scholarly journals Small-scale integrated farming systems can abate continental-scale nutrient leakage

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. e3001264
Author(s):  
Gidon Eshel
Keyword(s):  
Protein Delivery ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Food System ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Specific Model ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Fertilizer Use ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
Synthetic Fertilizer

Beef is the most resource intensive of all commonly used food items. Disproportionate synthetic fertilizer use during beef production propels a vigorous one-way factory-to-ocean nutrient flux, which alternative agriculture models strive to rectify by enhancing in-farm biogeochemical cycling. Livestock, especially cattle, are central to these models, which advocates describe as the context most likely to overcome beef’s environmental liabilities. Yet the dietary potential of such models is currently poorly known. Here, I thus ask whether nitrogen-sparing agriculture (NSA) can offer a viable alternative to the current US food system. Focusing on the most common eutrophication-causing element, N, I devise a specific model of mixed-use NSA comprising numerous small farms producing human plant-based food and forage, the latter feeding a core intensive beef operation that forgoes synthetic fertilizer and relies only on locally produced manure and N fixers. Assuming the model is deployed throughout the high-quality, precipitation-rich US cropland (delimiting approximately 100 million ha, less than half of today’s agricultural land use) and neglecting potential macroeconomic obstacles to wide deployment, I find that NSA could produce a diverse, high-quality nationwide diet distinctly better than today’s mean US diet. The model also permits 70%–80% of today’s beef consumption, raises today’s protein delivery by 5%–40%, and averts approximately 60% of today’s fertilizer use and approximately 10% of today’s total greenhouse gas emissions. As defined here, NSA is thus potentially a viable, scalable environmentally superior alternative to the current US food system, but only when combined with the commitment to substantially enhance our reliance on plant food.

scholarly journals The future of farming: Who will produce our food?

Food Security ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken E. Giller ◽  
Thomas Delaune ◽  
João Vasco Silva ◽  
Katrien Descheemaeker ◽  
Gerrie van de Ven ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Safety Net ◽  
External Input ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Livestock Farming ◽  
Smallholder Farms ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future

AbstractAchieving SDG2 (zero hunger) in a situation of rapid global population growth requires a continued focus on food production. Farming not merely needs to sustainably produce nutritious diets, but should also provide livelihoods for farmers, while retaining natural ecosystems and services. Rather than focusing on production principles, this article explores the interrelations between farms and farming systems in the global food system. Evaluating farming systems around the world, we reveal a bewildering diversity. While family farms predominate, these range in size from less than 0.1 ha to more than 10,000 ha, and from hand hoe use to machine-based cultivation, enabling one person to plant more than 500 ha in a day. Yet, farming in different parts of the world is highly interdependent, not least because prices paid for farm produce are largely determined by global markets. Furthermore, the economic viability of farming is a problem, globally. We highlight trends in major regions of the world and explore possible trajectories for the future and ask: Who are the farmers of the future? Changing patterns of land ownership, rental and exchange mean that the concept of ‘what is a farm’ becomes increasingly fluid. Next to declining employment and rural depopulation, we also foresee more environmentally-friendly, less external input dependent, regionalised production systems. This may require the reversal of a global trend towards increasing specialisation to a recoupling of arable and livestock farming, not least for the resilience it provides. It might also require a slow-down or reversal of the widespread trend of scale enlargement in agriculture. Next to this trend of scale enlargement, small farms persist in Asia: consolidation of farms proceeds at a snail’s pace in South-east Asia and 70% of farms in India are ‘ultra-small’ – less than 0.05 ha. Also in Africa, where we find smallholder farms are much smaller than often assumed (< 1 ha), farming households are often food insecure. A raft of pro-poor policies and investments are needed to stimulate small-scale agriculture as part of a broader focus on rural development to address persistent poverty and hunger. Smallholder farms will remain an important source of food and income, and a social safety net in absence of alternative livelihood security. But with limited possibilities for smallholders to ‘step-up’, the agricultural engine of growth appears to be broken. Smallholder agriculture cannot deliver the rate of economic growth currently assumed by many policy initiatives in Africa.

The Practice and Theory of Personal Subsidiary Farming in Soviet and Russian Agriculture

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Pallot ◽  
Tat'yana Nefedova
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Food System ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Niche Markets ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Agricultural Produce ◽  
The Russian Federation

The story the official statistics tell about production in the household sector is remarkable for a country as urbanized and industrialized as the Russian Federation. As Table 2.1 shows, this former industrial giant and major oil producer derives 51 per cent of the value of its agricultural produce from farms that, on average, are under one hectare in size and, according to official land use statistics, occupy just 6.6 per cent of the country’s agricultural land (Sel' skoe khozyaistvo, okhota i lesovodstvo, 2004: 56). At the end of the Soviet period personal subsidiary farming was responsible for 26 per cent of the USSR’s agricultural output, a smaller share than now but still significant for what was at that time the world’s second largest industrial economy (Agrarnaya reforma v Rossii, 2000: 204). The post-Soviet expansion in the sector’s relative contribution mainly took place in the early 1990s after which it maintained a steady but more modest increase from the second half of the 1990s to 2002. It fell back in subsequent years but in 2004 was still contributing twice as much as before the USSR’s collapse. In West European countries such small-scale agricultural activity supplements production on large farms or it caters to niche markets. In Russia, the pattern is different and small farms are the principal producers of certain staple foodstuffs such as potatoes and vegetables and equal partners in the production of meat and dairy products. This is shown in Table 2.2. In 1990, before the collapse of communism, personal subsidiary farms accounted for 30 per cent of the country’s vegetables and fruit and between 13 and 42 per cent of the beef, pork, and mutton; collective and state farms were also major producers of these products (ibid. 205). The complementarity between large and small farming was thus a feature of the Soviet period, but it has been brought into sharper relief in the post-communist period. As a result, the importance of people’s farms in the agri-food system in the Russian Federation today can be properly understood only within the context of changes in large farming.

A REVIEW OF 10 YEARS' RESEARCH WITH RED CLOVERS UNDER GRAZING IN SOUTHLAND

1989 ◽  
pp. 181-187
Author(s):  
R.J.M. Hay ◽  
D.L. Ryan
Keyword(s):  
Tall Fescue ◽  
Red Clover ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Seasonal Growth ◽  
Sheep Grazing ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Late Flowering ◽  
Heavy Weight ◽  
Widespread Acceptance ◽  
Summer Growth

In a series of trials at Grasslands Gore, over 10 years, the late-flowering tetraploid red clover 'Grassland Pawera' was more productive and persistent than other red clover cultivars. The strong summer growth of Pawera meets the need for heavy-weight lamb feed and high quality forage for conservation in intensive sheep farming systems in Southland. Lenient. infrequent defoliation is necessary to maximise DM production and persistence of Pawera. The most compatible of the grasses evaluated was 'Grasslands Roa' tall fescue. However, 'Grasslands Nui' ryegrass will still be the major grass sown with Pawera owing to its widespread acceptance. In ryegrass mixtures, sowing rates of 5-7 kg/ha of red clover were needed to optimise establishment and subsequent yield. Evidence of oestrogenic activity of Pewera to sheep prompted Grasslands Division to select within Pawera for a low formononetin cultivar. Keywords: red clover, Pawera. Hamua, Turoa. G21. G22, G27. oestrogenic activity, Nui ryegrass, Roa tall fescue, Maru phalaris. Southland, sheep grazing, frequency, intensity, quality. seasonal growth

scholarly journals The Role of Selected Ecosystem Services in Different Farming Systems in Poland Regarding the Differentiation of Agricultural Land Structure

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 6673
Author(s):  
Lidia Luty ◽  
Kamila Musiał ◽  
Monika Zioło
Keyword(s):  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Soil Formation ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Agricultural System ◽  
Organic System ◽  
Supporting Soil ◽  
Management Method ◽  
The Impact

The functioning of various agroecosystems is nowadays shaped by different farming systems, which may impair their functions, as well as being beneficial to them. The benefits include ecosystem services, defined as economic and noneconomic values gained by humans from ecosystems, through supporting soil formation and nutrient circulation, and the impact of agriculture on climate and biodiversity. Their mutual flow and various disturbances depend on the agroecosystem’s management method, which is associated with the type of management of agricultural land (AL) in individual farms. This paper raises a problem of transformation in the structure of three main farming systems in Poland, in 2004–2018, in relation to the implementation of 16 selected ecosystem services and their scale. Special attention was given to organic farming, as the most environmentally friendly and sustainable. The analysis demonstrates the increase in ALs in that type of production during the analyzed period of time. Disparities of transformation associated with the type of agricultural system were noticeable at the regional level, which were presented in 16 Polish voivodeships. The results of the analysis confirm that the organic system, which is an important carrier of various ecosystem services, gained a stable position. Moreover, areas with integrated farming still do not exceed 0.5% of total agricultural lands in such voivodeships. The analysis of factors influencing the deterioration or disappearance of selected environmental services characterizing agricultural systems indicates the need to depart from an intensive conventional management system.

scholarly journals Assessing impacts of COVID-19 on aquatic food system and small-scale fisheries in Bangladesh

Marine Policy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 104422
Author(s):  
Atiqur Rahman Sunny ◽  
Sharif Ahmed Sazzad ◽  
Shamsul Haque Prodhan ◽  
Md. Ashrafuzzaman ◽  
Gopal Chandra Datta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food System ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Small Scale Fisheries ◽  
Aquatic Food

scholarly journals Farm Size, Risk Aversion and Overuse of Fertilizer: The Heterogeneity of Large-Scale and Small-Scale Wheat Farmers in Northern China

Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 111
Author(s):  
Haixia Wu ◽  
Hantao Hao ◽  
Hongzhen Lei ◽  
Yan Ge ◽  
Hengtong Shi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Northern China ◽  
Fertilizer Application ◽  
Chemical Fertilizer ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Fertilizer Use ◽  
Deviation Degree ◽  
Small Scale Farmers

The excessive use of fertilizer has resulted in serious environmental degradation and a high health cost in China. Understanding the reasons for the overuse of fertilizer is critical to the sustainable development of Chinese agriculture, and large-scale operation is considered as one of the measures to deal with the excessive fertilizer use. Under the premise of fully considering the resource endowment and heterogeneity of large-scale farmers and small-scale farmers in production and management, different production decision-making frameworks were constructed. Based on the 300 large-scale farmers and 480 small-scale farmers in eight provinces of northern China wheat region, we analyzed the optimal fertilizer use amount and its deviation as well as the influencing factors of small-scale and large-scale farmers, then further clarified whether the development of scale management could solve the problem of excessive fertilizer use. The empirical results show that: (1) both small-scale farmers and large-scale farmers deviated from the optimal fertilizer application amount, where the deviation degree of optimal fertilizer application of small-scale farmers is significantly higher than that of large-scale farmers, with a deviation degree of 35.43% and 23.69% for small and large scale farmers, respectively; (2) not all wheat growers in North China had the problem of excessive use of chemical fertilizer, as the optimal level of chemical fertilizer application in Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia are 346.5 kgha−1 and 335.25 kgha−1, while the actual fertilizer use amount was 337.2 kgha−1 and 324.6 kgha−1, respectively; and (3) the higher the risk aversion level, farmers tended to apply more fertilizer to ensure grain output. Therefore, increasing farm size should be integrated into actions such as improving technological innovation and providing better information transfer to achieve the goal of zero-increase in Chinese fertilizer use.

scholarly journals Application of Hydrochar, Digestate, and Synthetic Fertilizer to a Miscanthus x giganteus Crop: Implications for Biomass and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 8953
Author(s):  
Toby Adjuik ◽  
Abbey M. Rodjom ◽  
Kimberley E. Miller ◽  
M. Toufiq M. Reza ◽  
Sarah C. Davis
Keyword(s):  
Greenhouse Gas ◽  
Nutrient Management ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Biomass Yield ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Hydrothermal Carbonization ◽  
Control Treatment ◽  
Miscanthus X Giganteus ◽  
Synthetic Fertilizer ◽  
Ghg Fluxes

Miscanthus x giganteus (miscanthus), a perennial biomass crop, allocates more carbon belowground and typically has lower soil greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than conventional feedstock crops, but best practices for nutrient management that maximize yield while minimizing soil GHG emissions are still debated. This study evaluated the effects of four different fertilization treatments (digestate from a biodigester, synthetic fertilizer (urea), hydrochar from the hydrothermal carbonization of digestate, and a control) on soil GHG emissions and biomass yield of an established miscanthus stand grown on abandoned agricultural land. Soil GHG fluxes (including CH4, CO2, and N2O) were sampled in all treatments using the static chamber methodology. Average biomass yield varied from 20.2 Mg ha−1 to 23.5 Mg ha−1, but there were no significant differences among the four treatments (p > 0.05). The hydrochar treatment reduced mean CO2 emissions by 34% compared to the control treatment, but this difference was only statistically significant in one of the two sites tested. Applying digestate to miscanthus resulted in a CH4 efflux from the soil in one of two sites, while soils treated with urea and hydrochar acted as CH4 sinks in both sites. Overall, fertilization did not significantly improve biomass yield, but hydrochar as a soil amendment has potential for reducing soil GHG fluxes.

ASSESSMENT OF NITROGEN FIXATION POTENTIAL IN AHIPA (Pachyrhizus ahipa) AND ITS EFFECT ON ROOT AND SEED YIELD

2009 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. N. RODRÍGUEZ-NAVARRO ◽  
M. CAMACHO ◽  
F. TEMPRANO ◽  
C. SANTAMARÍA ◽  
E. O. LEIDI
Keyword(s):  
Raw Materials ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Yield Potential ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
South American ◽  
Field Inoculation ◽  
Promising Alternative ◽  
Yield Increase ◽  
Alternative Crop ◽  
Attractive Option

SUMMARYAhipa is a legume of great interest for the production of raw materials (starch, sugar, oil and proteins) for industrial use. Its yield potential and ability to fix atmospheric N2 in association with rhizobia makes it an attractive option for low input agriculture systems. At present, it is cultivated on a very small scale as a food crop in a few South American countries. Little information is available on symbiotic N2 fixation in ahipa and no work has been performed on strain selection for inoculant production. Soils in southwest Europe are devoid of specific rhizobia able to nodulate on ahipa. Selecting rhizobia for symbiotic effectiveness from a collection led to the isolation of strains which provided greater shoot growth and N content under controlled conditions. In the field, inoculation at sowing with the selected strains increased significantly seed and tuberous root yield and seed protein content. The amount of N2 fixed, estimated by 15N natural abundance, reached 160–260 kg N ha−1. In previous work, ahipa appeared to be a promising alternative crop for the production of industrial raw materials. The results of the present study showed a yield increase in tuberous roots and seeds when applying effective rhizobia inoculants. Furthermore, a positive soil N balance was left after its cultivation making ahipa even more interesting for sustainable farming systems.

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