Addressing agricultural labour issues is key to biodiversity-smart farming

Thomas Daum Frédéric Baudron Matin Qaim Ingo Grass (2023, [Artículo])

There is an urgent need for agricultural development strategies that reconcile agricultural production and biodiversity conservation. This is especially true in the Global South where population growth is rapid and much of the world's remaining biodiversity is located. Combining conceptual thoughts with empirical insights from case studies in Indonesia and Ethiopia, we argue that such strategies will have to pay more attention to agricultural labour dynamics. Farmers have a strong motivation to reduce the heavy toil associated with farming by adopting technologies that save labour but can negatively affect biodiversity. Labour constraints can also prevent farmers from adopting technologies that improve biodiversity but increase labour intensity. Without explicitly accounting for labour issues, conservation efforts can hardly be successful. We hence highlight the need for biodiversity-smart agriculture, that is farming practices or systems that reconcile biodiversity with land and labour productivity. Our empirical insights suggest that technological and institutional options to reconcile farmers' socio-economic goals and biodiversity conservation exist but that more needs to be done to implement such options at scale.

Land Sharing Trade-Offs CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION LABOUR SUSTAINABILITY

Commodity crops in biodiversity-rich production landscapes: Friends or foes? The example of cotton in the Mid Zambezi Valley, Zimbabwe

Frédéric Baudron Ken Giller (2022, [Artículo])

Land Sparing Land Sharing Human-Wildlife Conflicts CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA BIODIVERSITY HOUSEHOLD SURVEYS LAND COVER LANDSCAPE MAMMALS CASH CROPS HUMAN-WILDLIFE RELATIONS LAND USE CHANGE

Worldwide selection footprints for drought and heat in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Ana Luisa Gómez Espejo Carolina Sansaloni Juan Burgueño Fernando Henrique Toledo Adalberto Benavides-Mendoza M. Humberto Reyes-Valdés (2022, [Artículo])

Genome–Environment Associations Climatic Variables Hormonal Elicitors CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA ADAPTATION DROUGHT STRESS HEAT STRESS LANDRACES TRITICUM AESTIVUM

Landscape and micronutrient fertilizer effect on agro-fortified wheat and teff grain nutrient concentration in western Amhara

Tilahun Amede Elizabeth Bailey Abdul Wahab Mossa Dereje Tirfessa MESFIN KEBEDE DESTA Getachew Agegnehu Tesfaye Shiferaw Sida Stephan Haefele R. Murray Lark Martin Broadley Samuel Gameda (2023, [Artículo])

Agronomic biofortification, encompassing the use of mineral and organic nutrient resources which improve micronutrient concentrations in staple crops is a potential strategy to promote the production of and access to micronutrient-dense foods at the farm level. However, the heterogeneity of smallholder farming landscapes presents challenges on implementing agronomic biofortification. Here, we test the effects of zinc (Zn)- and selenium (Se)-containing fertilizer on micronutrient concentrations of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and teff (Eragrostis tef (Zucc.) Trotter) grown under different landscape positions and with different micronutrient fertilizer application methods in the western Amhara region of Ethiopia. Field experiments were established in three landscape positions at three sites, with five treatments falling into three broad categories: (1) nitrogen (N) fertilizer rate; (2) micronutrient fertilizer application method; (3) sole or co-application of Zn and Se fertilizer. Treatments were replicated across five farms per landscape position and over two cropping seasons (2018 and 2019). Grain Zn concentration ranged from 26.6 to 36.4 mg kg−1 in wheat and 28.5–31.2 mg kg−1 in teff. Grain Se concentration ranged from 0.02 to 0.59 mg kg−1 in wheat while larger concentrations of between 1.01 and 1.55 mg kg−1 were attained in teff. Larger concentrations of Zn and Se were consistently attained when a foliar fertilizer was applied. Application of ⅓ nitrogen (N) yielded significantly larger grain Se concentration in wheat compared to a recommended N application rate. A moderate landscape effect on grain Zn concentration was observed in wheat but not in teff. In contrast, strong evidence of a landscape effect was observed for wheat and teff grain Se concentration. There was no evidence for any interaction of the treatment contrasts with landscape position except in teff, where an interaction effect between landscape position and Se application was observed. Our findings indicate an effect of Zn, Se, N, landscape position, and its interaction effect with Se on grain micronutrient concentrations. Agronomic biofortification of wheat and teff with micronutrient fertilizers is influenced by landscape position, the micronutrient fertilizer application method and N fertilizer management. The complexity of smallholder environmental settings and different farmer socio-economic opportunities calls for the optimization of nutritional agronomy landscape trials. Targeted application of micronutrient fertilizers across a landscape gradient is therefore required in ongoing agronomic biofortification interventions, in addition to the micronutrient fertilizer application method and the N fertilizer management strategy.

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA BIOFORTIFICATION LANDSCAPE SELENIUM ZINC WHEAT

Preliminary dissection of grain yield and related traits at differential nitrogen levels in diverse pre-breeding wheat germplasm through association mapping

Achla Sharma Juan Burgueño Prashant Vikram Nitika Sandhu Satinder Kaur Parveen Chhuneja (2023, [Artículo])

Plant Nitrogen Use Efficiency Pre-Breeding Lines Genome-Wide Association Study Marker Trait Association CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA WHEAT PRE-BREEDING BREEDING LINES NITROGEN LANDRACES GENETIC MARKERS

Characterization of Mediterranean durum wheat for resistance to Pyrenophora tritici-repentis

marwa laribi Khaled Sassi Sarrah Ben M'barek (2022, [Artículo])

Tan Spot Durum Wheat Phenotypic Diversity CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA SPOTS HARD WHEAT LANDRACES PHENOTYPIC VARIATION PLANT HEIGHT DISEASE RESISTANCE

Identification and characterization of resistance loci to wheat leaf rust and stripe rust in Afghan landrace “KU3067”

CAIXIA LAN Ravi Singh JULIO HUERTA_ESPINO Zaifeng Li Evans Lagudah sridhar bhavani (2022, [Artículo])

Genetic Analysis Molecular Mapping Wheat Rusts APR Genes CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA ADULT PLANT RESISTANCE LANDRACES WHEAT RUSTS

An updated checklist of plant agrobiodiversity of northern Italy

Marco Canella Nicola Maria Giuseppe Ardenghi Graziano Rossi Filippo Guzzon (2022, [Artículo])

Ex Situ Conservation CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA ETHNOBOTANY LANDRACES ON-FARM CONSERVATION PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES

Genome-wide association analysis of tan spot disease resistance in durum wheat accessions from Tunisia

marwa laribi Sarrah Ben M'barek Carolina Sansaloni Susanne Dreisigacker (2023, [Artículo])

CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA DISEASE RESISTANCE HARD WHEAT GENETIC DIVERSITY GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDIES LANDRACES POPULATION STRUCTURE

Preparing for, coping with and bouncing back after shocks. A nuanced resilience assessment for smallholder farms and farmers in Northern Ghana

Mirja Michalscheck Fred Kizito Carl Timler Jeroen Groot (2023, [Artículo])

Whole-Farm Model Health Shock CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA SUSTAINABLE INTENSIFICATION VULNERABILITY SMALLHOLDERS LANDSCAPE TECHNOLOGY