Search Results (166)

The study examines the theoretical and practical dimensions of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA). Its objective is to assess whether social capital theory explains food producers’ engagement in CSA and whether this is reflected in practice. The research is based on a critical review of the relevant literature and on empirical investigations conducted in Poland among CSA producers using the CAWI method in 2024. The findings indicate that social capital theory plays a fundamental role in explaining the mechanisms underpinning CSA, with significant implications for the development of local food systems and for policies supporting small farms. This suggests the need for stronger institutional support aimed at enhancing trust and cooperation between food producers and consumers. Unfortunately, due to the low level of social capital in Poland, the CSA model remains only a niche complement to traditional forms of agriculture, functioning primarily as an alternative for a narrow group of socially and environmentally conscious consumers and small clusters of producers. Full article

Accurate and real-time detection of rice pests is crucial for protecting crop yield and advancing precision agriculture. However, existing models often suffer from limitations in small-object recognition, background interference, and computational efficiency. To overcome these challenges, this study proposes an improved lightweight detection framework, CRRE-YOLO, developed based on YOLOv11. The model integrates four enhanced components—the EIoU loss function, C2PSA_ELA module, RPAPAttention mechanism, and RIMSCConv module—to improve localization accuracy, feature extraction, and fine-grained pest recognition. Experimental results on the RP11-Augmented dataset show that CRRE-YOLO achieves 0.852 precision, 0.787 recall, 83.6% mAP@0.5, and 71.9% mAP@0.5:0.95, outperforming YOLOv11 by up to 7.8% and surpassing YOLOv8 and RT-DETR in accuracy while maintaining only 2.344M parameters and 6.1G FLOPs. These results demonstrate that CRRE-YOLO achieves an optimal balance between accuracy and efficiency, providing a practical and deployable solution for real-time rice pest detection and offering potential for integration into smart farming and edge computing applications. Full article

The purpose of this research was twofold. Firstly, it aimed to indicate factors hindering and accelerating the development of organic food as a niche innovation in Poland. Secondly, to depict a phase and a pathway of sustainability transition in the Polish agri-food sector. The analysis was performed taking advantage of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions, which has not been used to analyze the sustainability transition in Poland so far. Data were collected through a systemic literature review. Organic food production is a slow-growing niche in Poland, and the sustainability transition from the current dual agri-food regime consisting of small family farms and intensive food production is at a take-off phase. Organic food production struggles to become a regime with short food supply chains and agroecology, and the number of barriers it faces outweighs the number of enablers for its development. A de-alignment and re-alignment transition pathway can be observed. Which niche innovation becomes dominant depends on changes in regulations and on the development of both local marketplaces and online sales channels. The major conclusion is that in order for the transition in the Polish agri-food sector to happen, it should be better governed. Specifically, we need new policy instruments and governance mechanisms, new financing schemes, alternative and hybrid organizational and ownership structures, and institutional and transformative change approaches. Full article

The mechanized transplanting of sweet potato slips onto mulched raised beds in China’s Huang-Huai-Hai region faces significant challenges due to fragmented smallholder farms and the specific agronomic requirement of “boat-shaped” horizontal planting. To address this gap, this study aimed to develop a compact, cost-effective transplanter that meets the “boat-shaped” planting agronomy and adapts to small plots. We designed the 2CGX-1 mini wheel-driven transplanter coupled with a tractor. This machine features a compact chassis (<1.5 m length) for enhanced maneuverability on small plots, a novel five-bar taking-planting mechanism optimized for boat-shaped placement (achieving a stem-soil angle of 56.2° and planting depth of 110 mm), and an integrated spring buffer system. Transmission design ensures precise synchronization between the dual-chain seedling feeding mechanism and planting actions, allowing plant spacing adjustment from 18 to 30 cm. Coupled Adams–EDEM simulations demonstrated that the buffer system reduces maximum resistance on the clip fingers by 37.8% when encountering obstacles. Field validation under optimal parameters (0.55 km/h operating speed, 30 plants/min transplanting frequency) showed high consistency: average planting depth 101.3 mm (SD 1.38), plant spacing 330.3 mm (SD 11.24), seedling length under the film 185 mm (SD 3.65), and stem-soil angle 47.9° (SD 3.41), with qualification rates exceeding 91.9% for all key parameters except submerged length (82.5%). Compared with manual planting (≤0.1 ha/day per person, labor cost > ¥800/ha), this transplanter achieves a daily operational efficiency of ~0.35 ha/day (calculated by 0.55 km/h speed × 0.8 m working width × 8 h daily working time). Meanwhile, the consistency of its key planting indicators and the planting qualification rate are significantly superior to those of manual planting, while improving operational quality and significantly reducing labor cost input. Deviations in individual indicators mainly stem from planting positioning deviations induced by terrain undulations in hilly test areas, and sweet potato seedlings’ tendency to fall off during clamping due to mechanical vibration. However, these errors are within the acceptable agricultural operation range and do not compromise the machine’s overall compliance with agronomic requirements. The transplanter effectively meets agronomic requirements while offering a cost-effective, adapted solution for small-scale sweet potato production systems, significantly advancing mechanization capabilities for mulched cultivation. Full article

Carbon programs often assume that uniform cash transfers are sufficient to change land use, yet the design of benefits may be the controlling factor. We test payment complementarity—the coordinated use of cash and community benefits—in the International Small Group and Tree Planting Program across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and India. Using administrative and survey data from 8432 participants, we classify realized mechanisms into cash-only, alternative-only, and mixed categories, and examine their associations with conservation adoption and land-use intensity. Mixed arrangements are associated with 73% higher conservation farming adoption (68.4% vs. 36.6% under cash-only) and greater tree density (281 vs. 215 and 115 trees/ha for cash-only and alternative-only, respectively). Formal tests reject simple averaging, consistent with super-additive effects. Adoption of mixed mechanisms clusters in districts that exceed an organizational participation threshold (approximately 38.9%), suggesting peer exposure and social learning. Gender-disaggregated patterns indicate that women receiving alternatives (predominantly in mixed regimes) manage nearly three times as many trees as their cash-only peers and are the only subgroup surpassing the USD 2/day poverty threshold. Each alternative arrangement benefits an average of 167 community members; accounting for spillovers implies an approximate 191-times village-level multiplier. Mixed designs require greater administrative effort but deliver larger community returns. We report associations, not causal effects, and employ controls, fixed effects, matching, and stability checks to probe our selection. Policy implications are immediately clear: outcome-based standards that permit mixed payments, credit spillovers, and paired flexibility with safeguards (transparent negotiation, verified delivery, documented consent) can multiply the land-use impact of climate finance. The results are associative rather than causal and generalize primarily to contexts with similar institutional prerequisites, including established organizational capacity and program rules permitting benefit negotiation. Full article

Agriculture is still at serious risk from viral infections, particularly in light of climate change and more intensive farming practices. Small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs), in particular microRNAs (miRNAs) and circular RNAs (circRNAs), have emerged as crucial post-transcriptional regulators of plant antiviral defense in this setting. These molecules provide an essential RNA-based immunity layer by regulating hormones, autophagy, redox balance, immunological signaling, and programmed cell death. In this work, we examine the molecular processes through which circRNAs and miRNAs function during viral infection, focusing on how they affect autophagy and systemic acquired resistance (SAR). Through thorough searches of PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus, we combined findings from peer-reviewed experimental and transcriptomic studies. Our study covers important crops as well as model species (Arabidopsis thaliana, Nicotiana benthamiana), providing a thorough understanding of sRNA synthesis, target control, and antiviral signaling. By combining previously disparate data, this review provides a coherent framework for understanding how short RNAs affect plant immune responses to viral infections. We highlight key regulatory relationships that need further study and propose that these results can be used as a foundation for new RNA-based biotechnological approaches. By carefully altering RNA regulatory mechanisms, scientists can use this information to help them create more resistant crops. Full article

The adoption of green production technologies is crucial for achieving sustainable agricultural development. However, farmers often encounter obstacles including technological complexity, budgetary constraints, and information asymmetry during the promotion. Digital technology adoption on a large scale provides a practical way to get over these challenges. This study utilizes survey data from 432 family farms in Jiangxi Province’s primary citrus-producing regions to systematically examine the impact of digital technology usage on farmers’ adoption of water-fertilizer integration technology within green production practices. It focuses on adoption probability, duration, and scale while exploring underlying mechanisms. Benchmark regression results indicate that digital technology usage significantly increases farmers’ probability of adopting water-fertilizer integration by 23.5% to 39.8%, extends adoption duration by 42.7% to 57.4%, and expands adoption scale by 16.7% to 29.1%. A series of robustness tests consistently supports these findings. Regarding the mechanism: Digital technology usage increases the adoption of water-fertilizer integration by enhancing farmers’ perceptions of economic, social, and environmental benefits. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the promotional effect of digital technology on water-fertilizer integration is more significant among farmers who are highly educated and young, with lower capital (total capital expenditures on saplings and agricultural machinery) and lower land fragmentation levels. Furthermore, the promotional effect of digital technology on water-fertilizer integration adoption is only significant in the small-scale operation sample group. According to the study, a three-pronged strategy—digital empowerment, socialized services, and skills training—can hasten the widespread adoption of water-fertilizer integration in important citrus-producing regions. Full article

Rural livelihood transformation is increasingly vital for achieving agricultural modernization, reducing poverty, and promoting sustainable development in developing countries. Despite growing attention to land consolidation as a tool for improving agricultural resource allocation and productivity, its role in shaping rural livelihoods remains insufficiently understood. Addressing this gap, this study investigates the impacts of China’s High-Standard Farmland Construction (HFC), the country’s flagship land consolidation policy, on farmers’ livelihoods, focusing on both income level and income structure. Using provincial panel data from 30 regions, we adopt a continuous difference-in-differences design and mediation effect model to identify the causal effects of HFC. The results indicate that HFC significantly promotes total household income. Specifically, HFC facilitates mechanized agricultural production by consolidating fragmented plots, reducing production costs, and improving crop yields, thereby increasing agricultural income. Simultaneously, mechanization substitutes for labor and releases surplus workers, who often move to off-farm employment, diversifying income sources and stabilizing household livelihoods. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the benefits of HFC are unevenly distributed. Low-income households, central provinces, and major grain-producing areas experience the greatest gains, and moderate-scale implementation proves more effective than either small- or excessively large-scale projects. This study highlights mechanization as a key mechanism linking land consolidation to rural livelihood transformation. The findings demonstrate that well-planned and efficiently implemented HFC policies can not only enhance agricultural productivity but also foster diversified and inclusive rural livelihoods. Full article

Submarine power cables (SPCs), as critical infrastructure for offshore wind farms, are the primary conduits for transmitting electricity from turbines to the grid. Actions such as seabed friction can cause damage to the submarine power cable’s outer sheath, accelerating the penetration of seawater corrosion media. This subsequently leads to corrosion fatigue or excessive loading in the tensile armor layer, which seriously threatens the long-term operational reliability of SPCs and the security of energy transmission. Based on homogenization theory and periodic boundary conditions, a repetitive unit cell (RUC) ABAQUS finite element model for a single-core submarine power cable (SPC) was established in this paper. And the mechanical response of the single-core SPC with the corroded tensile armor layers under tensile loading condition were systematically investigated. By comparing with a full-scale model, the feasibility and accuracy of the cable RUC damaged model proposed in this paper were effectively verified. It was found that the RUC damaged model exhibits significant stress concentration phenomena due to localized corrosion damage in the tensile armor layers, with its maximum von Mises stress being considerably higher than that of the RUC intact model; the elastic tensile stiffness of the SPC continuously decreases with increasing corrosion damage depth, but the magnitude of this reduction is small. This is because the corroded region is relatively small compared to the entire cable model dimension. This research reveals the potential impact of localized corrosion on the mechanical performance of the tensile armor layer, which can hold significant engineering importance for assessing the remaining load-bearing capacity of in-service SPCs and ensuring the reliability of subsea energy transmission corridors. Full article

Agriculture and its allied activities contribute to the primary sector in India and act as the basis for the country’s economy. Available agricultural landholdings are scattered as multiple plots across the country. Land fragmentation has led to problems achieving economies of scale and economies of scope; lower productivity, efficiency, and modernization; loss of biodiversity; and little scope for mechanization and technology. FPOs are small clusters of farmers who collaborate to enhance their bargaining strength through collective procurement, processing, and marketing efforts. To enhance the performance of FPOs at the grassroots level, the engagement of cluster-based business organizations (CBBOs) is vital. Millet FPOs are similar to voluntary farmer groups that are involved in the cultivation and promotion of millets. IIMR-promoted millet FPOs were selected purposively for the present study as they are involved in millet cultivation and farming. A total of 450 millet farmers from 15 FPOs and 3 states were randomly chosen for this action research study. The present research identified 10 key factors and collected farmers’ opinions toward member participation in millet FPOs using interpretive structural modeling. The ISM approach provided a clear understanding of how the selected factors interconnect hierarchically with each other as foundational drivers and dependent outcomes. The results from the MICMAC analysis demonstrated that foundational interventions, such as post-harvest technology availability (V2) and knowledge transfer by KVKs (V5), directly support higher-level objectives. Intermediate factors like economies of scale (V1) and market and credit linkages (V3) transform these services into operational advantages, while the outcome factors of business planning (V8), FPO branding (V7), and bargaining power (V9) emerge as dependent variables. The model demonstrates that V2 catalyzes improvements across the production, market, and institutional domains, cascading through intermediate enablers (V1, V4, V5, V6) to strengthen outcomes (V3, V7, V8, V9, V10). This hierarchy demonstrates that investing in post-harvest technology and complementary extension services is critical for building resilient millet FPOs and enhancing member participation. Full article

Climate change and labour shortage are re-shaping farming methods. Agricultural tasks are often hard, tedious and repetitive for operators, and farms struggle to find specialized operators for such works. For this and other reasons (i.e., the increasing costs of agricultural labour) more and more farmers have decided to switch to autonomous (or semi-autonomous) field robots. In the past decade, an increasing number of robots has filled the market of agricultural machines all over the world. These machines can easily cover long and repetitive tasks, while operators can be employed in other jobs inside the farms. This paper reviews the current state-of-the-art of autonomous robots for agricultural operations, dividing them into categories based on main tasks, to analyze their main characteristics and their fields of applications. Seven main tasks were identified: multi-purpose, harvesting, mechanical weeding, pest control and chemical weeding, scouting and monitoring, transplanting and tilling-sowing. Field robots were divided into these categories, and different characteristics were analyzed, such as engine type, traction system, application field, safety sensors, navigation system, country of provenience and presence on the market. The aim of this review is to provide a global view on agricultural platforms developed in the past decade, analyzing their characteristics and providing future perspectives for next robotic platforms. The analysis conducted on 59 field robots, those already available on the market and not, revealed that one fifth of the platforms comes from Asia, and 63% of all of them are powered by electricity (rechargeable batteries, not solar powered) and that numerous platforms base their navigation system on RTK-GPS signal, 28 out of 59, and safety on LiDAR sensor (12 out of 59). This review considered machines of different size, highlighting different possible choices for field operations and tasks. It is difficult to predict market trends as several possibilities exist, like fleets of small robots or bigger size platforms. Future research and policies should focus on improving navigation and safety systems, reducing emissions and improving level of autonomy of robotic platforms. Full article

In real-world dairy farming environments, object recognition models often suffer from missed or false detections due to complex backgrounds and cow occlusions. In response to these issues, this paper proposes FSCA-YOLO, a multi-object cow behavior recognition model based on an improved YOLOv11 framework. First, the FEM-SCAM module is introduced along with the CoordAtt mechanism to enable the model to better focus on effective behavioral features of cows while suppressing irrelevant background information. Second, a small object detection head is added to enhance the model’s ability to recognize cow behaviors occurring at the distant regions of the camera’s field of view. Finally, the original loss function is replaced with the SIoU loss function to improve recognition accuracy and accelerate model convergence. Experimental results show that compared with mainstream object detection models, the improved YOLOv11 in this section demonstrates superior performance in terms of precision, recall, and mean average precision (mAP), achieving 95.7% precision, 92.1% recall, and 94.5% mAP—an improvement of 1.6%, 1.8%, and 2.1%, respectively, over the baseline YOLOv11 model. FSCA-YOLO can accurately extract cow features in real farming environments, providing a reliable vision-based solution for cow behavior recognition. To support specific behavior recognition and in-region counting needs in multi-object cow behavior recognition and tracking systems, OpenCV is integrated with the recognition model, enabling users to meet the diverse behavior identification requirements in groups of cows and improving the model’s adaptability and practical utility. Full article

The green transformation of agricultural systems is crucial for environmental protection and food security, yet smallholder-dominated systems face immense structural barriers. This study investigates whether agricultural socialized services (ASSs)—an emerging institutional innovation—can serve as a catalyst for this transition. Using household survey data from the China Land Economy Survey (CLES), this study examines the direct impact and mediating pathways of ASSs on farmers’ adoption of green production behaviors. We also reveal the heterogeneity effects of household operating scale. The results show the following: (1) Agricultural socialized services positively impact farmers’ adoption of green production behaviors, which can contribute to advancing sustainable agricultural development. (2) ASSs do not simply increase the quantity of machines. Instead, they facilitate a shift from costly asset ownership to efficient mechanization-as-a-service. (3) Furthermore, a heterogeneity analysis reveals that the positive impacts of ASSs are heterogenous at different levels. ASSs more significantly influence farmers’ adoption of green practices for small-scale farms (operating at a size less than 4.8 mu). It provides robust empirical evidence that ASSs can effectively “decouple” green modernization from large-scale farmers to overcome structural barriers. These findings help to provide policy implications for promoting ASSs and sustainable agriculture production. Full article

Inside the transmission group of an agricultural tractor, the efficiency of power transfer to moving parts, their lubrication, and protection from wear are guaranteed by UTTO (Universal Tractor Transmission Oil) fluids, which are also used to operate the hydraulic system. These fluids, with mineral or synthetic origin, are characterized by excellent lubricating properties, high toxicity, and low biodegradability, which makes it important to replace them with more eco-sustainable fluids, such as those based on vegetable oils that are highly biodegradable and have low toxicity. It is also important to consider EU policies on the use of such fluids in sensitive environmental applications. To this end, several experimental bio-UTTO formulations were tested at CREA to evaluate—compared to conventional fluids—their suitability for use as lubricants for transmissions and hydraulic systems through endurance tests carried out in a Fluid Test Rig (FTR) specifically developed by CREA to apply controlled and repeatable work cycles to small volumes of oil, which are characterized by high thermal and mechanical stresses. The technical performance and the main physical–chemical parameters of the fluids were continuously monitored during the work cycles. Based on these experiences, this study describes the first application of a methodological approach aimed at testing an experimental biobased UTTO on a tractor used in normal farm activity. The method was based on a former test at the FTR in which the performance of the bio-UTTO was compared to that of the conventional UTTO recommended by the tractor manufacturer. Given the good results of the FTR test, bio-UTTO was introduced in a 20-year-old medium-power tractor, replacing the mineral fluid originally supplied, for the first reliability tests during its normal use on the CREA farm. After almost 600 h of work, the technical performance and the trend of chemical–physical parameters of bio-UTTO did not undergo significant changes. No damage to the tractor materials or oil leaks was observed. The test is still ongoing, but according to the results, in line with the indications provided by the FTR test, the experimental bio-UTTO seems suitable for replacing the conventional fluid in the tractor used in this study. Full article

To integrate rapidly growing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investments into agribusiness, it is essential to understand the decision-making mechanisms behind sustainable practices in small- and medium-sized farms. This study examines the role of corporate governance in promoting sustainable practices using structural equation modeling on survey data from 1111 Japanese farms. The results reveal that internal social sustainability practices, such as improving the work environment and employee well-being, are positively associated with corporate governance and, in turn, significantly enhance sales growth, cash flow, and succession prospects. In contrast, external social sustainability practices show a negative correlation with governance, reflecting the influence of socioemotional wealth and reputation-driven decision-making. Environmental sustainability practices correlate only with sustainable corporate governance, suggesting a lack of strategic integration. These findings underscore the importance of corporate governance as a factor in linking sustainable initiatives to economic outcome. Strengthening internal social sustainability through robust corporate governance is therefore critical for farmers aiming to improve performance through sustainability. Moreover, given that family management preferences shape sustainability choices, policymakers must consider both governance and socioemotional factors to effectively support agricultural sustainability. Full article