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Understanding foodscapes for sustainable diets in rural localities in Tunisia: Integrating multiple methods and tools in a mixed-methods design
Get PDFBackground
Understanding foodscapes is essential for developing effective interventions to support nutritional health. However, resource limitations often hinder comprehensive foodscape assessments linked to dietary outcomes. This study aimed to examine the foodscapes in the context of sustainable diets within a food systems framework in rural farming communities in Tunisia.
Methods
A mixed-methods approach using the following tools and methods, was employed in a sample of four rural communities in Tunisia to explore food beliefs and dietary influencers: market observation combined with a food costing survey, a household survey including dietary data collection using Diet Quality Questionnaire, distance from market, meal decision influencers, anthropometric and demographics data, and focus group discussions.
Results
The participants' (n = 692) dietary quality and BMI were significantly associated with gender, age, distance from fresh markets, and education. Food price was significantly positively associated with dietary diversity and with both health-protective and health-risking food groups' consumption. Focus group discussions revealed religion and culture's embeddedness in food beliefs and behaviors. Participants placed animal-sourced foods and grain-based products among the top highly praised foods for health, with significantly more men than women believing meat was necessary for good health. Few respondents considered legumes as meat-alternatives.
Conclusion
This foodscapes study presented the application of farming household survey, food market and costing, and restaurant observation data, and focus group discussion in a convergent parallel mixed methods design to efficiently assess foodscapes in rural Tunisia. The tools enabled the identification of eco-socio-cultural factors that can guide the designing of interventions for sustainable diets
Module 19 - Implementing a roadmap towards 100% organic seed use by 2036
No full textThis self-paced training is designed to help national authorities in increasing the supply and demand of organic PRM in their national contexts, notably by drawing on best practices from European Member States that have already implemented roadmaps or plan to achieve such objective
Module 22 - Regulatory issues related to organic seed and breeding
No full textThis module provides a structured training approach to strengthen the capacity of civil society actors, seed networks, and farmer organisations to follow regulatory processes, critically assess proposed reforms, and identify strategic opportunities for advocacy and policy engagement. It focuses on developing participants’ ability to understand the implications of legal frameworks for seed systems, connect technical and political dimensions, and collaborate effectively to influence change
Effects of legume and non-legume winter cover crops on summer crops under organic management from 2015 to 2023
No full textThis database originates from field trials conducted between 2013 and 2023 by CREABIO at the La Hourre experimental site (southwestern France), and was compiled by ITAB. The objective of these trials was to investigate the impact of introducing cover crops during the intercrop period on the performance of the subsequent summer crop (soybean- Glycine max and linseed - Linum usitatissimum). The cover crops were sown in September and terminated by mowing in March of the following year, prior to the establishment of the summer crop.
Each treatment corresponded to a specific combination of two cover crop species—legume or non-legume—sown at varying densities. A total of 21 treatments were implemented, involving 12 cover crop species, including faba bean (Vicia faba), Vicia benghalensis, Vicia sativa, oat (Avena strigosa), buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), barley (Hordeum vulgare), clover (Trifolium spp.), Setaria italica, Sinapis alba, lentil (Lens culinaris), phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia), and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor). All treatments were compared to a control with no cover crop.
The trials followed a split-plot design with 3 replicates.
The database includes information on:
- Field operations: sowing, fertilization, weed control, and harvesting
- Summer crop production performance: yield, protein content, grain nitrogen and phosphorus total content, aboveground residue biomass quantity, nitrogen and phosphorus total content
- Cover crop production performance for each species: aboveground residue biomass quantity, nitrogen and phosphorus total content
- Yield components: plant density (plants/m²), pods density (pods/m²), grain density (grains/m²), and thousand seed weight
- Soil mineral nitrogen content at different horizons at different dates.
In addition, the database includes daily weather data (minimum, maximum, and mean temperature, as well as precipitation) recorded at the on-site weather station during the trial period.
Crop succession:
Year n || Year n+1
This dataset is part of the database compiled as an outcome of Work Area 1 in project OrganicYieldsUP. Variable definitions can be found here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15276082
ID abbreviations:
CC: cover crops
CC-W: winter cover crops
NO: without cover crops
W-x: treatment number
Example « CC_W-6 » correspond to winter cover crops treatment number 6
Publications based on this dataset (Frensh):
Résultats de l’essai test de couverts végétaux en agriculture biologique :
– Campagne 2015
– Campagne 2016
– Campagne 2017
– Campagne 2018
– Campagne 2019
– Campagne 2020
– Campagne 2021
– Campagne 2022
– Campagne 202
Neue Hacktechnik auf dem Prüfstand
Get PDFDie mechanische Unkrautregulierung hat durch den Einsatz von KI und moderner Kameratechnik einen Entwicklungssprung erlebt. Im Biolandbau eröffnen sich damit neue Wege zur effektiven Unkrautregulierung in der Reihe
Baseline levels of microplastics in agricultural soils obscure the effects of additional microplastics from recycled fertilizers
Get PDFDigestate from the recycling of various organic wastes in biogas plants is widely used as organic fertilizer for agricultural soils. Organic fertilizers contribute to microplastic loads, but it is not well constrained how they contribute to the overall accumulation of microplastic in agricultural soils. We investigated a field experiment in Switzerland fertilized since 2018 with liquid or solid digestate from a non-agricultural biogas plant. Microplastic particle concentrations (p) and characteristics were investigated in digestate fertilizers, digestate-treated soils and a control soil that did not receive organic fertilizers. Microplastics were extracted from the soil (two rounds of density separation (1.5 g cm− 3) and Fenton treatment), followed by µFTIR chemical imaging analysis with a size detection limit of 20 μm. We found median microplastic concentrations of 16,000 p kg− 1 (10,600–54,000 p kg− 1) in digestate fertilizers, 6,400 p kg− 1 (800–33,800 p kg− 1) in digestate-treated soils and 7,100 p kg− 1 in the control soil caused by a single outlier value or 5,600 p kg− 1 when excluding the outlier. Particle sizes and polymer compositions differed between digestate fertilizers and soils. Topsoil (0–20 cm) microplastic stocks varied from 1.8 to 3.8 × 106 p m− 3. The calculated inputs from the digestate application contributed only 0.9–4.0% to the total microplastic stocks which led to the case that digestate microplastic inputs were not detectable against the variation of the stocks. The study highlights those substantial high concentrations of microplastic might already occur in many soils, due to previous microplastic inputs over several decades from e.g., recycled fertilizer application like sewage sludge or from other diffuse sources. Whilst it was observed from the fluxes that digestate can be a substantial source of microplastics to soils, the comparatively short time of application and the high background at our investigated sites leads to a obscured effect where digestate inputs serve a limited function
Ezekiel Mugendi Njeru organic tomatoes - Functional identity has a stronger effect than diversity on mycorrhizal symbiosis and productivity of field grown organic tomato
No full textBeneficial soil biota, and in particular, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are increasingly being recognized as key elements of organic and low-input agriculture where agrobiodiversity is central to enhanced crop production. However, the role of AMF in diversified organic systems, especially in field crops, is still poorly understood. A 3-year field experiment was carried out in Central Italy to investigate whether organic cropping systems that promote species and genetic diversity are more prone to mycorrhizal symbiosis increasing tomato growth, production and yield quality. Three tomato cultivars with varying genetic diversity were grown following four cover treatments: Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L. Czern.), hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), a commercial mixture of seven cover crop species (Mix 7) and no-till fallow. Plants were either inoculated or not in nursery, with the two AMF isolates Funneliformis mosseae (IMA1) and Rhizoglomus intraradices (IMA6) used alone or mixed in a 1:1 volume ratio. On average, Mix 7 produced higher shoot dry matter (5.0 t ha−1) than V. villosa (3.5 t ha−1) or B. juncea (2.5 t ha−1). Pre-transplant inoculation increased tomato root colonization at flowering and harvest compared to the non inoculated plants (31.8 vs 23.6%) and cv. Rio Grande was on average the best colonized. The mean fresh weight of marketable fruits was 18.4, 28.0 and 28.6 t ha−1 for cvs. Rio Grande, Roma and Perfect Peel, respectively. Cover crops inconsistently affected tomato marketable fruit production in year 1, while in years 2 and 3, Vicia villosa and Mix 7 showed the best effect respectively. In year 3, among the pre-inoculated plants those treated with isolate IMA6 showed a higher production of marketable fruit number m−2 (56.7) than those inoculated either with IMA1 (51.5) or the mixed inocula (52.1). Most fruit quality parameters were affected by tomato genotype. This study shows that while increased agrobiodiversity is important to increase agroecosystem resilience, AMF, crop and cover crop functional identity may be more important than diversity per se to promote mycorrhizal symbiosis and productivity of field grown organic tomato
The Role of Plant Roots in Soil Health (Policy Brief)
No full textThis policy brief, produced in the Root2Res project focuses on the following key messages:
- Soil health is critical for sustainable agriculture, climate resilience, food security and biodiversity.
- Roots play a key role in soil carbon storage, water retention, structure formation, resilience and biodiversity — yet they’re often overlooked in policy and research.
- We need targeted investment in root trait research, breeding, and field trials to unlock their full potential.
- Support policies are needed that reward living root systems — through the CAP, national soil strategies and new incentives for farmer
LinkedIn opslag om International Biodiversitetsdag, der omtaler Organic+
No full textLinkedIn opslag fra Innovationscenter for Økologisk Landbrug, hvor der sættes fokus på Organic+ og hvordan det bidrager til at øge biodiversiteten gennem tiltag hos økologiske landbrug
«Wir müssen Expertise gewinnen – vom Rebstock bis zum Glas Wein»
No full textIm ersten Jahr koordiniert David Marchand die neue interdepartementale FiBL-Gruppe Weinbau & Önologie