Mediterranean land systems are undergoing significant changes in terms of agricultural land use and practices. The location and nature of agricultural areas in the Mediterranean basin are changing ...following a set of tensions and opportunities taking place both locally and in the entire basin. This dataset presents the main short-term land system dynamics (2005–2015) and their location on the whole Mediterranean basin. The dataset is based on existing land use map and available data about agricultural surface distribution, and it is obtained through a classification process of the land systems on the two analyzed data (2005 and 2015) and a subsequent change detection between the two obtained maps. It covers all the Mediterranean bioclimatic area in pixels of 2 km spatial resolution, harmonizing information from the northern and southern side of the basin. We identified different types of changes, and the most relevant in terms of surfaces are: (1) from mixed agriculture to specialized fruit groves; (2) from agricultural areas to urban and/or periurban areas; (3) from agroforestry to arable systems, and (4) from predominantly bare soils to agricultural areas. This data can be used for further analysis to assess underlying trajectories, and the impact of the observed dynamics on biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services, as well as on the organization of the food system.
The adoption of precision farming techniques (PFTs) has been widely studied targeting specific PFT or farming systems along with the potential benefits of these PFTs in terms of yield or input use. ...However, few studies have examined how PFTs are adopted and used at the farm level. In this study a preliminary investigation was made of on-farm PFT uses in the Oise region (northern France). Three main PFTs were identified in the area: Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) guidance, section control, and variable rate (VR) application. For each farm, the use of every PFT was defined by the technical characteristics of the equipment, the field operation(s) concerned, the targeted crop(s), the aim of the use, the PFT adoption drivers, and the perceived impacts by the farmers. These different variables were combined into a typology of PFT uses. The results show that most of the farms combined GNSS guidance for all technical operations and section control, whereas VR application was less common. Section control was largely used by farmers for liquid fertilizers and phytochemical spraying. The typology shows three to five types of use for each PFT, which differ in terms of technique adoption drivers, e.g. reducing on-farm work or adaptation to field morphology. According to literature, economic impacts were found to be the most frequent, however farmers seemed unable to quantify them. Social impacts such as reduced work time and fatigue were also frequent and are becoming the main motivation for using PFT on farms studied. Further research is needed to assess the use trajectories of PFT along with the motivations of each PFT use.
On-farm experimentation (OFE) renovates agronomic research since it brings researchers out of their experimental field stations to the farms, shaping the direction of research in collaboration with ...farmers. In the context of increasing interest in OFE, this paper aims to map the current picture of agronomic research articles published on OFE in Italy. We observe that few articles are published on OFE in Italy. Moreover, among these articles, only a few explicitly mentioned farmers’ opinions or involvement, while none of them mentioned digital technologies as enablers of OFE. Therefore, we started a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis to identify the main weaknesses and threats limiting OFE developing in Italy, along with the opportunities and strengths enabling OFE development. Despite the time-consuming research underpinning OFE, the lack of recognition by the academic community, the risk of not robust statistic, and difficulties in publishing, there are a series of opportunities emerging at the national level for which the implementation of OFE could be crucial to properly target the scopes set by the EU concerning agricultural research and innovation.
In Europe, there is an increasing interest in pulses both for their beneficial effects in cropping systems and for human health. However, despite these advantages, the acreage dedicated to pulses has ...been declining and their diversity has reduced, particularly in European temperate regions, due to several social and economic factors. This decline has stimulated a political debate in the EU on the development of plant proteins. By contrast, in Southern countries, a large panel of minor pulses is still cropped in regional patterns of production and consumption. The aim of this paper is to investigate the potential for cultivation of minor pulses in European temperate regions as a complement to common pulses. Our assumption is that some of these crops could adapt to different pedoclimatic conditions, given their physiological adaptation capacity, and that these pulses might be of interest for the development of innovative local food chains in an EU policy context targeting protein autonomy. The research is based on a systematic review of 269 papers retrieved in the Scopus database (1974–2019), which allowed us to identify 41 pulses as candidate species with protein content higher than 20% that are already consumed as food. For each species, the main agronomic (e.g., temperature or water requirements) and nutritional characteristics (e.g., proteins or antinutritional contents) were identified in their growing regions. Following their agronomic characteristics, the candidate crops were confronted with variability in the annual growing conditions for spring crops in Western European temperate areas to determine the earliest potential sowing and latest harvest dates. Subsequently, the potential sum of temperatures was calculated with the Agri4cast database to establish the potential climatic suitability. For the first time, 21 minor pulses were selected to be grown in these temperate areas and appear worthy of investigation in terms of yield potential, nutritional characteristics or best management practices.
Over the last decades, farmers have been subject to the impacts of a number of driving forces acting at the global level, which have substantially modified the structure and the organization of ...cropping systems ....
Sustainable intensification is considered an efficient alternative to conventional agriculture to feed a growing population while maintaining and benefitting the environment. Intercropping is one of ...the most studied practices to obtain production gains and other ecosystem services. Most intercrops involve legumes and cereals, but other species combinations should be explored to further increase the diversity of intercropping systems. Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench.; Polygonaceae) is an emerging minor crop which is gaining attention in alternative intercropping systems.This review provides a comprehensive view of the state of the art on the role of buckwheat as a companion crop in arable cropping systems. Despite buckwheat being well-known for its weed-suppressive ability, intercropping using buckwheat for weed control has received little attention. Few crops have so far been considered in relation to the introduction of buckwheat in annual cropping systems. This review uncovers a largely untapped research field involving buckwheat. The research perspectives are multiple as buckwheat consumption is increasing and its attractive flower resources and rapid growth offer the provision of several agro-ecosystem services that directly and indirectly benefit crop yield stability.
•Intercropping is one of the most studied practices to promote sustainable intensification.•Buckwheat is a minor crop with documented weed suppressing abilities and attractive flower resources.•Intercropping with buckwheat has received little attention, although the existing literature reports positive findings.
The debate on food security has highlighted the connection between periurban farming systems (PFS) and local food systems (LFS) for academic research. Several researchers have called for in-depth ...analysis of the participation and impact of farmers in LFS, and the systemic innovation perspective can provide relevant analysis of the sustainability of this agro-food system. The objective of the current study is to investigate the integration of PFS into LFS from the systemic innovation perspective, by analysing systemic failures and merits that hinder or promote the contribution of PFS to LFS for farmers and commercial actors. The case study is the LFS of the urban Pisa region in central Italy. Results show that farmers there are adapting to urban pressure, which improves the sustainability of their farming practices. At the same time, commercial actors have a commercial opportunity to include local farmers in their economic strategy. Nevertheless, individual initiatives must be coordinated to support the sustainability of both LFS and PFS. This study thus developed an innovative method to identify systemic failures and merits for farmers and commercial actors to address sustainability strategies at the territorial level.
Although crop diversification is one of the main strategy of agroecological transition, a major obstacle is the lack of local references regarding new crops. Land suitability methods can provide a ...rapid screening of crop suitability in a region. However, mainstream methods are mainly based on assessing soil and climate suitability, whereas it is fundamental to know where and how a new crop can be introduced into existing crop rotations and whether this introduction would be profitable. Our method based on recent advances in the characterization of cropping systems at the regional level can be exploited to evaluate: (1) the yield potential of the new crop, (2) the potential of this new crop being successfully introduced into ongoing crop rotations; (3) the economic benefits of such an introduction. The method was tested for the possible introduction of new soybean varieties in northern France. The method developed has relevance beyond the case study. Our method could also be easily adapted to rapidly assess the potential for introducing new crops in cases where there climate database, soil map information and a Land Parcel Identification System are available.
Many land use systems in Mediterranean sloping areas risk abandonment because of nonprofitability, while their hydro-geological stability depends on an appropriate management. However, who are the ...land managers? What are their practices? Our research on the traditional olive groves of the Monte Pisano (Tuscany, Italy) reveals for the first time the quantitatively important role of hobby farmers as land managers in the area. We used a three-step-method: first, a database was constructed using several data sources to identify and map the population of olive growers; then, 35 semi-structured interviews were conducted, and finally, the data were analyzed to highlight the contribution of olive growers to the land management, along with their motivations and constraints. Our results found that hobby farmers constitute about 90% of all land managers in the study area and manage more than half of the agricultural land. They are a very uneven group, and there are no clear categories detectable by analyzing sociodemographic factors, practices and farm characteristics. They are the “same but different”, not following any market rules, as they are not profit-oriented. Their farming practices are quite homogeneous and mainly in-line with professional farming practices of that area, oriented versus a minimum input management.
Remote sensing using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for weed detection is a valuable asset in agriculture and is vastly used for site-specific weed control. Alongside site-specific methods, ...time-specific weed control is another critical aspect of precision weed control where, by using different models, it is possible to determine the time of weed species emergence. This study combined site-specific and time-specific weed control methods to explore their collective benefits for precision weed control. Using the AlertInf model, a weed emergence prediction model, the cumulative emergence of Sorghum halepense was calculated, following the selection of the best date for the UAV survey when the emergence was predicted to be at 96%. The survey was executed using a UAV with visible range sensors, resulting in an orthophoto with a resolution of 3 cm, allowing for good weed detection. The orthophoto was post-processed using two separate methods: an artificial neural network (ANN) and the visible atmospherically resistant index (VARI) to discriminate between the weeds, the crop, and the soil. Finally, a model was applied for the creation of prescription maps with different cell sizes (0.25 m2, 2 m2, and 3 m2) and with three different decision-making thresholds based on pixels identified as weeds (>1%, >5%, and >10%). Additionally, the potential savings in herbicide use were assessed using two herbicides (Equip and Titus Mais Extra) as examples. The results show that both classification methods have a high overall accuracy of 98.6% for ANN and 98.1% for VARI, with the ANN having much better results concerning user/producer accuracy and Cohen’s Kappa value (k=83.7 ANN and k=72 VARI). The reduction percentage of the area to be sprayed ranged from 65.29% to 93.35% using VARI and from 42.43% to 87.82% using ANN. The potential reduction in herbicide use was found to be dependent on the area. For the Equip herbicide, this reduction ranged from 1.32 L/ha to 0.28 L/ha for the ANN; with VARI the reduction in the amounts used ranged from 0.80 L/ha to 0.15 L/ha. Meanwhile, for Titus Mais Extra herbicide, the reduction ranged from 46.06 g/ha to 8.19 g/ha in amounts used with the ANN; with VARI the amount reduction ranged from 27.77 g/ha to 5.32 g/ha. These preliminary results indicate that combining site-specific and timespecific weed control might significantly reduce herbicide use with direct benefits for the environment and on-farm variable costs. Further field studies are needed for the validation of these results.
Highlights - Efficacy of UAVs and emergence predictive models for weed control have been confirmed. - Combination of time-specific and site-specific weed control provides optimal results. - Use of timely prescription maps can substantially reduce herbicide use.
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