Antimicrobial Bacillus: Metabolites and Their Mode of Action

The agricultural industry utilizes antibiotic growth promoters to promote livestock growth and health. However, the World Health Organization has raised concerns over the ongoing spread of antibiotic resistance transmission in the populace, leading to its subsequent ban in several countries, especially in the European Union. These restrictions have translated into an increase in pathogenic outbreaks in the agricultural industry, highlighting the need for an economically viable, non-toxic, and renewable alternative to antibiotics in livestock. Probiotics inhibit pathogen growth, promote a beneficial microbiota, regulate the immune response of its host, enhance feed conversion to nutrients, and form biofilms that block further infection. Commonly used lactic acid bacteria probiotics are vulnerable to the harsh conditions of the upper gastrointestinal system, leading to novel research using spore-forming bacteria from the genus Bacillus. However, the exact mechanisms behind Bacillus probiotics remain unexplored. This review tackles this issue, by reporting antimicrobial compounds produced from Bacillus strains, their proposed mechanisms of action, and any gaps in the mechanism studies of these compounds. Lastly, this paper explores omics approaches to clarify the mechanisms behind Bacillus probiotics.

Drought: A Common Environmental Disaster

Droughts have been identified as an environmental hazard by environmentalists, ecologists, hydrologists, meteorologists, geologists, and agricultural experts. Droughts are characterised by a decrease in precipitation over a lengthy period, such as a season or a year, and can occur in virtually all climatic zones, including both high and low rainfall locations. This study reviewed drought-related impacts on the environment and other components particularly, in South Africa. Several attempts have been made using innovative technology such as earth observation and climate information as recorded in studies. Findings show that the country is naturally water deficient, which adds to the climate fluctuation with the average annual rainfall in South Africa being far below the global average of 860 mm per year. Drought in South Africa’s Western Cape Province, for example, has resulted in employment losses in the province’s agriculture sector. According to the third quarterly labor force survey from 2017, the agricultural industry lost almost 25,000 jobs across the country. In the Western Cape province, about 20,000 of these were lost which has a direct impact on income generation. Many of these impacts were linked to drought events.

A 1-km daily surface soil moisture dataset of enhanced coverage under all-weather conditions over China in 2003–2019

Surface soil moisture (SSM) is crucial for understanding the hydrological process of our earth surface. Passive microwave (PM) technique has long been the primary tool for estimating global SSM from the view of satellite, while the coarse resolution (usually >~10 km) of PM observations hampers its applications at finer scales. Although quantitative studies have been proposed for downscaling satellite PM-based SSM, very few products have been available to public that meet the qualification of 1-km resolution and daily revisit cycles under all-weather conditions. In this study, we developed one such SSM product in China with all these characteristics. The product was generated through downscaling the AMSR-E/AMSR-2 based SSM at 36-km, covering all on-orbit time of the two radiometers during 2003–2019. MODIS optical reflectance data and daily thermal infrared land surface temperature (LST) that had been gap-filled for cloudy conditions were the primary data inputs of the downscaling model, so that the “all-weather” quality was achieved for the 1-km SSM. Daily images from this developed SSM product have quasi-complete coverage over the country during April–September. For other months, the national coverage percentage of the developed product is also greatly improved against the original daily PM observations, through a specifically developed sub-model for filling the gap between seams of neighboring PM swaths during the downscaling procedure. The product is well compared against in situ soil moisture measurements from 2000+ meteorological stations, indicated by station averages of the unbiased RMSD ranging from 0.052 vol/vol to 0.059 vol/vol. Moreover, the evaluation results also show that the developed product outperforms the SMAP-Sentinel (Active-Passive microwave) combined SSM product at 1-km, with a correlation coefficient of 0.55 achieved against that of 0.40 for the latter product. This indicates the new product has great potential to be used for hydrological community, agricultural industry, water resource and environment management.

СТАЛИЙ РОЗВИТОК СІЛЬСЬКОГО ГОСПОДАРСТВА ТА ЙОГО ВПЛИВ НА ПРОДОВОЛЬЧУ БЕЗПЕКУ УКРАЇНИ

The article attempts to explore the agriculture sustainability issues and its implications for food security in Ukraine. The study discusses a critical importance of agribusiness development for Ukraine's economy. However, it is observed that currently, this sector is facing a serious decline in production. A special emphasis is put that agriculture affects the national food security. In this context, the purpose of this study is to identify negative factors and offer pathways to enhance the agricultural sector productivity. To attain the research objectives, the empirical and theoretical scientific approaches as well as the research methods of observation, analysis and synthesis have been employed. This study also presents a ‘sustainable development’ concept interpretation along with revealing its core structural elements that characterize the contemporary state of agriculture from the three perspectives: economic, social and environmental. Accordingly, insights into each of these three aspects were provided that allowed to evaluate the agricultural performance, to assess a salary range in the industry as well as to examine soil fertility. The research findings have detected some negative trends in the agricultural sector development. In particular, the economic aspect perspective has demonstrated a yield decline and a reduction in livestock as well as a drop in labor productivity in agribusinesses. As it is reported, the social settings are characterized by large fluctuations in the payroll budgets in agricultural enterprises and the shortage in certain food products consumed by Ukrainians against physiologically justified norms of consumption of these products. The environmental aspect shows a decrease in the application of organic and mineral fertilizers which negatively affects the soil fertility. Given the above research outcomes, this study offers an action plan to promote sustainable development, boost productivity and enhance the agricultural industry efficiency.

INVESTMENTS AS A DRIVER OF GROWTH IN THE AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE REPUBLIC OF TATARSTAN)

In economically developed countries of the world, agricultural industries are actively supported by the government through the implementation of various kinds of programs, which is explained by the high social significance of the industry. Due to the low profitability of the industry, the debt burden of most enterprises, as well as the high wear and tear of fixed assets, the development of the agricultural industry is possible only if it is integrated into the overall system of economic growth. In order to achieve this condition, the government of the Republic of Tatarstan is actively improving the investment climate in this area of the economy by implementing measures such as: - subsidizing the renewal of fixed assets of enterprises (at least 50% of acquisitions are compensated by the government of the Republic of Tatarstan through various programs); - integration of modern technical programs that allow you to control and analyze each stage of production by an enterprise (Agrosignal, Teleagronom, Dayy Comp, etc.); - the launch of new production departments of enterprises (for example, an elevator in the city of Zelenodolsk), as well as the modernization of current production facilities. The above measures, carried out by the government of Tatarstan, lead to the following improvements: 1) the debt load of enterprises is reduced; 2) the productivity of the activity increases; 3) cost savings occur, which, in turn, increases the profitability of production. In addition, these changes have a positive impact on the following important components of the development of the agrarian sector of the economy: - social: a) creating jobs and attracting young personnel, creating competitive conditions for employment; b) ensuring food autonomy of the state; - financial: a) attracting private investors to the industry; b) replenishment of the state budget (through taxation) using one of the main sources of taxation for the budget - income tax.

Digital Transformation of Infrastructure of Agricultural Industry as an Innovative Factor of Transition to «Smart» Agriculture

The role and significance of the information infrastructure of the entrepreneurial structures of the agro-industrial complex, which is directly related to innovative development and security, due to the improvement of information support, are disclosed. This research presents an overview of approaches to ensuring the security of information infrastructure objects in an attempt to illustrate their effectiveness in its operation. The importance of information as a productive resource was emphasized of the authors. Thus, the article formulates the perspective of the transition to «smart» agriculture with the support of the updated information infrastructure.

Cognitive Antecedents of the Agricultural Entrepreneurship Intentions of Indian University Students

The purpose of this chapter is to extend the research on determinants of entrepreneurial intentions in the agricultural industry by using the theoretical framework of determinants of entrepreneurial intentions and entrepreneurial event model. By employing the DEI and EEM, the researchers evaluate how perceived desirability, perceived feasibility, individual background, and triggering events can influence the attitude of an individual and in turn how entrepreneurial attitude can control entrepreneurial intentions. To achieve the objective, a questionnaire survey was held using the sample of 335 PhD, master, and bachelor students in commerce, business, and economics from an Indian central university. The data was analysed using a linear regression model. The findings advocate that perceived desirability, perceived feasibility, individual background, and triggering events are positively related to entrepreneurial attitude, and the entrepreneurial attitude positively and significantly influences entrepreneurial intentions in the agricultural sector.

Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Family Farms and the Dairy Industry

There has been increasing recognition that for regional competitiveness in rural areas there needs to be a focus on sustainable farming initiatives especially for family farms that are competing with global conglomerates. Family farms, whilst declining in number, are the purpose of this paper studying the rural entrepreneurship in family farms as they are at the heart of rural communities and the overall agricultural industry and comprise a high percentage of total farms. This paper takes a case study approach using in-depth semi structured interviews to delve into the types of entrepreneurial strategies that are distinctive of family farms in terms of their sustainability approach to farming. Dairy farms in the West Victorian area of Australia are studied and the findings suggest that family farms can increase their regional competitiveness and international standing by focusing on their collaborative, social and sustainable entrepreneurial strategies.

Women Entrepreneurs and Agricultural Start-Ups

Numerous nations hail the agriculture sector as a critical source of wealth creation, and past researches have shown the importance of entrepreneurship in the agriculture industry. However, there is a substantial difference in men and women's rates of taking entrepreneurial initiatives. Prior research has overlooked the significance of entrepreneurial inclination in creating agricultural start-ups from the perspective of gender. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the factors that influence women entrepreneurs working in the business endeavours of the agriculture sector. Using logistic regression, the study looked at a representative interview of 581 samples with individuals (18–65 years of age) from GEM countries. This model demonstrates the connection between the variables' qualities reliant on the data and the determinants. The chapter suggests that policymakers consider the consequences of promoting women's entrepreneurship in the agricultural industry and evolve the policies accordingly.