Resource frontiers and agglomeration economies: The varied logics of transnational land-based investing in Southern and Eastern Africa

Actor-level data on large-scale commercial agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa are scarce. The peculiar choice of transnational investing in African land has, therefore, been subject to conjecture. Addressing this gap, we reconstructed the underlying logics of investment location choices in a Bayesian network, using firm- and actor-level interview and spatial data from 37 transnational agriculture and forestry investments across 121 sites in Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. We distinguish four investment locations across gradients of resource frontiers and agglomeration economies to derive the preferred locations of different investors with varied skillsets and market reach (i.e., track record). In contrast to newcomers, investors with extensive track records are more likely to expand the land use frontier, but they are also likely to survive the high transaction costs of the pre-commercial frontier. We highlight key comparative advantages of Southern and Eastern African frontiers and map the most probable categories of investment locations.Supplementary informationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13280-021-01682-z.     

我国农业面源污染治理技术研究进展

农业面源污染逐渐成为制约我国现代农业和经济社会可持续发展的重大障碍,其治理工作在我国生态环境保护与治理工作中的重要性日益加强。本文概述了农业面源污染的基本概念、特征与成因,根据农业面源污染的"产-流-汇"3个发生发展阶段,总结了现阶段农业面源氮磷污染的治理理论与技术,并根据各阶段治理技术的优缺点提出我国未来农业面源污染治理过程中应该加强污染产生机制和迁移转化过程的研究,同时,通过少量的人工干预,努力提高单项治理技术的治理效率,将农业面源污染发生与发展的"产-流-汇"3个阶段的治理技术结合起来,突出流域治理思路。     

排污权交易应用于农业面源污染控制研究

当前农业面源污染已经成为我国水环境污染的主要根源,文中通过对农业非点源污染现状的调查和对治理污染的手段和措施的分析,结合排污权交易的优势和特点,探讨排污权交易体系引入农业非点源污染控制系统的可行性,相比较于大型工业点源,农业面源污染减排成本较低的状况为排污权交易提供了有利条件。在分析面源污染具有涉及个体多、发生不确定性强、减排结果监测困难等特征的基础上,提出了工业点源与农业面源排污权交易的总体框架。同时针对农业面源排污权交易中可能存在的一些问题进行了初步探讨,提出解决思路,期待着为今后相关研究抛砖引玉。     

农业活动与水质的关系研究综述

农业活动与水质的关系十分密切。过量施用化肥、农药等不合理的农业活动常引起氮、磷等营养元素在土壤中富集,进而导致地表水富营养化和地下水硝酸盐污染。     

Temporal variability of atmospheric particulate matter and chemical composition during a growing season at an agricultural site in northeastern China

This study presents the observations of PM_(10) and PM_(2.5) concentrations at an agricultural site from April to October 2012 in Dehui city,China.Ambient air was sampled by filter-based samplers and online PM monitors.The filter samples were analyzed to determine the abundance of ionic/inorganic elements,organic carbon(OC) and elemental carbon(EC).The daily PM_(10) concentrations varied significantly over the monitoring period,with an average of168 ± 63(in the range of 52-277) μg/m~3 during the land preparation/planting period(26 April-15 June),85 ± 65(36-228) μg/m~3 during the growing season(16 June-25 September),and 207 ±88(103-310) μg/m~3 during the harvest period(26 September-31 October).PM_(2.5) accounted for44%,56%and 66%of atmospheric PM_(10) during these periods,respectively.The PM_(10) diurnal variation showed a distinct peak from 16:00 to 21:00(LST) during the growing and harvesting seasons,while a gradual increase throughout the daytime until 17:00 was observed during tilling season.Mineral dust elements(Al,Ca,Fe,and Mg) dominated the PM_(10) chemical composition during the tilling season;OC,NO_3~-,SO_4~(2-) and NH_4~+ during the growing season;and carbonaceous species(i.e.,OC and EC) during the harvesting season.Our results indicate that the soil particles emitted by farm tillage and organic matter released from straw burning are the two most significant sources of PM_(10) emissions contributing to the recurring high pollution events in this region.Therefore,development of agricultural PM inventories from soil tillage and straw burning is prioritized to support air quality modeling.     

The alignment of agricultural and nature conservation policies in the European Union

Europe is a region of relatively high population density and productive agriculture subject to substantial government intervention under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Many habitats and species of high conservation interest have been created by the maintenance of agricultural practices over long periods. These practices are often no longer profitable, and nature conservation initiatives require government support to cover the cost for them to be continued. The CAP has been reformed both to reduce production of agricultural commodities at costs in excess of world prices and to establish incentives for landholders to adopt voluntary conservation measures. A separate nature conservation policy has established an extensive series of protected sites (Natura 2000) that has, as yet, failed to halt the loss of biodiversity. Additional broader scale approaches have been advocated for conservation in the wider landscape matrix, including the alignment of agricultural and nature conservation policies, which remains a challenge. Possibilities for alignment include further shifting of funds from general support for farmers toward targeted payments for biodiversity goals at larger scales and adoption of an ecosystem approach. The European response to the competing demands for land resources may offer lessons globally as demands on rural land increase.     

The use of agricultural substrates to improve methane yield in anaerobic co-digestion with pig slurry: Effect of substrate type and inclusion level

Anaerobic co-digestion of pig slurry with four agricultural substrates (tomato, pepper, persimmon and peach) was investigated. Each agricultural substrate was tested in co-digestion with pig slurry at four inclusion levels: 0%, 15%, 30% and 50%. Inclusion levels consisted in the replacement of the volatile solids (VS) from the pig slurry with the VS from the agricultural substrate. The effect of substrate type and inclusion level on the biochemical methane potential (BMP) was evaluated in a batch assay performed at 35 °C for 100 days. Agricultural substrate’s chemical composition was also analyzed and related with BMP. Additionally, Bacteria and Archaea domains together with the four main methanogenic archaeal orders were quantified using quantitative real-time TaqMan polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) at the end of the experiment to determine the influence of agricultural substrate on sludge’s microbial composition. Results showed that vegetable substrates (pepper and tomato) had higher lipid and protein content and lower carbohydrates than fruit substrates (persimmon and peach). Among substrates, vegetable substrates showed higher BMP than fruit substrates. Higher BMP values were obtained with increasing addition of agricultural substrate. The replacement of 50% of VS from pig slurry by tomato and pepper increased BMP in 41% and 44%, respectively compared with pig slurry only. Lower increments in BMP were achieved with lower inclusion levels. Results from qPCR showed that total bacteria and total archaea gene concentrations were similar in all combinations tested. Methanomicrobiales gene concentrations dominated over the rest of individual archaeal orders.     

农用化学物对河网地区地表水质的影响

为了解平原河网地区农用化学物(化肥和农药)对地表水质的污染程度,调查了嘉兴市某农区在施肥和雨后,径流对地表水质的影响,初步揭示了水质与农时和降雨情况的关系。调查表明,农业非点源污染受农时、降雨的影响较大,其中农时的影响更大,施肥后短时间内水质即下降,变化非常显著。     

造纸达标废水回用的实验研究

通过实验论证了造纸达标废水回用于生产或农灌的可行性，同时对各种回用方法存在的问题提出了相应的对策和建议，为造纸废水的排放去向提供了新思路。     

稻壳综合利用的最佳途径

简述了稻壳综合利用现状，介绍了稻壳成型工艺及铁水保温及转炉炼钢方面的应用，并比较了稻壳块同其他保温剂性能的优劣，实践证明，成型后的稻壳块用于铁水保温及转炉冶炼过程中的喷溅和溢渣控制技术上，所产生的经济和社会效益是巨大的，也是其它稻壳综合利用途径所无法比拟的，钢铁冶金工业，是稻壳综合利用的最佳途径。