ABSTRACT
Agriculture remains a major engine of growth among the majority of developing and underdeveloped countries throughout the globe. But the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has severely affected all sectors of agribusiness industries. In many parts of the world agriculture production became almost half due to the impact of this pandemic. But in two Himalayan regions of India, Darjeeling and Sikkim, mixed effects were observed during the pandemic period. Although a large number of marginal farmers were severely affected during the lockdown and even in the unlock phases, while a significant number of farmers also gained nominal to a large amount of profit;chiefly because of reliability on complete organic farming including producing organic manure and bio-pesticides by the farmers themselves, lack of competition with imported agricultural commodities into the local market due to the inter-state travel ban, marketization of the agricultural products to the consumers through Farmers Producers Organizations (FPOs), NGOs and Sikkim State Co-operative Supply and Marketing Federation ltd. (SIMFED) and above all creation of the Farmers' Helpline at district levels by the local government bodies to solve the problems of the farmers even in the remotest regions.
ABSTRACT
Global food security has been significantly threatened by the Covid-19 pandemic and several prolonged challenges such as climate change, population increases, shortage of natural resources, energy crisis, and rapid urbanisation worldwide. Although numerous attempts have been made to secure resilience in the food system, many countries are suffering from hunger and malnutrition, particularly in African and some Asian countries. This review paper presents one of the sustainable farming practices - vertical farming that could play a key role in mitigating global food security in the current uncertain world. It addresses the recent development of vertical farming with advanced precision monitoring and controlling system by the Internet of Things (IoT) applications. It also provides information about the opportunities and challenges of vertical-urban agriculture and how urban agriculture meets economic, social and educational needs.
ABSTRACT
East and South Asia are major hotspots of crop straw burning worldwide, with profound impacts on air quality and climate change. The Northeast China Plain (NECP) and Punjab, India, are two of the most fertile areas for crop production, which have large-scale agricultural fires during post-harvest seasons. Leveraging established fire-emission databases and satellite-retrieved agricultural fire spots, we show that, while the years 2018 and 2019 recorded low agricultural fire emissions in both the NECP and Punjab, probably due to the implementation of crop straw sustainable management, fire emissions markedly rebounded in 2020, reaching about 190% and 150% of 2019 levels, respectively. The COVID-19 lockdown measures somewhat disrupted eco-friendly crop straw management through restrictions on labor and transportation availability, such that farmers may have had to burn off crop wastes to clear up the land. We further demonstrate that the increased fire emissions in the NECP resulted in serious particulate matter pollution during the fire season in spring 2020, as opposed to considerable decreases in particles from fossil fuel emissions caused by the COVID-19 lockdown. This study suggests the unintended impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agricultural sector and human health.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this communication is to socialize the action-research process conceived and developed in the context of training teachers of the Degree in Field Education with a qualification in Natural Sciences at the Federal University of Reconcavo da Bahia (UFRB). Based on the assumptions of the Pedagogy of Alternation, Agroecology and Ethnoecology, crossed by the Covid-19 pandemic, it was possible to collectively develop a teaching project through research that resulted in the elaboration and socialization of educommunicative materials for rural schools - documentary video on the bata do bean, podcast on the agroecological management of cassava and virtual didactic herbarium, among others. The mobilization of agroecological knowledge in the context of the aforementioned project establishes a propositional dialogue, taking into account that training by area of knowledge in Field Education aims to contribute with new strategies for selecting content, which makes Agroecology and the modes of appropriation of agroecosystems essential elements for analysis, planning and pedagogical guidance.
ABSTRACT
The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly affected people's lives, especially women farmer from the Sibermas Mandiri Women's Farmer Group, Pudak Village, Kumpeh Ulu District, Muarojambi Regency. This pandemic has resulted in a decline in household income. Therefore, it is necessary to find a solution to increase their household income through the cultivation of Butternut Squash (Curcubita moschata) which currently has a large enough opportunity and market potential to become a business. In an effort to achieve this target, the Butternut Squash cultivation innovation can be implemented through the "Learning by Doing" model, which is a cultivation implementation model that is directly carried out by the Women Farmers group on the land. The result of these activities show that the average butternut squash production reaches +or- 150 kg. With the selling price of butternut squash Rp.8.000/kg, the average omzet obtained is +or- Rp. 1.200.000,-. It shows that the cultivation of butternut squash can increase household income and encourage the women farmer group to continue the cultivation of butternut squash independently.
ABSTRACT
In the Republic of Kazakhstan melons and gourds are produced mainly in the traditional way, that is, by using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The production of environmentally friendly melons is at the initial stage of its development. There is no organic melon growing at all. Considering the huge export potential of melons among other crops cultivated in the country (the total supply of melons and melons on the domestic market is 472%), the great economic and social significance of the transition of the melon industry to organic production is growing. In the future, Kazakhstan may be in the center of attention of the world community as a manufacturer and supplier of environmentally friendly (organic) melons, and environmentally friendly, natural melons may well become a brand of our sovereign state. To do this, it is necessary to make fundamental changes in the melon industry of the country. In general, the transition of agricultural production to an organic direction will contribute to the consumption of the safest and most useful products by the local population. Here, one should also take into account the decrease in the immunity of the human body due to various diseases, including those associated with the coronavirus pandemic. It should also be taken into account that only a limited number of pesticides used against harmful objects in agriculture act as intended, and most of the toxic substances spread into the environment. The use of disinfectants without scientific support has a negative impact on flora and fauna, being deposited in the soil and irrigation system of fields for a long time, thereby causing enormous damage to the environment. Given the above facts, our scientific research was aimed at the selection of pesticides and biological preparations with high biological and economic efficiency, low rates and frequency of treatments, as well as varieties with high resistance to fungal diseases of melons (watermelon, melon). Research work was carried out on the experimental plots of the Regional Branch "Kainar" of the LLP "Kazakh Research Institute of Horticulture" in the period 2020-2021. The studies used classical methods generally accepted in melon growing. The results obtained are new and relevant, and in the future, will contribute to the transition from traditional melon growing to biological.
ABSTRACT
With the Commission von der Leyen, organics agriculture has been put under a new political spotlight. The Green Deal and its strategies "Farm to fork" and "Biodiversity" praise for increased land managed under the organic scheme and set a target of 25% of the European utilised agricultural areas cultivated as organics by 2030. It is undoubtedly an ambitious target, seen in the current situation: organics occupies 8.5% of the total UAA., with pretty broad difference in the EU, from 25% to 0.5%. Also, consumption is widely differentiated in the EU, from 344 EUR per capita per year to at 2 EUR per capita per year with an EU average of EUR 84. To support the sector to reach the target of 25%, the European Commission has recently adopted a comprehensive action plan to develop organic production in the EU. The action plan is an instrument that streamlines activities and resources to the benefit of the sector. It is organised into three axes to (i) stimulate consumption through the promotion of organic public catering, the use for green public procurement, allocate money for the promotion of the sector for instance, (ii) increase conversion by making the best use out of the CAP money to promote conversion, to stimulate short supply and processing chains, and to create biodistrict among other actions, in and (iii) increase sustainability of the sector by dedicating research money to research in the organic sector and to promote an efficient use of resources.
ABSTRACT
In our Country, protein crop have undergone a significant reduction since the beginning of the new millennium. Such a drastic reduction in planted areas has led, from an agronomic-environmental point of view, to an unsustainable simplification of crop rotations with serious consequences on the typical crop systems of Mediterranean agriculture. On the contrary, access to the agri-environmental subsidies requires crop rotation for farms requesting access to supplementary aid within the Rural Development Plans. It is worth mentioning that protein crops are also very suitable for "low input" itineraries. For instance, soybeans do not require specific nitrogen fertilizer, while other species perform well with minimum tillage, while others (rapeseed) with new rapid-growth hybrids, are able to assimilate important quantities of nitrates while preserving the rhizosphere from the common nutrient-loss problems. It therefore appears essential to reduce this heavy state of dependence, on the one hand by regaining space for the growing of protein crops, in particular soybean, which has undergone a significant reduction, and on the other, through a diversification of vegetable protein sources.
ABSTRACT
The concept of a 'just transition' is gaining traction in international policy discourses. It has particular significance in relation to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions and the need for ensuring rights and responsibilities of all actors in transitions to agroecological farming systems. Research plays an important role in accompanying this transformation. It explores pathways for more sustainable and fair food systems, barriers to them being achieved, and where and what risks arise for communities of interest and of place. Researchers and practitioners across levels and sectors were brought together in H2020 projects LIFT and UNISECO using processes of stakeholder engagement. Both projects analysed the perceptions of actors towards agroecological farming, and their active involvement in the transitions required. This article summarises lessons learnt regarding multi-actor engagement in different participatory settings in both projects, including a Multi-Actor Platform approach, Q method, DELPHI and Hybrid forum workshops. The interactions involved several hundred actors from 18 countries across Europe. The article reflects on implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on the processes and effectiveness of multi-actor engagement, and assessments of the impacts on the empowerment of the actors. The findings are contextualised by contemporary European Union and national policy objectives of tackling climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and inequalities.
ABSTRACT
Intercropping is considered to be a fundamental tool for ensuring agricultural sustainability and productivity, a matter of major importance in the specific context of the last decades and, mainly, the last two years. Within European agriculture, conventional advantages of intercropping system following laborious experiments were disregarded by farmers because of the justified goal of maximizig profits using affordable pesticides on the market. This determines farmers to focus on increasing the size of their farms, replacing manual labor with a mechanized one, resulting a technological specialization of a few crops at the expense of biodiversity. However, nowadays, following the Covid-19 pandemic and the entire chain of effects it generated, agriculture was directly affected due to the limitation of worldwide transport amplitude and the scarcity of products and raw materials that arose, the price for some of them becoming trully prohibitive (to be seen the case of chemical fertilizers at the end of year 2021). The present paper aims to highligh some paramount matters of using intercropping systems in vegetable crop practice, regarding the perspective of soil, environment, ecosystem biodiversity and economical sustainability.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted agriculture in India in many ways, yet no nationally representative survey has been conducted to quantify these impacts. The three objectives of this study were to evaluate how the pandemic has influenced: (1) cropping patterns and input use, (2) farmers' willingness to adopt sustainable agricultural practices, and (3) farmers' COVID-19 symptoms. Phone surveys were conducted between December 2020 and January 2021 with farmers who had previously participated in a nationally representative survey. Values are reported as weighted percent (95% confidence interval). A total of 3,637 farmers completed the survey;59% (56-61%) were small/marginal farmers;72% (69-74%) were male;and 52% (49-55%) had a below poverty line ration card. A majority of farmers (84% [82-86%]) reported cultivating the same crops in 2019 and 2020. Farmers who reported a change in their cropping patterns were more likely to be cultivating vegetables (p = 0.001) and soybean (p<0.001) and less likely to be cultivating rice (p<0.001). Concerning inputs, 66% (63-68%) of farmers reported no change in fertilizers;66% (64-69%) reported no change in pesticides;and 59% (56-62%) reported no change in labor. More than half of farmers (62% [59-65%]) were interested in trying sustainable farming, primarily because of government schemes or because their peers were practicing it. About one-fifth (18% [15-21%]) of farmers reported COVID-19 symptoms in the past month (cough, fever, or shortness of breath) and among those with symptoms, 37% (28-47%) reported it affected their ability to work. In conclusion, COVID-19 infections had started to impact farmers' productivity even during the first wave in India. Most farmers continued to grow the same crops with no change in input use. However, many expressed an interest in learning more about practicing sustainable farming. Findings will inform future directions for resilient agri-food systems.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 epidemic has caused different effects on China's grain production and people's lives. In order to promote the orderly development of grain production and ensure food security, this paper studied the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on China's grain industry. It was found that under the epidemic situation, agricultural employment was difficult, the supply of agricultural materials was tight, traditional technology services to the countryside stagnated, and cross regional farming was blocked. In addition, diseases and insect pests were reappearing, and the international situation was more complex and changeable in this year. The pressure and challenge to stabilize grain production increased. Therefore, this paper suggested that food security should be taken as the top priority. In order to further ensure China's food security, we showed recover spring tillage production and area double cropping rice, ensure the smooth passage of important materials, provide multiform agricultural science and technology services, improve the early warning mechanisms of domestic and international markets, and build a new support system for grain production.
ABSTRACT
Interest in organic farming is increasing day by day in our country. The fact that people have to keep their immune systems strong, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic process, has directed people to organic products. Due to the increasing demand for organic products, it should be required to gain momentum in its cultivation. However, organic farming growers in our country face various problems at the beginning of their work. These is generally organic seed and organic seedling supply, organic fertilization, organic spraying. This is followed by the marketing of organic products grown under very difficult conditions and informing the consumers in order to eliminate the problems in marketing. The dissemination and sustainability of organic agriculture is not possible only by increasing the production areas and amount. It is important to ensure that consumers also prefer organic products and to be informed for this purpose. Informing producers and consumers will increase the supply and demand of organic products, thus increasing both commercial production and the production of products that are beneficial to the environment, nature and human health. The aim of the study;It is to offer solutions by considering the problems faced by organic agriculture growers from the first time they start to work, until the harvest and sales point.