Analysis of farm-level adoption of soil nutrient management technology by paddy farmers in Karnataka,India

Adoption of soil test-based nutrient management is important for achieving sustainable development of agriculture. The present study analysed the factors influencing the adoption of soil nutrient management technology package comprising adoption of soil test and recommended fertiliser by paddy farmers in the southern Indian state of Karnataka by using field survey data. Bivariate probit model was used to estimate the sequential adoption decisions on soil test and fertiliser application technologies. The study results showed that farmers’ training on fertiliser application and education had positive and significant effect on adoption of soil nutrient technology package. The likelihood of adoption of soil test technology decreases with increase in distance measured from farm to soil test laboratory. Availability of fewer family labour increases the probability of adoption of soil nutrient management technology. These results have significant policy implications for provision of soil testing facilities nearer to villages and for conducting periodical training programmes for encouraging the farmers to adopt soil test-based nutrient management.     

Impact of policies favouring organic inputs on small farms in Karnataka, India: a multicriteria approach

Over 56% of the population of Karnataka state in India depends on agriculture for its livelihood. A majority of these are small and marginal farmers, with land under 2?ha, responsible for nearly half the food production in the state. The increasing rate of farmers’ suicides in the state is reportedly fuelled among others, by increasing input costs, crop failure and accumulating debt. This triggered several policy measures, intended to improve the sustainability of farm livelihoods including those promoting organic practices in farming. The paper presents the results of a multicriteria analysis conducted to comprehend the effects of two different practice–policy scenarios on smallholders in Karnataka—one scenario ‘with policy’ (WP) to support organic agricultural practices and the other a ‘business as usual’ (BAU) scenario that continues to stress on market-based, synthetic inputs for cultivation. The paper integrates results from quantitative and participatory techniques to compare and project effects on ecological, economic and socio-cultural indicators. Ecological and economic indicators in WP are projected to be significantly higher than BAU in a majority of the study sites, while socio-cultural indicators show mixed outcomes, depending on regional and social characteristics. Across the study sites, small and rain-fed farms are benefitted better in WP compared to large and irrigated farms, respectively. Among small and rain-fed farms, soil fertility, water quality, agro-diversity, net income and freedom from indebtedness improve considerably, while there is slight reduction in collective activities and no perceivable change in land-based subsistence.     

Assessing of Environmental Quality in Six Areas in India,Sri Lanka and Bangladesh

Environmental quality for environmental health has been examined visually by describing general conditions and drinking water supply, sanitation and solid waste treatment conditions and practices in six South-East Asian villages with a dense population. The environmental review was supplemented by discussions with local people and political and administrative decision makers. Some drinking water analyses were done in order to show the water quality to the local people. The quality of the general conditions and the conditions and practices of drinking water supply, excreta disposal and solid waste treatment practices have been graded with the grading system presented below. The grading could be done in 1 or 2 days in each area by two persons, of which one was an environmental scientist and the other a social scientist, who also knew the local culture and worked as a translator.     

Assessing land use change and potential environmental quality in Chandernagore Municipal Corporation,India

Environment, Development and Sustainability - The study has focused on portraying the spatio-temporal changes in land use pattern from 2011 to 2019 and has tried to assess the environmental quality...     

Assessing agricultural land-use change in the Midlands region of KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa: application of mixed multinomial logit

On-farm tree cultivation is considered an important strategy to mitigate detrimental environmental impacts of agricultural land-use change (ALUC). In South Africa, however, little is known about farm-level incentives and constraints that govern ALUC decisions among small-scale farmers. To address this knowledge gap, this study employs a mixed multinomial logit model by using a combination of revealed and stated preference data. After correcting for endogeneity, the estimated results show that decisions about ALUC are rationally derived and driven by clear but heterogeneous preferences and trade-offs between crop productivity, food security and labour saving. The results further show that the decision to plant sugarcane is constrained by landholding, whilst farmland afforestation is negatively influenced by household size. Decisions to convert land use are also driven by the behaviour of peer groups and agro-ecological conditions. Based on these findings, important policy implications for sustainable land use are outlined.     

The potential for adoption of climate smart agricultural practices in Sub-Saharan livestock systems

Livestock systems play an important role in the livelihoods of many rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa while being responsible for an important share of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. This study aimed to evaluate the potential for adoption of climate smart agricultural practices in Sub-Saharan livestock systems, related to the improvement in feed, animal husbandry, and grassland management. These practices present productivity and mitigation benefits and in some cases may also contribute to enhance resilience. In this study, we used a data set of 1538 farm households across nine Sub-Saharan countries. A mixed logit model was used to assess the influence on adoption and to estimate the probability of adoption. Our results show that there seems to be stronger influence of physical and financial capitals on adoption than the other capitals. Different types of capitals influence the uptake of different agricultural practices. Yet the probability of adoption would change across countries. The results of this study could help to refine adoption estimates calculated through global or regional modelling approaches and to inform the design of policies to better target investments in order to foster adoption.     

Assessing potential secondary effects of countermeasures in agricultural systems: a review.

Secondary effects are defined as any positive or negative impacts resulting from the application of countermeasures other than radiological benefits or direct costs. They are categorised into environmental, radioecological, economic and social effects. Impacts on the environment may include changes in water, air and soil pollution or in the conservation and amenity value of an area. Radioecological effects occur when the countermeasure unintentionally alters the behaviour of the target radionuclide or any other radionuclide present. Economic effects may range from changes in agricultural income to environmental costs (e.g. impact of soil erosion on fisheries). Social effects relate to the acceptability of countermeasures, for example in terms of consumer confidence and animal welfare. Recent research into the identification and assessment of secondary effects is summarised. Non-quantitative and quantitative approaches are explained and formal evaluation procedures involving decision matrices and decision support systems are introduced. Examples of recent experimental and modelling work focusing on radiocaesium are given for the following countermeasures: soil application of potassium, administration of AFCF to livestock and ploughing techniques.     

Heterogeneous impact of agricultural support policies: evidence from Turkey

Agricultural support policies, which increase production to excessive levels, have been heavily criticized for their distortional effects on farmers’ decisions. High input consumption, which harms the environment, and the distribution of supports, which causes income inequality among farmers, are also the other factors that economists criticize these support policies. However, in recent years, the use and dependence on production and land have been increasing globally due to fears of food insecurity in several countries. In this article, the impact of a support policy on cotton farmers’ land in Turkey is evaluated using a detailed farm-level micro dataset. We use the dynamic panel model to consider the production dynamics, unobservable individual heterogeneity, and the endogeneity of the support variable. Our results show that considering the support variable as endogenous significantly increased its impact on farmers’ land. A farmer’s past land allocation decisions also affected their current lands holdings. However, the results varied considerably between regions and between different land sizes. Therefore, the findings show the importance of heterogeneity in the impact of support policies. We conclude that due to the heterogeneous impact of support policies, it might not be possible to discuss the effect of support policies using an average estimate applicable for all farmers. Therefore, a different support policy considering regional characteristics or farm size is necessary to obtain the desired policy outcomes.

     

Therapeutic uses of edible plants in Bangalore city, India: combining health with cooking practices through home herbal gardens

This article examines the therapeutic uses and perceptions of edible plants cultivated in home herbal gardens in the city of Bangalore, Southern India. We suggest that an examination of edible plants within a therapeutic context facilitates a more comprehensive understanding of the role that plants play both in the diet and in the health of urban populations such as in Bangalore. We conclude by reinforcing the importance of promoting awareness of the combined value of medicinal and edible plants through their cultivation in home gardens and the role of local health knowledge in health promotion.     

Predicting climate change and its impact on future occurrences of vector-borne diseases in West Bengal,India

Environment, Development and Sustainability - Climate change is a concerning matter nowadays. It has a long-term effect on human health by spreading vector-borne diseases throughout the world, and...     

Hazardous waste, impact on health and environment for development of better waste management strategies in future in India

Industry has become an essential part of modern society, and waste production is an inevitable outcome of the developmental activities. A material becomes waste when it is discarded without expecting to be compensated for its inherent value. These wastes may pose a potential hazard to the human health or the environment (soil, air, water) when improperly treated, stored, transported or disposed off or managed. Currently in India even though hazardous wastes, emanations and effluents are regulated, solid wastes often are disposed off indiscriminately posing health and environmental risk. In view of this, management of hazardous wastes including their disposal in environment friendly and economically viable way is very important and therefore suggestions are made for developing better strategies. Out of the various categories of the wastes, solid waste contributes a major share towards environmental degradation. The present paper outlines the nature of the wastes, waste generating industries, waste characterization, health and environmental implications of wastes management practices, steps towards planning, design and development of models for effective hazardous waste management, treatment, approaches and regulations for disposal of hazardous waste. Appraisal of the whole situation with reference to Indian scenario is attempted so that a better cost-effective strategies for waste management be evolved in future.     

How global conditions impact regional agricultural production and nitrogen surpluses in the German Elbe River Basin

Agricultural land use has shifted towards more intensified production because the prices of agricultural products have increased during the past years. Just a few years ago, voluntary area set-aside was a lucrative alternative in some regions. But nowadays, land is re-cultivated again, inter alia with biomass crops. Consequently, this affects the soil and nutrient balances in agriculture. The global changes on the world markets influence agricultural production and thus the water cycle at the regional scale. In this paper, the regional developments and policy alternatives are discussed for the Elbe River Basin. The paper concludes that on average, no substantial effects of nitrogen surpluses are expected for the Elbe River Basin due to a continuing decline in animal herds. However, at the county level, nitrogen surpluses are likely to exceed the maximum threshold of 60 kg nitrogen per hectare (stipulated in the German Fertiliser Regulation) due to regional concentrations of animal production. A halving of the threshold to 30 kg per hectare shows that the marginal costs of nitrogen surplus reduction regionally exceeded 10 Euros per kilogram nitrogen.     

Assessing the impact of ecological insecurity on ecosystem service value in stone quarrying and crushing dominated areas

The present study has tried to develop ecological insecurity model (EIM) in the growing stone quarrying and crushing dominated areas using robust machine learning techniques and attempted to link it with ecosystem service value (ESV). Satellite image-based landscape metrics have been used for developing machine learning-oriented EIM, and the global coefficient of Costanza et al. (Glob Environ Change 26:152–158, 2014) has been used for computing ESV. Field parameter-based ecological insecurity index (EII) has been developed for validating the EIMs along with the statistical methods. Applied Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) revealed that 21.88 to 60.79% area has predicted as highly ecologically insecure in all the selected four stone quarrying and crushing dominated clusters and this is has inflated from 2000 to 2020. All the applied models are acceptable in terms of their performances, but the RF model is found to be the best representative in relation to EII. It causes considerable loss of ESV which ranges from 160,845.18 US$ to 757,445.17 US$ in all the clusters from 2000 to 2020. The findings of the study are useful for ecological management in this area. It further recommends applying such an approach in such similar fields to establish the general finding and provides knowledge to the state of arts.

     

Role of climate risks and socio-economic factors in influencing the impact of climatic extremes: a normalisation study in the context of Odisha,India

Economic costs imposed by climatic extremes have been increasing over the years and are expected to follow a similar trend in the coming years as well. Such costs are incurred due to two factors: (1) natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change and (2) exposure and vulnerability of socio-economic factors. The impact of these factors as identified separately through a ‘normalisation technique’ is analysed in the existing normalisation studies conducted mostly in developed country contexts; these have produced mixed results. However, one needs to enquire about the influence of the above two factors in a developing country context where the anticipated impacts of climate extremes are significant. This study, therefore, makes an attempt to adjust impact data, in terms of the reported population affected and economic damages of three extreme events, namely cyclones, floods and droughts, together for societal changes between 1972 and 2009 in Odisha in eastern India. Further, the second component is analysed in two ways: (1) assuming that exposed socio-economic factors are equally vulnerable similar to the other normalisation studies, i.e. no adaptation and (2) incorporating adaptation in the existing normalisation methods—which has attracted less attention so far in the literature. The results suggest that: (a) both the natural climate variability and the socio-economic factors influence the increasing damages in the recent decades, and (b) when adaptation is introduced in the normalisation model, economic losses have reduced significantly compared to the estimates using the existing normalisation models.     

Characterization of bottom sediments and phosphorus fractions in hyper-eutrophic Krishnagiri reservoir located in an agricultural watershed in India

The hyper-eutrophicated Krishnagiri reservoir is situated in hot tropical and semiarid climate zone in South India. There are 16 villages in the command area, which are directly benefited by this reservoir, and water from the reservoir is used for irrigation, fish rearing, livestock rearing and recreation purposes. The reservoir is located in an agricultural watershed, and the rate of soil erosion in the catchment area is very high. Thus, the reservoir is severely affected by sedimentation, and half of its capacity was reduced. Previous studies in Krishnagiri reservoir clearly indicate the lack of information on the quality of sediments and dynamics of nutrient in the reservoir. Hence, the present study was conducted on bottom sediments, and it included the assessment of physicochemical characteristics and nutrients, such as composition, redox potential, moisture content, organic carbon, organic matter, total iron, manganese, calcium carbonate, different phosphorus fractions and total phosphorus. The increasing trend in organic matter and also the significant change from positive to high negative values of redox potential clearly indicate the inflow of high organic load which may result from the disposal of sewage and industrial waste water in the upstream catchment side. The high concentration of inorganic phosphorus fractions at the inflow point of the reservoir obviously implies that there was a significant input of nutrients into the reservoir. Hence, the study concludes that the rainfall, soil erosion and runoff are the major environmental factors for the input and accumulation of large quantities of nutrients in the bottom sediments of Krishnagiri reservoir during the study period. The present study clearly suggests for a careful investigation into sediment nutrients in Krishnagiri reservoir, and it is also necessary to assess the role of sediments in the phosphorus dynamics and its significant effect on eutrophication. This study demonstrates that the examination of physicochemical characteristics and nutrients in the bottom sediments is a helpful tool to identify the sources of nutrients to the reservoir. The baseline data provided in this paper will be helpful for the policy makers to frame better policies for the sustainable management of water quality in Krishnagiri reservoir.     

The relative importance of factors influencing the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices: a factor approach for Malaysian vegetable farmers

This study develops the understanding of the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) by investigating the relative importance of a set of multidimensional factors in the Malaysian vegetable production sector. A factor approach is deployed to identify explanatory indicators within an integrative framework that is synthesized from the theory of interpersonal behavior and the theory of diffusion of innovation. We achieved this by analyzing a logistic regression model for the adoption of six individual SAPs (conservation tillage, intercropping, cover crops/mulches, crop rotation, organic fertilizers/composts, and integrated pest management). The findings indicate that adoption depends on a range of socio-economic, agro-ecological, institutional, informational, and psychological factors, as well as the perceived attributes of SAPs. Fundamental policy understanding of the issue should, therefore, be multidisciplinary. In addition, standardized coefficients reveal that the impact of statistically significant factors on adoption is unequal. In general, the most influential factor is the asymmetric distribution of resources across geographical locations. This is followed by financial capital and a number of factors, including the workforce size, the usefulness of information, Chinese ethnicity, and the perceived relative advantage of SAPs. Guided by this prioritization understanding, future SAPs promotion now has a better opportunity to target the more important areas. Similar research effort should be made to steer sustainable agriculture internationally.     

Study of 210Po and 210Pb in the riverine environments of coastal Karnataka

Activity of ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb were measured in soil and sediment samples collected from the major rivers Kali, Sharavathi and Netravathi of Coastal Karnataka. The activity of these two radionuclides were determined by radiochemical separation of ²¹⁰Po and counting the activity using a ZnS(Ag) Alpha counter. The activity of ²¹⁰Pb was higher than that of ²¹⁰Po in the riverine environs. The ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb content in sediment was found to increase with silt/clay and organic matter contents. However no significant correlation was found between the activity ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb with pH in sediments. The activity of ²¹⁰Po and ²¹⁰Pb and influence of physico-chemical parameters on these radionuclides were studied and discussed in this paper.