Premda je u proteklih 20 godina između dviju svjetskih konferencija učinjeno mnogo u proizvodnji hrane i zaštiti okoliša, još uvijek ostaju brojne dileme o sudbini Zemlje i daljnjem razvoju ...čovječanstva na pragu trećeg milenija.
U globalnim razmjerima to su ponovne prijetnje glađu zbog stalnog porasta stanovništva, povećanje temperature zraka zbog povećanih količina ugljičnog dioksida i drugih štetnih plinova, zatim prekomjerna sječa i sušenje šuma zbog kiselih kiša te erozija i zagađivanje tla i voda kemijskim polutantima, kao i napuštanjem posjeda i pretvorbom plodnih površina u građevinsko zemljište.
Osim toga u članku se navode specifičnosti i potrebe poslijeratne obnove sela i poljoprivredne proizvodnje u Hrvatskoj.
Estimating crop biophysical and biochemical parameters with high accuracy at low-cost is imperative for high-throughput phenotyping in precision agriculture. Although fusion of data from multiple ...sensors is a common application in remote sensing, less is known on the contribution of low-cost RGB, multispectral and thermal sensors to rapid crop phenotyping. This is due to the fact that (1) simultaneous collection of multi-sensor data using satellites are rare and (2) multi-sensor data collected during a single flight have not been accessible until recent developments in Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) and UAS-friendly sensors that allow efficient information fusion. The objective of this study was to evaluate the power of high spatial resolution RGB, multispectral and thermal data fusion to estimate soybean (Glycine max) biochemical parameters including chlorophyll content and nitrogen concentration, and biophysical parameters including Leaf Area Index (LAI), above ground fresh and dry biomass. Multiple low-cost sensors integrated on UASs were used to collect RGB, multispectral, and thermal images throughout the growing season at a site established near Columbia, Missouri, USA. From these images, vegetation indices were extracted, a Crop Surface Model (CSM) was advanced, and a model to extract the vegetation fraction was developed. Then, spectral indices/features were combined to model and predict crop biophysical and biochemical parameters using Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR), Support Vector Regression (SVR), and Extreme Learning Machine based Regression (ELR) techniques. Results showed that: (1) For biochemical variable estimation, multispectral and thermal data fusion provided the best estimate for nitrogen concentration and chlorophyll (Chl) a content (RMSE of 9.9% and 17.1%, respectively) and RGB color information based indices and multispectral data fusion exhibited the largest RMSE 22.6%; the highest accuracy for Chl a+b content estimation was obtained by fusion of information from all three sensors with an RMSE of 11.6%. (2) Among the plant biophysical variables, LAI was best predicted by RGB and thermal data fusion while multispectral and thermal data fusion was found to be best for biomass estimation. (3) For estimation of the above mentioned plant traits of soybean from multi-sensor data fusion, ELR yields promising results compared to PLSR and SVR in this study. This research indicates that fusion of low-cost multiple sensor data within a machine learning framework can provide relatively accurate estimation of plant traits and provide valuable insight for high spatial precision in agriculture and plant stress assessment.
Heavy reliance of East Africa (EA) on rain-fed agriculture makes it vulnerable to drought-induced famine. Yet, most research on EA drought focuses on meteorological aspects with little attention paid ...on agricultural drought impacts. The inadequacy of in-situ rainfall data across EA has also hampered detailed agricultural drought impact analysis. Recently, however, there has been increased data availability from remote sensing (rainfall, vegetation condition index – VCI, terrestrial water storage – TWS), reanalysis (soil moisture and TWS), and land surface models (soil moisture). Here, these products were employed to characterise EA droughts between 1983 and 2013 in terms of severity, duration, and spatial extent. Furthermore, the capability of these products to capture agricultural drought impacts was assessed using maize and wheat production data. Our results show that while all products were similar in drought characterisation in dry areas, the similarity of CHIRPS and GPCC extended over the whole EA. CHIRPS and GPCC also identified the highest proportion of areas under drought followed closely by soil moisture products whereas VCI had the least coverage. Drought onset was marked first by a decline/lack of rainfall, followed by VCI/soil moisture, and then TWS. VCI indicated drought lag at 0–4 months following rainfall while soil moisture and TWS products had variable lags vis-à-vis rainfall. GLDAS mischaracterized the 2005–2006 drought vis-à-vis other soil moisture products. Based on the annual crop production variabilities explained, we identified CHIRPS, GPCC, FLDAS, and VCI as suitable for agricultural drought monitoring/characterization in the region for the study period. Finally, GLDAS explained the lowest percentages of the Kenyan and Ugandan annual crop production variances. These findings are important for the gauge data deficient EA region as they provide alternatives for monitoring agricultural drought.
•Characterized drought and assessed utility of drought indicators in East Africa (EA)•Order of drought detection is first rainfall, VCI/moisture then TWS.•VCI has 0–4months of lag in detecting drought cycle with respect to rainfall.•Suitable agricultural drought indicators for EA: CHIRP, GPCC, FLDAS, and VCI•The land surface models' products generally performed inconsistently over EA.
•Copper removal through bioadsorbents is most attractive and low cost treatment option.•Agricultural, microbial, fungal and forest biomasses as potential bioadsorbents.•The need to switch batch to ...fixed columns studies for field applications.•The importance of understanding the surface chemistry of novel bioadsorbents.•The requirements of low cost and suitable chemical modifications of novel adsorbents.
Copper (Cu2+) containing wastewaters are extensively released from different industries and its excessive entry into food chains results in serious health impairments, carcinogenicity and mutagenesis in various living systems. An array of technologies is in use to remediate Cu2+ from wastewaters. Adsorption is the most attractive option due to the availability of cost effective, sustainable and eco-friendly bioadsorbents. The current review is dedicated to presenting state of the art knowledge on various bioadsorbents and physico-chemical conditions used to remediate Cu2+ from waste streams. The advantages and constraints of various adsorbents were also discussed. The literature revealed the maximum Cu adsorption capacities of various bioadsorbents in the order of algae>agricultural and forest>fungal>bacterial>activated carbon>yeast. However, based on the average Cu adsorption capacity, the arrangement can be: activated carbon>algal>bacterial>agriculture and forest-derived>fungal>yeast biomass. The data of Cu removal using these bioadsorbents were found best fit both Freundlich and Langmuir models. Agriculture and forest derived bioadsorbents have greater potential for Cu removal because of higher uptake, cheaper nature, bulk availability and mono to multilayer adsorption behavior. Higher costs at the biomass transformation stage and decreasing efficiency with desorption cycles are the major constraints to implement this technology.
Flonicamid, a novel selective systemic pesticide, can effectively control a broad range of insect pests. However, the dissipation behaviors and the terminal residues of flonicamid and its metabolites ...in some crops and soils remain unclear. Herein, an easy, sensitive and reliable method using a modified QuEChERS extraction coupled with LC-MS/MS for the simultaneous analysis of flonicamid and its metabolites in cabbage and soil was developed. Based on this method, the dissipation behaviors of flonicamid and its metabolites as well as their persistence in cabbage and soil during harvest were investigated. Flonicamid degraded rapidly, and the half-lives of flonicamid only and total residues (the sum of flonicamid and its metabolites) were 1.49–4.59 and 1.97–4.99 days in cabbage, and 2.12–7.97 and 2.04–7.62 days in soil, respectively. When 50% flonicamid WG was sprayed once or twice at the recommended dose and 1.5-fold the recommended dose, the highest residues of total flonicamid in cabbage and soil from different pre-harvest intervals (3, 7 and 14 days) were 0.070 and 0.054 mg kg−1, respectively. The risk quotient (RQ) of flonicamid based on the consumption data from China was below 16.84%, indicating that the use of flonicamid is non-hazardous to humans. These results could not only guide the safe and responsible use of flonicamid in agriculture but also help the Chinese government establish the maximum residue level (MRL) for flonicamid in cabbage.
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•A QuEChERS-LC-MS/MS method for the simultaneous determination of flonicamid and its three major metabolites (TFNA, TFNA-AM and TFNG) in cabbage and soil was established.•The dissipation behaviors and terminal residues of flonicamid and its three major metabolites in cabbage and soil were investigated under field conditions.•Dietary intake risk of flonicamid was assessed based on the field trial data.•The potential dietary exposure risk introduced by this insecticide in cabbage is minimal.
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•Compared to other steel slags, LD-slag suppressed CH4 production in a paddy soil.•LD-slag amendment mitigated CH4 emissions by 17.8–24.0% in submerged paddies.•LD-slag amendment ...decreased inorganic As concentrations in rice grain by 18.3–19.6%.•LD-slag amendment increased grain yield by 10.3–15.2%.
Over the past decades, with increasing steel manufacturing, the huge amount of by-products (slags) generated need to be reused in an efficient way not only to reduce landfill slag sites but also for sustainable and eco-friendly agriculture. Our preliminary laboratory study revealed that compared to blast furnace slag, electric arc furnace slag and ladle furnace slag, the Linz-Donawitz converter (LD) slag markedly decreased CH4 production rate and increased microbial activity. In the greenhouse experiment, the LD slag amendment (2.0 Mg ha−1) significantly (p < 0.05) increased grain yield by 10.3–15.2%, reduced CH4 emissions by 17.8–24.0%, and decreased inorganic As concentrations in grain by 18.3–19.6%, compared to the unamended control. The increase in yield is attributed to the increased photosynthetic rates and increased availability of nutrients to the rice plant. Whereas, the decrease in CH4 emissions could be due to the higher Fe availability in the slag amended soil, which acted as an alternate electron acceptor, thereby, suppressed CH4 emissions. The more Fe-plaque formation which could adsorb more As and the competitive inhibition of As uptake with higher availability of Si could be the reason for the decrease in As uptake by rice cultivated with LD slag amendment.
Using a survey data of 754 pig breeders in China, the choice experiment method was employed to investigate farmers' preferences for livestock pollution control policy. Five attributes—technical ...support, pollution fees, technical standards, biogas subsidies, and the manure market—were set as parameters of a study of livestock pollution control policies. A random parameter logit model was used, which considered the heterogeneity of the farmers' preferences. The main results are as follows: (i) the biogas subsidy, technical support, pollution fees and manure market were shown to be significant factors of preference—over alternative policy designs—in terms of incremental changes in environmentally-friendly manure handling; (ii) heterogeneity was observed in farmers' preferences for livestock pollution control policies. Farmers' choices of improved pollution policy options were significantly influenced by their education, the size of their farms and their willingness to treat pollution; (iii) farmers showed the highest preferences for a biogas subsidy policy, followed (in this order) by a high technical support policy, a pollution fee policy, a medium technical support policy, a manure market policy and finally a technical standard policy.
In Sri Lanka, development projects and their aims cannot be understood in absence of politics. Not only the rationale of the project, but also it’s the process and outcomes are products of the ...clientelistic politics practiced in the country’s politics since its independence. In that context, examining the process and politics is immensely important to understand the disaster potential of the Moragahakanda Development Project. This project is one of the last components of the Mahaweli Development Program that was designed as a 30-year project. The main objective of the project is to provide irrigation facilities to the existing water scarce farmlands (82,000ha) and also to open up new land (5000ha) for agriculture development in Northern, North Central, and Eastern and North Western provinces. In addition, generating and supplying of 25MW hydro-power to the national grid, increasing inland fish production, provision of potable and industrial water requirements, Eco tourism and effective flood control are also among the objectives of the project. According to the Mahaweli Authority, nearly 70% of the construction work of the Moragahakanda reservoir has been completed and the project is expected to be concluded by December 2017. This paper will be based on the field research that the author is carrying out for his forthcoming publication. Often such mega projects present its objectives loud and clear while keeping pitch silent about its negative effects. This paper, in order to examine the relationship between development politics and disaster mitigation, focuses mainly on the issues that are hardly being discussed. The Moragahakanda project has displaced a total of 5870 people in 1181 families from 11 Grama Niladari Divisions (GNDs). Once the project is completed Six GNDs areas will be totally and six other partially submerged causing more displacement of families. It effect on the environment is also alarming. This paper aims to examine the role of politics in development in relation to Moragahakanda project and thereby study the readiness of such mega projects to mitigate possible future disasters. It is naïve to expect development projects to be completely free of consequences on environment and human lives. In addition, one has to completely ignorant of the nature of politics in our society to believe that development projects to be initiated and implemented free of politics and practice of clientalism. Therefore, the strategies for mitigating potential disasters of such projects should also be examined in relation to the politics within which such projects are implemented.
Hai Duong is a rapidly urbanizing province with a condensed network of rivers, located downstream of the Cau River Basin, one of the three most polluted river systems in Vietnam. Intensive ...agriculture and industrial development in the province has caused profound impact on the river water. This research aims to develop a material flow analysis (MFA) model, which can simulate and visualize nitrogen flows in Hai Duong province and its districts, to access the impact of agricultural activities and industrial parks on the surrounding environments. MFA was applied for Hai Duong province and its districts to estimate nitrogen flows in the whole province. The nitrogen loads to surface water, air, and soil/groundwater annually were 50,531 ± 10,801, 12,981 ± 1541, and 6055 ± 3121 tons, respectively. The quality of the developed model was assessed through a modified uncertainty analysis procedure. Also, MFA results of nitrogen loads to the water environment were consistent with the analytical results. Nitrogen was largely derived from agricultural activities and domestic and industrial wastewater. Environmental flows in the next 10 years and reasonable solutions for improving environmental quality in the province are proposed.
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