Search Results (570)

As China advances high-quality agricultural development, promoting green production among farmers has become an important policy priority. Using survey data from 1787 rice farmers in seven major rice-producing provinces in southern China, this study examines whether enterprise-led contract farming can promote farmers’ green production behavior. Green production behavior is measured by a composite index based on six practices, including green control technology, soil testing and formulated fertilization, organic fertilizer substitution, water-saving irrigation, agricultural film recycling, and straw return. Empirical analysis results show that enterprise-led contract farming can significantly promote farmers’ green production behavior. Further analysis suggests that food safety certification, planting technology training, and lower perceived price volatility are important pathways through which contract farming is linked to green production practices. The promoting effect is weaker among older farmers, stronger for farmers cultivating land with medium soil fertility, and more pronounced among small-scale rice farmers. These findings highlight the role of enterprise-led contract farming in promoting farmers’ green production and offer policy implications for encouraging wider participation in green production practices. Full article

Enhancing technical efficiency in food legume production is essential, since the scope for expanding factor inputs is limited under tightening resource constraints. Higher technical efficiency improves resource allocation, ensures food supply stability, and boosts farm income. To strengthen production performance, using survey data from 817 food legume farm households in five major producing regions of China in 2024, this study employs a two-stage DEA-Tobit model to measure farmers’ technical efficiency in food legume production and to empirically identify its driving factors. The results indicate that: (1) technical efficiency in food legume production shows pronounced regional disparities and substantial within-region heterogeneity; (2) technical efficiency in food legume production improves over time, yet substantial space for efficiency gains remains relative to other staple crops; (3) farm households located at different stages of returns to production inputs show distinct production and management patterns. (4) human capital accumulation, full-time farming status, and participation in food legume cooperative economic organizations exert significant positive effects on technical efficiency. Meanwhile, planting scale exhibits a significant inverted U-shaped relationship with technical efficiency. The findings provide household-level empirical evidence to explain disparities in technical efficiency and identify pathways for improving food legume production. Full article

Monosex culture has been shown to enhance farming productivity in several decapod crustaceans, and it has also been suggested that this approach holds high potential for the sustainable aquaculture of the Chinese mitten crab, Eriocheir sinensis. Pronounced sexual dimorphism in E. sinensis facilitates the implementation of a monosex culture. This study aimed to compare the growth, gonadal development, culture performance, and economic outcomes of two monosex culture modes, i.e., an all-female culture and an all-male culture, as well as a mixed-sex culture (males: females = 1:1) during an 8-month growth period in earthen ponds. The results showed that: (1) Throughout the grow-out period, the average body weight in both monosex culture treatments was consistently higher than in the mixed-sex treatment, with a significantly greater body weight in the all-female and all-male treatments than that of males and females in the mixed-sex treatment being detected during mid-June and October, respectively (p < 0.05). (2) The percentages of both sexes that had finished puberty molting were mostly similar between the monosex and mixed-sex treatments between July 20th to October 10th, although the all-female treatment had a significantly lower puberty molting percentage than the mixed-sex treatment on August 10th (p < 0.05). Gonadosomatic index (GSI) values were similar between the monosex and mixed-sex treatments for both males and females (p > 0.05). (3) At harvest period, the final body weight in the all-male treatment was significantly higher than that of the mixed-sex treatment (p < 0.05). In contrast, the all-female treatment exhibited a significantly higher survival rate and a lower limb injury rate compared with the mixed-sex treatment (p < 0.05). As a result, the yield of the all-male and all-female treatments exceeded that of the males and females in the mixed-sex treatment by 24% and 13%, respectively. Additionally, the mixed-sex treatment also had a significantly higher feed conversion ratio (p < 0.05). Finally, the monosex treatments had a higher proportion of large crabs (males ≥ 200 g, females ≥ 175 g) and a lower proportion of small crabs (males ≤ 150 g, females ≤ 100 g) compared to the mixed-sex treatment. (4) In terms of economic benefits, net profit and return on investment (ROI) were highest under the all-female treatment, while the mixed-sex treatment recorded the lowest total return, net profit, and ROI (p < 0.05). In conclusion, an all-female culture is recommended for the grow-out culture period of E. sinensis, as it led to a higher survival rate, produced larger-sized crabs and generated greater overall economic benefit. Full article

Asparagus (Asparagus officinalis L.) represents a high-value horticultural crop in Thailand with significant export potential; however, optimizing productivity in tropical environments requires a precise understanding of how cultivation practices and harvest seasons influence marketability. Here, a split-plot experiment arranged in a completely randomized design with three replications was conducted to examine how different crop methods and harvest seasons affect asparagus yield and quality in Lopburi Province, Thailand. The main plots were categorized by harvest season—summer, rainy, and winter—while the subplots included three crop methods: conventional, GAP, and organic. Summer produced the highest yield and asparagus with the greatest levels of total chlorophyll, phenolics, and DPPH radical scavenging activity compared to other seasons. Although the conventional methods yielded the most spears per plant, these spears contained higher levels of contaminants, including cadmium, lead, and nitrate. In contrast, spears from GAP and organic methods had higher phosphorus levels. However, no pesticide residues were found in any spear samples. Economically, the organic method had the shortest payback period, owing to lower production costs; despite a lower annual yield, stable market prices kept it profitable. In addition, organic soils had the highest levels of organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Overall, while conventional methods enhance the yield and certain qualities, organic farming, particularly when harvested in summer, yields the highest economic returns and the most sustainable system among those tested. Full article

Neural network-based visual identification of animals has significant potential for livestock farming and herd management. Real farm environments rarely provide controlled visual conditions for high-quality dataset collection, which often leads to reduced model performance on out-of-distribution inputs and makes confidence estimation essential for reliable application. This work introduces a conformal prediction framework for animal identification based on pretrained neural network embeddings (ResNet-50 and Swin Transformer), enabling the generation of prediction sets with formal confidence guarantees. By calibrating a nonconformity score derived from cosine distances in the embedding space, the method ensures that the true identity is included in the prediction set at a user-defined confidence level. Three nonconformity scoring functions are evaluated to determine which produces the most compact prediction sets. Experiments on cow and goat datasets demonstrate that the framework achieves empirical coverage close to the target confidence levels across different embedding models. The ratio-based nonconformity measure consistently outperforms others, reducing mean set sizes by up to 79% compared to alternative measures. Swin-T embeddings outperform ResNet-50 by up to 14 percentage points in singleton prediction rate. The proposed framework preserves formal validity guarantees, improving robustness and interpretability in practical livestock applications where standard identification methods return only the nearest match without reliability estimates. Full article

Background: Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) caused by Mycobacterium bovis is a major zoonotic disease in West Africa. In Africa, bTB is endemic in cattle with a prevalence ranging from 2% up to 18%. The disease causes significant public health risks due to unpasteurized milk and milk product consumption. In the context of the EU-PRISMA project, which promotes research and innovation for productive, resilient, and healthy agropastoral systems in West Africa, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in dairy herds from Mali and Niger to assess animal, herd, and within-herd bTB prevalence, as well as to identify animal risk factors and predictors of bTB herd status. Method and principal findings: A random cross-sectional survey on dairy cattle farms using comparative intradermal tuberculin test and epidemiological inquiry was performed in four regions of Mali (Bamako, Koulikoro, Mopti, and Sikasso) and three regions of Niger (Tahoua, Dosso, and Tillabéry). Herd and animal prevalence of bTB and within-herd prevalence were significantly higher in Mali (especially in Bamako and Koulikoro) than in Niger. Several risk factors were significantly associated with animals positive to bTB, i.e., the region where animals live, the age range from 3 to 7 years old, and female animals. In addition, in regions with higher bTB prevalence, the herd with slaughtering of animals in the farm and the herd with the presence of an animal assembly area were associated with the most unfavorable status of a herd with regards to bTB. Moreover, the average and the median annual economic losses of bTB at animal level were estimated at €262 and €137 respectively, with large variability depending on the farm (between €46 and €838). Conclusion and significance: This survey provides useful data on bTB epidemiology and economical losses in Mali and Niger and urges for improvement of surveillance systems and prevention and control strategies. Cost-benefit, return of investment, or similar analyses are strongly recommended to help with decision making. Full article

Mortality events in commercial rabbit production can lead to significant economic losses, highlighting the need for earlier identification of elevated mortality risk at the group level using routinely collected production data. This study presents a machine learning–based framework for predicting mortality risk at future observation points using routinely collected production data. Models were developed using group-level variables and evaluated with StratifiedGroupKFold cross-validation to prevent information leakage. The selected XGBoost model achieved a balanced performance, with a recall of 0.78 ± 0.03, precision of 0.59 ± 0.04, and ROC–AUC of 0.72 ± 0.02. Predictions were translated into an alert system based on a predefined threshold, prioritising sensitivity while maintaining a moderate false alert rate. A scenario-based cost–benefit analysis indicated that economic outcomes are highly dependent on intervention effectiveness, with positive returns observed under moderate to optimistic assumptions. Overall, the framework demonstrates the feasibility of integrating predictive modelling with alert-based decision support in rabbit production, although real-world validation under commercial farm conditions is required to confirm its practical effectiveness. Full article

Climate change is intensifying hydroclimatic extremes and agricultural water scarcity, sharpening trade-offs among yield stability, water saving, and farm incomes in major grain regions. Existing studies often optimise cropping patterns or irrigation schedules separately, seldom embedding yield robustness and policy instruments in one decision framework. We propose an integrated Machine-learning–System-dynamics–Non-dominated-sorting-genetic-algorithm-II (ML–SD–NSGA-II) framework linking long-horizon meteorological scenario generation, crop–water–economy feedback and multi-objective optimisation of crop areas and irrigation depths. ML models generate daily climate sequences to drive an SD model of soil moisture, yield formation, basin-scale allocable water, and farm returns; NSGA-II searches Pareto-optimal strategies that maximise profit and irrigation water productivity while minimising yield deviation. Applied to a rice–wheat irrigation system in the middle Yangtze River Basin, knee-point solutions lift irrigation water productivity by about 14%, maintain near-baseline profits, and reduce yield deviation. Scenario tests with block tariffs, quota-based subsidies, and extreme drought show pricing mainly curbs low-value water use in normal years, while under drought, physical scarcity dominates and economic tools offer limited buffering. This reveals the existence of a scarcity-regime threshold beyond which economic instruments become second-order relative to binding biophysical constraints. The framework supports transparent ex ante testing of tariff–subsidy packages for irrigation governance and adaptation. Full article

Precision agriculture has become a major direction of agricultural technological development in recent decades, addressing efficiency, environmental, and economic challenges simultaneously. Input optimization based on site-specific data collection—particularly variable-rate nutrient application, precision irrigation systems, and targeted crop protection—has been shown to generate measurable cost and resource savings. The aim of the study is to explore and systematically evaluate the economic impacts influencing precision technology in crop production. Although the technical and environmental benefits of precision technologies are widely documented, their economic performance and farm-level profitability remain inconsistently interpreted. The study is based on a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed English-language journal articles retrieved from the Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and JSTOR databases. Study selection and evaluation were conducted in accordance with the PRISMA 2020 methodological framework. The literature indicates that precision technologies achieve average input savings of 8–20% and yield increases of 2–6%, while reported return on investment (ROI) values typically range between 5% and 15%. Economic viability is strongly dependent on farm size, with most studies identifying profitability above 100–200 ha. Additional benefits include improved management of soil heterogeneity, enhanced nutrient-use efficiency, and reduced excess input application, although adoption remains constrained by high investment costs and technological complexity. Full article

Small ruminant production is vital for rural livelihoods and food security in Saudi Arabia but faces persistent constraints, including high feed costs, limited veterinary access, low reproductive efficiency, and weak extension services. To address these gaps, a Farm Service Delivery Model (FSDM) was piloted, which involved embedding trained livestock technicians into communities to deliver integrated on-farm services. This study evaluated the impact of the FSDM on 47 farms across three regions over 6–12 months. The key results showed significant improvements: flock size increased by 28%, the lambing rate per ewe doubled from 0.39 to 0.80, twin births tripled, mortality declined from 23.8% to 8.0%, and milk production more than doubled. Economic analysis revealed a benefit–cost ratio of 3.02, indicating high return on investment. Scaling the FSDM nationally could generate up to USD 4.8 billion in added meat and milk value over five years while reducing meat imports by 48%. The model aligns with Saudi Vision 2030 and offers a scalable and sustainable pathway to enhance productivity, resilience, and rural income. Policy recommendations include institutional integration, digital innovation, blended financing, and strengthened breeding programs. Full article

While return migrant workers (RMWs) are increasingly viewed as key to rural development, their specific impact on grain production remains ambiguous. Clarifying this role is critical to manage the dual nature of their reintegration—leveraging valuable resources and knowledge while addressing complex reintegration challenges—to ensure national food security and advance agricultural modernization. Drawing on data from the 2018 China Labor-force Dynamics Survey (CLDS), this study explicitly tests the hypothesis that migration experience significantly reduces the likelihood that RMW households engage in grain production. The empirical results from probit models support this hypothesis, and this finding is robust across multiple specifications. Further analysis shows that migration experience significantly reduces land cultivation scales—especially among larger producers—and increases land abandonment. Additionally, it inhibits technology adoption or invest in agricultural technology. These results suggest that migration experience may weaken, rather than enhance, RMWs’ commitment to grain production, challenging the policy expectation that they can lead agricultural transformation. The study calls for more nuanced policy interventions that account for the structural constraints facing RMW households and their limited contribution to large-scale, efficient grain farming. Full article

Salinity is a key environmental survival factor for all aquatic organisms, especially migratory species. The masu salmon (Oncorhynchus masou) is a representative migratory fish species. Following the freshwater parr stage, anadromous masu salmon briefly inhabit brackish water and transition before migrating to the ocean. To demonstrate the physiological responses of masu salmon (length: 8 ± 0.5 cm, water temperature: 10 ± 0.5 °C) to variations in salinity, we carried out three gradual transfer experiments (gradual daily increases direct transfer experiment of 3.2 (D10), 1.6 (D20), and 1.1 (D30) ppt until reaching 32 ppt) and one (immediate transfer to 32 ppt on day 0) as domestication regimens for masu salmon. The results indicated the following: (1) In the gradual transfer experiment group, growth performance, along with ion and hormone indicators, suggested that the D30 treatment group of anadromous masu salmon exhibited a high level of adaptability. (2) In the direct transfer experiment, in addition to the activity of antioxidant enzymes, both ion concentrations and hormone indicators returned to a stable state within 7 days. Our findings provide a scientific protocol for salinity regulation during the artificial propagation of masu salmon and establish critical acclimation parameters for land-based recirculating aquaculture systems aimed at marine salmonid farming, thereby highlighting their practical value. Full article

This study evaluates the applicability of ERA5 wind speed (WS) and wind direction (WD) in the East China Sea, using high-resolution vertical wind profiles measured by a floating LiDAR at the Shanghai Nanhui Offshore Wind Farm from 15 January 2022 to 15 January 2023. Key findings are as follows: (1) Strong positive correlations exist between LiDAR-measured and ERA5 WS across all evaluated heights, with correlation coefficients of 0.76 (ground level), 0.86 (50 m), 0.88 (100 m), and 0.90 (200 m), respectively, and corresponding root mean square errors (RMSEs) of 2.33 m/s, 1.78 m/s, 1.73 m/s, and 1.77 m/s. This systematic improvement in correlation and modest reduction in RMSE with increasing height indicate that ERA5 captures vertical wind structure with progressively higher fidelity above the surface layer. (2) Both the ERA5 dataset and LiDAR measurements consistently show dominant wind frequencies in the NNE and SSE directions, with peaks at approximately 1000 occurrences. The minimal differences in the two datasets demonstrate the ERA5’s robust representation of near-surface offshore WD climatology. (3) The ERA5 reanalysis data of typhoon Muifa can better illustrate the increase in the initial WS and its subsequent decreases. However, the peak WS lags behind measurements by 2 h, and the extreme WS is significantly lower than that measured. Evaluations of the multi-year return period WS demonstrate an underestimation of extreme WS by 16.06–16.51% for the ERA5 data. Regarding the WD, the measured direction is clockwise, while that of the ERA5 is counterclockwise, revealing a fundamental deficiency in its representation of mesoscale cyclonic wind structure. Therefore, ERA5 reanalysis data provides reliable characterization of typical offshore WS and WD within the operational wind turbine hub-height range (100–200 m). For typhoon-related wind engineering assessments, the applicability of ERA5 data necessitates caution and potentially bias correction. Full article

Tropical estuarine hydrodynamic processes are governed by complex interactions between tides, monsoons, and fluvial runoff. To obtain long-term (≥30 years) hydrodynamic conditions of the Mekong River Estuary, this study established a Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) coupled with validated Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) wind forcing for a 32-year (1988–2019) high-resolution simulation. Validation against in situ observations confirms the model’s robustness. Temporal–spatial patterns of water level and current were analyzed, and extreme parameters for 1–100 year return periods were derived via the Pearson-III probability distribution. Results indicate the study area is a mesotidal environment (tidal range = 3.58 m) dominated by SSE-NNW reciprocating tidal currents. Relative to Vietnam’s national elevation datum, 100-year return period extreme high/low water levels are 2.15 m and −2.03 m, with a maximum storm surge setup of 2.09 m. The 100-year return period maximum current velocity reaches 4.58 m/s (A21 station), and Mekong River runoff exerts a negligible influence (<5% velocity change). This study provides high-precision baseline data for offshore wind farm engineering and disaster risk assessment, offering a methodological reference for tropical estuarine hydrodynamic simulations. Full article

The transition towards circular economy is now a key strategy to address the environmental issues we are facing. Within this framework, biochar, a carbon-rich material derived from residual agricultural pyrolysis, can represent a sustainable and circular solution. This paper aims at evaluating the possibility of implementing a local biochar-production system as part of an economic and social strategy of the redevelopment of an abandoned rural site, Borgo di Perolla, in Tuscany, Italy. A cost–benefits analysis (CBA) was conducted to evaluate the economic feasibility of three different scenarios of production and strategies: Scenario 1 considers revenues solely from the production and sale of biochar and wood vinegar; Scenario 2 additionally includes potential income from the sale of voluntary carbon credits; and Scenario 3 incorporates biochar credits within the European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS). For each scenario, three indicators were calculated: Net-Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and Breakeven point (BEP). The most evident result that emerged is that the sale of biochar and its by-products alone is not sufficient to ensure the project’s economic sustainability, mainly due to high production costs. Only through carbon-credit-trading markets biochar becomes not only an environmentally strategic tool but also an economically rewarding one. In this sense, market infrastructures, such as the ETS, are essential for the dissemination of circular models, like biochar, that generate both environmental and economic benefits. Previous studies on biochar have largely focused on its application and associated benefits, while cost–benefit analyses have primarily examined its economic feasibility through the commercialization of biochar as a soil amendment, particularly within the United States context. The present work contributes to this literature in three main ways. First, it provides a site-specific and replicable CBA framework applied to a real territorial regeneration project (Borgo di Perolla), grounded in primary data collected through field surveys, stakeholder interviews, and expert validation. Second, the study explicitly compares multiple market-access scenarios within the same analytical framework, ranging from biochar-only sales to voluntary carbon markets, allowing for a clear identification of the economic thresholds at which biochar becomes financially sustainable. Third, and most importantly, the main contribution of this work lies in the explicit modeling of biochar integration into the EU Emissions Trading System. This paper extends the analysis to a regulated carbon market scenario, assuming the recognition of biochar-based carbon removals within the EU ETS framework. From a methodological perspective, the study quantitatively assesses how ETS price dynamics affect the profitability, internal rate of return, and break-even point of a biochar project over a long-term horizon. From a policy perspective, the analysis anticipates recent regulatory developments, such as the EU Regulation 2024/3012, on establishing a Union certification framework for permanent carbon removals, carbon farming, and carbon storage in products, by showing how biochar could function as a fully market-integrated climate technology. Full article