We conducted a life cycle assessment (LCA) to compare environmental impacts of conventional (CNV) broiler chicken production in Japan with those of three mitigation options: a low-protein diet supplemented with more crystalline amino acids (LP), incineration of broiler litter (IC), and their combination (LP + IC). Feed production, feed transport, broiler housing, and manure management were included in the LCA, with 1 kg of liveweight of broiler chicken as the functional unit. The CNV environmental impacts were: climate change, 1.86 kg CO₂e; acidification, 52.6 g SO₂e; eutrophication, 18.3 g PO₄e; energy consumption, 18.8 MJ. Since broiler manure management has a lower N₂O emission factor, the LP diet’s effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were limited. Because a large amount of ammonia is emitted from broiler-litter composting and the LP diet reduced nitrogen excretion and consequent NH₃ emission, the LP showed lower acidification and eutrophication potentials than CNV. The IC system reduced fuel consumption by utilizing the generated heat for broiler-house heating and thus had lower GHG emissions and energy consumption; it reduced ammonia emission from the manure-management process by incineration and thus had lower acidification and eutrophication potentials even when including NO_X generation by litter incineration. The LP + IC system had lower environmental impacts than CNV: for climate change (by 16%), acidification (48%), eutrophication (24%), and energy consumption (15%). Mitigation opportunities for broiler chickens remain, and broiler production systems with mitigation options help produce chickens more sustainably. Full article

A strategy to increase wool income for coarse wool (fibre diameter > 30 µm) producers through a transition to higher value medium wool (fibre diameter between 25 and 29 µm) was identified, with previous analyses allowing sheep feed demand increases to impractical levels during the transition period. This study modelled a whole flock transition from Romney breed to a ¾Merino¼Romney flock through crossbreeding with Merino sires, with sheep feed demand constrained between 55% and 65% of total grown feed. Transition was complete after 12 years, and the final ¾M¼R flock had higher COS (cash operating surplus; NZD 516/ha) than the base Romney flock (NZD 390/ha). Net present value analyses showed the transition always had an economic benefit (up to 13% higher) over the Romney flock. In a sensitivity analysis with sheep and wool sale prices changed by ±10%, higher sheep sale prices reduced the economic benefit of the transition (NPV up to 11% higher) over the Romney flock, as sheep sales comprised a higher proportion of income for the Romney flock, and higher wool sale prices increased the benefit (NPV up to 15% higher) of the transition to ¾M¼R over the Romney flock. This study demonstrated a whole flock transition from Romney to ¾M¼R breed was profitable and achievable without large variation in sheep feed demand, although the scale of benefit compared to maintaining a Romney flock was determined by changes in sheep and wool sale prices. Full article

A properly conducted vermicomposting process is an environmentally friendly technology used to transform selected organic waste into vermicompost. This organic fertilizer is increasingly used in agriculture and horticulture as an alternative to mineral fertilizers. Research has investigated the use of vermicompost made from the waste mass of sugar beet pulp as a soil additive in the cultivation of peas (Pisum sativum L.). Experimentally, five treatments consisted of: a heavy clay soil as control (SL); the same soil with 10, 25, and 50% substitution of vermicompost, (V10, V25, and V50, respectively); and a standard peat-based horticulture substrate (GS) for comparison. Analyzed pea characteristics and the content of macro and microelements in their biomass were most favorably influenced by 25 and 50% vermicompost addition, and the values obtained were similar to those in the GS treatment. The lowest values of analyzed traits for P. sativum were found in the SL group. Thus, appropriate addition of vermicompost in the construction of plant growing substrates can reduce the use of inorganic fertilizers and be an alternative to peat in the medium, contributing to reduced use of this valuable environmental resource. Full article

Low-dose γ-irradiation can stimulate plant growth and development; however, the knowledge on the molecular mechanisms of such stimulation is yet fragmented. Irradiation of seeds leads to the mobilisation of endosperm resources and reallocation of available nitrogen to facilitate development. Based on the metabolomic analysis, several metabolites possibly involved in radiation stimulation were studied using the HPLC approach in barley cultivars after γ-irradiation of seeds. The comparison of changes in metabolite concentrations and changes in morphological traits after irradiation revealed seven metabolites that may be involved in the growth stimulation after γ-irradiation of barley seeds. Among them are free amino acids, such as γ-aminobutyric acid, β-alanine, arginine, lysine, glutamine, methionine, and a signalling compound methylglyoxal. Full article

The effect of the addition of different amounts of olive leaf (1, 2.5, and 5%, m/m) during Buža olive cv. oil production on the quantitative production parameters, composition, and sensory characteristics of the obtained oils were investigated in this study. The addition of leaf during oil extraction increased oil yield and extractability index by 97% compared to the control oil. The addition of leaf during extraction increased the concentration of pigments in oils, and the oil positive sensory attributes intensities, such as fruitiness and green grass/leaf notes. The influence on oil phenolic composition was dependent on the amount of leaf added. When 1% leaf was added, most of the phenolic compounds were preserved, while the addition of leaf at 5% decreased the concentration of the majority of phenols, especially secoiridoids by 45% compared to the control oil. The addition of leaf slightly increased the concentration of fatty acid ethyl esters and waxes in the oils. The obtained results indicate that particular importance should be given to the amount of olive leaf present in olive paste during oil extraction, since it apparently can increase the extractability of oil, but can also have negative effects on phenolic composition when added in excess. Full article

It has been recognized for decades that low and inconsistent spray coverages of pesticide applications represent a major challenge to successful and sustainable crop protection. Deployment of water-sensitive spray cards combined with image analysis can provide valuable and quantitative insight into spray coverage. Herein we provide description of a novel and freely available smartphone app, “Smart Spray”, for both iOS and Android smart devices (iOS and Google app stores). More specifically, we provide a theoretical description of spray coverage, and we describe how Smart Spray and similar image-processing software packages can be used as decision support tools and quality control for pesticide spray applications. Performance assessment of the underlying pixel classification algorithm is presented, and we detail practical recommendations on how to use Smart Spray to maximize accuracy and consistency of spray coverage predictions. Smart Spray was developed as part of ongoing efforts to: (1) maximize the performance of pesticide sprays, (2) minimize pest-induced yield loss and to potentially reduce the amount of pesticide used, (2) reduce the risk of target pests developing pesticide resistance, (3) reduce the risk of spray drift, and (4) optimize spray application costs by introducing a quality control. Full article

In mountain farms, challenges posed by the degree of land slope, altitude and harsh climate further compound multiple other possible constraints, particularly in relation to the distance of the farm from the farmstead. This study focused on how mountain-area dairy farmers factor the geographical characteristics of their fields into their field-use decisions. To that end, we surveyed 72 farmers who farm the traditional Salers breed of cattle and 28 specialised dairy system farmers in the central Massif region, France. Information was collected on the uses and geographical characteristics of all grassland fields (n = 2341) throughout the entire outdoor grazing season, without identifying farmers’ rationales for their field-use decisions. Field-use classes were constructed for the traditional Salers system per group of fields (grazed-only, cut-only, grazed-and-cut) and then used to classify fields in the specialized dairy system. The geographical characteristics, which were associated afterwards, were significantly different between the field groups and between field-use classes. Grazed-only fields were found to be more sloping and cut-only fields were smaller and further from the farmstead. Distance/area combinations were different according to field use (animal category, earliness of first cut, grazing and cutting sequence) and were decisive for all field-use classes. This study allowed the identification of generic relationships between field uses and their geographical characteristics in mountain-area dairy cattle farms. Full article

To adjust breeding programs for local, commercial, and fancy breeds, and to implement molecular (marker-assisted) breeding, a proper comprehension of phenotypic and genotypic variation is a sine qua non for breeding progress in animal production. Here, we investigated an evolutionary subdivision of domestic chickens based on their phenotypic and genotypic variability using a wide sample of 49 different breeds/populations. These represent a significant proportion of the global chicken gene pool and all major purposes of breed use (according to their traditional classification model), with many of them being characterized by a synthetic genetic structure and notable admixture. We assessed their phenotypic variability in terms of body weight, body measurements, and egg production. From this, we proposed a phenotypic clustering model (PCM) including six evolutionary lineages of breed formation: egg-type, meat-type, dual purpose (egg-meat and meat-egg), game, fancy, and Bantam. Estimation of genotypic variability was carried out using the analysis of five SNPs, i.e., at the level of genomic variation at the NCAPG-LCORL locus. Based on these data, two generally similar genotypic clustering models (GCM1 and GCM2) were inferred that also had several overlaps with PCM. Further research for SNPs associated with economically important traits can be instrumental in marker-assisted breeding programs. Full article

Fertigation technology is key to solve water pollution and inefficient fertilizer use. However, some early techniques cannot adapt to the current situation of labor shortages and large-scale planting. Therefore, it is necessary to consider farmers’ willingness to adopt more adaptive techniques. Specifically, we focus on whether early technology adoption will hinder technology renewal and whether the factors affecting the adoption of early and latest techniques are consistent. Through theoretical analysis and a survey, we find that farmers’ endowments such as income and labor force only affect the adoption intentions to the high-cost technique (Intelligent Irrigation Control System), but not early techniques (Venturi injector and Differential pressure tank), while farmers’ information processing ability and information acquisition channels affect both. Finally, the results of Propensity Score Matching show that early technology adoption will not become an obstacle to technology renewal. Full article

Entity recognition tasks, which aim to utilize the deep learning-based models to identify the agricultural diseases and pests-related nouns such as the names of diseases, pests, and drugs from the texts collected on the internet or input by users, are a fundamental component for agricultural knowledge graph construction and question-answering, which will be implemented as a web application and provide the general public with solutions for agricultural diseases and pest control. Nonetheless, there are still challenges: (1) the polysemous problem needs to be further solved, (2) the quality of the text representation needs to be further enhanced, (3) the performance for rare entities needs to be further improved. We proposed an adversarial contextual embeddings-based model named ACE-ADP for named entity recognition in Chinese agricultural diseases and pests domain (CNER-ADP). First, we enhanced the text representation and overcame the polysemy problem by using the fine-tuned BERT model to generate the contextual character-level embedded representation with the specific knowledge. Second, adversarial training was also introduced to enhance the generalization and robustness in terms of identifying the rare entities. The experimental results showed that our model achieved an F₁ of 98.31% with 4.23% relative improvement compared to the baseline model (i.e., word2vec-based BiLSTM-CRF) on the self-annotated corpus named Chinese named entity recognition dataset for agricultural diseases and pests (AgCNER). Besides, the ablation study and discussion demonstrated that ACE-ADP could not only effectively extract rare entities but also maintain a powerful ability to predict new entities in new datasets with high accuracy. It could be used as a basis for further research on other domain-specific named entity recognition. Full article

The decision on crop population density should be a function of biotic and abiotic field parameters and optimize the site-specific yield potential, which can be a real challenge for farmers. The objective of this study was to investigate the yield of maize hybrids subjected to variable rate seeding (VRS) and in differentiated management zones (MZs). The experiment was conducted between 2013 and 2015 in a commercial field in the Central-West region of Brazil. First, MZ were delineated using the K-means algorithm with layers involving soil electrical conductivity, yield maps from previous years, and elevation. Seven maize hybrids at five seeding rates were evaluated in the context of each MZ and the cause-and-effect relationship with soil attributes was investigated. Optimal yields were obtained for crop population densities between 70,000 plants ha⁻¹ and 80,000 plants ha⁻¹. Hybrids which perform well under higher densities are key in achieving positive results using VRS. The plant population densities that resulted in maximum yields were obtained for densities at least 27% higher than the recommended seeding rates. The yield variance between MZs can be explained by the variance in soil attributes, while the yield variance within MZs can be explained by the variance in plant population densities. The study shows that on-farm experimentation can be key for obtaining information concerning yield potential. The management by VRS in different MZs is a low-cost technique that can reduce input application costs and optimize yield according to the site-specific potential of the field. Full article

China’s minimum grain procurement price program aims to boost grain production and ensure food self-sufficiency. It may also affect the already very high levels of chemical fertilizer and pesticides consumption, but little is known about these potential side-effects. In this paper, we apply panel data regression techniques to a large rural household-level data set for the period 1997–2010 to examine whether and how the minimum grain procurement price program affected households’ agrochemical use. We find that the minimum grain procurement price program negatively affected both chemical fertilizer and pesticides use, with pesticides use being more responsive than the use of fertilizer. The higher wheat and rice prices that resulted from the program stimulated the use of agrochemicals, but they also stimulated area expansion which contributed to lower agrochemical use per unit of land. These counteracting indirect effects were overshadowed by the large negative direct effect of the minimum procurement price of rice on the use of fertilizer and pesticides. Full article

The aims of this study were to investigate (i) the influence of aging grassland in the recovery of soil state by the comparison of permanent grassland, two restored grasslands, two temporary grasslands, and a continuous crop in the same pedoclimatic conditions, (ii) the extent and the persistence of the potential changes following a grassland/or cropland phase. We hypothesized that the level of microbial communities and enzyme activities could achieve a profile close to that of permanent grassland after the introduction of grassland for a few years in crop rotations. Soil biophysicochemical properties were studied. Our results indicated that the abundance of microbial communities and enzyme activities were positively correlated to soil C and N contents and negatively correlated to soil pH. The changes in microbial abundance level were strongly linked to the changes in functional level when grasslands are introduced into crop rotations. We also showed that a continuous crop regime had a stronger legacy on the soil biota and functions. By contrast, the legacy of a grassland regime changed quickly when the grassland regime is interrupted by recent culture events. A grassland regime enabled the restoration of functions after more than five cumulative years in the grassland regime. Full article

Alpinia zerumbet is an important medicinal and ornamental plant species. Drought stress is a major concern for sustainable horticulture crop production under changing climate scenarios. Trehalose (Tre) and 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) are osmoprotectants that play important roles in mitigating plant stresses. In this study, the effects of foliar application of 25 mM Tre or 10 mg L⁻¹ ALA on biochemical and physiological parameters of A. zerumbet seedlings and their growth were evaluated under well-watered and drought-stressed (65% of field capacity) conditions. Drought caused reductions in physiological parameters and plant growth. These decreases were accompanied by increases in leaf free proline and glycine betaine concentrations and peroxidase activities. Foliar application of Tre or ALA remediated physiological and biochemical parameters and plant growth. Overall, foliar application of ALA or Tre proved to be beneficial for mitigating drought stress in A. zerumbet. Full article

The farmed salmon supply chain has a highly complex and integrated structure, where activities occur both in the sea and on land. Due to this complexity, the supply chain needs appropriate decision-support tools to aid the production planning process, which capture the material flows, information flows and behaviours of the decision makers in the chain. This paper proposes a hybrid simulation framework for production planning using the case of the Norwegian Atlantic salmon supply chain. This hybrid simulation comprises agent-based modelling (ABM) to capture the autonomous and interacting decision making behaviour of the supply chain actors, while discrete-event simulation (DES) is employed to model the various production processes within the chain. The simulation is implemented using AnyLogic™ version 8.0 simulation software, using a case study from the Norwegian farmed salmon sector. The proposed modelling framework provides a deeper understanding of the activities in the salmon supply chain, thereby enabling improved decision making. Full article