Systems In Organic Dairy Production

The aim of this study was to explore stakeholder perceptions of the contribution of an Automatic Milking System (AMS) to sustainable development of organic dairy production in Denmark and the Netherlands. In addition, reasons for the current difference in AMS use on organic dairy farms between both countries were explored. To answer above mentioned aims, farmers and advisors in both countries were interviewed using a focus group approach. Questions of the interviews were based on a literature review on sustainability issues affected by introduction of AMS. Participants expressed no moral problems regarding AMS use. They, however, pointed out uncertainty about the economic gain, difficulties with grazing, adaptation problems to technology, and image problems towards consumers. The latter results from a reduction in grazing time affecting both animal welfare and product quality. The participants did not recognize eutrophication, as result of high stocking density on farmstead lots, as a problem caused by AMS. The milk quality problem related to AMS use, although acknowledged as crucial towards consumers, was not prioritized very highly, especially not by the farmers in both countries. All groups were, however, unanimous in their perception of how important image was as far as the consumers are concerned. The perception analysis revealed that Dutch participants were more concerned about the economic payoff of AMS use, and showed more reluctance towards enlargement than Danish ones. In addition, they acknowledged the small-scale naturalness of organic production. These differences in perception could possibly explain observed differences in AMS use in organic dairy production between Denmark and the Netherlands.     

江汉平原湿地农业技术体系探讨

以十多年来江汉平原农业地理和涝渍地开发研究实践为基础,综合国内外湿地研究新成果,首次提出了建立中国南方湿地农业技术体系的构想。针对本地区涝渍灾害严重和生态脆弱化突出的实际,重点探讨了湿地农业关键技术和建立湿地农业开发模式的问题,湿地农业的关键技术主要有涝渍地农业小区综合整治开发规划与实施;涝渍地排水改良技术;涝渍地土壤肥力特征及改良技术;适生生物资源的发现、引进与鉴定;主要作物抗涝渍的机理及抗渍高产栽培;涝渍地作物病虫草害的发生规律及综合防治技术;涝渍地生态环境异化评价与生态恢复技术。基于江汉平原实际,今后湿地农业必须在国土整治与水资源合理分配、调控技术、选择与培育湿地特色产业和恢复优美环境与确保食物安全等方面进行重点攻关研究。     

城郊稻田生态系统高效生产模式的研究与评价

根据天津市宝坻区的自然条件、区位优势和现有的农业种植结构,提出了稻藕轮作与稻鱼蟹混养相结合的高效生产模式并分析其生态优势。借助Ecopath软件,从系统可持续性和净产值角度,比较分析了稻鱼蟹混养与稻藕轮作相结合生产模式与稻田养鱼、稻田养蟹、稻鱼蟹混养、单一种稻4种稻田生产模式的优劣。结果表明:5种稻田生产模式F inn′s指数值从大到小依次为稻鱼蟹混养与稻藕轮作相结合、稻田养鱼、稻田养蟹、稻鱼蟹混养和单一种稻;稻鱼蟹混养与稻藕轮作相结合生产模式的可持续性指标优于其他3种生态种植模式,其净生产力、生物量/输出量、输出量/输入量和稳定性指标分别是单一种稻模式的2.63、4.25、2.03和3.56倍;与其他4种稻田生产模式相比,稻鱼蟹混养与稻藕轮作相结合模式的净产值很高,是适合于在北方推广的最优生态种植模式。     

降水对农田排水沟渠中氮磷流失的影响

以浙江嘉兴双桥农场为研究对象,分析降水对农田沟渠中氮、磷流失的影响,揭示氮、磷在降水径流中流失的一般规律. 在单晚稻生长期间,同步监测了施肥后的2次降水量和沟渠径流量,并对2次降水径流的全过程进行污染物含量的测定,对农田排水沟渠径流量与污染物含量随2次降水变化过程进行监测.结果表明:污染物含量变化呈现出大致相同的趋势,且污染物含量峰值比流量峰值提前2～3 h;在降水初期,污染物含量随径流量的增大而升高;随着流量的继续增大,含量呈下降趋势. 施肥后4 d内降水的农田沟渠中氮、磷随径流的流失量比4 d后大. 影响氮、磷流失的因素主要有降水量、降水时间间隔、径流量、施肥的种类和数量、土壤前期含水量以及沟渠中的沉积物等. 氮流失的主要形态为氨氮和硝氮;磷流失的主要形态为磷酸盐. 通过回归分析发现,径流量与氮、磷排放负荷间符合多项式关系.      

洪湖流域半封闭池塘河蟹养殖氮磷污染负荷研究

选取洪湖流域半封闭池塘河蟹养殖区域为调查样本,针对一个养殖周期内6个监测点位(1个背景点,3个养殖水体点,2个纳污水体点)TN、TP值进行监测分析。监测结果表明,养殖准备期(12月～1月),养殖水体TN、TP值与同期背景值没有明显差异;养殖中后期(3月～10月),养殖水体和纳污水体TN、TP均明显高于同期背景值,大部分为劣Ⅴ类水质。按5～10月份养殖水体TN、TP实测值进行化学分析法估算,一个养殖周期内养殖水体TN、TP污染负荷为27.61kg/hm2、7.33kg/hm2,则洪湖流域半封闭池塘河蟹养殖排放的TN、TP污染负荷约为269.11t/a、71.46t/a。另据对样本区域养殖生产过程的调查,按物料平衡法估算的TN、TP污染负荷为57.61kg/hm2、11.60kg/hm2,而洪湖流域半封闭池塘河蟹养殖TN、TP污染负荷约为561.51t/a、113.06t/a。     

How does agricultural intensification modulate changes in plant community composition?

Agricultural intensification, at local and landscape scales, has caused a decrease in plant diversity and changes in species composition in cereal fields. To better understand the role of landscape complexity and farming systems in shaping plant assemblages, it is of interest to focus on functional traits rather than on floristic composition, which may help to highlight trends in vegetation patterns. We analysed the relative abundance of various functional attributes (different life forms, growth forms, wind-pollinated species and wind-dispersed species) at three contrasted field positions (boundary, edge and centre) of 29 organic and 29 conventional cereal fields distributed in 15 agrarian localities of NE Spain. Agricultural intensification affected the biological attributes of the vegetation in dryland Mediterranean cereal fields; local factors (farming system and position) had a more prominent role in affecting plant functional composition than the surrounding landscape. Local factors were important for life form distribution, growth form and pollination type, whereas landscape complexity mainly affected the proportion of wind-dispersed species. Therefore, depending on the objective of the study, it is important to select functional attributes sensitive to the different scales of agricultural intensification, especially because landscape complexity and land-use intensity are commonly related.     

骆马湖水体氮污染特征分析

通过对骆马湖2005年水质监测,并结合近几年的监测资料,对结果进行了分析。结果表明,氮是骆马湖水体的主要污染指标之一,主要是总氮、氨氮和硝酸盐氮污染,其主要污染特征是入湖河流、降水、围网养殖和点源带来的污染。针对实际提出了骆马湖整治的建议。     

“Organic is More of an American Term … We Are Traditional Farmers”: Discourses of Place-based Organic Farming,Community, Heritage,and Sustainability

The following study looks at how traditional, organic, cooperative farmers starting a new farming cooperative in the US Southwest communicate about their farming as a set of (sustainable) cultural practices. The study draws on environmental communication theory, the theory of the coordinated management of meaning, and Vandana Shiva’s three-tiered economic model to construct a communication-based framework through which to view farmers’ stories about sustainability. This framework is productive, showing how some Nuevo Mexicano farmers (and others) orient toward farming, sustenance, and human-nature relationships through community, family, heritage, and education. Moreover, in addition to a conceptualization of sustainability as specific practices for nurturing and enduring in environments, communities, and organizations/institutions, sustainability can be understood as embedded ecocultural and historical experience with cross-cultural parallels in land-based communities. This study advances the ethical duty of environmental communication to better understand the ways in which environmental discourse and ecocultural and material realities are imbricated, as well as the call for such discursive study to be grounded in phenomenological experience of the natural world.     

From Population Viability Analysis to Coviability of Farmland Biodiversity and Agriculture

Substantial declines in farmland biodiversity have been reported in Europe for several decades. Agricultural changes have been identified as a main driver of these declines. Although different agrienvironmental schemes have been implemented, their positive effect on biodiversity is relatively unknown. This raises the question as to how to reconcile farming production and biodiversity conservation to operationalize a sustainable and multifunctional agriculture. We devised a bioeconomic model and conducted an analysis based on coviability of farmland biodiversity and agriculture. The coviability approach extended population viability analyses by including bioeconomic risk. Our model coupled stochastic dynamics of both biodiversity and farming land‐uses selected at the microlevel with public policies at the macrolevel on the basis of financial incentives (taxes or subsidies) for land uses. The coviability approach made it possible for us to evaluate bioeconomic risks of these public incentives through the probability of satisfying a mix of biodiversity and economic constraints over time. We calibrated the model and applied it to a community of 34 common birds in metropolitan France at the small agricultural regions scale. We identified different public policies and scenarios with tolerable (0–0%) agroecological risk and modeled their outcomes up to 2050. Budgetary, economic, and ecological (based on Farmland Bird Index) constraints were essential to understanding the set of viable public policies. Our results suggest that some combinations of taxes on cereals and subsidies on grasslands could be relevant to develop a multifunctional agriculture. Moreover, the flexibility and multicriteria viewpoint underlying the coviability approach may help in the implementation of adaptive management. Del Análisis de Viabilidad Poblacional a la Co‐Viabilidad de la Agricultura y la Biodiversidad de las Tierras de Cultivo     

Social cost‐benefit analysis of intensive versus traditional shrimp farming: A case study from India

This paper attempts a social cost‐benefit analysis of intensive versus traditional shrimp farming in West Bengal, India. Using primary data, the paper shows that although intensive shrimp farming yields high returns as compared to traditional shrimp farming, when the opportunity costs and environmental costs of shrimp farming, including disease risk, are accounted for, intensive shrimp farming loses its advantage. Sensitivity analysis shows that if the expected benefits were to fall short by 15% and costs rise by a similar proportion, intensive shrimp farmers would report higher losses than traditional shrimp farmers. Large traditional shrimp farmers continue to report positive net returns. These results are also most pronounced for small and marginal intensive shrimp farmers. Further, if the probability of disease risk is also accounted for, intensive shrimp farming reports significant losses whereas traditional shrimp farming in most cases shows positive net returns. In light of the high social costs and risks, this paper questions the rationale behind promoting intensive shrimp farming, especially among small and marginal holdings, as an income‐generating activity or poverty alleviation measure in the absence of an enabling environment. It suggests that policymakers need to factor in sustainability concerns and the local context when formulating policies to promote intensive shrimp farming.