Retraction: Temporary ditches are effective in reducing soil erosion in hilly areas. An evaluation with the RUSLE model

To: Pier Paolo Roggero, Editor-in-Chief, Italian Journal of Agronomy, and Michele Moscato, PAGEPress Publications, Publisher We take note of your communication following the report by Dr. Paolo Bazzoffi regarding the copyright infringement of the paper ‘Effectiveness of the GAEC cross-compliance standard short-term measures for runoff water control on sloping land (temporary ditches and grass strips) in controlling soil erosion’ (Authors: Bazzoffi, Ciancaglini, Laruccia), that can be found at the following address: https://www.agronomy.it/index.php/agro/ article/view/ija.2011.6.s1.e3. The title of the retracted publication is: ‘Temporary ditches are effective in reducing soil erosion in hilly areas. An evaluation with the RUSLE model’ (Authors: Francaviglia, Neri), that can be found at the following address: https://www.agronomy.it/index. php/agro/article/view/1762). The undersigned authors thoroughly agree with the points raised by Dr. Paolo Bazzoffi in relation to the copyright infringement. In particular, we agree that the original paper ‘Effectiveness of the GAEC cross compliance standard short-term measures for runoff water control on sloping land (temporary ditches and grass strips) in controlling soil erosion’ was not clearly indicated as original data source in the paper ‘Temporary ditches are effective in reducing soil erosion in hilly areas. An evaluation with the RUSLE model’. We also recognize that we did not give credit to Dr. Paolo Bazzoffi of the original methodology, particularly: i) the original materials and methods; ii) the GIS elaboration; and iii) the original data and results. The authors declare that: - they considered the opportunity to review the data published by Dr. Bazzoffi et al. shown in Table 7 of their original publication after a data re-elaboration, as shown in Table 3 of the publication to be retracted, with the aim to provide a statistical comparison of erosion in hilly agricultural land among the Italian Regions, as well as introducing an evaluation of the weight of the parameters implemented in the RUSLE model using a multiple regression technique; - they are aware of not having adequately recognized the copyrights of Dr. Bazzoffi and co-authors Ciancaglini and Laruccia. For these reasons, and as requested, we retract the paper ‘Temporary ditches are effective in reducing soil erosion in hilly areas. An evaluation with the RUSLE model’ from publication. We apologize to Dr. Bazzoffi, Dr. Ciancaglini and Dr. Laruccia for the unpleasant inconvenience caused. We also take the opportunity to thank Dr. Paolo Bazzoffi for coordinating the EFFICOND and MONACO projects, in which we participated in various work packages, offering the possibility of a valuable and constructive work experience. Sincerely, Rosa Francaviglia and Ulderico Neri

Code of best agricultural practices: general characteristics, disadvantages, ways of improvement

The article provides a scientific and theoretical analysis of the Draft Code of Best Agricultural Practices' content and its significance for the legal support of ecologization of agriculture in Ukraine. We have studied the content of the Draft Code of Best Agricultural Practices and the Draft Code of Proper Agricultural Practice. It was identified the deficiencies in the wording of the scope of these Draft Codes. It is also proposed to extend the Draft Code of Best Agricultural Practices' content to all agricultural producers without imposing any restrictions. It is noted that in the text of the Draft Code of Best Agricultural Practices, it is mandatory to enshrine the provision on voluntary application (based on paragraph 1 of Article 4 of Council Directive 91/676 / EEC on the protection of waters against pollution by nitrates from agricultural sources of 12.12.1991). Also, we have identified the shortcomings of the provisions of the draft Codes regarding land use management regulation, including the use of the crop rotation system. It is concluded that it is inexpedient to duplicate in the Draft Code of Best Agricultural Practices the legislation governing the organization of crop rotations. It is proposed to limit the indication to the relevant regulations. It is concluded that in parallel with the implementation of the Draft Code of Best Agricultural Practices, work should be carried out to implement the cross-compliance approach in Ukraine. This will motivate agricultural producers to comply with the Code of Best Agricultural Practices provisions and contribute to agriculture's ecologization. Keywords: agriculture, Code of Best Agricultural Practices, legal support, ecologization of agrarian activities, nitrates, mineral fertilizers, soil

Farm holdings and the owner’s residence location in the aspect of direct payments from the EU: A case study in nine regions in Poland

Instruments promoting rural development have been implemented by many countries. Areabased payments for farmers allocated under the Common Agricultural Policy constitute one of such instruments in the European Union. The support system for rural areas, including the size of the declared reference parcels, is monitored as part of the cross-compliance mechanism. Parcels with unfavorable landuse patterns are more difficult to farm. According to estimates, more than 30% of agricultural farms in Poland fall into this category. This study proposes a universal algorithm for controlling the information submitted by farmers in payment applications. More than 76,000 applications were analyzed, and farms with the defective spatial structure of land were randomly selected. The results show that most errors occur in the case of land parcels situated the farthest from a farm holding (declared in the application), but the analysis revealed no strong correlation in this respect.

ADAPTATION OF FLOURISHING AS POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY CONCEPT IN LATVIA

The aim of the study is to adapt linguistically and psychometrically the construct of flourishing and to compare four most popular measuring instruments by looking at their psychometric validity indicators and examining in more details the flourishing level of randomized sample in Latvia (N=312). As this construct was not adapted in Latvia jet, it is a new concept both – in terms of content and psychometry. Therefore, the tasks of research were more related to the study of the construct’s own content by comparing most popular flourishing measuring instruments, their internal consistency, analyzing the convergent validity of measuring instruments, and studying of the relationships between various demographic indicators and the level of flourishing. The research results confirm that flourishing scores of all four measuring instruments mutually correlate, that suggests cross compliance of all four instruments. Demographic indicators as education and occupation are the only ones which are mathematically plausible, but only at trend level correlate with flourishing characteristics. The data adapted in the study and psychometrically tested methodologies can be used in the practice of psychologists and in other studies in the future. The discussion raised the question of why neither gender nor age correlate with flourishing, that contradicts other similar studies in the word. Keywords: flourishing characteristics, measuring instruments, positive psychology, well-being

Temporary ditches are effective in reducing soil erosion in hilly areas. An evaluation with the RUSLE model

The European Cross-Compliance mechanism set up within the Common Agricultural Policy provides support payments to farmers under the condition that specific Standards for Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAECs) are respected. GAEC standard 5 is specific to limit soil loss by erosion in arable crops and requires to comply with the ‘Realization of temporary ditches’ in sloping lands affected by soil erosion. The evaluation of soil erosion with the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), performed in 60 hilly areas of Italy located in 11 administrative regions, indicated the effectiveness of temporary ditches in reducing soil erosion. As average the presence of ditches significantly decreased erosion by 22.6 Mg ha–1 yr–1 (67%) compared to erosion without temporary ditches. The highest soil losses in the presence of temporary ditches were found in Marche (24.1 Mg ha–1), Umbria (17.4 Mg ha–1), and Emilia-Romagna (15.3 Mg ha–1) regions, which were much above the USDA maximum acceptable erosion rate. Instead, the lowest soil losses were observed in Apulia (1.6 Mg ha–1), Molise (4.1 Mg ha–1), and Tuscany (5.9 Mg ha–1), where they assumed values below the USDA acceptable limit. Results pointed out that the topographic factor has the highest weight among the RUSLE parameters, thus its appraisal requires the best accuracy for a correct estimation of soil losses.

Greening Chinese agriculture: can China use the EU experience?

PurposeChina's Government in 2015 announced its goal of stabilizing the use of fertilizers and pesticide by the year 2020. However, implementation of effective policies is not straightforward, while one may even argue that the policy goal is by far not ambitious enough. Hence, it is useful to look at experiences of other countries that have gone through a similar process. In this paper, the authors explicitly consider the case of European Union's (EU’s) policies aimed at greening agriculture. The choice for the EU is motivated by the fact that the EU is about 35 years ahead of China in implementing a policy agenda to counter the problems China is facing now.Design/methodology/approachIn this paper, the authors focus on agricultural inputs, in particular fertilizer and pesticides, as well as land use and their impact on food safety, air and water quality, soil degradation, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and biodiversity. Policies related to those issues are discussed for both, China and the EU. Given that implementation and monitoring are critical for the success of policies, the authors also discuss how policies are implemented and monitored under different governance and institutional conditions.FindingsFrom the EU experiences, positive and negative, three central lessons are drawn: (1) China should strive for cross compliance but in two steps. In the first step, arrangements for on-farm monitoring must be made, coupled with a pilot program of cross-compliance conditions for large farms in selected counties; in the second step, cross-compliance requirements must be introduced for all farmers, with additional funds for rural development in vulnerable areas. (2) Strong stakeholder commitment should be sought in the formulation as well as implementation of greening policies. (3) Monitoring of greening results should be harmonized and standardized across the country, with a limited number of indicators.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the policy discussion by comparing the agricultural greening measures in the EU (which was some 35 years ago in the same situation as China now) with the measures taken in China so far.