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Evidence of a rebound effect in agriculture: Crop-livestock reconnection beyond the farm gate does not always lead to more sustainable nitrogen management Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-20 Olivier Godinot, Julia Jouan, Thomas Nesme, Matthieu Carof
Reconnecting crop and livestock production beyond the farm gate by exchanging raw materials (e.g., feed, manure) between farms is seen as a promising solution for improving the environmental performance of farms, since it should reduce the use of imported nitrogen (N) inputs. However, such a circular economy does not necessarily lead to a positive outcome, since cooperating farms might simultaneously
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Drivers and barriers to digital transformation in agriculture: An evolutionary game analysis based on the experience of China Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-19 Yong Sun, Yiling Miao, Zhiju Xie, Runtian Wu
The digital transformation of agriculture is a complex and dynamic process involving numerous stakeholders. Inadequate participation and collaboration from stakeholders are major factors contributing to the difficulties in agricultural digital transformation. However, there is a paucity of research that dynamically uncovers the driving forces and obstacles of agricultural digitization from the perspective
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Stagnating rice yields in China need to be overcome by cultivars and management improvements Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-18 Huimin Zhuang, Zhao Zhang, Jichong Han, Fei Cheng, Shaokun Li, Huaqing Wu, Qinghang Mei, Jie Song, Xinyu Wu, Zongliang Zhang, Jialu Xu
Understanding the dynamics of potential yields, actual yields, and their drivers is vital for developing sustainable agricultural management practices. Previous studies on rice in China, focusing on either limited experiments, limited driving factors, or short-term periods, reached inconsistent conclusions.
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Integrating stakeholder value network with strategic issue management for multi-stakeholder needs and requirements analysis of vertical farming systems Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-18 Yongbing Feng, Guohua Gao, Pengyu Wang, Zihua Zhang
Vertical Farming Systems (VFSs) are considered an evolutionary jump in humanity's quest for a reliable, sustainable and healthier food supply, and their design and implementation require bringing multi-stakeholder together to achieve values co-creation. However, there is a lack of the qualitative and quantitative analysis from the perspective of multi-stakeholder's value exchange to explain the complex
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Impact of adoption of climate smart agriculture practices on farmer's income in semi-arid regions of Karnataka Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-16 Shreya Kapoor, Barun Deb Pal
Semi-arid regions are one of the most vulnerable regions of climate change to agriculture. Karnataka, a semi-arid state of India has warmed by 0.4 °C with declining trends in average annual rainfall by 10 % over the last century, is highly vulnerable to climate change. To adapt with this climate change impact, Government of Karnataka along with CGIAR institutes and agriculture universities had initiated
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Towards sustainable fruit production: Identifying challenges and optimization strategies Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-12 Liangquan Wu, Xiaojun Yan, Jiayi Huang, Xiuzhu Xu, Siwen Zhang, Shilei Cui, Xiaohui Chen, Zhixiong Zeng, Shuangyong Huang, Yingzhe Zeng, Yibin Weng, Bingkun Lu, Da Su, Wenhao Yang, Yan Li, Yifei Ma
The transition to sustainable fruit production is vital for global sustainability and agricultural development. However, implementing these insights into practice faces significant challenges. Pomelo (), a prominent citrus species in tropical and subtropical regions, has been cultivated to enhance farmer profitability but increasing yields often comes at the cost of environmental degradation. This
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Public and private institutional arrangements for early generation seed production: Cassava seed value chains in Southeast Asia Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-11 Erik Delaquis, Conny J.M. Almekinders, Stef de Haan, Jonathan C. Newby, Cu Thi Le Thuy, Pao Srean, Wannasiri Wannarat, Pornsak Aiemnaka, Chareinsuk Rojanaridpiched, Pham Thi Nhan, Phalla Kang, Paul C. Struik
Early generation seed (EGS) production and delivery pathways are critical components of so-called formal seed systems, of principal importance in the release of improved varieties into national seed systems. Vegetatively propagated crops (VPCs), with clonal reproductive ability and considerable differences in production and dissemination patterns from sexually propagated crops, often challenge generalized
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Modelling cow longevity policies: Impacts on GHG emissions of the Swiss agricultural sector Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-11 Eva Winter, Manika Rödiger, Jérôme Schneuwly, Anina Gilgen, Gabriele Mack
The agricultural sector has a high potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. One promising measure is to promote the longevity of dairy cows, as the resulting reduction in replacement heifers reduces the overall GHG emissions of the dairy sector. In this study, we analysed the effects of a voluntary policy programme to promote the longevity of dairy cows in Switzerland. We forecasted the
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The potential for index-based crop insurance to stabilize smallholder farmers' gross margins in Northern Ghana Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-10 Opeyemi Obafemi Adelesi, Yean-Uk Kim, Johannes Schuler, Peter Zander, Michael Murithi Njoroge, Lilian Waithaka, Alhassan Lansah Abdulai, Dilys Sefakor MacCarthy, Heidi Webber
Smallholder farmers in semi-arid West Africa face challenges such as weather variability, soil infertility, and inadequate market infrastructure, hindering their adoption of improved farming practices. Economic risks associated with uncertain weather, production and market conditions often result in measures such as selling assets and withdrawing children from school, resulting in long-term impoverishment
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Farmers' attitudes toward the use of digital technologies in the context of agri-environmental policies Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-10 Rubén Granado-Díaz, Sergio Colombo, Marina Romero-Varo, Anastasio J. Villanueva
Environmental policies are increasingly relying on digitalization to improve efficiency. However, there is still a lack of knowledge on farmers' attitudes toward digitally-based environmental policies. This paper contributes to the literature by providing quantitative insights on farmers' attitudes in such contexts, focusing on the use of digital technologies for the implementation of results-based
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Evaluating the effectiveness & costs of strategies post-eradication to monitor for freedom from BVDV infection in Ireland Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-10 Jonas Brock, Maria Guelbenzu-Gonzalo, Martin Lange, Jamie A. Tratalos, Damien Barrett, Liz Lane, Simon J. More, David A. Graham, Hans-Hermann Thulke
In Ireland, a national Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) eradication programme has been effective in reducing national prevalence and has recently been approved by the European Commission. In anticipation of achieving freedom, there is an ongoing discussion regarding appropriate strategies post-eradication to monitor for continued freedom from Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV) infection of the national
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Market-driven transitions in the vegetable seed sector in sub-Saharan Africa Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-10 E.M.S. ter Steeg, N.P. Louwaars
Quality vegetable seed has the potential to significantly impact nutrition security in sub-Saharan Africa, as the region has the world's lowest per capita production and consumption of vegetables. Moreover, seed companies might have an important role to play, as in Asia, vegetable production and consumption increased rapidly following the expansion of the private seed sector. However, market-driven
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Assessing cropping system multifunctionality: An analysis of trade-offs and synergies in French cereal fields Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-07 Audrey Alignier, Matthieu Carof, Stéphanie Aviron
Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of existing cropping systems in a given context is a key first step before designing new, more sustainable cropping systems. The concept of multifunctionality can be a useful tool for cropping system assessment. Whether and how cropping systems and specific management practices might modulate agroecosystem multifunctionality remains unknown, as do the potential
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Modelling Indigenous small-scale agriculture and food systems in Guatemala - Hybrid Bayesian inference for data-poor regions Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-06 Julien Malard-Adam, Jan Adamowski, Héctor Tuy, Hugo Melgar-Quiñonez
Participatory system dynamics modelling is a useful method for characterising agricultural systems and the complex dynamics linking their human and agronomic counterparts that determine their long-term behaviour and sustainability. One challenge facing this use of system dynamics methods, nonetheless, is the scarcity of time-series data for many key variables, which hinders the calibration and validation
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Classifying and explaining Walloon dairy farms in terms of sustainable food security using a multiple criteria decision making method Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-05 Caroline Battheu-Noirfalise, Alexandre Mertens, Arno Faivre, Catherine Charles, Thomas Dogot, Didier Stilmant, Yves Beckers, Eric Froidmont
Land intensive grass-based dairy systems have the highest contribution to food security but may have a higher impact on the environment. The aim of this study was to classify dairy farms in terms of sustainable contribution to food security and analyze the farm characteristics related to these performances. To this end, we performed a sustainability assessment by calculating 17 indicators using FADN
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The economic performance of grassland-based milk production using best practices to lower greenhouse gas and ammonia emissions Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-03 Owen Cashman, Imelda Casey, James Humphreys
Economic sustainability is a primary consideration when contemplating adoption of new farming practices to mitigate climate change. Quantifying the impact of adopting best practices to lower emissions on the profitability of dairy production systems is critical to encouraging rapid adoption at farm level to reach emissions reduction targets. The aim was to evaluate the economic consequences of adoption
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Integrating environmental footprints and ecosystem economic performance to evaluate nitrogen management in intensive drip-irrigated potato production Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-09-02 Yunfei Di, Haibo Yang, Yuncai Hu, Fei Li
Excessive fertilizer application and poor agronomy management result in adverse environmental impacts and high environmental and economic costs for ecological restoration. Analyzing the integrated effects of nitrogen (N) management on environmental footprints, human health, and ecosystem economic benefits (EEB) is essential to intensive potato cultivation under drip irrigation in Northwest China. In
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Complex cocoa agroforestry systems shaped within specific socioeconomic and historical contexts in Africa: Lessons from Cameroonian farmers Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-31 Isabelle Michel, Julien Blanco, François Manga Essouma, Stéphanie M. Carrière
In the humid tropics, the socioecological advantages of family-based, multistory agroforestry systems are well recognized. Yet public policies tend to focus on conservation and land-sparing strategies alongside the promotion of modern intensive agriculture, neglecting these biodiverse agroecosystems, which are in decline. This is a particularly central issue in cocoa cultivation. In Africa's two largest
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Assessing pollinator abundance and services to enhance agricultural sustainability and crop yield optimization in the Qilian Mountains Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Haijiang Yang, Xiaohua Gou, Yibo Niu, Wenwei Shi, Xinyun Wang, Yuxin Wei, Tek Maraseni
Pollination services are critical to crop production and human livelihoods, linking natural ecosystems directly to agricultural production systems. However, pollination services and pollinators are under constant threat from land-use changes and various other environmental pressures. In this study, employing a case study of the entire Qilian Mountains in northwest China, the distribution of nectar
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Optimal resource reallocation can achieve water conservation, emissions reduction, and improve irrigated agricultural systems Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-30 Simeng Cui, Jan F. Adamowski, Raffaele Albano, Mengyang Wu, Xinchun Cao
Crop production consumes large volumes of fresh water and is a key contributor to anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Increasing crop output to ensure adequate food supplies under water and land scarcity relies excessively on intensive agricultural inputs (e.g., fertilizers, pesticides, and agricultural films), leading to irreparable environmental consequences (water scarcity and degradation
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Climate change is expected to severely impact Protected Designation of Origin olive growing regions over the Iberian Peninsula Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-29 Inês Guise, Bruno Silva, Frederico Mestre, José Muñoz-Rojas, Maria F. Duarte, José M. Herrera
The Iberian Peninsula is the world's largest olive ( subsp. ) producing region due to its high environmental suitability for olive growing, consistently accounting for about half of the global share. Moreover, it includes a range of olive-producing regions with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), aimed to safeguard and promote the distinctive geographical status of agricultural products linked to
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A state-and-transition model framework to take stock of natural capital on farms Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-29 Frederick W. Rainsford, Matthew Appleby, Angela Hawdon, Alex Maisey, Rachel Lawrence, Imogen Semmler, Daniel O'Brien, Sue Ogilvy, James Q. Radford
Natural capital accounting is an emerging approach to help address the challenge of preventing further biodiversity loss while sustainably providing resources for a growing human population. It requires an effective and robust framework for quantifying natural capital on farms. State and transition models (STMs) have been used extensively to describe the range of observable condition states for an
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Feasibility of machine learning-based rice yield prediction in India at the district level using climate reanalysis and remote sensing data Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-29 Djavan De Clercq, Adam Mahdi
Yield forecasting, the science of predicting agricultural productivity before the crop harvest occurs, helps a wide range of stakeholders make better decisions around agricultural planning. This study aims to investigate whether machine learning-based yield prediction models can capably predict Kharif season rice yields at the district level in India several months before the rice harvest takes place
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Toward compatibility with national dairy production and climate goals through locally appropriate mitigation interventions in Kenya Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-27 Michael W. Graham, Şeyda Özkan, Claudia Arndt, Ricardo González-Quintero, Daniel Korir, Lutz Merbold, Anne Mottet, Phyllis W. Ndung'u, An Notenbaert, Sonja M. Leitner
Livestock are an important component of livelihoods in smallholder dairy systems in Africa, but are characterized by low animal productivity and large environmental impacts per unit of animal product (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) intensities). Governments in African countries have set ambitious targets for dairy systems, but development of climate-smart strategies has been hindered by a scarcity
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How does pesticide reduction affect labour time and profitability? A crop production case study Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-23 Manika Rödiger, Alexander Zorn, Michael Mielewczik, Katja Heitkämper, Andreas Roesch, Nadja El Benni
National and international agendas are focusing on reducing pesticides due to their detrimental effects on flora, fauna, and human health, which has led to the introduction of agri-environmental programmes aimed at reducing the risk of pesticides. Pesticide reduction in agriculture can have an impact on labour time requirements and profitability. We used winter wheat, sugar beet, and potatoes as examples
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Developing sustainable dairy farms in the tropics: From policy to practice Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-21 Titis Apdini, Corina E. van Middelaar, Simon J. Oosting
Sustainable dairy production is included in the policy agenda of many countries in the tropics to address, among others, their commitment to the Paris Agreement. To the best of our knowledge, however, a study to assess the impact of the proposed interventions for sustainable dairy production is still lacking for most of those countries. Using policy goals as entry points to develop scenarios can provide
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Can citizen science in water-related nature-based solutions deliver transformative participation in agri-food systems? A review Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-21 Taha Loghmani-Khouzani, Victoria Dany, Nadine Seifert, Kaveh Madani, Edeltraud Guenther
Highly water-dependent agri-food systems are impacted by external shocks, revealing their vulnerabilities and stressing the need to transform them towards increased sustainability and resilience. Various disciplines and scholars highlight the role of Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in addressing societal challenges while creating sustainable and resilient contexts. In steering transformative processes
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Quantifying the adoption of conservation agriculture: Development and application of the Conservation Agriculture Appraisal Index Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-17 Laura I. Ruiz-Espinosa, Nele Verhulst, Floris van Ogtrop, Rebecca Cross, Bram Govaerts, Harm van Rees, Richard Trethowan
Estimates of conservation agriculture (CA) adoption vary worldwide because of a lack of a standardized methodology to quantify the simultaneous utilization of its core principles of minimum soil disturbance, permanent soil organic cover and crop diversification. Comparisons of CA adoption among farms across regions requires estimation of the farm area and cropping season where CA principles are applied
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Applying life cycle assessment to European high nature value farming systems: Environmental impacts and biodiversity Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-14 M. Torres-Miralles, V. Kyttä, P. Jeanneret, M. Lamminen, P. Manzano, H.L. Tuomisto, I. Herzon
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) remains a method of choice for assessing the environmental performance of agricultural systems. However, it is rarely applied to multifunctional extensive production systems, in which livestock use, apart from animal production, maintains a continuous disturbance that sustains the diversity of habitats and species. This study aims to assess the environmental impact and biodiversity
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Understanding farms trajectories methods to build sustainable futures on pioneer fronts: Lessons from a systematic literature review and a framework proposal Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-13 Andrés Vega-Martinez, Nathalie Cialdella, Nadine Andrieu
On pioneer fronts, the new spatial-temporal evolution of agriculture needs to be understood to help farmers find their way to conciliate food production and forest conservation. Analyzing farm trajectories is consequently critical for designing such futures and to assess their commitments with agroecology principles. Based on the analysis of the literature on farm trajectories and pathways we proposed
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A spatially explicit assessment on the carrying capacity of livestock under minimum feed imports and artificial fertilizer use in Dutch agriculture Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-09 M. Lessmann, A. Kanellopoulos, J. Kros, F. Orsi, M. Bakker
Current agricultural systems in the Netherlands and other parts of Europe depend on large quantities of nutrients from imported feed and artificial fertilizers. This may result in unwanted nutrient accumulation and losses and negative environmental impacts. One way of making these systems more sustainable is to balance livestock numbers with the local feed supply and nutrient requirements for crop
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Research agenda for holistically assessing agricultural strategies for human micronutrient deficiencies in east and southern Africa Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-08 Philip Grabowski, Douglas Slater, Wanjiku Gichohi-Wainaina, Job Kihara, Regis Chikowo, Agnes Mwangwela, Dalitso Chimwala, Mateete Bekunda
Human micronutrient deficiencies in sub-Saharan Africa are connected through complex pathways to soils and how soils are managed. Interventions aiming directly at nutrient consumption, such as supplements and food fortification, have direct impacts but are often limited in their reach and require continuous support. In contrast, less direct changes, such as agricultural diversification and agronomic
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Field monitoring reveals scope to reduce environmental impact of ware potato cultivation in the Netherlands without compromising yield Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-08 Arie Pieter Paulus Ravensbergen, Martin K. van Ittersum, Renske Hijbeek, Corné Kempenaar, Pytrik Reidsma
Intensification of arable farming in Northwest Europe has led to high yields. However, inadequate use of external inputs such as nutrients, irrigation water and crop protection products has contributed to several environmental problems, such as nitrate leaching and losses of crop protection products. There is a need to reduce environmental losses and contribute to a more circular and sustainable agriculture
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Driving factors behind precision livestock farming tools adoption: The case of the pedometer on dairy farms Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-07 R. Selvaggi, G. Pappalardo, C. Zarbà, J.L. Lusk
The development of new advanced technologies has led to rapid changes livestock production systems. Precision livestock farming (PLF) uses digital devices that gather, process and examine specific physiological, behavioral and production indicators to improve control of individual animals. Regarding dairy farming, despite the wide scientific debate, the digital devices (i.e., pedometers) are not widely
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Using conditional Kendall's tau estimation to assess interactions among variables in dairy-cattle systems Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-07 Naomi Ouachene, Tristan Senga Kiessé, Michael S. Corson
Understanding how multiple factors interact in complex systems is an important issue. In particular, agricultural production systems are based on biological and ecological processes that are influenced by environmental and human factors, all of which interact. When evaluating such systems statistically, these multiple dependences and interactions make it more difficult to model system performances
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Can we estimate farm size from field size? An empirical investigation of the field size to farm size relationship Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-07 Clemens Jänicke, Maximilian Wesemeyer, Cristina Chiarella, Tobia Lakes, Christian Levers, Patrick Meyfroidt, Daniel Müller, Marie Pratzer, Philippe Rufin
Farm size is a key indicator associated with environmental, economic, and social contexts and outcomes of agriculture. Farm size data is typically obtained from agricultural censuses or household surveys, but both are usually only available in infrequent time intervals and at aggregate spatial scales. In contrast, spatially explicit and detailed data on individual fields can be accessed from cadastral
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FACE-ing climate change: Propagation of risks and opportunities for cropping systems in mid-high-latitude regions: A case study between U.S. and China corn belts Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-02 Jiazhong Zheng, Weihan Wang, Weiguang Wang, Tong Cui, Shuai Chen, Cundong Xu, Bernard Engel
Anthropogenic activities are leading to increased concentrations of greenhouse gases, especially CO, in the atmosphere. This is threatening the resilience of cropping systems, although many crops show strong adaptation abilities. How interactions between climate change and increases in the atmospheric CO concentration ([CO]) will ultimately affect regional crop production, including growth processes
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Bright spots of agroecology in the Netherlands: A spatial analysis of agroecological practices and income stability Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-02 Loes A. Verkuil, Peter H. Verburg, Christian Levers, Anne Elise Stratton, Catharina J.E. Schulp
Agroecological practices are known to reduce environmental pressure of farming systems and increase food system resilience in tropical regions. In contrast, in the temperate climate and industrialized agricultural context of the Netherlands, agroecology use remains limited and its impacts are unknown. As agroecological systems can form a sustainable alternative to conventional farming, it is relevant
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Understanding how governance arrangements within agricultural supply chains influence farmers' SAP adoption for adaptation and mitigation practices Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-08-02 Kusnandar Kusnandar, El Bram Apriyanto, Maulana Akbar, Eki Karsani Apriliyadi, Tomy Perdana
In order for farmers in developing countries to combat the effects of climate change, sustainable agricultural practices (SAP) have been promoted, but their adoption rate remains modest. Prior research examining psychological and socio-economic issues has identified farmers' limited knowledge and capital contribute to this problem. However, supply chain systems that require farmers to follow formal
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Evaluating the utility of weather generators in crop simulation models for in-season yield forecasting Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-29 Rohit Nandan, Varaprasad Bandaru, Pridhvi Meduri, Curtis Jones, Romulo Lollato
Crop yield forecasting is crucial for ensuring food security and adapting to the impacts of climate change, as it provides early insights into potential harvest outcomes and helps farmers and policymakers make informed decisions in the face of changing environmental conditions. The accuracy of the crop model–based yield forecasting frameworks is affected by the uncertainty in future weather data, which
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Improved life cycle assessment (LCA) methods to account for crop-livestock interactions within agricultural systems Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-28 Pietro Goglio, Laurence G. Smith, Sophie Saget, Marilia I.S. Folegatti Matsuura
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Adaptation strategies for winter wheat production at farmer fields under a changing climate: Employing crop and multiple global climate models Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-26 Muhammad Rizwan Shoukat, Jingjing Wang, Muhammad Habib-ur-Rahman, Xin Hui, Gerrit Hoogenboom, Haijun Yan
Climate change profoundly affects agriculture through increased occurrences of extreme weather events, directly affecting crop growth and food security. The North China Plain (NCP), a significant region for winter wheat production, faces challenges from the changing climate, which could threaten agricultural output and sustainability. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a warming climate, fluctuating
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The role of management and farming practices, yield gaps, nutrient balance, and institutional settings in the context of large-scale organic conversion in Bhutan Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-25 Tshotsho, Christian Lippert, Sabine Zikeli, Tatjana Krimly, Ayoub Barissoul, Arndt Feuerbacher
In several lower middle income countries, organic agriculture (OA) has emerged as a top-down government initiative backed by strong political interest, which entails the risk of seriously neglecting the challenges faced by many organic farmers. In some cases, the promotion of OA, particularly large-scale OA conversion programs like in Sikkim and Bhutan, has received widespread attention. A system-level
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Participatory AI for inclusive crop improvement Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-24 Violet Lasdun, Davíd Güereña, Berta Ortiz-Crespo, Stephen Mutuvi, Michael Selvaraj, Teshale Assefa
Crop breeding in the Global South faces a ‘phenotyping bottleneck’ due to reliance on manual visual phenotyping, which is both error-prone and challenging to scale across multiple environments, inhibiting selection of germplasm adapted to farmer production environments. This limitation impedes rapid varietal turnover, crucial for maintaining high yields and food security under climate change. Low adoption
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Influence of crop-livestock integration on direct and indirect contributions of beef systems to food security Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-24 C. Battheu-Noirfalise, A. Mertens, H. Soyeurt, D. Stilmant, E. Froidmont, Y. Beckers
Beef production systems have been criticized for their low conversion efficiency of the human-edible feed and the agricultural land they use, impacting their ability to contribute directly to food security. However, beef cattle can also contribute indirectly to food security by transferring nutrients from permanent grasslands to marketed food crops through manure. The objective was to analyze the relations
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Improving smallholders' capacity building by creating an enabling environment for sustainable crop production Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-24 Yajuan Li, Xinxin Zhang, Qianni Huang, Donasius Pathera, Zhichao An, Xiaoqiang Jiao, Fusuo Zhang
Sustainably improving food production to meet the needs of a growing population necessitates a dual-pronged approach involving both top-down policy support from governments and grassroots support from social organizations. The combination of these two elements can yield comprehensive and systematic solutions for sustainable crop production, particularly in smallholder-dominated agriculture. However
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Complexity-aware principles for agri-food system interventions: Lessons from project encounters with complexity Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-23 Costanza Conti, Andrew Hall, Alastair Orr, Caroline Hambloch, Kai Mausch
Complexity has long been recognised as a key feature of agri-food systems. Yet, it remains largely theoretical or poorly addressed in practice, hampering the potential of international development projects to address agriculture and food-related challenges in the Global South. The paper identifies and examines six sources of complexity that can manifest in projects, namely: unpredictability; path dependencies;
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Nitrogen fertilizer use and climate interactions: Implications for maize yields in Kansas Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-23 Na Huang, Xiaomao Lin, Fei Lun, Ruiyun Zeng, Gretchen F. Sassenrath, Zhihua Pan
While climate change threatens maize growth and production, appropriate N fertilizer use (N) can help mitigate this threat and stabilize or improve maize yields. Accurate application of N fertilizer is of increasing interest as an adaptation measure for climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing economic returns. The objectives of this study are to: 1) clarify how maize yields
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Legume choice and planting configuration influence intercrop nutrient and yield gains through complementarity and selection effects in legume-based wheat intercropping systems Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-23 Muhammad Ali Raza, Atta Mohi Ud Din, Ghulam Abbas Shah, Wang Zhiqi, Ling Yang Feng, Hina Gul, Hassan Shehryar Yasin, Mohammad Shafiq ur Rahman, Chen Juan, Xue Liang, Raheela Rehman, Amal Mohamed Al Garawi, Wopke van der Werf, Ruijun Qin, Liu Xin, Muhammad Hayder Bin Khalid, Ma Zhongming
By exploiting the complementarities between intercrops, cereal/legume intercropping provides an opportunity to increase legume production with sustained cereal yield. However, little is known about how legume choice and spatial configurations affect the performance and economic viability of legume-based wheat intercropping, especially in arid-irrigated conditions. We conducted this study to investigate
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Regional-scale trade-offs among beef production, emissions and land use impacts: A cattle diet composition perspective Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-20 R. Wang, L. Puillet, C. Pinsard, P. Lescoat, F. Accatino
Although playing a role in global food security, beef production systems cause concerns due to pressure on land for feed production and greenhouse gas emissions. We aimed at quantifying the trade-offs associated with different beef cattle diet compositions, considering beef meat production, greenhouse gas emissions, and land use impacts. In addition, we evaluated the influence of dry periods and grazing
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Perceived resilience of community supported agriculture in Germany Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-19 Anna Rosman, Joseph MacPherson, Marie Arndt, Katharina Helming
Amid an uncertain future with increasing environmental, economic, social, and institutional challenges, farmers in Germany need to find strategies to become more resilient through capacities of robustness, adaptability, and transformability. Parallel to that, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), an alternative food and value chain network in which producers and consumers share the risks involved
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Eco-efficiency in the agricultural landscape of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-18 Stefan Seifert, Saskia Wolff, Silke Hüttel
Intensified agricultural production systems relying on larger field sizes and homogeneous landscapes result in land degradation, biodiversity losses, and impaired ecosystem services, particularly regulating services such as water and climate regulation. A multifunctional landscape composition and configuration promises higher ecosystem functionality by balancing ecological and economic provisioning
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Integrating production, ecology and livelihood confers an efficiency-driven farming system based on the sustainable farmland framework Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-18 Yanshu Yin, Yingnan Zhang, Shu Wang, Ke Xu, Yang Zhang, Thomas Dogot, Changbin Yin
Ensuring reduced carbon emissions and sustainable development in agricultural production are pivotal in addressing the multifaceted demands within farming systems, including safeguarding food security, advancing eco-friendly agricultural practices, and enhancing farmers' livelihoods. While an efficiency-driven farming system under the sustainable farmland has been recently introduced in China, integrating
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Characterization of crop sequences in Argentina. Spatial distribution and determinants Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-17 Diego de Abelleyra, Santiago Banchero, Santiago Verón
New availability of annual crop type maps in Argentina allows the characterization of crop sequences at field level and the quantification of the occurrence of processes like crop monoculture and rotation. characterization of crop sequences in Argentina and analysis of their spatial distribution patterns in relation to socioeconomic and environmental variables. Several crop sequence indices were derived
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Developing a sustainable assessment framework for identifying industrial water suitability: Perspective on the water-energy-food nexus Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-17 En Hua, Xinxueqi Han, Bernard A. Engel, Jiajie Guan, Shikun Sun, Pute Wu, Bing Wang, Yubao Wang
Water, energy, and food systems have been deteriorating in security, stability, and sustainability throughout their extraction, production, and utilization, forcing the water-energy-food nexus to face security issues such as competition and mismatch between the systems' resources and environmental pollution. Consequently, a holistic evaluation of sustainable development among these systems is necessary
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Optimizing water and nitrogen inputs for sustainable wheat yields and minimal environmental impacts Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-17 Xiaomeng Huang, Xinpeng Xu, Qichao Zhu, Yitao Zhang
Northern China still has great potential to increase wheat productivity. Studies have shown that the improper wheat management of water and fertilizer aggravates the risk of yield instability and environmental pollution in this region. Optimizing water and N management can increase wheat yield, improve nitrogen (N) use efficiency (NUE) and water-use-efficiency (WUE), and reduce nutrient loss and environmental
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Economic outcomes from adopting cereal-legume intercropping practices in Sweden Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-15 Gordana Manevska-Tasevska, Vivian Wei Huang, Zhen Chen, Ortrud Jäck, Nasir Adam, Thanh Mai Ha, Martin Weih, Helena Hansson
The need for sustainable and resilient farming practices is clearly communicated by the scholars and the European Union policy strategies. The low interest in adopting the practice due to the uncertainties and the variability in the economic outcomes across various intercropping types calls for research attention. In this respect, research is needed to identifying specific intercropping practices that
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Concurrent drought threatens wheat and maize production and will widen crop yield gaps in the future Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-14 Miaolei Hou, Yi Li, Asim Biswas, Xinguo Chen, Lulu Xie, Deli Liu, Linchao Li, Hao Feng, Shufang Wu, Yusuke Satoh, Alim Pulatov, Kadambot H.M. Siddique
Drought poses a significant threat to global crop production. As the global community grapples with the escalating challenges of climate change, understanding the multifaceted impacts of concurrent drought on food security becomes imperative. This study delved into the response of wheat and maize, key staples in the global food system, to different types of drought, with a particular focus on the yield
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Integrating an abandoned farmland simulation model (AFSM) using system dynamics and CLUE-S for sustainable agriculture Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-14 Wei Song, Dazhi Yang, Yanwei Wang
Addressing the challenges of achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal SDG2 is complex, especially considering the profound impacts of population growth, environmental degradation, and disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic and armed conflicts on the global food supply system. Unjustifiable farmland abandonment poses a critical obstacle to food security, demanding a comprehensive knowledge
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Translating theory into practice: A flexible decision-making tool to support the design and implementation of climate-smart agriculture projects Agric. Syst. (IF 6.1) Pub Date : 2024-07-11 Conor Walsh, Mara Renn, Dominik Klauser, Alessandro de Pinto, Jeremy Haggar, Rouf Abdur, Richard J. Hopkins, Farhad Zamil
Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is a conceptual framework for responding climate-related risk in agriculture across the three pillars of Mitigation, Resilience, and Production. Existing tools have been developed which seek to operationalise the CSA concept to evaluate and benchmark progress; each of which have their own relative strengths and weaknesses. The translation of this concept into actionable