Risk analysis for UAV safe operations: a rationalization for an agricultural environment

The road to the automation of the agricultural processes passes through the safe operation of the autonomous vehicles. This requirement is a fact in ground mobile units, but it still has not well defined for the aerial robots (UAVs) mainly because the normative and legislation are quite diffuse or even inexistent. Therefore, to define a common and global policy is the challenge to tackle. This characterization has to be addressed from the field experience. Accordingly, this paper presents the work done in this direction, based on the analysis of the most common sources of hazards when using UAV's for agricultural tasks. The work, based on the ISO 31000 normative, has been carried out by applying a three-step structure that integrates the identification, assessment and reduction procedures. The present paper exposes how this method has been applied to analyze previous accidents and malfunctions during UAV operations in order to obtain real failure causes. It has allowed highlighting common risks and hazardous sources and proposing specific guards and safety measures for the agricultural context.

Impacts of the EU Biofuel Target on Agricultural Markets and Land Use - A Comparative Modelling Assessment

The Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28/EC) requires that 20% of the EU's energy needs should come from renewable sources by 2020, and includes a target for the transport sector of 10% from biofuels. This report analyses and discusses the global impacts of this biofuel target on agricultural production, markets and land use, as simulated by three agricultural sector models, AGLINK-COSIMO, ESIM and CAPRI. The impacts identified include higher EU production of ethanol and biodiesel, and of the crops used to produce them, as well as more imports of both biofuels. Trade flows of biofuel feedstocks also change to reflect greater EU demand, including a significant increase in vegetable oil imports. However, as the extra demand is small in world market terms, the impact on world market prices is limited. With the EU biofuel target, global use of land for crop cultivation is higher by 5.2 million hectares. About one quarter is area within the EU, some of which would otherwise have left agriculture.

Even-sowing pattern strategies for a low-input agricultural system in forage maize

The objective of this study was to verify the effectiveness of new patterns of sowing and to achieve a low-input organic system in two different environments (northern and southern Europe). The study was motivated by the hypothesis that more even sowing patterns (triangular and square) would significantly enhance the growth and yield of forage maize under widely varying conditions, compared with traditional mechanised rectangular seed patterns. An experiment was conducted in Madrid and duplicated in Copenhagen during 2010. A random block design was used with a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement based on two seed-sowing patterns: traditional (rectangular) and new (even) and two weed-management conditions (herbicide use and a low-input system). In both weed-management conditions and locations, the production of aerial maize biomass was greater for the new square seed patterns. In addition, the new pattern showed a greater effectiveness in the control of weeds, both at the initial crop stages (36 and 33% fewer weeds m-2 at the 4- and 8-leaf stages, respectively, in the Copenhagen field experiment) and at the final stage. The final weed biomass for the new pattern was 568 kg ha-1 lower for the Copenhagen experiment and 277 kg ha-1 lower in Madrid field experiments. In the light of these results, the new pattern could potentially reduce the use of herbicides. The results of the experiments support the hypothesis formulated at the beginning of this study that even-sowing patterns would be relatively favourable for the growth and yield of the maize crop. In the near future, new machinery could be used to achieve new seed patterns for the optimisation of biomass yield under low-input systems. This approach is effective because it promotes natural crop-weed competition.

Analyzing adaptation to climate change in the water and the agricultural sectors in the Spanish Guadiana basin.

1. Introduction: setting and problem definition 2. The Adaptation Pathway –2.1 Stage 1: appraising risks and opportunities •Step 1: Impact analysis •Step 2: Policy analysis •Step 3: Socio-institutional analysis –2.2 Stage 2: appraising and choosing adaptation opt ions •Step 4: identifying and prioritizing adaptation o ptions 3. Conclusions

The role of land and water for trade and food production in Latin America: Environmental trade-offs of agricultural intensification versus extensification

One of humanity’s major challenges of the 21st century will be meeting future food demands on an increasingly resource constrained-planet. Global food production will have to rise by 70 percent between 2000 and 2050 to meet effective demand which poses major challenges to food production systems. Doing so without compromising environmental integrity is an even greater challenge. This study looks at the interdependencies between land and water resources, agricultural production and environmental outcomes in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), an area of growing importance in international agricultural markets. Special emphasis is given to the role of LAC’s agriculture for (a) global food security and (b) environmental sustainability. We use the International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT)—a global dynamic partial equilibrium model of the agricultural sector—to run different future production scenarios, and agricultural trade regimes out to 2050, and assess changes in related environmental indicators. Results indicate that further trade liberalization is crucial for improving food security globally, but that it would also lead to more environmental pressures in some regions across Latin America. Contrasting land expansion versus more intensified agriculture shows that productivity improvements are generally superior to agricultural land expansion, from an economic and environmental point of view. Finally, our analysis shows that there are trade-offs between environmental and food security goals for all agricultural development paths.

Meta-analysis of strategies to control nitrate leaching in irrigated agricultural systems and their effects on crop yield.

Nitrate leaching (NL) is an important N loss process in irrigated agriculture that imposes a cost on the farmer and the environment. A meta-analysis of published experimental results from agricultural irrigated systems was conducted to identify those strategies that have proven effective at reducing NL and to quantify the scale of reduction that can be achieved. Forty-four scientific articles were identified which investigated four main strategies (water and fertilizer management, use of cover crops and fertilizer technology) creating a database with 279 observations on NL and 166 on crop yield. Management practices that adjust water application to crop needs reduced NL by a mean of 80% without a reduction in crop yield. Improved fertilizer management reduced NL by 40%, and the best relationship between yield and NL was obtained when applying the recommended fertilizer rate. Replacing a fallow with a non-legume cover crop reduced NL by 50% while using a legume did not have any effect on NL. Improved fertilizer technology also decreased NL but was the least effective of the selected strategies. The risk of nitrate leaching from irrigated systems is high, but optimum management practices may mitigate this risk and maintain crop yields while enhancing environmental sustainability.

Unbalanced value chain in perishable agricultural products.

Value chain in agriculture is a current issue affecting from farmers to consumers. It questions important issues as profitability, and even though continuity of certain sectors. Although there has been an evolution along time in the structure and concentration of intermediate and final levels of the value chain between distribution and retail sector, a similar evolution seems not to arrive at the initial level of the chain, the production sector. This produces large imbalances in power and leverage between levels of the value chain that could imply several problems for rural actors. Relatively little attention has been paid to possible market distortions caused by the high level of concentration distribution side of the agrifood system.

Joint assessment of water and agricultural policies: a Pan-European multidimensional modelling approach.

Sustainability and the food-water-environment nexus. Food-water linkages in global agro-economic models. The CAPRI water module. Potential to jointly assess food and water policies. Pilot case study. Further development.

A water footprint assessment of a pair of jeans: the influence of agricultural policies on the sustainability of consumer products.

This study reports the results of a water footprint (WF) assessment of five types of textiles commonly used for the production of jeans, including two different fibres (cotton and Lyocell fibre) and five corresponding production methods for spinning, dyeing and weaving. The results show that the fibre production is the stage with the highest water consumption, being cotton production particularly relevant. Therefore, the study pays particular attention to the water footprint of cotton production and analyses the effects of external factors influencing the water footprint of a product, in this case, the incentives provided by the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and the relevance of agricultural practices to the water footprint of a product is emphasised. An extensification of the crop production led to higher WF per unit, but a lower overall pressure on the basins water resources. This study performs a sustainability assessment of the estimated cotton WFs with the water scarcity index, as proposed by Hoekstra et al. (2011), and shows their variations in different years as a result of different water consumption by crops in the rest of the river basin. In our case, we applied the assessment to the Guadalquivir, Guadalete and Barbate river basins, three semi-arid rivers in South Spain. Because they are found to be relevant, the available water stored in dams and the outflow are also incorporated as reference points for the sustainability assessment. The study concludes that, in the case of Spanish cotton production, the situation of the basin and the policy impact are more relevant for the status of the basin s water resources than the actual WF of cotton production. Therefore, strategies aimed at reducing the impact of the water footprint of a product need to analyse both the WF along the value chain and within the local context.

Looking beyond the average agricultural impacts in defining adaptation needs in Europe.

The effects of climate change on agriculture are often characterised by changes in the average productivity of crops; however, these indicators provide limited information regarding the risks associated with fluctuations in productivity resulting from future changes in climate variability that may also affect agriculture. In this context, this study evaluates the combined effects of the risks associated with anomalies reflected by changes in the mean crop yield and the variability of productivity in European agroclimatic regions under future climate change scenarios. The objective of this study is to evaluate adaptation needs and to identify regional effects that should be addressed with greater urgency in the light of the risks and opportunities that are identified. The results show differential effects on regional agriculture and highlight the importance of considering both regional average impacts and the variability in crop productivity in setting priorities for the adaptation and maintenance of rural incomes and agricultural insurance programmes

Integral development of an Agricultural Training Center to ensure food security in Glory Special Needs Primary School. Kitgum, Uganda. DANIEL

El presente proyecto, titulado “Integral development of an Agricultural Training Center to ensure food security in Glory Special Needs Primary School. Kitgum, Uganda” fue llevado a cabo de Julio de 2011 a Febrero de 2012 en la escuela primaria Glory Special Needs, dedicada a la atención y educación de jóvenes discapacitados, en Kitgum, Uganda. El proyecto se realizó con la colaboración del grupo de cooperación de la ETSI Agrónomos, AgSystems, la Fundación AmigoSolidarios y la ONG local NUCBACD. Su objetivo principal fue el desarrollo y puesta en marcha de un centro de capacitación Agrícola para dotar de igualdad de oportunidades a los jóvenes con discapacidad de Kitgum, potenciando y favoreciendo su integración en la comunidad, y garantizar así la seguridad alimentaria de los 137 alumnos internos en la escuela Glory Special Needs. El trabajo realizado supuso una acción relevante en Kitgum, superando la visión de una economía familiar basada en las actividades agrícolas, para centrarse en la profesionalización de la Agricultura como motor económico de la región. Este documento presenta una descripción de las principales actividades que se desarrollaron con el fin de alcanzar el objetivo planteado, desde un punto de vista educativo, sostenible e inclusivo. Para conseguirlo, se plantearon tres lineas de trabajo: - Programa productivo. - Programa educativo. - Programa organizativo.

Ranking factors affecting emissions of GHG from incubated agricultural soils

Agriculture significantly contributes to global greenhouse gas (GHG) missions and there is a need to develop effective mitigation strategies. The efficacy of methods to reduce GHG fluxes from agricultural soils can be affected by a range of interacting management and environmental factors. Uniquely, we used the Taguchi experimental design methodology to rank the relative importance of six factors known to affect the emission of GHG from soil: nitrate (NO3?) addition, carbon quality (labile and non-labile C), soil temperature, water-filled pore space (WFPS) and extent of soil compaction. Grassland soil was incubated in jars where selected factors, considered at two or three amounts within the experimental range, were combined in an orthogonal array to determine the importance and interactions between factors with a L16 design, comprising 16 experimental units. Within this L16 design, 216 combinations of the full factorial experimental design were represented. Headspace nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations were measured and used to calculate fluxes. Results found for the relative influence of factors (WFPS and NO3? addition were the main factors affecting N2O fluxes, whilst glucose, NO3? and soil temperature were the main factors affecting CO2 and CH4 fluxes) were consistent with those already well documented. Interactions between factors were also studied and results showed that factors with Little individual influence became more influential in combination. The proposed methodology offers new possibilities for GHG researchers to study interactions between influential factors and address the optimized sets of conditions to reduce GHG emissions in agro-ecosystems, while reducing the number of experimental units required compared with conventional experimental procedures that adjust one variable at a time.

Agricultural trade and prosperity

In an environment where there is no communication between different social levels and which is suffering an increasing demand in agricultural production, agribusiness and quality, trade, as a regulator of the supply and demand, has a strong impact on the economic and environmental areas as well as on the farmers quality of life. This entails the need to find a sustainable and fair balance between the different parties (farmers and traders). This paper seeks to find this balance through the integration of trade with prosperity, understood not from a purely economic point of view, but as an improvement in life quality. This proposal is framed within Working With People (WWP) as the main conceptual base for achieving concrete actions that will promote a rapprochement between the parties that will lead to the sector?s sustainable resilience. This will be achieved through a exhaustive review of scientific literature in order to analyze and develop the state of the art of the concepts involved. The result is a conceptual proposal presented from the three dimensions of the WWP model: technical-entrepeneurial, ethical-social, political-contextual"

Modeling GHG emissions, N and C dynamics in Spanish agricultural soils.

To date, only few initiatives have been carried out in Spain in order to use mathematical models (e.g. DNDC, DayCent, FASSET y SIMSNIC) to estimate nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) dynamics as well as greenhouse gases (GHG) in Spanish agrosystems. Modeling at this level may allow to gain insight on both the complex relationships between biological and physicochemical processes, controlling the processes leading to GHG production and consumption in soils (e.g. nitrification, denitrification, decomposing, etc.), and the interactions between C and N cycles within the different components of the continuum plant-soil-environment. Additionally, these models can simulate the processes behind production, consumition and transport of GHG (e.g. nitrous oxide, N2O, and carbon dioxide, CO2) in the short and medium term and at different scales. Other sources of potential pollution from soils can be identified and quantified using these process-based models (e.g. NO3 y NH3).

The Economic Impacts Of Climate Change On The Chilean Agricultural Sector

The agricultural sector could be one of the most vulnerable economic sectors to the impacts of climate change in the coming decades. Climate change impacts are related to changes in the growth period, extreme weather events, and changes in temperature and recipitation patterns, among others. All of these impacts may have significant consequences on agricultural production(Bates, et al.2008. A main issue regarding climate change impacts is related to the uncertainty associated with their occurrence. Climate change impacts can bestimated with simulation models based on several assumptions, among which the future patterns of emissions of greenhouse g asses are quite likely the most relevant, driving the development of future scenarios, i.e. plausible visions of how the future may unfold. Those scenarios are developed as storylines associated with different assumptions about climate and socioeconomic conditions and emissions, with reference figures, such as demographic projections, average global temperatures, etc.(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2000). Within this context, climate change impact assessment is forced to consider multiple and interconnected sources of uncertainty in order to produce valuable information for policymakers.