to adapt to climate change and variability. Almost all respondents (99.2%) used communal land, had fewer livestock, lacked training (99.5%), never belonged to a farmers’ union (99.7%) or a producer organization (100.0%), and had no access to financial support from the government (99.2%) associated with low adaptive capacity. The findings of the study revealed that demographic factors had different influences on the capacity of smallholder livestock farmers to adapt to adverse effects of climate change and variability on the farming enterprises. This was true for all the three types of demographic factors studied, namely: personal characteristics, economic status, and aspects of livestock farming.

Detection and Analysis of Sow Targets Based on Image Vision

In large-scale sow production, real-time detection and recognition of sows is a key step towards the application of precision livestock farming techniques. In the pig house, the overlap of railings, floors, and sows usually challenge the accuracy of sow target detection. In this paper, a non-contact machine vision method was used for sow targets perception in complex scenarios, and the number position of sows in the pen could be detected. Two multi-target sow detection and recognition models based on the deep learning algorithms of Mask-RCNN and UNet-Attention were developed, and the model parameters were tuned. A field experiment was carried out. The data-set obtained from the experiment was used for algorithm training and validation. It was found that the Mask-RCNN model showed a higher recognition rate than that of the UNet-Attention model, with a final recognition rate of 96.8% and complete object detection outlines. In the process of image segmentation, the area distribution of sows in the pens was analyzed. The position of the sow’s head in the pen and the pixel area value of the sow segmentation were analyzed. The feeding, drinking, and lying behaviors of the sow have been identified on the basis of image recognition. The results showed that the average daily lying time, standing time, feeding and drinking time of sows were 12.67 h(MSE 1.08), 11.33 h(MSE 1.08), 3.25 h(MSE 0.27) and 0.391 h(MSE 0.10), respectively. The proposed method in this paper could solve the problem of target perception of sows in complex scenes and would be a powerful tool for the recognition of sows.

Antibiotic Use in Relation with Psychological Profiles of Farmers of a French Pig Cooperative

(1) Background: We focus on the psychological factors that influence pig farmers’ antibiotic use, which is not exclusively determined by the technical, health and structural factors of livestock farming. (2) Methods: We visited farming sites and asked 91 pig farmers about various psychosocial dimensions that could be considered relevant in explaining antibiotic use. (3) Results: The results indicate the existence of three livestock-farmer sub-profiles, each of which is associated with distinct psychological characteristics and antibiotic use levels. (4) Conclusions: We discuss the implications of antibiotic use for livestock in terms of communication and support.