Based on the panel data of 31 provinces in China from 2005 to 2020, this paper analyzes the mechanism and spatial spillover effect of agricultural insurance on the urban–rural income gap using a fixed effect model, an intermediary effect model, and a two-stage least square method. The results show that agricultural insurance has a significant inhibitory effect on the income gap between urban and rural areas. This inhibitory effect is realized through the path of “improving the development level of agricultural insurance-improving agricultural total factor productivity-reducing the income gap between urban and rural areas”, in which the intermediary effect of agricultural total factor productivity accounts for 19.74% of the total effect. At the same time, the income gap between urban and rural areas in China exhibits typical spatial agglomeration characteristics. The western region has always been the region with the largest income gap between urban and rural areas, while the eastern region is the region with the smallest income gap between urban and rural areas. The development of agricultural insurance has had a spatial spillover effect on the income gap between urban and rural areas, and the development of agricultural insurance in neighboring areas expands the income gap between urban and rural areas in this region. In order to prevent the siphon effect, agricultural insurance investment should be increased in the neighboring regions. The results of this paper support the view of the resource flow model. Finally, we put forward some suggestions for the development of agricultural insurance, improvement in agricultural total factor productivity, and the narrowing of the income gap between urban and rural areas. Full article

Summer cover crop utilization by no-till vegetable farms is essential for continuous soil protection, especially in the southern United States where intense storms are likely to occur in hot and humid summer months. A field experiment was conducted at the National Soil Dynamics Laboratory in Auburn, AL, USA, between the summers of 2015 and 2017 to determine the effectiveness of an experimental roller/crimper in mechanically terminating summer cover crops. Iron clay peas (Vigna unguiculata, L.) planted on a sandy loam and pearl millet (Penninsetum glaucum, L.) planted on clay soil were selected to determine termination rate effectiveness in single, double, and triple rolling/crimping over the same area. Overall, termination rates for both cover crops were higher for rolling three times (71%) compared to rolling once (55%) or twice (63%). However, cover crop termination was inhibited due to rainfalls on the experimental area during the three-week evaluation period. In 2016, drought conditions and high temperatures (32.6 °C) caused biomass reduction, especially for pearl millet, of over 31% to 39% compared to 2017 and 2015. Rolling provided higher soil-water conservation compared with the non-rolled control due the cover crop mulch layer blocking sunlight, keeping the soil surface cooler and preventing water evaporation. Recurrent rolling did not cause soil compaction above the 2.0 MPa level that inhibits root growth, but changes in soil strength were dependent on the soil moisture content. Full article

Soil contaminated with petroleum substances is classified as hazardous, i.e., particularly harmful to the proper functioning of environmental ecosystems. It is therefore necessary to take measures to restore the homeostasis and ecological potential of degraded areas. The study aim was to determine the impact of bentonite, compost, and calcium oxide (CaO) on trace element content in the maize grown on diesel oil (DO)-contaminated soil. Increasing doses of the petroleum substance increased the accumulation of chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), and cadmium (Cd) in maize. The largest increases were found for Cu (by 76%), Co (by 73%), and Pb (by 42%). All soil amendments proved useful for in situ stabilization of anthropogenically transformed soils. Bentonite reduced Cr (by 94%), Cu (by 84%), and Mn content (by 53%), while compost reduced the contents of Cu (by 75%), Mn (by 44%), and iron (Fe—by 29%) in maize. CaO significantly reduced the levels of Cr (by 94%), Cu (by 84%), Ni (by 66%), Mn (by 32%), Co (by 72%), zinc (Zn—by 30%), and Cd (by 22%) in maize. The effects of compost and bentonite on maize chemical composition were smaller than that achieved with CaO, and the direction of changes in elements content depended on the DO dose and the element type. Full article

Understanding the component traits determining salt stress tolerance is a major breeding target in wheat. The lack of genetic resources suited to salt-affected regions and the complexity of the traits involved impede progress in breeding salt-tolerant wheat varieties. This study was conducted with four bread wheats, namely (Triticum aestivum) Kharchia-65 (K-65), BT-Schomburgk (BTS), HD-2687, and HD-3298. Treatments were imposed on plants with varying electrical conductivity (control, 5 dS m⁻¹, 10 dS m⁻¹, and 15 dS m⁻¹) with a combination of three different salts NaCl, CaCl₂·2H₂O, and Na₂SO₄. We evaluated variations in root system architecture, canopy temperature (depicted as a thermal image), reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis, and leaf stomatal density in response to incremental doses of salt stress in a hydroponic experiment. As the plants were sampled after short-term exposure to stress (within 3 weeks of stress imposition), the plants were expected to be in a quiescent state. Due to the osmotic effect, the growth of the plants was compromised, and the associated decrease in stomatal conductance increased the canopy temperature. ROS accumulation and antioxidant enzyme activity did not follow a definite pattern. The antioxidant system’s tolerance to ROS comes into action much later in the tolerance mechanism. That could probably be the reason behind the varied response in ROS accumulation and antioxidant enzymes after short-term exposure to salt stress. Thermal images could effectively differentiate between salt-tolerant (K65) and sensitive (HD2687) genotypes. The variation in Na⁺/K⁺ ratio also suggested a genotypic variation in salt tolerance. The genotypes of K-65 maintained a better root system, while HD2687 showed severe reduction in root biomass and other root traits under salt stress. The PCA data also point out genotypic variation in lateral and main root traits in response to different salt stress levels. For salt tolerance in wheat, the main contributing root traits were total root length, total surface area, total root volume, tips, and other main, lateral root traits. The idea of differential control of RSA dynamics is novel and can be further explored to understand natural variation in salt stress tolerance. Full article

Soil erosion is a complex process involving material detachment, transportation (mainly by water, occasionally by wind), and eventual deposition when energy wanes. Human activities like tillage and construction can exacerbate soil erosion. Various forms of water erosion, such as sheet erosion, pedestal erosion, rills, piping, and gullying, are recognized. This pioneering study aims to comprehensively model water erosion across Taiwan at a 20 m spatial resolution, a departure from previous research focusing on smaller scales. Using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model, it seeks to examine the significant issue of soil erosion in Taiwan beyond agricultural areas and enable cross-regional comparisons. A large number of stations and the most recent data were used to establish the distributions of the rainfall runoff erosivity factor and the soil erodibility factor. In addition, we used the Google Earth Engine (GEE) to calculate the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and a locally derived empirical equation to compute the cover-management factor. The topographic factor was determined using the System for Automated Geoscientific Analyses (SAGA). The support practice factor was analyzed using two different methods using datasets on World Urban Areas and Global Urban Boundaries from the literature. The analysis showed that despite the difference in the support practice factor, Taiwan’s resulting average yearly soil erosion rates are very similar (200.7 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ and 207.4 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹). The amounts were validated against five watersheds that were instrumented with erosion pins. With prediction ratios ranging from 1.04 to 1.82 across four of the five watersheds, our findings provide empirical support for the alignment of our model with soil erosion pin measurements, especially within the Tsengwen reservoir watershed. However, it is noteworthy that these results also exhibit a tendency towards conservative estimations in the remaining watersheds. Our calculated estimate, falling within the range of 201–207 Mg ha⁻¹ year⁻¹, plausibly represents the upper limit of mean soil erosion in Taiwan. This assertion is predicated on the deliberate omission of local soil conservation measures from our study, a decision necessitated by the absence of comprehensive and detailed island-wide data. Despite this limitation, our results instill confidence in the robustness of our methodological approach, thereby suggesting that our estimation of soil erosion in Taiwan provides a reliable approximation. Full article

Currently, there is an ongoing intensive search for solutions that would effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mainly methane) into the environment. From a practical point of view, it is important to reduce methane emissions from cows in such a way as to simultaneously trim emissions from the digestive system and increase its potential production from feces, which is intended as a substrate used in biogas plants. Such a solution would not only lower animal-based methane emissions but would also enable the production of fuel (in chemical form) with a high yield of methane from biogas, which would boost the economic benefits and reduce the use of fossil fuels. We tested the effect of administering an essential oil blend consisting of 5.5% oils and fats on methane and biogas production from dairy cow feces during fermentation. Three subsequent series (control and experimental) were conducted in dairy cows fed a total mixed ration (TMR) rich in brewer’s cereals and beet pulp, with 20% dry matter (DM) of the total diet. Cows from the experimental group received 20 g/cow/day of essential oil blend, namely a commercial additive (CA). The study showed that CA can increase the production of methane and biogas from dairy cow feces. It can be concluded that in the experimental groups, approx. 15.2% and 14.4% on a fresh matter basis and 11.7% and 10.9% on a dry matter basis more methane and biogas were generated compared to the control group, respectively. Therefore, it can be assumed that the use of CA in cow nutrition improved dietary digestibility, which increased the efficiency of the use of feces organic matter for biogas production. Full article

Camptotheca acuminata Witches’-broom disease (CaWB) is the most destructive disease affecting C. acuminata in China. Previous studies on CaWB have failed to clarify the incidence pattern in C. acuminata after infection with phytoplasma. The time interval between phytoplasma infection of C. acuminata and the onset of Witches’-broom symptoms in C. acuminata was very long. C. acuminata inoculated with CaWB showed leaf margin scorching symptoms at 4 weeks in inoculated leaves. At 16 weeks after infection (WAI), old leaves were shed, while new leaves showed a mild leaf margin scorch; at 28 WAI, typical symptoms appeared. Transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of the three sampling periods revealed 194 differentially expressed genes, mainly enriched in MAPK signaling, plant–pathogen interaction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, starch and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, and phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathways. The expression of calcium-dependent protein kinase (CDPK), β Ketoacyl-CoA Synthase1/10 (KCS1/10), and WRKY22/29 genes in the plant–pathogen interaction pathway significantly increased, indicating that they may be key genes in the CaWB phytoplasma-mediated maintenance of ROS homeostasis. Moreover, isochlorogenic acid B, atractylenolide II, and 3-methoxybenzoic acid were found, which might serve as signaling or functional substances in the defense response. Our results provide novel insights into the pathogenesis of CaWB and the defense response of C. acuminata under the influence of phytoplasma. Additionally, we identified potential candidate genes related to the defense response of C. acuminata, laying the foundation for further research. Full article

This study improves the environmental water supply in a wetland using a novel framework in which the environmental impacts due to irrigation supply and the economic losses for agriculture are minimized through the proposal of an optimal cropping pattern that changes the total cropping area and cultivated area of each crop. The ecological degradation functions for rivers and wetlands were developed using a fuzzy approach and data-driven model. The net farming revenue was considered as the economic index to maximize benefits. The root mean square error (RMSE) and the Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient (NSE) were applied to evaluate ecological models. According to the results, the optimal cropping pattern simultaneously minimizes environmental impacts due to irrigation supply and maximizes farmers’ benefits. The optimal cropping pattern provides more than 50% of the ideal net revenue on the catchment scale, which means that ecological degradations due to reductions in inflow in rivers and wetlands, as well as farmers’ revenue losses, are minimized simultaneously. Furthermore, the results indicate that cropping patterns should be dynamic, which means that changing the cropping pattern annually based on the available water is essential to mitigating ecological impacts. This study demonstrates that the linking of cropping pattern optimization and environmental flow simulation in freshwater bodies should be considered in land-use policies due to the impact of cropping patterns on environmental degradation in wetland catchments. Full article

Currently, the integrated development of agriculture and tourism is one of the most critical strategic measures in China. The rapid growth of agricultural tourism integration presents the typical characteristics of expanding regional differences. Exploring the impact of agricultural tourism integration on the growth of green total factor productivity in agriculture has important theoretical and practical significance. This study constructs a comprehensive index system for agricultural tourism integration, measuring the development level of agricultural tourism integration in 30 sample provinces from 2008 to 2018. Using the generalized system method of moments approach and Tobit model, the impact of agricultural tourism integration on agriculture was empirically tested, and the regulatory role of rural human capital was discussed. It was found that agricultural tourism integration contributes significantly to the improvement in green total factor productivity in agriculture, with rural mobility human capital, education human capital, and health human capital all playing a significant positive moderating role in this process. Finally, it is recommended that priority be given to agricultural tourism integration in the policy framework, promoting industrial chain upgrading, raising investment in rural infrastructure, and upgrading rural human capital levels to contribute the rural economic development. Full article

How to improve the utilizations of water and nutrient is a research hotspot of sloping farmland in semi-arid and rain-fed areas. In this study, the spatial changes of soil moisture, nutrients, and roots under different tillage modes, as well as the efficient utilization mechanism of soil moisture and nutrients from rain-fed maize on three mulching treatments (no surface covering, ridge film and straw mulch and ridge film mulch) and two slope treatments (5° slope and 10° slope) of sloping farmlands were studied at the Nationally Agricultural Environment Fuxin Observation and Experiment Station in China through a micro-zone simulation and a long-term positioning experiment. The results indicated that ridge film mulch and furrow seeding significantly improve the water use efficiency and partial factor productivity of the plants in sloping farmlands, with the highest increases being 51.33% and 45.05%. By analyzing the coordinated relationship between water, nutrients, and roots, it was found that ridge film furrow seeding technology can significantly affect the spatial distribution of water, nutrients, and roots in different soil layers, and improves the effective coefficient of soil water and nutrients. The effective coefficient of ridge film and straw treatment was 2.53, while the average value of the effective coefficient of ridge film treatment was 1.39. Further analysis found that the degree of consistency between the root system, water, and nutrient barycenter was highly correlated with the effective coefficients of water and nutrients. Visual radar map analysis revealed that root development limits the improvement availability of the efficient use of water and nutrients in the soil. Promoting root development indicators and root spatial distribution through ridge film coverage was an effective way to improve the efficient use of maize water and nutrients. The ridge film mulching promoted the root development index and root spatial distribution, thus improving the efficient use of water and nutrients in maize. Overall, the ranking of the regulation effect was as follows: ridge film and straw mulch > ridge film mulch > no mulch, and 5° slope > 10° slope. This research provided a theoretical basis for the enhancement of use efficiency in water and nutrients in sloping farmlands. Full article

The respiratory status of dairy cows can reflect their heat stress and health conditions. It is widely used in the precision farming of dairy cows. To realize intelligent monitoring of cow respiratory status, a system based on infrared thermography was constructed. First, the YOLO v8 model was used to detect and track the nose of cows in thermal images. Three instance segmentation models, Mask2Former, Mask R-CNN and SOLOv2, were used to segment the nostrils from the nose area. Second, the hash algorithm was used to extract the temperature of each pixel in the nostril area of a cow to obtain the temperature change curve. Finally, the sliding window approach was used to detect the peaks of the filtered temperature curve to obtain the respiratory rate of cows. Totally 81 infrared thermography videos were used to test the system, and the results showed that the AP₅₀ of nose detection reached 98.6%, and the AP₅₀ of nostril segmentation reached 75.71%. The accuracy of the respiratory rate was 94.58%, and the correlation coefficient R was 0.95. Combining infrared thermography technology with deep learning models can improve the accuracy and usability of the respiratory monitoring system for dairy cows. Full article

Accurate cattle pose estimation is essential for Precision Livestock Farming (PLF). Computer vision-based, non-contact cattle pose estimation technology can be applied for behaviour recognition and lameness detection. Existing methods still face challenges in achieving fast cattle pose estimation in complex scenarios. In this work, we introduce the FasterNest Block and Depth Block to enhance the performance of cattle pose estimation based on the RTMPose model. First, the accuracy of cattle pose estimation relies on the capture of high-level image features. The FasterNest Block, with its three-branch structure, effectively utilizes high-level feature map information, significantly improving accuracy without a significant decrease in inference speed. Second, large kernel convolutions can increase the computation cost of the model. Therefore, the Depth Block adopts a method based on depthwise separable convolutions to replace large kernel convolutions. This addresses the insensitivity to semantic information while reducing the model’s parameter. Additionally, the SimAM module enhances the model’s spatial learning capabilities without introducing extra parameters. We conducted tests on various datasets, including our collected complex scene dataset (cattle dataset) and the AP-10K public dataset. The results demonstrate that our model achieves the best average accuracy with the lowest model parameters and computational requirements, achieving 82.9% on the cattle test set and 72.0% on the AP-10K test set. Furthermore, in conjunction with the object detection model RTMDet-m, our model reaches a remarkable inference speed of 39FPS on an NVIDIA GTX 2080Ti GPU using the PyTorch framework, making it the fastest among all models. This work provides adequate technical support for fast and accurate cattle pose estimation in complex farm environments. Full article

In our previous work, we observed that Oncidesa Gower Ramsey ‘Honey Angel’ (HA) plants became stunned on hot summer afternoons, and the seasonal trend in solar radiation affected its production schedule by limiting flower yield and quality. The objective of this work was to study the growth and flowering characteristics of HA pseudobulbs at three stages of growth (G2–G4) in response to three types of light-emitting diode (LED) lighting treatments, including full spectrum (FS), deep red/white-medium blue (DR/W-MB), and deep red/white-low blue (DR/W-LB), for two additional time intervals. The supplementary LED lighting time intervals (S) applied daily were carried out for 1 h (4:00~5:00 a.m., as S-1) or 2 h (4:00~6:00 a.m., as S-2) from March to September, 2022. Natural light without supplemental lighting was the control. The length of pseudobulb (PL), width of pseudobulb (PW), thickness of pseudobulb (PT), length of inflorescence (FL), number of branches (FB), number of florets (FN), and days to flowering (FD) per plant were recorded andcalculated when 80% of florets became mature. Light treatments significantly affected all pseudobulb growth and flower quality traits at different Gs, especially pseudobulb length (PL) and flower number (FN) under different LED types and lighting time intervals. MB-1 treatment promoted PT at both G3 and G4, whereas MB-2 treatment increased PW at both G2 and G4. Both MB-1 and LB-1 treatments had augmented effects on PL, respectively, at G2 and G3. The PW, FL, FB, and FN increased with additional light time and reached maxima under MB-2 treatment at G4 compared to other treatments and controls. Early flowering and an increased number of flowers at G4 were observed in plants grown under MB-2 treatment. Controlling light quality and supplementary light time intervals enables the production of HA plants with the desired growth and flowering quality characteristics of the pseudobulbs. Full article

Seed fatty acid composition can influence seed quality, followed by seed germination and optimal seedling establishment. Therefore, to find out the role of seed fatty acids in changing the cardinal temperatures of six sesame cultivars germinated at different temperatures (10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, and 45 °C) and water potentials (0, −0.2, −0.4, −0.6, −0.8, −1, and −1.2 MPa), an experiment was conducted. The dent-like, beta, and segmented models were used to analyze the data. The results showed that different cultivars at optimal temperatures show different reactions to environmental conditions; for example, the germination rate in Halil and Dashtestan2 cultivars followed the dent-like model, Darab1, Oltan, and Yellow-White followed the beta model, and Naz followed the segmented model. Based on the results, the average temperature in all water potentials of the base, sub-optimal, supra-optimum, and ceiling was determined as 12.6, 33.3, 38, and 43.9 °C, respectively, once the superior dent-like model was used. Using the superior beta model, the average temperatures in the base, optimum, and ceiling were 8.5, 31.2, and 50.5 °C. In contrast, when the segmented superior model was used, they were determined to be 7.6, 34, and 44.1 °C, respectively. According to the results, it can be stated that the Halil cultivar with more oleic acid and less linoleic acid has a higher base temperature and is more adapted to high temperatures for later cultivations. The Naz cultivar with a long biological clock is suitable for earlier cultivations. The ceiling temperature of these cultivars was also affected by the osmotic potential and decreased significantly with the increase in osmotic levels. Dashtestan2 cultivar with a high germination rate could be chosen for cultivation in water and high-temperature stress areas. Full article