Nutrient flows in small-scale farm production systems from Northeastern Brazil
Germana Gomes dos Santos Camelo and Julius Blum
Universidade Federal do Ceara, Fortaleza, Brazil
ABSTRACT
This research focused on identifying strategies to enable phosphorus and potassium recycling in agricultural systems at
Northeastern Brazil. Thirty-three local farms were selected to the study, where each farm was taken as a single system and
the areas used for crop and livestock production (e.g., cashew field, corn field, beans field, cattle pasture, pigpen, etc.) made
up the subsystems within each system. Considering diversity as the number of subsystems within a farm and interaction as
exchange of materials between internal subsystems, the higher the diversity and interactions, the more efficient nutrient
cycling was. This higher efficiency arises from using the nutrient in more than one subsystem, before being exported from
the system. Overall, just a few farmers have used strategies to enable the return of nutrients to its original area. The interaction among the subsystems was restricted to flows deriving from plant to household and livestock production.
KEYWORDS
Nutrient cycling; farm systems; sustainability; nutrient flow analysis
An investigation into a resource and environmentally sustainable system: zero-tillage lentil and garlic production in Nepal
Anil Pokhrela,b and Peeyush Soni a
aAgricultural Systems and Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Pathumthani, Thailand; bGrain Legumes Research Program (GLRP), Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), Kathmandu, Nepal
ABSTRACT
Lentils and garlic are primarily grown under conventional tillage (CT) practice; however, both crops have been fetching lower
profits due to the high cost of both cultivation as well as the required inputs. For securing more benefits and using residual soil-moisture, farmers have started the zero-tillage (ZT) practice in a rice-based cropping system. In general, it is imperative to compare these two systems (ZT and CT) to assess their energy consumption, and their broader environmental and financial
performance. In this study, we found that the total energy input was reduced by 38% with ZT as compared to CT (3.96 GJ ha–1) for lentil cultivation; in contrast, for garlic, CT’s energy consumption was 11% of that of ZT (113.55 GJ ha–1). Energy output increased by 13% and 4% with ZT, in comparison to CT, for lentil and garlic, respectively. Similarly, ZT reduced CO2e (carbon dioxide-equivalent) emissions by 50% and 98%, as compared to CT, for lentil and garlic cultivation, respectively. The maximum financial benefit was seen to be obtained with ZT: the production cost was reduced by 28% and 33%, as compared to CT practices, for lentil and garlic, respectively. The return-cost ratios from ZT and CT were 3.39 and 2.18 for lentil, and 7.64 and 3.52 for garlic, respectively. We can, therefore, conclude that ZT is an energy-efficient, environment-friendly, and cost-effective practice of lentil and garlic production.
KEYWORDS
Zero tillage (ZT); conventional tillage (CT); energy input-output; GHG emissions; crop yield; production cost
Enacting food sovereignty in Aotearoa New Zealand and Peru: revitalizing Indigenous knowledge, food practices and ecological philosophies
Mariaelena Huambachano
American Studies and Ethnic Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA
ABSTRACT
This article reports on a cross-cultural study of two Indigenous1 knowledge and food security systems: Quechua2 people of Peru
and Māori3 of Aotearoa – New Zealand, and implications for food systems sustainability and traditional knowledge. This study takes noveapproach by using a traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) lens to examiner espective “good living principles” of All in Kaw say / Buen Vivir in Peru and of Mauri Ora in Aotearoa in safeguarding food security. In this study, I introduce the “Khipu Model” as a source of knowledge production and sovereignty guiding the development of an Indigenous research-based framework. Drawing on over 45 interviews, with elders, community leaders, and people engaged in sustainable food production in Peru and Aotearoa. I show that an Indigenous “food security policy framework” underpinned by a set of cultural and environmental indicators of wellbeing resonates with conceptualizations of food sovereignty, whereas the dominant food security approaches do not. I argue that such a framework enacts practices of food sovereignty and represents a tool of Indigenous resurgence and social change in food politics for the revitalization of Indigenous food sovereignty as an alternative sustainable food system.
KEYWORDS
Sustainable food systems; food sovereignty; food security; Indigenous peoples; Mauri Ora; good living/Buen Vivir; TEK; Khipu Model
Integrating social preferences analysis for multifunctional peri-urban farming in planning. An application by multi-criteria analysis techniques and stakeholders
Inmaculada Marques-Perez and Baldomero Segura
Department of Economics and Social Sciences, Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain
ABSTRACT
Cities and civil society organizations arround the World (Barcelona, Milan, Paris, Madrid, London, Boston) work together
to enhance the collaboration and to create a coordinated urban policy on sustainable food systems to deliver healthy and accessible food to all, and peri-urban areas are considered priorities as opportunity to actions related to it. In this article, we pay
attention on the debate arround urban growth strategies versus conservation-preservation of farmland in peri urban areas. We
use the multifunctionality approaches to analyze the agricultural systems and propose multi-criteria analysis techniques in the
development of territorial planning processes by stakeholders and applying contemporary tools and techniques. Our study is
focused on the “Huerta de Valencia,” a peri-urban agricultural system around the city of Valencia (Spain). This is an agricultural
system of great wealth and variety of resources, recognized by the European Environment Agency. The differences in perceptions between stakeholder grups result in different future vision for this agricultural system, with implications in the process to
design rural development measures and agro-environmental to breach this gap.
KEYWORDS
Agricultural systems; peri-urban agriculture; urban green infrastructure; public goods; social optimum; stakeholders; priorities; multicriteria analysis tecniques
Coffee in the crosshairs of climate change: agroforestry as abatis
Robert A. Rice
Migratory Bird Center, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington, DC, USA
ABSTRACT
Coffee producers face a host of challenges linked to climate change, a situation especially evident in much of Latin America.
Recent publications and the results of an informal survey presented here confirm that growers now confront rising temperatures, distorted rain patterns, and increased problems with pests and disease – all of which threaten production and possibly even current coffee lands’ suitability for future harvests. The industry’ s response has been to fund and promote new varieties designed to contend with the challenges, involving a plant breeding scheme that will undoubtedly take years to put into effect and be fully realized. Yet, the extant cultural practice of producing coffee within an agroforestry setting provides a ready-made and widely known land use that could help defend coffee from much of the onslaught that climate change brings to producers. Review
of relevant literature and responses from the survey – “ voices at or ig in” – allow for an argument to be made in favor of promoting agroforestry. It stands as a potential countermeasure against the direct threats of changing rainfall and temperature regimes and indirect challenges from pests, diseases and landslides, demonstrating how science-based evidence and local knowledge of the benefits of agroforestry are aligned.
KEYWORDS
Coffee; agroforestry; climate change; Latin America
