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Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture, hydrology and climate change are inextricably linked—crop yield, water use, and soil health, are directly affected by a changing climate. Climate change will have major impacts on the availability of water for crop production in the decades to come. This Special Issue publishes original research articles, short communications, and critical review papers, enhancing the science of agricultural hydrology and aiming, the past and future conditions, impacts of climate change analysis, review, and solutions. The Special Issue particularly welcomes research papers that deliver new insights into hydrological processes in agricultural land and responses to changing climate conditions, as well as contributions that incorporate interdisciplinary and translational science.

The Special Issue’s scope includes, but is not limited to, articles relating agricultural hydrology and impacts of climate change:

surface and subsurface watershed hydrology with emphasis on agricultural land use;
impacts of climatic and land use change on natural hydrologic processes and water resources;
hydrologic process observations, modeling and predictions;
uncertainty analysis;
innovative methods for agricultural water management issues.

Dr. Soni M. Pradhanang
Prof. Dr. Thomas Boving
Guest Editors

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Keywords

watershed hydrology
biogeochemistry
climate change
agricultural land use
hydrology and water quality modeling

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Research

4324 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Durum Wheat Cover Analysis in the Scope of Policy and Market Price Changes: A Case Study in Southern Italy

by Si Mokrane Siad, Andrea Gioia, Gerrit Hoogenboom, Vito Iacobellis, Antonio Novelli, Eufemia Tarantino and Pandi Zdruli

Agriculture 2017, 7(2), 12; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture7020012 - 10 Feb 2017

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 7833

Abstract

Agricultural land systems are the result of human interactions with the natural environment, and subjective evidence of socio-economic and environmental interactions has been demonstrated. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to analyze empirically the link between agricultural market and policy, as well as the environmental response due to changes in crop management by local stakeholders. In this study, we propose a cross investigation and analysis to bring the link between vegetation cover, policy, market and farmer’s behavior to light. Our methodology is a combination of a rational positive and analogical approach between the quantifiable and non-quantifiable agents on a temporal basis. The method is applied to a dominant mono-crop agricultural watershed in Southern Italy that has been dedicated to durum wheat cultivation. In this region, we studied the relationship between the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), durum wheat market price, vegetation cover and land allocation. As a first step, we conducted a separate analysis for each factor, exploiting Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite observed Leaf Area Index (LAI) to analyze the land vegetation space–time distribution over the period 2000–2014 and three Land Satellite (Landsat) validated images as check-points for the agricultural pattern and CAP’s reforms. We used the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) and Eurostat data to investigate the on-farm accountancy and the durum wheat market price changes, respectively. Based on the study period, we developed a storyline of the major relevant CAP’s policy changes. In a second step, we conducted a comparative analysis where the CAP’s reforms were used as interpretational support, the land allocation and the on-farm accountability for CAP’s implementation, the price of durum wheat and the LAI for analytical comparison. We found interesting insights regarding the non-agronomic driving forces of LAI dynamics. The behavior of the individual farmers is influenced by the CAP policy that has been implemented by using profitability as the stimulus for the decision making of the farmer. This explains the correlation of the trend between the market price, the LAI of durum wheat and their associated dynamics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Impacts of Climate Change and Agricultural Practices on Watershed Hydrology)

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