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Potential impacts of Ukraine-Russia armed conflict on global wheat food security: A quantitative exploration

Khondoker Mottaleb Gideon Kruseman Sieglinde Snapp (2022)

Violent conflict is a major cause of acute food crises. In 2021, at least 155 million people in 10 countries were severely food insecure and eight of those countries were experiencing armed conflict. On February 24, 2022, an armed conflict between Russian Federation (Russia) and Ukraine escalated. As Russia and Ukraine are major wheat exporters, this will aggravate the already precarious food security situation in many developing countries by disrupting wheat production and export and by accelerating price hikes in import-dependent developing countries. This study examines the potential impacts of this ongoing armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine on wheat price, consumption, and calorie intake from wheat. In doing so, it applies the conditional mixed process estimation procedure using information collected from 163 countries and territories for the years 2016–2019 from online database of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The study shows that, on average, a 1% decrease in the global wheat trade could increase the producers' price of wheat by 1.1%, and a 1% increase in the producers' price could reduce the yearly per capita wheat consumption by 0.59%, daily calorie intake by 0.54% and protein intake by 0.64% in the sampled countries. Based on this, the study demonstrates that a 50% reduction in wheat exports by Russia and Ukraine could increase the producers’ price of wheat by 15%, which would induce a reduction in wheat consumption and dietary energy intake by at least 8%. Since wheat export has reduced from both Russia and Ukraine, to avoid a food crisis in developing countries, policies are suggested, including near term improvement of domestic wheat production by promoting improved agronomic practices to close yield gaps to meet a substantial portion of wheat self-sufficiency goals. In the long run, countries in Africa, East Asia and South America can explore expanding wheat into new land area. International donor agencies can play a key role in supporting the ongoing wheat research and development activities.

Article

Export-Import CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA ARMED CONFLICTS CALORIES CONSUMPTION ELASTICITY FOOD SECURITY PRICES PRODUCTION WHEAT

Agricultural emissions reduction potential by improving technical efficiency in crop production

Arun Khatri-Chhetri Tek Sapkota sofina maharjan Paresh Shirsath (2023)

CONTEXT: Global and national agricultural development policies normally tend to focus more on enhancing farm productivity through technological changes than on better use of existing technologies. The role of improving technical efficiency in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction from crop production is the least explored area in the agricultural sector. But improving technical efficiency is necessary in the context of the limited availability of existing natural resources (particularly land and water) and the need for GHG emission reduction from the agriculture sector. Technical efficiency gains in the production process are linked with the amount of input used nd the cost of production that determines both economic and environmental gains from the better use of existing technologies. OBJECTIVE: To assess a relationship between technical efficiency and GHG emissions and test the hypothesis that improving technical efficiency reduces GHG emissions from crop production. METHODS: This study used input-output data collected from 10,689 rice farms and 5220 wheat farms across India to estimate technical efficiency, global warming potential, and emission intensity (GHG emissions per unit of crop production) under the existing crop production practices. The GHG emissions from rice and wheat production were estimated using the CCAFS Mitigation Options Tool (CCAFS-MOT) and the technical efficiency of production was estimated through a stochastic production frontier analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that improving technical efficiency in crop production can reduce emission intensity but not necessarily total emissions. Moreover, our analysis does not support smallholders tend to be technically less efficient and the emissions per unit of food produced by smallholders can be relatively high. Alarge proportion of smallholders have high technical efficiency, less total GHG emissions, and low emissions intensity. This study indicates the levels of technical efficiency and GHG emission are largely influenced by farming typology, i.e. choice and use of existing technologies and management practices in crop cultivation. SIGNIFICANCE: This study will help to promote existing improved technologies targeting GHG emissions reduction from the agriculture production systems.

Article

Technical Efficiency Interventions CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA MITIGATION PRODUCTIVITY CROP PRODUCTION GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

The Banana MaWRKY18, MaWRKY45, MaWRKY60 and MaWRKY70 Genes Encode Functional Transcription Factors and Display Differential Expression in Response to Defense Phytohormones

SERGIO GARCIA LAYNES VIRGINIA AURORA HERRERA VALENCIA Lilia Guadalupe Tamayo Torres VERONICA LIMONES BRIONES FELIPE ALONSO BARREDO POOL FRAY MARTIN BAAS ESPINOLA Ángel Gabriel Alpuche Solís CARLOS ALBERTO PUCH HAU SANTY PERAZA ECHEVERRIA (2022)

"WRKY transcription factors (TFs) play key roles in plant defense responses through phytohormone signaling pathways. However, their functions in tropical fruit crops, especially in banana, remain largely unknown. Several WRKY genes from the model plants rice (OsWRKY45) and Arabidopsis (AtWRKY18, AtWRKY60, AtWRKY70) have shown to be attractive TFs for engineering disease resistance. In this study, we isolated four banana cDNAs (MaWRKY18, MaWRKY45, MaWRKY60, and MaWRKY70) with homology to these rice and Arabidopsis WRKY genes. The MaWRKY cDNAs were isolated from the wild banana Musa acuminata ssp. malaccensis, which is resistant to several diseases of this crop and is a progenitor of most banana cultivars. The deduced amino acid sequences of the four MaWRKY cDNAs revealed the presence of the conserved WRKY domain of ~60 amino acids and a zinc-finger motif at the N-terminus. Based on the number of WRKY repeats and the structure of the zinc-finger motif, MaWRKY18 and MaWRKY60 belong to group II of WRKY TFs, while MaWRKY45 and MaWRKY70 are members of group III. Their corresponding proteins were located in the nuclei of onion epidermal cells and were shown to be functional TFs in yeast cells. Moreover, expression analyses revealed that the majority of these MaWRKY genes were upregulated by salicylic acid (SA) or methyl jasmonate (MeJA) phytohormones, although the expression levels were relatively higher with MeJA treatment. The fact that most of these banana WRKY genes were upregulated by SA or MeJA, which are involved in systemic acquired resistance (SAR) or induced systemic resistance (ISR), respectively, make them interesting candidates for bioengineering broad-spectrum resistance in this crop."

Article

Banana Transcription factor WRKY Defense phytohormones Salicylic acid Methyl jasmonate SAR ISR Broad-spectrum resistance BIOLOGÍA Y QUÍMICA CIENCIAS DE LA VIDA GENÉTICA GENÉTICA

Using microsatellite data to estimate the persistence of field-level yield gaps and their drivers in smallholder systems

Balwinder-Singh Meha Jain (2023)

One way to meet growing food demand is to increase yields in regions that have large yield gaps, including smallholder systems. To do this, it is important to quantify yield gaps, their persistence, and their drivers at large spatio-temporal scales. Here we use microsatellite data to map field-level yields from 2014 to 2018 in Bihar, India and use these data to assess the magnitude, persistence, and drivers of yield gaps at the landscape scale. We find that overall yield gaps are large (33% of mean yields), but only 17% of yields are persistent across time. We find that sowing date, plot area, and weather are the factors that most explain variation in yield gaps across our study region, with earlier sowing associated with significantly higher yield values. Simulations suggest that if all farmers were able to adopt ideal management strategies, including earlier sowing and more irrigation use, yield gaps could be closed by up to 42%. These results highlight the ability of micro-satellite data to understand yield gaps and their drivers, and can be used to help identify ways to increase production in smallholder systems across the globe.

Article

Yield Drivers Yield Mapping CIENCIAS AGROPECUARIAS Y BIOTECNOLOGÍA MICROSATELLITES YIELD GAP SMALLHOLDERS FOOD PRODUCTION YIELD INCREASES