An ever-growing collection of commercial biostimulants is becoming available in a wide variety of forms and compositions to improve crop performance. Given the intricate nature of deciphering the ...underlying mechanisms of commercial products, which typically comprise various biological components, it is crucial for research in this area to have robust tools to demonstrate their effectiveness in field trials. Here, we took a multi-attribute approach to evaluating the impact of biostimulants on crop performance. First, we assessed the impact of a biostimulant on the soil and rhizosphere microbiomes associated to crops in eight reference farms, including corn (3 farms), soybean (2), cotton (2) and sugarcane (1), in different biomes and production contexts in Brazil and Paraguay. Second, we modeled a set of integrated indicators to measure crop responses to biostimulant application, including five analytical themes as follows: i) crop development and production (9 indicators), ii) soil chemistry (9), iii) soil physics (5), iv) soil biology (6) and v) plant health (10). Amplicon 16S rRNA and ITS sequencing revealed that the use of the biostimulant consistently changes the structure of bacterial and fungal communities associated with the production system for all evaluated crops. In the rhizosphere samples, the most responsive bacterial taxa to biostimulant application were
Prevotella
in cotton;
Prauserella
and
Methylovirgula
in corn; and
Methylocapsa
in sugar cane. The most responsive fungal taxa to biostimulant use were
Arachnomyces
in soybean and cotton; and
Rhizophlyctis
in corn. The proposed integrated indicators yielded highly favorable positive impact indices (averaging at 0.80), indicating that biostimulant-treated fields correlate with better plant development and crop performance. Prominent indices were observed for indicators in four themes: soil biology (average index 0.84), crop production (0.81), soil physics (compaction reduction 0.81), and chemical fertility (0.75). The multi-attribute approach employed in this study offers an effective strategy for assessing the efficacy of biostimulant products across a wide range of crops and production systems.
Banana is the second most important agricultural commodity in Guadeloupe (French West Indies—FWI) and, to compensate the decline in international prices during the last 15 years, banana growers have ...intensified their production systems by increasing the use of technological inputs. Such intensification strategies, that require both material and investment increases, may impose economic as well as environmental risks, given the fragile island ecosystems. In order to assess the environmental performance of banana production in Guadeloupe, emergy synthesis methods were applied to six different types of banana cropping systems previously identified in the island. Additionally, aiming at improving managerial capacity and investment decision making, environmental performance results were contrasted with economic analysis for the six cropping systems. As a general outcome, these analyses showed that the better the environmental performance of the cropping system, the worse its economic performance. This result was corroborated by an increased contrast among cropping systems as related to their dependence on purchased inputs, although all cropping systems followed the same intensive and arguably wasteful agricultural model. Therefore, the analyses point out that sustainable banana production in Guadeloupe depends on a shift from the high fossil input model to a natural resources intensive one. In this sense, emergy flow analysis shows that innovation towards environmentally sound practices that would enhance nutrient cycling; integrate weeds, pests and diseases control; and improve the banana packing process might result in most positive impacts on overall sustainability. Economic analysis showed that the high labour costs contribute largely to the dependency of banana production on agricultural subsidies. However, reorienting the current European agricultural income policy to an environmental performance-based subvention might be a policy opportunity to achieve the present social goals while promoting sustainability in banana production. Furthermore, the EC regulation on quality standards for commercial bananas, by imposing strict aesthetic benchmarks, has a negative effect on the sustainability of banana production because substantial non-renewable and purchased emergy inflows into banana production systems aim to improve aesthetic standards over sound ecological management.
An extraordinary moment of agricultural modernization is currently underway due to innovations in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In this process, management precepts are renewed, ...fostering significant gains in efficiency, productivity, and sustainable use of natural resources and the environment. The growing supply of ICTs and the extension of connectivity in rural areas, with their transforming roles in productive practices and economic relations, bring about questions regarding their impacts. These technologies include precision positioning systems and large volume databases, electronic sensors of site-specific production and environmental conditions, repositories of relational data, statistical and crop forecasting software, methodologies and processes; web-based information services, among others. The assessment of impacts focused on ICTs for agriculture needs innovative approaches, due to the peculiarities of their applications, the different scales of their socioenvironmental scopes and, at the same time, the verification of effectiveness of institutional investments on research, development, and innovation (RD&I). Based on these premises, the objectives of this work are to present a ‘module of impact indicators for Information and Communication Technologies (Ambitec-TICs)’, and assess its application to six typical technology adoption cases resulting from agricultural RD&I projects. The results detail critical analyses of the contributions of the proposed module for the registration, interpretation, and communication of impacts, with recommendations for technology transfer and accountability in institutional Social Balance documentation.
Sustainable intensification of agriculture is central to deal with the challenges of feeding a growing population while promoting a rational use of environmental and economic resources. Nowhere is ...this challenge more prominent than in Brazil, where low productivity and environmentally degrading agricultural activities occupy vast areas. We used the emergy synthesis approach, including innovative indices - emergy footprint and carbon-emergy output intensity - to assess and compare the environmental performance of an integrated crop-livestock system to a continuous crop and a continuous livestock system. Our analysis uses survey and empirical case study data from the 2017/18 crop season in Mato Grosso state, Brazil - the largest grain and beef producer in the country. Economic indicators such as gross revenue, production costs and profitability were calculated to complement the sustainability assessments. The emergy indices indicate that integrated crop-livestock system shows a balanced performance between input use and economic and environmental outcomes. In contrast, due to its heavy dependence on external inputs, the cropping system has poor environmental results, but the highest profitability. By excluding these environmental costs, current accounting of soy-corn production in Brazil dramatically overstates its net benefits to society and overall sustainability. The Emergy Sustainability Index for the integrated system was 0.66 and its Net Profit was USD 235.69 ha-1, while for the continuous crop system the values were 0.47 and USD 295 ha−1, respectively. The livestock system performed poorly in both, economic and environmental outcomes, underscoring the need to transition away from existing extensive systems. Livestock shows the highest positive greenhouse gas emissions, 7.98 E−09 tonCO2eq for each joule produced, and Net Loss of USD 0.58 ha-1. These results provide further support for Brazil’s investment in integrated systems as part of its climate mitigation and sustainable agricultural development plans and warrant consideration in sustainable agriculture initiatives in other countries where cattle production is widespread.
•Integrated systems are more efficient in converting environmental and economic resources into final products.•Integrated systems tend to a balanced performance between economic and environmental outcomes.•Continuous crop systems present heavy dependence on external inputs, but higher economic returns.•Extensive livestock systems attained poor economic and environmental outcomes.•Integrated systems contribute to land sparing and CO2 mitigation.
Environmental impact and economic performance assessments are important subjects for the definition of strategies for sustainable management in agriculture. The objective of the present study was to ...assess such impacts in a set of reference farms dedicated to coconut production, conforming a gradient with respect to the adoption of technologies and ecological intensification practices. Ranging in scale from smaller family farms to larger corporate enterprises, and from coconut monocultures to diversified crops and integrated coconut-livestock systems, the six cases were studied through a multi-attribute utility model comprising 62 indicators related to five sustainability dimensions: (i) Landscape ecology, (ii) Environmental quality, (iii) Sociocultural values, (iv) Economic values and (v) Management and administration. Detailed cash flow analyses permitted a critical view regarding the influence of technology adoption, ecological intensification, and management for sustainability as criteria for economic viability. The results attest to the value of produce diversification as opportunity toward technology integration, which correlated positively with higher sustainability indices in all dimensions. Tradeoff analysis showed a negative correlation between socio-environmental performance indices and profitability, whereas none of the cases studied showed constrained economic viability, indicating that ecological intensification in coconut production can also entail social improvements, by promoting fairer share of revenues and benefits among stakeholders. Recommendations issued to farmers and management teams, related with agronomic factors and practices adopted in production intensification, favor the communication of appropriate mechanisms for technology adoption, translating farm-level sustainability assessments into action for sustainability.
•Impacts of ecological intensification practices in coconut production were assessed.•Diversification and technology correlated positively with higher sustainability.•Profitability correlated negatively with socio-environmental performance.•Ecologically intensive farming systems maintained economic viability.•Sustainability assessments favored ecological intensification in coconut.
The objective of this study was to assess the impacts of biogas production implemented by family farmers organized in a cooperative agroenergy condominium. Evidences of changes in socioenvironmental ...performance were obtained through field observations and queries to the farmers. Observed ‘change coefficients’ were inserted into multicriteria indicators, weighted by their spatial scale of occurrence in the rural establishments, and impact indices were calculated for a set of seven characterization aspects (technological efficiency, environmental quality, productive process, employment, income, health, and management, and administration), integrated in 23 criteria and 123 indicators. The resulting impact indices of the implementation of the cooperative agroenergy condominium pointed out to positive performances in most of the criteria, with occasional transitory negative indices in specific indicators, related to farmers' particular contexts. Statistically significant positive results were obtained for seven of the ten Ecological impact criteria, as follows (i) use of agricultural inputs and resources; (ii) energy consumption; (iii) self-generation, utilization, reuse, and autonomy in the agricultural area; (iv) energy security; (v) emissions to the atmosphere; (vi) soil quality, and (vii) water quality. In the Socioenvironmental impacts dimension, statistically significant positive results were found for the following criteria: (i) productivity; (ii) productive integration in the concept of biorefinery/Ecopark; (iii) training; (iv) qualification and availability of work; (v) income generation; (vi) waste disposal, and (vii) institutional relationship. The agroenergy condominium contributed to reducing environmental impacts, promoting productive efficiency and improving income generation in the cooperating family farms.
•Agroenergy condominiums may enhance socioenvironmental performance of small farms.•Waste management is improved and GHG emissions are mitigated by biogas production.•Firewood and LPG consumption is reduced in farms with agroenergy condominiums.•Specialized training programs are highly required in agroenergy condominiums.•Ambitec-Agroenergy is a valuable tool to asses agroenergy condominiums.
Assessing the sustainability of agricultural systems encompasses complex and interchanging economic, environmental and social issues, and requires multi-criteria decision-analysis approaches. Various ...models have been proposed to assess agricultural sustainability considering these issues, based for example on programs for multi-attribute decision making or Fuzzy Interference Systems. However, we identify a lack of comprehensive models applicable to broad agricultural conditions in different environments and socioeconomic contexts. To fill this gap, we propose a novel, indicator-based fuzzy logic model for assessing the sustainability of agricultural systems. To test the model’s suitability, we conducted twenty-two case studies over the 2018/19 cropping season in the Brazilian agricultural-forest frontier region; the farms chosen represent the three most common farming systems there: (i) pure crop farming (crop rotation only: soybean - corn), (ii) pure livestock, and (iii) integrated farming (crop - livestock and livestock - forest). Partial indicators were built to assess the economic, environmental, and social performances of those farming systems, then were further integrated in a sustainability index. The results show higher and better-balanced performance for integrated farms, which displayed the highest sustainability index values. In contrast, livestock farms performed poorly in all dimensions and showed the lowest sustainability index. Crop farms showed higher economic, but lower social and environmental performances. These results are in contrast to the oft-perceived trade-offs among different pillars of sustainability and show that integrated systems have the potential to balance multiple sustainability objectives, by leveraging multiple subsystem synergies. The innovative fuzzy inference model proposed is suitable to deal with information at the farm level, handling different types of farming systems, and applicable to different environmental or socioeconomic contexts. Moreover, the proposed indicators and associated indices offer relevant information to policy-makers to foster the sustainable intensification of farming systems, while promoting environmental protection and the coexistence of biodiversity and the agricultural sector.
An environmental impact assessment system for agricultural R&D” has been implemented by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Agency (Embrapa) aiming at fulfilling the institutional mission statement ...of ‘introducing sustainable development objectives in all steps of agricultural research’. The impact assessment platform emphasizes close interaction between R&D teams and technology-adopting producers, under actual field contexts, in order to improve both the technology development and the demand probing processes. The proposed integrated environmental indicators system (Ambitec-Agro) has been routinely applied in technology appraisals by all of Embrapa’s Research Units, as one of the criteria of its institutional evaluation system, and toward the formulation of the Social Balance Reports, annually published since 1997. The present paper describes the social and environmental dimensions of this integrated impact assessment platform, its roles in the institutional learning process for technology research management, and an impact analysis of proposed agricultural innovations.
O objetivo deste trabalho foi apresentar o sistema de Avaliação Ponderada de Impacto Ambiental de Atividades do Novo Rural (APOIA-NovoRural), que consiste de um conjunto de planilhas eletrônicas ...(plataforma MS-Excel) que integram 62 indicadores da performance ambiental de uma atividade econômica em um estabelecimento rural. Cinco dimensões de avaliação foram consideradas: ecologia da paisagem, qualidade ambiental (atmosfera, água e solo), valores socioculturais, valores econômicos e gestão e administração. Os indicadores foram construídos em matrizes de ponderação, nas quais dados quantitativos, obtidos em campo e laboratório, foram automaticamente transformados em índices de impacto, expressos graficamente. O índice de impacto de cada indicador foi traduzido a um valor de utilidade, empregando-se funções e coeficientes especificamente derivados para cada indicador. Os valores de utilidade foram agregados para compor o Índice de Impacto Ambiental da atividade avaliada. Os resultados da avaliação permitem ao produtor/administrador averiguar quais atributos da atividade podem estar desconformes com seus objetivos de sustentabilidade e ao tomador de decisões a indicação de medidas de fomento ou controle das atividades, segundo planos de desenvolvimento local; proporcionam, ainda, uma unidade de medida objetiva de impacto para auxiliar na qualificação e certificação de atividades agropecuárias.
The aim of this study is to present APOIA-Aquaculture, an indicator system for assessing Best Management Practices (BMPs) in tilapia cage farming. Two specific objectives were set: (1) to detail the ...construction and operation of APOIA-Aquaculture; and (2) to attest to its analytical feasibility for BMP assessment in six fish farms selected as contrasting ventures at the Furnas and the Ilha Solteira reservoirs, important production sites in Southeastern Brazil. The proposed APOIA-Aquaculture comprises 68 integrated indicators, grouped into a set of four managerial dimensions: Spatial Organization (22 indicators), Management and Nutrition (23), Water Quality (14), and Quality of Sediment (9). The indicators were devised as to express fish farm compliance to predefined environmental standards, selected legislation requirements, and BMP effectiveness. Results of farm assessments indicate common deficiencies in the indicators of the Spatial Organization dimension, such as those related to the lack of equipment for water quality monitoring, fish cage positioning, improper storage of feed and supplements, inadequate control of fish disease symptoms, lack of appropriate records of the use of therapeutic and prophylactic products, and conflicts related to multiple water uses. In the Management and Nutrition dimension, indicators stressed the absence of biometric checks, inadequate procedures for residue disposal, and deficient control and records of fish losses (escapes). Overall, interactions were observed among indicators of the Management and Nutrition dimension and signs of deterioration in Water and Sediment Quality, as a consequence of inadequate feeding practices. Based on our results, we demonstrate the efficacy of APOIA-Aquaculture as an analytical tool for assessment of BMPs in tilapia cage farming. Aggregate information from indicators facilitates the adoption of measures to promote specific local infrastructure and monitoring needs according to proposed BMPs, towards improving the sustainability of the fish farms.
•An assessment system for aquaculture best management practices is presented.•Management performances were assessed in fish cage farms with different typologies, in contrasting contexts of large hydroelectric reservoirs.•Specific deficiencies in performance indices are related to environmental impairment and implied management recommendations.•Improved management practices can be properly reported to farmers based on the integrated assessment of indicators.
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