The chemical properties of soil for alfalfa production after biofertiliser application

The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of biofertilisers for the production of alfalfa shoot, root and nodule dry matter, and also, to evaluate the chemical properties of the soil. This study was conducted in the greenhouse of the Support Department, Animal Production and Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine/UNESP, Aracatuba - SP, from May to October 2010. The experimental design was completely randomised with six biofertiliser doses (0, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 400 m(3) ha(-1)) and five replicates. The biofertiliser doses were the primary treatments and the cuts (five) were subplots. The cuts were performed, on average, every 27 days at 10 cm above the soil. At the end of the experiment, the roots, nodules and soil from all experimental units were collected for chemical analysis. We observed a linear increase in dry matter production of the shoots relative to the doses studied. The dry matter production of the roots and nodules was not significantly different. The chemical properties of the soil significantly improved for calcium and magnesium as well as the sum of bases and base saturation with biofertiliser application. Biofertilisers can be used for agricultural production and favourably alter the soil characteristics.

Análise do conforto térmico da cidade de Mirandópolis/SP em seus espaços abertos

Mirandópolis/SP appeared in 1934 from the railroad “the Brazil Northwest”, that there it served one of the points of its stretch that had as main function to drain the agricultural production northwestern native of São Paulo of that time. The installation of the town happened absent of concerns with initial urbanístico planning, thus modifying its natural landscape and modifying characteristic ambient without compensatory measures aiming at a future expansion of the urban mesh. Fact this that still causes today consequences the quality of life of the people and also the observed thermal comfort later. Ahead of this, the present work had for objective to identify through measurements of temperature and relative humidity of the city of Mirandópolis/SP the differences that in the fabric urban they corroborate for a comfort situation or thermal discomfort to the outdoors in accordance with the Diagram Bioclimático de Olgyay the collection of data was made throughout the month of July of 2011 involving the attainment of information of Temperature and relative humidity of air and questionnaire applied to the passer-bys in the act of the measurements. Also approaching the different thermal dynamic of the zones of housing in relation to the Urban Cannyon that develops the commerce as predominant activity. This research sample that, although a city to be small, the quality of life of its inhabitants is not only guaranteed by the transport or that its thermal comfort reveals inside homogeneous of the urban perimeter, but that it has yes heterogeneidade in the scope of the urban climate in these spaces

Managing soil carbon for multiple ecosystem benefits positive exemplars: Latin America (Brazil and Argentina)

Agriculture provides food, fibre and energy, which have been the foundation for the development of all societies. Soil carbon plays an important role in providing essential ecosystem services. Historically, these have been viewed in terms of plant nutrient availability only, with agricultural management being driven to obtain maximum benefits of this soil function. However, recently, agricultural systems have been envisioned to provide a more complete set of ecosystem services, in a win-win situation, in addition to the products normally associated with agriculture. The expansion and growth of agricultural production in Brazil and Argentina brought about a significant loss of soil carbon stocks, and consequently the associated ecosystem services, such as flooding and erosion control, water filtration and storage. There are several examples of soil carbon management for multiple benefits in Brazil and Argentina, with new soil management techniques attempting to reverse this trend by increasing soil carbon (C) stocks. One example is zero tillage, which has the advantage of reducing CO2 emissions from the soil and thus preserving or augmenting C stocks. Crop rotations that include cover crops have been shown to sequester significant amounts of C, both in Brazilian subtropical regions as well as in the Argentinean Pampas. Associated benefits of zero tillage and cover crop rotations include flood and erosion control and improved water filtration and storage. Another positive example is the adoption of no-burning harvest in the vast sugarcane area in Brazil, which also contributes to reduced CO2 emissions, leaving crop residues on the soil surface and thus helping the conservation of essential plant nutrients and improving water storage.

Greenhouse gas balance associated with sugarcane production in South-Central Brazil, considering the management and expansion

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Indicators to the consumption of electric energy and agriculture cattle farming production for the elaboration of clusters with cities of the state of São Paulo, Brazil

The issue in this matter is that rules for use of electricity in rural areas are limited to the provision of inputs. Adopting guidelines to consider managed sub regions can generate poor results. The focus of this study was to present parameters for indicators of electric energy and agricultural production to allow the formation of city groups in Sao Paulo State, Brazil, with similar electric energy consumption and rural agricultural production. The methodology was the development of indicators that characterize the electric energy consumption/agricultural production and the preparation of groups using indicators with ward of statistical method of groups. The main conclusions were the formation of six homogeneous groups with similar characteristics regarding agricultural production/consumption of electricity. The application of these groups in cities with similar characteristics would produce more satisfactory results than the division of administrative Rural Development Offices (RDO).

Avaliação da capacidade de renovação do epitélio do mesêntero e seus efeitos no potencial reprodutivo de fêmeas adultas de Ceraeochrysa claveri (Neuroptera: Chrysopidae) alimentadas durante a fase larval com óleo de nim (azadirachta indica A. JUSS)

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

On land management: landowners' attitudes to land and farming in Valdera, Tuscany

This thesis aims at explaining the intersecting dynamics of structural changes in agriculture and urbanisation, which involves changes in urban-rural relationships. The research questions are: how and why do landowners differ in their attitudes to land and farming? what are the main implications on rural landscapes and the policy implications? Relationships between urbanisation and agriculture are firstly analysed through a critical literature review; the analysis focuses on the 'landowner' as the key actor who actively takes decisions on the rural landscape From the empirical study – which is based on a Tuscan area (Valdera), and addressed through qualitative methods – a great diversity of landowners' attitudes to land and farming emerge, thus contributing to the agricultural restructuring, such as: 1) the emphasis on recreational function of the countryside for urban people 2) contracting out of land management, especially when landowners live or/and have 'urban' employment 3) the active role of hobby farmers in land management 4) agricultural operations simplification and lack of investments (especially in case of property rights expropriation). The thesis is framed in three papers, with the same methods and research questions. It seems evident that rural landscapes is subjected to functional changes (e.g. residential) and structural changes (landscape polarisation), which requires the need 1) to consider that rural landscape management is increasingly less connected to agricultural production as economic activity; 2) to give a coherence to the range of policy interventions (physical planning, landscape, sectoral).

Chemical, biochemical and microbiological indicators to assess soil quality in temperate agro-ecosystems

Soil is a critically important component of the earth’s biosphere. Developing agricultural production systems able to conserve soil quality is essential to guarantee the current and future capacity of soil to provide goods and services. This study investigates the potential of microbial and biochemical parameters to be used as early and sensitive soil quality indicators. Their ability to differentiate plots under contrasting fertilization regimes is evaluated based also on their sensitivity to seasonal fluctuations of environmental conditions and on their relationship with soil chemical parameters. Further, the study addresses some of the critical methodological aspects of microplate-based fluorimetric enzyme assays, in order to optimize assay conditions and evaluate their suitability to be used as a toll to asses soil quality. The study was based on a long-term field experiment established in 1966 in the Po valley (Italy). The soil was cropped with maize (Z. mays L.) and winter wheat (T. aestivum L.) and received no organic fertilization, crop residue or manure, in combination with increasing levels of mineral N fertilizer. The soil microbiota responded to manure amendment increasing it biomass and activity and changing its community composition. Crop residue effect was much more limited. Mineral N fertilization stimulated crop residue mineralization, shifted microbial community composition and influenced N and P cycling enzyme activities. Seasonal fluctuations of environmental factors affected the soil microbiota. However microbial and biochemical parameters seasonality did not hamper the identification of fertilization-induced effects. Soil microbial community abundance, function and composition appeared to be strongly related to soil organic matter content and composition, confirming the close link existing between these soil quality indicators. Microplate-based fluorimetric enzyme assays showed potential to be used as fast and throughput toll to asses soil quality, but required proper optimization of the assay conditions for a precise estimation of enzymes maximum potential activity.

Are land sparing and land sharing real alternatives for European agricultural landscapes?

There is a lively debate on whether biodiversity conservation and agricultural production could be better reconciled by land sparing (strictly separating production fields and conservation areas) or by land sharing (combining both, agricultural production and biodiversity conservation on the same land). The debate originates from tropical countries, where agricultural land use continues to increase at the expense of natural ecosystems. But is it also relevant for Europe, where agriculture is withdrawing from marginal regions whilst farming of fertile lands continues to be intensified? Based on recent research on farmland biodiversity we conclude that the land sharing – land sparing dichotomy is too simplistic for Europe. Instead we differentiate between productive and marginal farmland. On productive farmland, semi-natural habitats are required to yield ecosystem services relevant for agriculture, to promote endangered farmland species which society wants to conserve even in intensively farmed regions, and to allow migration of non-farmland species through the agricultural matrix. On marginal farmland, high-nature value farming is a traditional way of land sharing, yielding high quality agricultural products and conserving specialized species. To conserve highly disturbance-sensitive species, there is a need for nature reserves. In conclusion, land sparing is not a viable olution for Europe in both productive and marginal farmland but because of different reasons in each type of farmland.

Adaptation options under climate change for multifunctional agriculture: a simulation study for western Switzerland

Besides its primary role in producing food and fiber, agriculture also has relevant effects on several other functions, such as management of renewable natural resources. Climate change (CC) may lead to new trade-offs between agricultural functions or aggravate existing ones, but suitable agricultural management may maintain or even improve the ability of agroecosystems to supply these functions. Hence, it is necessary to identify relevant drivers (e.g., cropping practices, local conditions) and their interactions, and how they affect agricultural functions in a changing climate. The goal of this study was to use a modeling framework to analyze the sensitivity of indicators of three important agricultural functions, namely crop yield (food and fiber production function), soil erosion (soil conservation function), and nutrient leaching (clean water provision function), to a wide range of agricultural practices for current and future climate conditions. In a two-step approach, cropping practices that explain high proportions of variance of the different indicators were first identified by an analysis of variance-based sensitivity analysis. Then, most suitable combinations of practices to achieve best performance with respect to each indicator were extracted, and trade-offs were analyzed. The procedure was applied to a region in western Switzerland, considering two different soil types to test the importance of local environmental constraints. Results show that the sensitivity of crop yield and soil erosion due to management is high, while nutrient leaching mostly depends on soil type. We found that the influence of most agricultural practices does not change significantly with CC; only irrigation becomes more relevant as a consequence of decreasing summer rainfall. Trade-offs were identified when focusing on best performances of each indicator separately, and these were amplified under CC. For adaptation to CC in the selected study region, conservation soil management and the use of cropped grasslands appear to be the most suitable options to avoid trade-offs.

Measuring Scale Efficiency from the Translog Multi-Input, Multi-Output Distance Function

Ray (1998) developed measures of input- and output-oriented scale efficiency that can be directly computed from an estimated Translog frontier production function. This note extends the earlier results from Ray (1998) to the multiple-output multiple input case.

Explaining Economic Growth: Factor Accumulation, Total Factor Productivity Growth, and Production Efficiency Improvement

This paper examines cross-country patterns of economic growth by estimating a stochastic frontier production function for 80 developed and developing countries and decomposing output change into factor accumulation, total factor productivity growth, and production efficiency improvement. In addition, this paper incorporates the quality of inputs in analyzing output growth, where the productivity of capital depends on its average age, while the productivity of labor depends on its average level of education. Our growth decomposition involves five geographic regions - Africa, East Asian, Latin America, South Asia, and the West. Factor growth, especially capital accumulation, generally proves much more important than either the improved quality of factors or total factor productivity growth in explaining output growth. The quality of capital positively and significantly affects output growth in all groups. The quality of labor, however, only possesses a positive and significant effect on output growth in Africa, East Asia, and the West. Labor quality owns a negative and significant effect in Latin America and South Asia.

Persistencia y cambio de las unidades de producción hortícola en el Cinturón Verde del Gran Rosario

Las unidades de producción hortícola del Cinturón Verde del Gran Rosario surgen en un espacio tradicionalmente priorizado para la producción agropecuaria exportable. Presentes desde el siglo XIX en el área, fueron incrementándose en función del crecimiento demográfico hasta aproximadamente mediados de la década de 1970, cuando los precios internacionales pagados por la soja convirtieron a esta leguminosa en una ventajosa competidora por tierra. El incremento de la producción agrícola implicó una presión excesiva sobre el entorno natural de los espacios rurales, como una alteración de las condiciones de trabajo y de vida de las personas vinculadas a este territorio. Este trabajo indaga las modificaciones ocurridas en la estructura social hortícola zonal en los últimos 30 años.

Persistencia y cambio de las unidades de producción hortícola en el Cinturón Verde del Gran Rosario

Las unidades de producción hortícola del Cinturón Verde del Gran Rosario surgen en un espacio tradicionalmente priorizado para la producción agropecuaria exportable. Presentes desde el siglo XIX en el área, fueron incrementándose en función del crecimiento demográfico hasta aproximadamente mediados de la década de 1970, cuando los precios internacionales pagados por la soja convirtieron a esta leguminosa en una ventajosa competidora por tierra. El incremento de la producción agrícola implicó una presión excesiva sobre el entorno natural de los espacios rurales, como una alteración de las condiciones de trabajo y de vida de las personas vinculadas a este territorio. Este trabajo indaga las modificaciones ocurridas en la estructura social hortícola zonal en los últimos 30 años.

Persistencia y cambio de las unidades de producción hortícola en el Cinturón Verde del Gran Rosario

Las unidades de producción hortícola del Cinturón Verde del Gran Rosario surgen en un espacio tradicionalmente priorizado para la producción agropecuaria exportable. Presentes desde el siglo XIX en el área, fueron incrementándose en función del crecimiento demográfico hasta aproximadamente mediados de la década de 1970, cuando los precios internacionales pagados por la soja convirtieron a esta leguminosa en una ventajosa competidora por tierra. El incremento de la producción agrícola implicó una presión excesiva sobre el entorno natural de los espacios rurales, como una alteración de las condiciones de trabajo y de vida de las personas vinculadas a este territorio. Este trabajo indaga las modificaciones ocurridas en la estructura social hortícola zonal en los últimos 30 años.