Search Results (602)

While continuously promoting agricultural water-saving and efficiency improvement, Ningxia is confronted with problems such as deepening groundwater tables and growing ecological vulnerability. Exploring the trade-off relationships and their evolutionary characteristics between socioeconomic development and water resource carrying capacity, as well as between water use efficiency improvement and groundwater-ecosystem maintenance, is of great significance for coordinated water resource governance in arid irrigation districts. Based on time-series data covering 2000–2024, this paper establishes a DPSIR evaluation model and constructs a progressive quantitative analytical framework coupling the entropy-weight-Tapio decoupling, rate-scissors difference and PLS-SEM models. During the study period, the growth rate of the response (R) dimension (13.76%) was far higher than that of the state (S) dimension (3.23%) from 2011 to 2020, confirming the objective existence of dual trade-offs. The two categories of trade-offs underwent a three-stage evolution of “latent-intensified-remediation”, showing the counter-intuitive feature of “effective total-volume control alongside continuous groundwater table deepening”. Hidden transmission barriers were identified for 2008–2016 (θ₁, θ₂ dropped to 0.46–1.32°): the transfer of water-saving dividends to industry caused groundwater extraction to rise rather than fall to a certain extent. PLS-SEM analysis reveals that structural lock-in acts as the core inhibiting factor for ecological protection. The total effect of socioeconomic development on ecology reaches 0.921, whereas structural lock-in produces a chained negative mediating effect of −0.192 by suppressing water use efficiency. Improvement in water use efficiency presents dual characteristics of overall ecological gain and localized groundwater-recharge loss. It can be concluded that engineering-only water-saving measures cannot balance water-intake reduction and recharge deficits. It is necessary to simultaneously advance low-water-consumption cropping-pattern restructuring, rigid enforcement of the 2.5 m ecological groundwater table threshold, and the substitution mechanism for saved-water volume between industry and agriculture, so as to build a coordinated “water-saving-recharge-ecology” regulation system. Full article

Yellow River irrigation districts must maintain food production under variable inflows, rigid diversion quotas, sedimentation, groundwater depletion, and soil salinization. This systematic review synthesized 79 journal articles from Web of Science and CNKI to clarify how resilience can be assessed and managed at the irrigation-district scale. The evidence indicates that resilience is a time-dependent combination of resistance, recovery, adaptability, and transformability within a coupled water source–canal–field–drainage–ecology–institution system. Although composite indices and hydrological–crop models have advanced, three gaps remain: operational thresholds rarely connect indicators to failure and recovery; farmer and institutional feedbacks are weakly represented; and assessments seldom translate into executable schedules. We, therefore, propose an irrigation-district-specific framework that couples water, sediment, salt, crops, ecology, and governance across basin–district–field scales without transferring risk between scales. Management priorities differ spatially: upstream districts require coordinated water–salt control; middle-reach well–canal systems require surface-water substitution and groundwater recovery; and downstream diversion districts require multi-source allocation and adaptive intake. A digital twin-based closed loop—continuous monitoring, forecasting, optimization, operational commands, and feedback correction—can translate diagnosis into canal rotation, recharge, drainage, and emergency actions. This review provides operational indicators and a decision-oriented research agenda for resilient irrigation modernization. Full article

Sustainable agriculture in water-limited regions requires understanding how future climate change may affect crop water use and productivity and whether locally feasible adaptations can offset adverse impacts. This study used an improved SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model to simulate multiple future climate scenarios—five single-factor adaptation scenarios, including early or late sowing, long- or short-season cultivars, and crop substitution, and one integrated scenario—in the Palo Duro Watershed of the Texas High Plains. Under future climate, yields declined by 6.7–13.1% for irrigated corn (Zea mays L.) and 11.6–34.1% for irrigated sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.), but increased by 8.0–32.8% and 8.4–33.7% for dryland and irrigated winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), respectively. Early sowing improved yields and water productivity (WP) for irrigated corn, irrigated sorghum, and dryland winter wheat. However, long-season cultivars increased corn and sorghum yields and WP with greater irrigation water use. Crop substitution was generally unfavorable under local conditions. A combined strategy of early sowing and long-season cultivars would increase yields and WP for irrigated corn, irrigated sorghum, and dryland winter wheat, whereas business-as-usual management remained appropriate for irrigated winter wheat. These findings support crop-specific adaptation planning for climate-resilient agriculture and water-resource management in semi-arid systems. Full article

Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) arise from interactions among genetic susceptibility, epithelial barrier function, microbiota, diet, and other environmental exposures. Modern diets influence mucosal immunity not only through fibre intake, food processing, and microbiota composition, but also through a less explored exposure layer: plant-derived molecules with potential immune activity. Crop breeding, intensive agriculture, global trade, gluten-free substitutes, and plant-based food technologies have changed the spectrum, dose, concentration, and matrix in which plant defence proteins, antinutritional factors, endogenous toxicants, and novel plant antigens reach the intestinal surface. In this structured, hypothesis-generating narrative review, we propose dietary adjuvanticity as a mechanistic framework for considering how selected food-derived molecules may amplify mucosal immune responsiveness, modify antigen presentation, disturb barrier function, or lower tolerance thresholds without necessarily acting as classical autoantigens. The framework differs from general food-derived immunomodulation, nutritional exposomics, and diet-microbiota-host interaction models by focusing specifically on adjuvant-like immune amplification at the intestinal mucosa. The ASIA concept is used only in Shoenfeld’s functional sense, as an analogy for exogenous immune amplification through innate activation, danger signalling, bystander activation, epitope spreading, and loss of tolerance in susceptible hosts; it is not applied as a dietary diagnosis. Wheat amylase-trypsin inhibitors, gluten epitopes, lectins, potato glycoalkaloids, saponins, quinoa prolamins, emerging legume proteins, L-canavanine, and tolerance-promoting plant substrates are discussed with explicit separation of established clinical evidence, strong mechanistic evidence, preclinical/ex vivo evidence, and speculative disease-modifier hypotheses. Overall, plant-derived exposures are best interpreted as potential modifiers within the IMID exposome, not as primary causes of autoimmunity. Testing this model will require defined exposures, food-matrix and processing studies, biomarkers of barrier and immune activation, patient stratification, and controlled human studies. Full article

Oil palm is a major commodity crop in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia, but its productivity is severely threatened by basal stem rot (BSR) and upper stem rot (USR) caused by the white-rot fungus Ganoderma boninense. Infected palms can lose up to 80% yield and die within 6–24 months (young) or 2–3 years (mature). Despite extensive field management efforts, disease incidence continues to rise, especially after replanting. Understanding infection mechanisms and validating fungal virulence factors are crucial for effective control, yet functional genomics in G. boninense has been limited. Previous RNAi-based gene silencing provided initial insights but was constrained by off-target effects and transient activity. Here, we report the first successful application of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in G. boninense for functional gene studies. Two genes were targeted: pyrG, essential in uridine monophosphate (UMP) biosynthesis; and hyd-2, encoding a hydrophobin, a potential virulence determinant implicated in host invasion. The disruption of pyrG produced a uracil auxotroph, and the knockout was validated by screening on 5-FOA and validated our system as a functional molecular tool. Disruption of hyd-2 reduced infection capability of the fungus by ~72% to ~91% in vitro. Mutations in both gene disruptions, including insertions, deletions, and substitutions, were confirmed by sequencing. Sequencing analysis also revealed incomplete editing events, as wild-type gene sequences were detected alongside edited alleles in the mutants. Future enhancements should focus on improving editing efficiency of the system. This work establishes a robust platform for functional genetic analysis and dissecting pathogenicity in G. boninense, ultimately advancing strategies to mitigate basal stem rot disease in oil palm. Full article

Sacha inchi (Plukenetia volubilis L.) leaves are an underutilized by-product of an expanding oilseed crop, yet their use as a food ingredient remains limited. This study evaluated sacha inchi tea leaf powder (STLP) as a partial replacement for wheat flour in cookies at 0%, 2.5%, 5%, and 10% (w/w), and examined the physicochemical properties, antioxidant capacity, in vitro starch digestibility, and sensory acceptability of the cookies. Substitution with STLP significantly increased the protein, dietary fiber, and ash contents of the cookies (p ≤ 0.05). Total phenolic content and ferric-reducing antioxidant power also increased with the substitution level, particularly at 5% and 10% STLP (p ≤ 0.05). In the simulated digestion model, STLP-substituted cookies showed lower glucose release, glucose area under the curve, hydrolysis index, and predicted glycemic index than the control (p ≤ 0.05), indicating reduced starch hydrolysis in vitro. Physical properties were largely maintained at low to moderate substitution levels, whereas 10% STLP increased spread ratio and hardness, and reduced baking loss. Sensory evaluation showed that STLP substitution lowered appearance, color, smell, flavor, and overall acceptability scores compared with the control, while texture scores were not significantly affected. These findings suggest that STLP may be used as a potential ingredient to improve protein, fiber and ash contents, enhance antioxidant properties of cookies, and reduce in vitro starch hydrolysis. Although further formulation optimization is needed to balance these effects with sensory acceptability, STLP is a promising functional ingredient for bakery products and a means of valorizing an underutilized agricultural material. Full article

The agricultural sector is increasingly exposed to a complex set of climatic, economic, and institutional pressures, indicating that resilience assessment alone is insufficient; investments must also be strategically directed toward strengthening resilience. In response, this study proposes an integrated framework for assessing the resilience of crop farms and supporting the strategic screening and relative prioritization of investments at the regional level. The framework is applied to Romania, which is administratively organized into eight NUTS-2 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) development regions. The framework combines a Farm Resilience Composite Index (ICRF)—structured around five interconnected pillars (productive, economic, technological, ecological, and organizational)—with a Strategic Resilience Investment Score (SRIS), designed to translate resilience diagnostic outcomes into strategic screening and relative investment priorities. The methodology integrates normalized regional sub-indicators, expert-based weighting, and catch-up gap measures relative to the observed regional benchmark. It further incorporates complementarity and substitution relationships among sub-indicators, thereby capturing the systemic nature of resilience. Robustness is ensured through sensitivity analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, and a leave-one-region-out jackknife procedure. The results indicate that investment priorities are not driven solely by the magnitude of regional deficits. Instead, they emerge at the intersection of catch-up needs, systemic relevance, and the stability of outcomes under uncertainty. Across all regions, production stability, access to the agricultural knowledge and innovation system (AKIS), and farm-level digitalization consistently emerge as cross-regional priorities. Moreover, at least two of the three initial priorities are retained in 55 of the 56 leave-one-region-out comparisons, indicating a high degree of robustness. In contrast, ecological, economic, and organizational indicators exhibit greater territorial specificity. Overall, the ICRF–SRIS framework provides a transparent and analytically grounded tool for supporting place-based agricultural policy and guiding investment allocation in the context of post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Full article

This study evaluated the effects of placing wood chips (F-Wood chip) or pumice (F-Pumice) at the bottom of poultry feather compost on open-field ginger soilless media production. Root control bags were prepared with 10 L of wood chips or pumice overlain by 20 L of feather compost, with three ginger rhizomes planted. Crops were drip-irrigated without synthetic fertilization and replenished with compost three times. Results indicated that bottom-placed wood chips or pumice improved water infiltration. Ginger yield was significantly higher in the F-Wood chip treatment than in the F-Pumice, with fresh weights of 3.4 and 2.5 kg, and dry weights of 451.8 and 332.7 g, respectively. Furthermore, F-Wood chip significantly increased rhizome calcium levels. Although no significant differences were observed between treatments regarding leaf and post-harvest media nutrient contents, the F-Wood chip group exhibited higher microbial abundance (9.5 ± 4.5 × 10⁵ CFU ⁻¹) and greater endophytic diversity, spanning 7 genera and 11 species with potential plant growth-promoting and stress-resistance functions. Overall, this innovative integrated crop management strategy demonstrates great potential to substitute for fossil-fuel-based chemical fertilizers, this innovative production mode eliminates the need for fossil-fuel-based chemical fertilizers, offering an applicable and sustainable soilless cultivation solution for open-field ginger production under extreme weather conditions like typhoons and heavy rainfall. Full article

Excessive use of chemical fertilizers degrades soil health and threatens sustainable crop production, which can be mitigated by partially substituting chemical fertilizers with Chinese milk vetch (Astragalus sinicus L., MV, as green manure). However, the mechanisms through which MV incorporation alters soil microbial community structure and function, enhances soil quality and crop productivity, as well as its long-term effects in paddy soils, are still not fully understood. In this study, we investigated the responses of soil physical, chemical, and biological properties (to comprehensively evaluate soil quality); microbial community structure and function; rice productivity; and the sustainable yield index (SYI) to five fertilizer treatments based on a 13-year field experiment in a paddy’s soil in Henan, China. The treatments included: CK (no chemical fertilizer and no MV), F100 (100% chemical fertilizer), MVF80, MVF60 and MVF40 (80%, 60%, and 40% of the chemical fertilizer rate combined with MV, respectively). Compared with the F100 treatment, MVF60 slightly increased rice yield by 1.71% and significantly improved SYI by 5.10%. All MV treatments significantly increased soil organic carbon (SOC, by 14.4–16.3%) and microbial biomass carbon (MBC, by 16.7–20.1%). MVF60 and MVF40 significantly reduced bulk density, and increased macroaggregate content and mean weight diameter (MWD). MVF80 significantly enriched soil total phosphorus (TP), total potassium (TK), mineral nitrogen (Nmin), and urease (UE). The improvement in these soil properties resulted in a marked increase (by 11.6–20.1%) in the soil quality index (SQI) under all MV treatments. Random forest analysis identified MBC and Nmin as the most important predictors of SQI. Moreover, MV incorporation increased the relative abundance of beneficial taxa (Firmicutes, Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1, Bradyrhizobium, and Nigrospora), which were positively correlated with SQI (p < 0.05), while reducing the relative abundance of pathogenic fungal genera such as Fusarium. Furthermore, regression analysis revealed strong positive correlations between SQI and both rice yield and SYI. In summary, long-term MV incorporation with a 40% reduction in chemical fertilizer (MVF60) constitutes an effective and sustainable nutrient management approach for rice production in southern China. This practice enhances soil quality through improved physical structure, nutrient cycling, and microbial community structure and function, ultimately resulting in higher and more stable yields. Full article

Driven by global climate change and Taiwan’s Net-Zero initiatives, high-input livestock farming faces urgent pressures to transform. Pennisetum purpureum, a primary forage and bioenergy crop, traditionally relies on heavy chemical nitrogen inputs, thereby exacerbating its carbon footprint. This study evaluated a sustainable cultivation model integrating legume intercropping with reduced fertilization. A field trial in central Taiwan utilizing a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) compared four treatments: conventional full nitrogen (800 kg N/ha), sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) intercropping with half nitrogen, sunn hemp intercropping only, and organic compost. We monitored biomass, forage chemistry, and soil organic carbon (SOC) dynamics. The sunn hemp plus half-nitrogen treatment achieved dry matter yields (30–35 Mg/ha) and crude protein levels (7.1–7.4%) statistically equivalent to the full-nitrogen control, significantly surpassing other groups. While short-term SOC stocks (72–81 Mg C/ha) showed no significant differences, trends indicated carbon accumulation in deep soil (30–50 cm). Consequently, substituting 50% of chemical nitrogen through biological fixation proves a viable strategy to maintain yield while reducing inputs. This model sustains productivity and mitigates greenhouse gas emissions, offering an economically feasible, potential carbon-negative solution for tropical forage systems. Full article

With the advancement of deep learning-based steganalysis and prevalence of lossy compression mechanisms in social network transmission, traditional steganography based on cover modification (such as LSB substitution) faces dual challenges of security and robustness. This study proposes a novel steganographic framework based on generative artificial intelligence and predefined semantic mapping. Unlike embedding ciphertext in pixel noise, this method utilizes a shared mapping protocol (Codebook) to transform abstract information into concrete visual elements (such as characters, actions, scenes, and styles), and constructs stego-images through generative models. Experimental results show that when both parties share the same key, the system achieves full semantic recovery. Using an explicitly specified pipeline (Gemini 2.5 Flash Image for synthesis and Gemini 2.5 Flash for parsing), we evaluate the scheme on an enlarged, randomly sampled scenario set spanning three to six active semantic dimensions. Across these scenarios, we report per-dimension accuracy, the end-to-end full-recovery rate with 95% confidence intervals, and the partial-recovery rate under controlled JPEG compression, re-scaling, Gaussian noise, and cropping, rather than a single aggregate figure. The results indicate that carrying information at the semantic level yields graceful degradation under common channel distortions together with high visual camouflage, while also revealing that recovery reliability decreases as more semantic dimensions are activated simultaneously. We therefore present these findings as a proof of concept and explicitly separate demonstrated results from hypotheses left to future work. We therefore present these findings as a proof of concept and explicitly separate demonstrated results from hypotheses left to future work. Full article

Continuous monoculture alters rhizosphere soil conditions and microbial community structure, but the integrated soil biochemical, microbial, and metabolomic responses of pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) rhizosphere soils remain insufficiently characterized. Here, we compared uncropped/non-continuously cropped pepper soil (Y0) with soil under 10 years of pepper monoculture (Y10) using soil physicochemical assays, enzyme measurements, 16S rRNA and ITS amplicon sequencing, untargeted UHPLC-Q Exactive HFX metabolomics, and predictive functional profiling. Long-term monoculture markedly separated Y10 from Y0 in multivariate analyses. Y10 soils showed higher organic matter, available nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium, and electrical conductivity in soil-water extracts, whereas microbial biomass carbon and pH were lower. Soil enzyme profiles also differed between treatments. Microbial alpha diversity declined under Y10, and bacterial and fungal community structures were clearly separated between treatments. At the taxonomic level, Acidobacteriota and several oligotrophic bacterial taxa were relatively enriched in Y0, whereas Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota, Chloroflexi, Bacillota, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, and several fungal genus-level taxa increased in Y10. Untargeted metabolomics revealed extensive remodeling of rhizosphere metabolites, with 413 up-regulated and 21 down-regulated differential metabolites in Y10. Differential metabolites were mainly associated with carboxylic acids and derivatives, benzene and substituted derivatives, fatty acyls, aromatic-compound transformation, sulfur metabolism, alkaloid biosynthesis, and microbial metabolism. Correlation analyses further linked key microbial taxa with soil pH, microbial biomass carbon, available nutrients, electrical conductivity, and enzyme activities. These results indicate that long-term pepper monoculture is associated with coordinated shifts in soil chemical status, microbial community composition, and metabolite profiles. The study provides an integrated basis for understanding rhizosphere changes under pepper continuous-cropping systems while recognizing that functional predictions and metabolite annotations require experimental validation. Full article

The plant-based diets market has grown in popularity over recent decades and is projected to reach USD 27 billion by 2030. Innovative systems such as intercropping, defined as growing two or more crop species in proximity, are promising contributors to the advancement of sustainable agriculture by improving resource efficiency, enhancing crop resilience, and cutting down the need for chemical inputs. However, legume seed lots grown under intercropping versus monocropping systems differ in composition, which, in turn, can influence seed flour quality. Furthermore, antinutritional properties of legumes, such as phytic acid, condensed tannins (CTs), and raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFOs), limit their utilisation in product formulation. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to reduce these antinutritional compounds for utilisation of the intercropped legume flour in bakery products. A harvest of intercropped peas and faba bean mix (IM) obtained from Irish farmers was soaked (S) for 8 and 16 h and germinated (G) for 24, 48, and 72 h. Non-germinated intercropped mix (IM) was used as a control. All flours were subsequently used to substitute for wheat flour and fortify wheat-based cakes. The 72 h germinated intercropped mix (pea bean; 95.5:4.5) flour showed significantly (p < 0.05) lower levels of antinutritional compounds than the non-germinated intercropped flour. Raffinose, stachyose, and verbascose contents were reduced by 43%, 38%, and 46%, respectively, while phytic acid and condensed tannins decreased by 32% and 57%, respectively. The germination process also reduced the green hue (a*) from −8.37 to −6.49 and enhanced levels of soluble dietary fibre by 2.67% of the flour, while improving their suitability for bakery applications. Wheat-based cakes fortified with germinated and non-germinated intercropped legume flours showed a significant enhancement in protein and soluble dietary fibre contents. Compared with the control cake, protein content increased from 9.52 to 12.80%, while soluble dietary fibre content increased from 0.47 to 1.99% in the fortified cakes. Cakes containing up to 40% germinated flour (G72) showed comparable specific volume values 1.84–1.86 mL/g) and slice brightness (112.50–94.23) to the control cake. Additionally, cakes formulated with 40% intercropped flour showed significantly lower condensed tannin and phytic acid contents (p < 0.05), with reductions of 38% and 31.38%, respectively. Samples containing intercropped legume flours proved suitable for bakery applications, supporting up to 40% substitution in wheat-based cakes, and the germination process was effective in reducing antinutritional properties in intercropped legume flour fortified cakes. Full article

Pest pressure is a major constraint on crop production in Sub-Saharan Africa, where smallholder farmers rely heavily on synthetic pesticides with potential environmental and health risks. Ecological pest management practices (EPMs) have been proposed as sustainable alternatives, although field-based evidence is limited. This study evaluated pest and natural-enemy responses to EPMs in a cabbage–garden pea rotation system over six years (2020–2025) in Central Kenya. Four treatments were assessed: homemade botanical extracts (Botanicals), coriander intercropping (Intercrop), botanical extracts combined with coriander intercropping (Botanicals + Intercrop), and a control. In cabbage, ecological treatments often recorded lower aphid and diamondback moth abundance and damage than the Control, although these patterns were not consistently significant. Aphid cumulative abundance ranged from an Area Under Disease Progress Curve (AUDPC) of 128.0 under the Control to 47.5 under Botanicals + Intercrop, while DBM abundance ranged from 68.5 to 20.0. In garden pea, aphid damage ranged from an AUDPC of 39.3 under Intercrop to 25.1 under Botanicals + Intercrop, while cutworm damage ranged from 56.3 under Botanicals to 14.8 under Intercrop. Significant treatment effects were detected for selected pest responses. Shannon diversity differed significantly among the treatments in both crop phases. As such, responses were pest- and season-specific rather than uniformly suppressive. These findings identify companion cropping and botanical applications as promising components of EPM within the treatments evaluated. Comparison with conventional pesticide-based or farmer-practice management is however required before recommendations for substitution or wider adoption can be made. Full article

The decoupling of dairy production from cropland can increase environmental burdens and constrain the recycling of nutrients in manure in land-limited, purchased-feed-dependent large-scaled dairy farms. This study evaluated the environmental and marginal economic effects of dairy–cropland recoupling using a cradle-to-farm-gate life cycle assessment and a 10,000-iteration Monte Carlo simulation. The observed farm system was used as the reference, and five partial forage-localization scenarios and one land-unconstrained full-localization benchmark were constructed by replacing off-farm domestic or imported forages with nutritionally equivalent farm-grown alternatives. Baseline global warming potential (GWP), nitrogen footprint (NFP), and phosphorus footprint (PFP) were 0.92 kg CO₂e, 9.72 g N, and 0.43 g P per kg of fat- and protein-corrected milk, respectively. Replacing off-farm domestic alfalfa hay with farm-grown alfalfa hay provided the strongest combined environmental performance per unit of supporting cropland, reducing the GWP and NFP by 1.17 kg CO₂e/m² and 2.76 g N/m², respectively, while also achieving the largest PFP reduction among the partial-localization scenarios. In contrast, replacing imported alfalfa hay generated the greatest marginal economic benefit (USD 0.37/m²) but increased the NFP by 0.12 g N/m², revealing a clear environmental–economic trade-off. Full forage localization reduced system-level GWP by 12.0% but required approximately 3731 ha of supporting cropland, far exceeding the farm’s 133 ha site area. The environmental and marginal economic effects of recoupling depended on the displaced forage supply chain and on scenario-specific differences in transportation, manure nutrient recycling, fertilizer substitution, and crop-production inputs. These findings support the partial and priority-based allocation of supporting cropland as a practical strategy for large-scaled dairy farms with similar purchased-feed dependence and land constraints, rather than complete forage self-sufficiency. Full article