Search Results (10,334)

The integration of cutting-edge technologies—such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and various emerging technologies—is revolutionizing agricultural practices, enhancing productivity, sustainability, and efficiency. The objective of this study is to review the literature regarding the development and evolution of AI as well as other emerging technologies in the various fields of Agriculture as they are developed and transformed by integrating the above technologies. The areas examined in this study are open field smart farming, vertical and indoor farming, zero waste agriculture, precision livestock farming, smart greenhouses, and regenerative agriculture. This paper links current research, technological innovations, and case studies to present a comprehensive review of these emerging technologies being developed in the context of smart agriculture, for the benefit of farmers and consumers in general. By exploring practical applications and future perspectives, this work aims to provide valuable insights to address global food security challenges, minimize environmental impacts, and support sustainable development goals through the application of new technologies. Full article

The study investigated the determinants of safe pesticide handling and application among farmers in rural communities of Oyo State, ssouthwestern Nigeria. A cross-sectional design utilizing 2-stage cluster sampling techniques was used to select Ido and Ibarapa central Local Government Areas and to interview 383 farmers via a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression at p = 0.05. Results showed that 41.8% of the farmers had been working with pesticides on farms for at least 5 years, 33.0% attended training on pesticide application, 73.5% had good safety and health knowledge, and 72.3% had safe pesticide handling and application practices. About half (50.2%) stated that they wear coveralls, gloves, and masks to protect their body, face, and hands when applying pesticides, 9.8% use empty pesticide containers for other purposes in the house/farm, while 11.5% blow the nozzle with their mouth to unclog it if it becomes blocked. The three major health symptoms reported by the participants were skin irritation (65.0%), itchy eyes (51.3%), and excessive sweating (32.5%). Having attended training on pesticide application and use enhanced (OR = 2.821; C.I = 1.513–5.261) practicing safe pesticide handling and application. Farmers with good knowledge (OR = 5.494; C.I = 3.385–8.919) were more likely to practice safe pesticide handling and application than those with poor knowledge about pesticide use. It is essential to develop and deliver mandatory comprehensive training programs for farmers on impacts of pesticides on health and environment, along with sustainable safe handling, application, and disposal of pesticides using proper waste management techniques and recognizing early signs and seeking medical assistance. The urgent need to strengthen policy to regulate pesticide use and limit farmers’ access to banned products is also key. Full article

As a prominent agricultural country, China has widely implemented returning straw to the field in agricultural production. However, as the decomposition of straw progresses, the physical properties of the soil change, inevitably leading to alterations in the soil surface evaporation model. This study investigated the variations in soil evaporation rate, soil moisture content over 60 days after returning straw to the field, and bare soil through two leaching pond experiments. Through soil moisture retention curves at different degrees of decomposition, this study analyzed the impact of straw decomposition on soil’s water retention capacity. Based on measured data, this study formulated models for the soil surface evaporation resistance of bare soil and varying degrees of straw decomposition. With the comparison and contrast between the models, this study clarified the impact of straw decomposition on soil surface evaporation resistance. The main conclusions are the following: The moisture content of the surface soil decreases exponentially over time and, after 40 days of straw decomposition, the water content of the soil under decomposition is higher than that of bare soil. As the moisture content decreases, the cumulative evaporation from the soil increases linearly. The cumulative evaporation of the decomposed straw soil is lower than that of bare soil, with a relative reduction ranging from 3.08% to 32.2%. The straw decomposition significantly enhances the water retention capacity of the soil in the medium-to-high suction range. The straw decomposition enhances the evaporation resistance of the soil surface, and the greater the degree of decomposition, the more significant the enhancement effect. The research findings not only provide a scientific basis for agricultural water management, but also possess practical implications for guiding farmers to adopt more effective moisture retention measures. Full article

Gastrodia elata has been a valuable medicinal resource in the East for approximately 3000 years. In South Korea, G. elata is cultivated in open-fields or greenhouses near residential areas. However, due to severe continuous damage, cultivation sites need to be frequently relocated, leading to a shortage of available cultivation areas. Alternatively, farmers are focusing on mountain cultivation. This study analyzed suitable cultivation sites for G. elata in mountainous areas using a geographic information system (GIS) and applied various classification methods to identify their characteristics and similarities. The analysis showed that the Natural Breaks (Jenks) classification method maximized the differences between grades, whereas the Quantile method reclassified the area of suitable sites to a relatively high proportion. In contrast, the Equal Interval method reclassified the areas of suitable and unsuitable sites to a lower proportion, whereas the Geometric Interval method best demonstrated extreme-temperature regions as unsuitable sites. Among the classification methods, the Natural Breaks (Jenks) and Geometric Interval methods yielded the most similar results. These findings provide critical methodological outcomes for G. elata cultivation and sustainable agriculture and forestry. Future empirical research and the application of climate change scenarios are necessary to enhance the sustainability of the G. elata cultivation industry. Full article

Predicting crop performance is key to decision making for farmers and business owners. Tacna is the main olive-producing region in Perú, with an annual yield of 6.4 t/ha, mainly of the Sevillana variety. Recently, olive production levels have fluctuated due to severe weather conditions and disease outbreaks. These climatic phenomena are expected to continue in the coming years. The objective of the study was to evaluate the performance of the model in natural and specific environments of the olive grove and counting olive fruits using CNNs from images. Among the models evaluated, YOLOv8m proved to be the most effective (94.960), followed by YOLOv8s, Faster R-CNN and RetinaNet. For the mAP50-95 metric, YOLOv8m was also the most effective (0.775). YOLOv8m achieved the best performance with an RMSE of 402.458 and a coefficient of determination R² of (0.944), indicating a high correlation with the actual fruit count. As part of this study, a novel olive fruit dataset was developed to capture the variability under different fruit conditions. Concluded that the predicting crop from images requires consideration of field imaging conditions, color tones, and the similarity between olives and leaves. Full article

Soil health is at the root of agricultural sustainability, and small-scale vegetable farmers are becoming an increasingly important part of the US food system. These farmers face unique challenges when it comes to managing soil on their farms. These challenges include reliance on intensive production practices, the use of primarily organic inputs with difficult to calculate nutrient concentrations, and lack of access to formal education tailored to their needs. We surveyed farmers at 100 small-scale vegetable farms in Minnesota to (1) develop a better baseline understanding of how small-scale vegetable farmers utilize key soil health practices including nutrient management, cover crops, and tillage; (2) explore how farm demographics influence the adoption of soil health practices; and (3) determine educational priorities to better support these growers. Here, we report a lack of understanding about the nutrient contributions of compost, which is often applied at very large volumes without guidance from soil test results, with implications for nutrient loading in the environment. Farmers in our study had high rates of cover crop adoption relative to other farmers in the region despite several barriers to using cover crops. More experienced farmers were more likely to utilize more tillage, with more use of deep tillage implements on larger farms. Overall, organic certification was correlated with higher adoption of soil health practices including utilization of soil tests and cover crop use, but it was not correlated with tillage. Other demographic variables including land access arrangement and race did not meaningfully influence soil health practices. Our findings suggest a need for more research, outreach, and education targeted to vegetable farmers about how to interpret laboratory soil test results, and how to responsibly utilize organic inputs including vegetative compost and composted manure at rates appropriate for crop production in a diversified farm setting. We also report a need to compensate farmers for their labor to incentive cover crop use on small farms, and a need for more research and support for farmers in the 3–50-acre range to utilize reduced tillage methods. Full article

In recent years, the global economy has experienced significant shifts, leading to a trend of consumption downgrading. Amid economic pressures and uncertainties, consumers are increasingly turning to cost-effective shopping methods. The COVID-19 lockdowns further accelerated the growth of e-commerce platforms, presenting both opportunities and challenges for sales. Electronic commerce has played a crucial role in enhancing the sales of agricultural products with regional characteristics in China, thereby opening new channels for farmers. This article utilizes tangerines, particularly popular in Zhejiang Province, as a case study to explore e-commerce reviews and assist merchants in delivering more satisfactory products. The analysis of tangerine reviews revealed that customers primarily focused on the taste, service, quality, and price. By applying the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic model, comments were categorized into four themes: ‘quality’, ‘service’, ‘price’, and ‘flavor’, with key terms identified for each theme. Through sentiment analysis using SnowNLP and bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT), it was found that online shoppers generally expressed positive sentiment toward tangerines. However, there was also some negative feedback. These findings are of paramount importance for businesses aiming to meet consumer demands. The study acknowledges certain limitations including the reliability of data mining and the accuracy of Chinese corpus analysis. Future research could benefit from employing more precise language models to enhance the analysis, ultimately improving the consumer shopping experience and aiding businesses in service improvement. Full article

Understanding how breeders of local breeds view different social actors can be of great importance to the process of local breed conservation. The same goes for the motives in farming local breeds. However, there is little research that provides insight into these perspectives. The aim of this study was to investigate motives for farming and attitudes of Croatian breeders of two local cattle breeds (Istrian cattle and Buša), two local donkey breeds (Istrian donkey and Littoral Dinaric donkey), and one local horse breed (Croatian Posavina horse) towards consumers, the local population and the regional and national administration. In addition, the influence of motives, attitudes, and the socio-economic characteristics of the breeders on the planned scope of breeding over the next five years was investigated. The study was conducted on a sample of 204 breeders of selected local breeds. The results of the study show that the most important motive for keeping a local breed is the attractiveness (beauty) of the breed followed by its emotional and sentimental value. Around one-third of farmers have a relatively positive attitude towards all stakeholders, with the role of the local population and consumers being viewed most positively. Almost half of the farmers (49%) plan to increase the size of their herd and only 8% plan to reduce it or to stop farming. The planned farming volume over the next five years is significantly influenced by the importance of economic and traditional motives and the change in the number of animals over the last five years. This study represents a valuable contribution to understanding the views of farmers of local breeds towards key societal stakeholders, and the findings can be used in campaigns to promote the keeping of these valuable breeds. Full article

In 2021, Winter Storm Uri severely affected several Texan agricultural sectors, including dairy production. To understand how dairy producers experienced this extreme weather event, this qualitative phenomenological case study explored perceptions of preparedness, coping strategies, and information needs and preferences for dealing with extreme weather events among dairy producers in Texas, conducting individual semi-structured interviews. The findings indicated that farmers felt unprepared to deal with extreme weather events and suffered significant economic losses due to this lack of preparedness. In response to winter storm Uri, dairy farmers modified traditional operations and management practices to mitigate negative impacts on farm labor, infrastructure, and herds. Our results, along with the existing literature on communication for extreme weather event management, highlighted that dairy farmers do not receive adequate information to effectively prevent and cope with similar occurrences in the future. Consequently, this study recommends exploring effective strategies to help agricultural producers develop plans to manage the effects of extreme weather events. Additionally, it integrates place-based, pluralistic, and demand-driven approaches to identify the best communication practices, enhance timely information dissemination on extreme weather, and strengthen the technical capacities of public and private entities, including Cooperative Extension Systems, as trusted resources for agricultural producers. Full article

Agriculture remains a key contributor to Central America’s economy, despite climate change posing a significant threat to the sector. In the Trifinio region, already afflicted by arid summers, temperatures are expected to rise in the near future, potentially exacerbating the vulnerability of smallholder farmers. This study investigates the effects of two fungal symbionts, Trichoderma asperellum (TR) and the Arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) Glomus cubense, and agronomic choices and practices such as cultivar selection, substrate type, and fertigation management on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) seedling growth and quality. Results showed that nutrient solution and the adoption of forest topsoil as substrate significantly enhanced morphological, physiological, and quality parameters. Modifying the nutrient solution to allow for an increase in plant height of 170% and a dry weight of 163% and enhancing Dickson’s quality index (DQI) by 64.5%, while the use of forest topsoil resulted in plants 58.6% higher, with an increase of 101% in dry weight and of 90.1% in the DQI. Both T. asperellum and G. cubense had positive effects on specific growth parameters; for instance, TR increased leaf number (+6.95%), while AMF increased stem diameter (+3.56%) and root length (+19.1%), although they did not, overall, significantly increase the seedling’s biomass and quality. These findings underscore the importance of agronomic practices in mitigating the impacts of climate change on tomato production, offering valuable insights for farmers in semi-arid regions. Full article

Current food production systems rely heavily on resource-poor small-scale farmers in the global south. Concomitantly, the agrifood systems are exacerbated by various a/biotic challenges, including low-input agriculture and climate crisis. The recent global food crisis further escalates the production and consumption challenges in the global market. With these challenges, coordinated efforts to address the world’s agrifood systems challenges have never been more urgent than now. This includes the implementation of deeply interconnected activities of food, land, and water systems and relationships among producers and consumers that operate across political boundaries. Nature-positive agriculture represents interventions both at the farm and landscape level that include a systems approach for the management of diverse issues across the land-water-food nexus. In the present article, we focus on the history of traditional farming and how it evolved into today’s nature-positive agriculture, including its limitations and opportunities. The review also explains the most impactful indicators for successful nature-positive agriculture, including sustainable management of soil, crops, seeds, pests, and mixed farming systems, including forages and livestock. Finally, the review explains the dynamics of nature-positive agriculture in the context of small-scale farming systems and how multilateral organizations like the CGIAR are converting this into transformative actions and impact. To address the climate crisis, CGIAR established the paradigm of nature-positive solutions as part of its research and development efforts aimed at transforming food, land, and water systems into more resilient and sustainable pathways. Full article

Vegetable production is vital to smallholder farmers, who often struggle to overcome pests, diseases, and extreme weather. Agroecological cropping systems offer sustainable solutions to these issues but their adoption rates in Tanzania remain low. This study examines the factors influencing smallholder farmers’ adoption of selected agroecological cropping systems for vegetable production in Tanzania, which remains underexplored. Using a multistage sampling technique, cross-sectional data were gathered from 525 crucifer and traditional African vegetable farming households within the Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions. Multivariate probit regression analysis, which accounts for the simultaneous adoption of multiple systems, revealed several significant variables influencing adoption. The number of training sessions attended and access to market information positively influenced adoption (p < 0.01), while gross income from vegetable production also had a positive influence (p < 0.05). Conversely, the age of the household head and the region where the farm was located showed negative effects on adoption (p < 0.05). These findings highlight the need for targeted extension services and training sessions focusing on the benefits, methods, and management techniques of agroecological cropping systems. Gender-sensitive policies and interventions should also be developed to address the factors influencing the adoption of agroecological cropping systems. Full article

Agricultural cooperatives are the main vehicle for farmers to engage in green agriculture. With the digital transformation in rural areas, it is crucial to explore how cooperative members can effectively access online information and integrate it into green production decision-making processes. Based on the survey data of 530 members of rice planting cooperatives in Heilongjiang Province in China, this paper selected eight green production behaviors commonly used by rice farmers as explained variables, and constructed an ordered probit model. Using the social capital theory, the impact and mechanism of internet use on cooperative members’ green production behavior were examined. The results showed the following: (1) Internet use facilitates the cooperative members’ green production behavior. This conclusion remains valid even after addressing the endogeneity test and robustness test. (2) The heterogeneity analysis revealed that the internet is particularly effective in enhancing the green production behaviors of farmers who are less educated, middle-aged, and those with strong connections to cooperatives. (3) A further mechanism test indicates that internet use not only significantly influences farmers’ trust in cooperatives but also aids them in comprehending the cooperative’s production specifications, thereby further advancing the improvement in green production behaviors. (4) Members’ satisfaction with cooperative sales can serve as a substitute for the internet in influencing their green production behavior. Full article

This paper looks into the impact of China’s new rural land reform, the three rights separation policy (TRSP), on Chinese farmers’ income. Based on data collected from 360 rural households in Anhui Province, China, 2021, this paper constructed the influence pathways of the TRSP on household income and estimated the effects along different pathways using the structural equation model (SEM) model. It showed that through expanding the planting scale and promoting resource-use efficiency, the new land tenure system can indirectly increase transfer-in household income. However, the TRSP has a significant negative direct effect on transfer-out households’ income, and only a slight impact on transferring rural labor to other industries or relaxing the liquidity constraint. In short, the TRSP’s effect on income gains is more prominent in transfer-in households than transfer-out ones, which in the long run would lead to an increased income gap, more so if transfer-out households lack easy access to non-farm employment. Our findings suggest that public authorities should respect farmers’ autonomy in land transfer decisions and pay special attention to labor transfer in poverty alleviation. Meanwhile, widening income disparities among different groups should be heeded while implementing local governments’ service roles. Full article

The application of digital technology offers new opportunities to promote the green transformation and upgrading of agriculture. Farmers’ digital literacy, as a critical link between digital technology and agricultural green development, significantly influences their production decisions. Whether digital literacy serves as an enabling factor driving farmers’ adoption of agricultural green production technologies warrants further exploration. This paper uses the entropy method to measure farmers’ digital literacy levels and employs a Probit model for empirical analysis of survey data from 643 farmers in Shandong and Shaanxi provinces, examining how farmers’ digital literacy influences their adoption of green production technologies. The baseline regression result indicates that digital literacy can significantly increase farmers’ adoption of green production technologies. A mechanism analysis reveals that enhanced farmers’ digital literacy promotes the adoption of green production technologies through three pathways: enhancing farmers’ risk perception, expanding farmers’ digital social capital, and strengthening the effectiveness of technology promotion. Heterogeneity analysis demonstrates that improved digital literacy significantly enhances the adoption of four technologies—water-saving irrigation, pest control, pollution-free pesticide, and straw return to fields—and exerts a stronger impact on large-scale and middle-generation farmers. Accordingly, this study suggests improving digital village infrastructure, enhancing farmers’ digital literacy comprehensively, and formulating differentiated extension policies. Full article