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GlobalGAP compliance costs in Ghana’s small-scale pineapple farming sector
No full textWhen farmers implement GlobalGAP they incur specific input costs that arise from quality requirements of the technology. However, due to the difficultly in observing and measuring food quality, previous empirical studies seldom analysed the relationship between quality improvements in food production and total costs of production. They assumed that product quality itself was exogenous and hence had no effect on productive efficiency or cost of production. This study estimates the impact of GlobalGAP on costs of production while accounting for fixed cost improvements and quality endogeneity. Data were obtained from GlobalGAP-certified small-scale pineapple farmers in Ghana. The hypothesis that product quality was exogenous was tested and rejected. Consequently, a quality-adjusted translog cost function was used to identify the main contributors to cost increases on small-scale GlobalGAP-certified pineapple farms. The estimated function exhibited economies of size, implying that most small-scale adopters are unable to increase output and benefit from lower average costs. Production costs arising from improvements in quality imposed by GlobalGAP are most sensitive to changes in plantlet price, followed by wages, agrochemical price and expenditure on capital items. Smaller small-scale farmers are much more sensitive to increases in capital expenditure than are larger small-scale farmers. Key policy recommendations include joint ventures to increase nursery capacity and competition in the market for plantlets, scrutiny of mandatory fees impacting the cost of imported labour-saving inputs, facilitating sharing arrangements between smallholders to lower the cost of on-farm infrastructure, and research to identify constraints preventing certified farmers from exploiting size economies
Climate-smart agricultural practices for enhanced farm productivity, income, resilience, and greenhouse gas mitigation: a comprehensive review
No full textThis study reviews the literature published between 2013 and 2023 to comprehensively understand the consequences of adopting climate-smart agricultural (CSA) practices. We categorize the literature into three categories based on the scopes of climate-smart agriculture: (a) sustainably increase agricultural productivity and incomes; (b) adapt and build the resilience of people and agrifood systems to climate change; and (c) reduce or where possible, avoid greenhouse gas emissions. The review demonstrates that adopting CSA practices, in many instances, improves farm productivity and incomes. This increase manifests in increasing crop yields and productivity, income and profitability, and technical and resource use efficiency. Moreover, adopting CSA practices reinforces the resilience of farmers and agrifood systems by promoting food consumption, dietary diversity, and food security and mitigating production risks and vulnerabilities. Adopting CSA practices is environmentally feasible as it reduces greenhouse gas emissions and improves soil quality. An integrative strategy encompassing diverse CSA practices portends an optimized avenue to chart a trajectory towards agrifood systems fortified against climatic change
From waste to power: How floating solar panels on wastewater ponds could help solve NZ’s electricity security crisis
No full textWastewater ponds may seem an unlikely place to look for solutions to New Zealand’s electricity security crisis. But their underutilised surfaces could help tackle two problems at once – high power prices and algal growth.
Floating solar panels on wastewater ponds offer a multifaceted answer. They generate renewable energy, improve water quality in the treatment ponds and reduce costs.
Leading this approach is the 2020 installation of New Zealand’s first floating solar array at the Rosedale wastewater treatment plant in Auckland. This project demonstrates how New Zealand could double the country’s power supply without requiring additional land. It serves as a test for future deployments on other reservoirs and dams.
The project comprises 2,700 solar panels and 4,000 floating pontoons. It covers one hectare of the treatment pond, making excellent use of a marginal land asset in a dense urban environment
Panic activism or crisis solidarity? Reworking crisis narratives in climate activism through the COVID-19 pandemic
No full textCrisis narratives have long been a prominent feature of the climate movement to spur system change. The COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore the complexities of navigating climate action through the overlapping crises of the Anthropocene. While crisis is seen to offer possibilities for transformational change, it also threatens to prioritise urgency over justice. It is therefore important to understand how climate activists, in practice, are mobilising different narratives of crisis. To this end, we empirically examine climate activists' reflections on crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand through their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. We identify a narrative of ‘panic-activism’ that uses crisis to demonstrate the severity of the climate threat to enable drastic action. Such narratives are often underpinned by a ‘hierarchy of crisis’ that positions climate change as the most imminent existential crisis. We caution that this crisis narrative is troubling for climate justice, particularly as it positions one crisis as more urgent than others. However, in contrast to panic-activism, our study suggests climate activists in Aotearoa tended to approach crisis cautiously and with reluctant necessity, rather than as something to be actively catalysed or capitalised on. Instead, activists cultivated a narrative of ‘crisis solidarity’ that highlights the networks of reciprocity and vulnerability across and within communities for more intersectional social movement organising
An exploration into the sleep of workers on block-calving, pasture-based dairy farms
No full textThe benefits of sufficient and high-quality sleep for people are well documented. Insufficient sleep increases the risk of accidents, injuries, and negative health implications for people. This is especially relevant for farmers, as they work with large animals and machinery. Dairy farming often requires early start times and long days, particularly over the high workload calving period in block calving, pasture-based systems. However, there is little published data quantifying the sleep quantity and quality of farmers over this period. In this study, the sleep patterns of workers (n = 33) on 10 New Zealand dairy farms was measured for 90 d over the spring calving period using a sleep measuring device (OuraTM ring, Oura Health Ltd., Oulu, Finland). Total sleep time (TST) averaged 6 h 15 min, lower than the required 7 to 9 h for optimal wellbeing and cognitive functioning. TST decreased over the calving period and was significantly correlated with both sleep start and wake times. Factors such as work start time, farm location, and role on farm influenced sleep quantity and quality; indicating adjusting these on-farm factors could positively impact TST. Further research is required to better understand sleep and its effect on dairy farmers, over both the calving period and the remaining months of the year
Intermittent hypoxic exposure with or without exercise improved cardiopulmonary functions in people with cardiovascular risk factors
No full textThis research aimed to explore the effects of intermittent hypoxic exposure (IH) with or without exercise on lung function, lipid profile, and a 6-min walk in people with three cardiovascular risk factors (hypertension stage I, hyperlipidemia, and obesity). Thirty participants were randomly allocated into 3 groups: a control group (CON, n=11) received no training, an intermittent hypoxic exposure during rest group (IHR, n=9), and an intermittent hypoxic training group (IHT, n=10) who combined IH with walking. Both IHR and IHT performed 8 sessions of 3-min of hypoxic breathing (14% O2) alternated with 3-min of normoxic breathing (21% O2) for 48-min per day, twice a week, for 6 consecutive weeks. All participants were measured before and after 6 weeks of theexperimental period. After training, IHR group significantly increased vital capacity (p=0.038) and forced vital capacity (p=0.025) compared to baseline. Similarly, compared to baseline, participants in the IHT group revealed significantly increased vital capacity (p=0.030), forced vital capacity (p=0.031), and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (p=0.042). Compared to CON, only IHT showed a significant increase in forced vital capacity of 8.6 ±4.5% (p=0.034) and forced expiratory volume in 1 second of 7.0 ± 3.9%, (p=0.033) after 6 weeks. Both the IHR and IHT participants demonstrated a significantly increased 6-min walk distance (p=0.048 and p=0.004, respectively) compared to CON. The study demonstrated that IH programs can improve lung function and cardiopulmonary fitness which indicates that IH with or without exercise improves some cardiopulmonary functions in at risk patients
Microwave irradiation of guar seed flour: Effect on anti‐nutritional factors, phytochemicals, in vitro protein digestibility, thermo‐pasting, structural, and functional attributes
No full textGuar seed flour (GSF) has a high amount of carbohydrates, proteins, phytochemicals, and anti-nutritional factors (ANFs), which limits its use. To address this issue, the current study was undertaken to understand the effect of microwave (MW) irradiation on ANFs, phytochemicals, in vitro protein digestibility (IVPD), and functional attributes of GSF at varying power density (Pd: 1–3 W/g) and duration (3–9 min). The ANFs were determined using a colorimetric assay and a Fourier transform infrared spectrum. At 3 Pd-9 min, the maximum reduction in ANFs (tannin, phytic acid, saponin, and trypsin inhibitor activity) was observed. Higher Pd and treatment duration increased antioxidant activity and total phenolic content, except for total flavonoid content. Furthermore, compared to the control sample (78.38%), the IVPD of the GSF samples increased to 3.28% (3 Pd-9 min). An increase in Pd and duration of MW treatment improved the thermal and pasting properties of GSF samples up to 2 Pd-9 min. Due to inter- and intramolecular hydrogen bonding degradation, the relative crystallinity of the 3 Pd-9 min treated GSF sample was 30.58%, which was lower than that of the control (40.08%). In MW-treated samples, SEM images revealed smaller clusters with rough and porous structures. However, no noticeable color (ΔE) changes were observed in MW-treated samples. Aside from water absorption capacity and water solubility index, MW treatment reduced oil absorption capacity, foaming capacity, and emulsifying capacity. As demonstrated by principal component analysis, MW irradiation with moderate Pd (2–3) was more effective in reducing ANFs, retaining nutritional contents, and improving the digestible properties of GSF, which could be a potential ingredient for developing gluten-free products
Light aerobic training combined with whole body vibration, or a weighted vest protects against bone loss in osteopenic or osteoporotic older females
No full textIntroduction: Older adults suffer from degenerative physiological changes including musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoporosis, osteopenia, and sarcopenia. Several studies have reported that a reduction of muscle strength and muscle mass lead to a high prevalence of low bone mineral density (BMD) osteopenia and osteoporosis. Resistance exercise training is recommended as an effective way to stimulate bone osteogenesis in osteoporosis patients. Other forms of exercise that stress the osteogenic pathways may also prove useful in such patients including aerobic training with whole body vibration or aerobic training with weighted vests. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of light aerobic exercise supplemented with weighted vest or whole-body vibration on BMD and skeletal muscle mass in osteopenic or osteoporotic older females.
Methods: This randomized controlled trial was conducted on 31 osteopenia/osteoporosis females (T-score -2.15±0.9, mean ± SD) aged 60 to 79 years. The participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups. The control group (CON; n=10) received 40 minutes of light aerobic exercise 3 days per week for 8 weeks, whereas the weighted vest group (WV; n=11) completed the same aerobic exercise program wearing a vest filled with sand equivalent to 5% (first 2 weeks) then 10% (last 6 weeks) of their body weights. The whole-body vibration group (WBV; n=10) completed the same aerobic exercise programme supplemented with vibration exercise (30 Hz., 1 min x 8 sets) he BMD, muscle mass and percent body fat of participants were assessed before and after the 8 weeks training.
Results: We found a significant decrease in BMD over the course of the study in the CON group (pre = 956 ± 58, post = 941 ± 57 mg/cm2, p0.05). Furthermore, compared to the pre-test, only par-ticipants in the WV (92.95 ± 36.80 m) and WBV (57.80 ± 41.18 m) groups substantial improved their aerobic performance in the 6-min walk test.
Conclusion: The addition of a weighted vest or whole-body vibration training to light aerobic exercise may protect against bone mineral loss in older female participants. This may be a practical therapeutic exercise for osteopenic or osteoporotic individuals
A review of grass species yields and growth rates in Northland, New Zealand
No full textPastoral farming is a major land use in New Zealand's Northland region, with 3,171 farm holdings and a total area of 637,500 hectares in 2022. The region's pasture grasses include temperate (C3) and subtropical and tropical (C4) grasses which support dairy, and sheep and beef production from grazing. In lowland areas, C3 and some annual C4 grasses are prevalent where cultivation occurs, while perennial C4 grasses dominate areas with low soil fertility and summer dry conditions.
Grass-based pasture growth rates (kg dry matter/ha/day) from published and unpublished sources were assembled into the AgYields database. Among the resident and sown grasses tested in Kaitaia, Kaikohe, Whangarei and Dargaville, perennial ryegrass represented ∼60% of the total data points. Dominant kikuyu pastures represented 23% and the remaining species represented 17%. Rates of growth ranged from 5 to 120 kg DM/ha/day, being lowest in late autumn-winter and highest in early summer. Data were compared and agronomic traits (i.e. drought tolerance, biomass production and tillering) are discussed to assess species suitability for the Northland environment. The medium-term prospect suggests an urgent need to improve research into management of cocksfoot and tall fescue-based pastures to provide viable alternatives to overcome the decreasing persistence of perennial ryegrass
Endophytic genera in Californian thistle (Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop.)
No full textCirsium arvense is an important weed in temperate areas, causing yield losses in pasture and cropping systems. Endophytes may affect fungal biocontrol agents deployed to control C. arvense. This was the first study sampling leaves, stems, and roots of C. arvense multiple times in one growing season to determine which endophytic genera were associated with this plant species. Eighty-eight endophytic genera were isolated by culture methods and identified with molecular markers. Sixty-five of these have not previously been reported for C. arvense. This study was the first to document many genera belonging to the orders Pleosporales, Hypocreales, and Diaporthales that have not previously been identified in association with C. arvense. In addition, this study isolated more Leotiomycetes and Helothiales than previous studies on C. arvense endophytes. Information on endophytic genera in C. arvense will aid our understanding of biotic factors influencing fungal biocontrol agents and may improve effectiveness of biocontrol agents