Annual and seasonal changes in production and composition of grazed clover-grass mixtures in organic farming

Selostus: Alsike-, puna- ja valkoapilan vaikutus laitumen tuottoon luonnonmukaisessa tuotannossa

Osakeyhtiömuotoisen maatilan omistajan taloudellinen hyöty verotuksessa

Maatalouden perinteisen harjoittamismuodon, perheviljelmän, rinnalle on viime aikoina noussut yhtiömuotoista maataloutta. Syitä maatilan yhtiöittämiseen on useita, mutta yksi tärkeimmistä lienee osakeyhtiöön sovellettava erilainen verotus. Osakeyhtiömuotoinen maatalous asettaa uusia vaatimuksia erityisesti maatilayhtiön hallinnolle. Etukäteen on mm.selvitettävä viljelijän eläketurvaan liittyvät kysymykset, koska eläkelaki on sidoksissa tulevassa maatilaosakeyhtiössä noudatettavaan verolakiin. Tutkielman tavoitteena on selvittää osakeyhtiömuotoisen maatalouden eroja perinteiseen harjoittamismuotoon verrattuna sekä selvittää, miten tila voidaan toimintamuodon muutoksen kautta yhtiöittää ilman vero-vaikutuksia. Taulukkolaskentaohjelmaan on rakennettu verolaskentamalli ja sen tarkoituksena on toimia tilansa yhtiöittämistä pohtivan viljelijän työkaluna. Malli laskee tilan verorasituksen sekä ammatinharjoittajalle, että osakeyhtiömuotoiselle maataloudelle, ja lopuksi vertaa näitä keskenään. Tutkielmassa on rakennettu myös yksinkertainen malli osakeyhtiö-muotoisen maatalouden avaavasta taseesta, jonka tulee syntyä TVL 24 §:n tasejatkuvuutta ja identtisyyttä noudattaen. Tähän ei ole olemassa selvää ohjetta, vaan on jouduttu käyttämään perusteltuja tulkintoja ja käytäntöjä.

The Methods of Possible Joint Treatment of Manure and Sewage Sludge in the Leningrad Region

The nutrient load to the Gulf of Finland has started to increase as a result of the strong economic recovery in agriculture and livestock farming in the Leningrad region. Also sludge produced from municipal wastewater treatment plant of the Leningrad region causes the great impact on the environment, but still the main options for its treatment is disposal on the sludge beds or Landfills. The aim of this study was to evaluate the implementation of possible joint treatment methods of manure form livestock and poultry enterprises and sewage sludge produced from municipal wastewater treatment plants in the Leningrad region. The study is based on published data. The most attention was put on the anaerobic digestion and incineration methods. The manure and sewage sludge generation for the whole Leningrad region and energy potential produced from their treatment were estimated. The calculations showed that total amount of sewage sludge generation is 1 348 000 t/a calculated on wet matter and manure generation is 3 445 000 t/a calculated on wet matter. The potential heat release from anaerobic digestion process and incineration process is 4 880 000 GJ/a and 5 950 000 GJ/a, respectively. Furthermore, the work gives the overview of the general Russian and Finnish legislation concerning manure and sewage sludge treatment. In the Gatchina district it was chosen the WWTP and livestock and poultry enterprises for evaluation of the centralized treatment plant implementation based on anaerobic digestion and incineration methods. The electricity and heat power of plant based on biogas combustion process is 4.3 MW and 7.8 MW, respectively. The electricity and heat power of plant based on manure and sewage sludge incineration process is 3.0 MW and 6.1 MW, respectively.

Sustainable animal production : "suosittelen tuotantoeläinten parissa toimiville"

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Windows into other worlds

Book review.

Who Needs Language?

Book review.

Rural Food System Change in Tanzania during the Post-Ujamaa Era. A Case Study from Western Bagamoyo District

Food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa have been rapidly transforming during the recent decades with diverse outcomes on human development and environment. This study explores the food system change in rural villages in eastern Tanzania where subsistence agriculture has traditionally been the main source of livelihood. The focus is on the salient changes in the spatial dimensions and structural composition of the food system in the context of economic liberalization that has taken place after the end of the socialist ujamaa era in the mid-1980s. In addition, the linkages of the changes are examined in relation to food security, socio-economic situation, livelihoods, and local environment. The approach of the study is geographical, but also involves various multi-disciplinary elements, particularly from development studies. The research methods included thematic and questionnaire interviews, participatory tools, and the analysis of land use/ cover data and official documents. Several earlier studies that were made in the area during the late 1970s and 1980s provided an important reference base. The study shows that subsistence farming has lost its dominant role in food provisioning due to the declining productivity of land, livestock losses, and the increasing shift of labour to non-farm sectors. Also rapid population growth has added to the pressure on land and other natural resources. Despite the increasing need for money for buying marketed foods and other necessities, the nutritional situation shows improvement and severe malnutrition has diminished. However, the long-term sustainability of this transformation raises concerns. Firstly, the food security situation continues to be fragile and prone to shocks such as adverse climatic conditions, crop failures and price hikes. Secondly, the commodification of the food system and livelihoods in general is linked to rapid environmental degradation in the area, particularly the loss of soil fertility and deforestation. The situation calls for efforts that take more determined and holistic approaches towards sustainable development of the rural food system with particular focus on the role and viability of small-scale farming.

Kirkkaasta sameaan : Meren kuormitus ja tila Saaristomerellä ja Ahvenanmaalla

Tässä raportissa tarkastellaan Saaristomeren ja Ahvenmaan merialueen kuormitusta ja tilaa ja niissä viime vuosikymmeninä tapahtuneita muutoksia vuosiin 2008 ja 2009 saakka. Pääpaino on ravinnekuormituksessa ja veden laadussa, mutta mukana on taustatietoa ja muun muassa katsaus kalakannoista. Saaristomeren ja Ahvenanmaan merialueen tila on heikentynyt huomattavasti viimeisten vuosikymmenten aikana. Erityisesti fosforin ja a-klorofyllin määrät ovat kasvaneet ja näkösyvyys pienenentynyt. Viimeisen kymmenen vuoden aikana pintaveden fosforipitoisuuden kasvu on laantunut suurimmassa osassa aluetta, mutta pohjanläheisessä vesikerroksessa ja talvella fosforipitoisuus on jatkanut kasvuaan monin paikoin viime vuosiin asti. Myös a-klorofyllin määrä on lisääntynyt ulko- ja välisaaristossa 2000-luvullakin. Viime vuosina klorofyllipitoisuuden kasvu on kuitenkin laantunut tai pitoisuus laskenut varsinkin rannikonläheisissä vesissä. Merialueen suurin paikallinen ravinnekuormittaja on maatalous, mutta varsinkin typpeä tulee runsaasti myös ilmalaskeumana. Sisäinen kuormitus ja virtausten mukana Suomenlahdelta ja muualta Itämereltä tulevat ravinteet heikentävät niin ikään merialueen tilaa. Muita ravinnelähteitä ovat mm. haja-asutus, jätevedenpuhdistamot ja kalankasvatus. Ahvenanmaan merialueelle ravinteita tulee enemmän muualta kuin Ahvenanmaalta. Hajakuormituksessa on tapahtunut viime vuosikymmeninä selviä vuodenaikaisia muutoksia. Vuosina 1990 – 2009 jokien mereen tuoma ravinne- ja kiintoainekuormitus on ollut talvisin ja syksyisin selvästi suurempaa kuin vuosina 1970 – 1989. Talviaikaisen kuormituksen lisääntyminen johtuu aiempaa lauhemmista talvista, ja antaa viitteitä ilmastonmuutoksen mukanaan tuomista muutoksista. Vaikka Saaristomeren ja Ahvenanmaan merialueen tilassa on ollut viime aikoina nähtävissä myönteisiäkin merkkejä, on niiden tila edelleen huolestuttava. Ainoa keino merialueen tilan parantamiseksi on kuormituksen huomattava vähentäminen. Vähentäminen koskee niin paikallisia ravinnelähteitä, erityisesti maataloutta, kuin muualta Itämereltä virtausten mukana tulevia ravinteita ja ilmalaskeumaa.

Legends in culture : culture in legends

Kirja-arvio

Irruptive discourse and conflicted curiosity

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

GIS assessing traditional and modern agricultural land use/land cover change. A case study 1959-2005: Rekijoki, Somero, SW-Finland

Finland’s rural landscape has gone through remarkable changes from the 1950’s, due to agricultural developments. Changed farming practices have influenced especially traditional landscape management, and modifications in the arable land structure and grasslands transitions are notable. The review of the previous studies reveal the importance of the rural landscape composition and structure to species and landscape diversity, whereas including the relevance in presence of the open ditches, size of the field and meadow patches, topology of the natural and agricultural landscape. This land-change study includes applying remote sensed data from two time series and empirical geospatial analysis in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The aims of this retrospective research is to detect agricultural landscape use and land cover change (LULCC) dynamics and discuss the consequences of agricultural intensification to landscape structure covering from the aspects of landscape ecology. Measurements of LULC are derived directly from pre-processed aerial images by a variety of analytical procedures, including statistical methods and image interpretation. The methodological challenges are confronted in the process of landscape classification and combining change detection approaches with landscape indices. Particular importance is paid on detecting agricultural landscape features at a small scale, demanding comprehensive understanding of such agroecosystems. Topological properties of the classified arable land and valley are determined in order to provide insight and emphasize the aspect the field edges in the agricultural landscape as important habitat. Change detection dynamics are presented with change matrix and additional calculations of gain, loss, swap, net change, change rate and tendencies are made. Transition’s possibility is computed following Markov’s probability model and presented with matrix, as well. Thesis’s spatial aspect is revealed with illustrative maps providing knowledge of location of the classified landscape categories and location of the dynamics of the changes occurred. It was assured that in Rekijoki valley’s landscape, remarkable changes in landscape has occurred. Landscape diversity has been strongly influenced by modern agricultural landscape change, as NP of open ditches has decreased and the MPS of the arable plot has decreased. Overall change in the diversity of the landscape is determined with the decrease of SHDI. Valley landscape considered as traditional land use area has experienced major transitional changes, as meadows class has lost almost one third of the area due to afforestation. Also, remarkable transitions have occurred from forest to meadow and arable land to built area. Boundaries measurement between modern and traditional landscape has indicated noticeable proportional increase in arable land-forest edge type and decrease in arable land-meadow edge type. Probability calculations predict higher future changes for traditional landscape, but also for arable land turning into built area.