The social and ethical impacts of artificial intelligence in agriculture: mapping the agricultural AI literature

This paper will examine the social and ethical impacts of using artificial intelligence (AI) in the agricultural sector. It will identify what are some of the most prevalent challenges and impacts identified in the literature, how this correlates with those discussed in the domain of AI ethics, and are being implemented into AI ethics guidelines. This will be achieved by examining published articles and conference proceedings that focus on societal or ethical impacts of AI in the agri-food sector, through a thematic analysis of the literature. The thematic analysis will be divided based on the classifications outlined through 11 overarching principles, from an established lexicon (transparency, justice and fairness, non-maleficence, responsibility, privacy, beneficence, freedom and autonomy, trust, dignity, sustainability, and solidarity). While research on AI agriculture is still relatively new, this paper aims to map the debate and illustrate what the literature says in the context of social and ethical impacts. It aim is to analyse these impacts, based on these 11 principles. This research will contrast which impacts are not being discussed in agricultural AI and which issues are not being discussed in AI ethics guidelines, but which are discussed in relation to agricultural AI. The aim of this is to identify gaps within the agricultural literature, and gaps in AI ethics guidelines, that may need to be addressed.

A Review of the Agriculture Literature in Malaysian and Indonesian Accounting Journals

This article discusses the scope related to Malaysian and Indonesian accounting research in agricultural literature. This discussion was based on two well-known Malaysian accounting journals and many were referred from 2008 to 2016, recognized as Accounting Overview Malaysia (MAR) and Asian Business and Accounting Journal (AJBA), and three Indonesian accounting journals namely Economic & Financial Studies (SEZ) , Gadjah Mada International Business Journal (GamaIJB) and Indonesian Accounting and Finance Journal (JAKI). In MAR and AJBA, Corporate Governance, Auditing, Financial Accounting Reporting, and Management Accounting are the most widely published topics. In SEZ, Economy, Finance, Public Sector Accounting and Taxation; GamaIJ, Management / Managerial Accounting and Finance; and JAKI, Management / Managerial Accounting, Financial Accounting, and Reporting Audit are the most widely published topics. This article proposes peculiarities, non-company and non-professional attributes as opportunity-researched variable fields for future agricultural studies. This article concludes with a reminder of the direction that leads to Malaysian and Indonesian accounting research, including the ontological difference between agricultural studies and accounting minutes while the latter seeks to fulfill generalizations, company attributes and stereotyped-research-variable professionals. It was concluded there is no difference in the average number of journals published in Malaysia and Indonesia with the t test.

Learning from Agricultural Heritage? Lessons of Sustainability from Italian “Coltura Promiscua”

Agricultural heritage is gaining increasing importance as a repository of lessons to be learned for more sustainable agriculture in the future. Among the forgotten European agricultural heritage, the Italian grapevine “coltura promiscua,” which integrates agroforestry and intercropping, survives only in a few regions in the form of relics. Based on geographic, historic, agricultural literature published on the subject between 16th and 20th century with a focus on North eastern Italy, on previous fieldwork research, and on the analysis of recent candidacies to the Italian National register, this contribution identifies five principles that can be considered today as lessons of sustainability in agriculture: vertical intensification, spatial multifunctionality, resilience through crop diversity, labour-intensive production, personal/familiar/community attachment. Taken together, these principles describe a new rationality that seems to adapt to changed global and local conditions and can suggest new strategies to design new sustainable agricultural systems. The research suggests that sustainability principles can be found both by studying relics of agriculture heritage, and by carefully reading the literature that described them in the past, well before the concept of sustainability itself appeared in the scientific debate. Finally, this paper highlights some difficulties in practicing these lessons in modern agroforestry systems and suggests directions for future research.

Spatial variability of urban forest topsoil properties: towards representative and robust sampling design

Background: Soil spatial variability is a major concern when deciding how to collect a representative topsoil sample for laboratory analysis. Sampling design to capture site-specific variability is documented in the agricultural literature, but poorly understood for urban forest soils where soils may be characterized by strong horizontal and vertical variability and large temporal anthropogenic disturbances. Methods: This paper evaluates the spatial variability of selected topsoil properties under urban trees to define a statistically robust sampling design that optimizes the number of samples to reliably characterize basal soil respiration (BSR), a property associated with soil health. To provide a reference on variability, two additional soil properties were measured, unrelated to BSR: electrical conductivity (EC) and bulk density (BD). Thirteen sampling sites comprising both park and street trees (Acer rubrum) were selected in Cambridge, MA, USA. Results: Results indicate street tree topsoil had approximately twice as much variation, requiring more intensive sampling, as did park tree topsoil, even though street trees had smaller soil sampling zones, constricted by tree pits. The variability of BSR was nearly identical to that of EC, and BD results varied least. A large number of samples would be required for acceptable levels of statistical reliability (90% CI - 10% ER) of 44.4, 41.7, and 6.4 for BSR, EC, and BD, respectively, whereas by accepting a lower level of certainty (80% CI - 20% ER) the number of required soil samples was calculated as 6.8, 6.4, and 0.4 for BSR, EC, and BD, respectively. Conclusions: The use of EC testing as a baseline measure to determine spatial variation in the topsoil is proposed, to alleviate the financial implications of more expensive BSR testing. Factors of topsoil disturbance and soil access restrictions at sites with severe root-sidewalk conflicts and the overall generalizability of the results are also discussed.

Nomenclature of woody plants in the State Register of Plant Varieties of Ukraine

The efficiency of plant resources depends on the correct use of plant names. Ukrainian names of plants belonging to the botanical and agrobiological classification are widely used in the scientific agricultural literature, but both of them are not definitively organized. The crop names have long been used in agricultural practice, in particular during the systematization of regionalized plant varieties. During the registration of a variety, the taxon to which it belongs is indicated and the taxon is indicated by this name in the State Register of Plant Varieties suitable for dissemination in Ukraine. The names of plants adopted in the State Register are a mixture of correct and incorrect names, which arose as a result of an unconscious adaptation of the names of agrobiological nomenclature by likening them to the names of botanical taxa. The list of registered varieties belonging to certain taxa, which are grouped by economic use there is in the State Register. Sometimes varieties and taxa are placed in inappropriate groups. Varieties belonging to the same taxon are sometimes denoted by different species names. Obsolete Latin names or their spelling has a deviation from the accepted given for some taxa of woody plants. Some of the botanical taxa are named by crop names. Russified crop names instead of specifically Ukrainian ones occur and the rules of normative transliteration of varietal names are violated. The plant names constructed in the State Register have negative impact on professional literature. They destroy the system of agrobiological nomenclature and contradict the norms of the scientific style of the literary Ukrainian language. The recommendations of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants should be followed and the «Rules of Plant Nomenclature, Taxonomy, and Cultonomy», designed to regulate Ukrainian plant names to correct these shortcomings, should be applied.

Soil organic nitrogen: an overlooked but potentially significant contribution to crop nutrition

Background For more than a century, crop N nutrition research has primarily focused on inorganic N (IN) dynamics, building the traditional model that agricultural plants predominantly take up N in the form of NO3− and NH4+. However, results reported in the ecological and agricultural literature suggest that the traditional model of plant N nutrition is oversimplified. Scope We examine the role of organic N (ON) in plant N nutrition, first by reviewing the historical discoveries by ecologists of plant ON uptake, then by discussing the advancements of key analytical techniques that have furthered the cause (stable isotope and microdialysis techniques). The current state of knowledge on soil ON dynamics is analyzed concurrently with recent developments that show ON uptake and assimilation by agricultural plant species. Lastly, we consider the relationship between ON uptake and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in an agricultural context. Conclusions We propose several mechanisms by which ON uptake and assimilation may increase crop NUE, such as by reducing N assimilation costs, promoting root biomass growth, shaping N cycling microbial communities, recapturing exuded N compounds, and aligning the root uptake capacity to the soil N supply in highly fertilized systems. These hypothetical mechanisms should direct future research on the topic. Although the quantitative role remains unknown, ON compounds should be considered as significant contributors to plant N nutrition.

Od „śmierdzącego dudka” po banialuki. Obraz ptaków w literaturze renesansu i baroku – rekonesans

Birds function in Polish literature of Renaissance and Baroque in three paradigms. Mostly they appear as creatures gifted with a symbolic (allegoric) meaning, seen through the prism of the tradition reaching to Aristotle’s Zoology, Physiologist, and later symbological compendia. The second category is describing birds as food or pests (especially in hunting and agricultural literature). Apart from this ‘practical’ paradigm, there is also a third one: birds as a source of an aesthetic thrill, fascination with them includes both lyricism and a ludic element. The first two categories fit into a more general utilitarian paradigm. Handbooks, treaties, sermons, fairy tales, paroemias and animal epigrams showcase birds almost exclusivelyas tools of moral, religious and conventional reflection, or as objects to be obtained and consumed. Interestingly, the symbological activity of the creators does not cease in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the representatives of avifauna are burdened with new meanings, while the fantastic creatures slowly disappear from the creators’ fields of view. In the third group of works distinguished here, one can notice the phenomenon of the emancipation of birds as objects of interest just as they are, although their voice is heard mostly in the digressions scattered throughout the big epic works. The autonomy of birds in the literature of Renaissance and Baroque is not linear, the way of perceiving them is determined by the individual sensitivity of the authors, the most prominent of whom are Hieronim Morsztyn (early 17th century) and an anonymous translator of the Italian Adon (2nd half of the 17th century).

The role of pathogens in plant invasions.

Plant-pathogen interactions occur throughout the process of plant invasion: pathogens can acutely influence plant survival and reproduction, while the large densities and spatial distributions of invasive plant species can influence pathogen communities. However, interactions between invasive plants and pathogens are often overlooked during the early stages of invasion. As with introductions of invasive plants, the introduction of agricultural crops to new areas can also generate novel host-pathogen interactions. The close monitoring of agricultural plants and resulting insights can inform hypotheses for invasive plants where research on pathogen interactions is lacking. This chapter reviews the known and hypothesized effects of pathogens on the invasion process and the effects of plant invasion on pathogens and infectious disease dynamics throughout the process of invasion. Initially, pathogens may inhibit the transport of potentially invasive plants. After arrival in a new range, pathogens can facilitate or inhibit establishment success of introduced plants depending on their relative impacts on the introduced plants and resident species. As invasive plants spread, they may encounter novel pathogens and alter the abundance and geographic range of pathogens. Pathogens can mediate interactions between invasive plants and resident species and may influence the long-term impacts of invasive plants on ecosystems. As invasive plants shift the composition of pathogen communities, resident species could be subject to higher disease risk. We highlight gaps in invasion biology research by providing examples from the agricultural literature and propose topics that have received little attention from either field.

The role of pathogens in plant invasions.

Plant-pathogen interactions occur throughout the process of plant invasion: pathogens can acutely influence plant survival and reproduction, while the large densities and spatial distributions of invasive plant species can influence pathogen communities. However, interactions between invasive plants and pathogens are often overlooked during the early stages of invasion. As with introductions of invasive plants, the introduction of agricultural crops to new areas can also generate novel host-pathogen interactions. The close monitoring of agricultural plants and resulting insights can inform hypotheses for invasive plants where research on pathogen interactions is lacking. This chapter reviews the known and hypothesized effects of pathogens on the invasion process and the effects of plant invasion on pathogens and infectious disease dynamics throughout the process of invasion. Initially, pathogens may inhibit the transport of potentially invasive plants. After arrival in a new range, pathogens can facilitate or inhibit establishment success of introduced plants depending on their relative impacts on the introduced plants and resident species. As invasive plants spread, they may encounter novel pathogens and alter the abundance and geographic range of pathogens. Pathogens can mediate interactions between invasive plants and resident species and may influence the long-term impacts of invasive plants on ecosystems. As invasive plants shift the composition of pathogen communities, resident species could be subject to higher disease risk. We highlight gaps in invasion biology research by providing examples from the agricultural literature and propose topics that have received little attention from either field.