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A method to derive nitrogen transport factors for New Zealand's agricultural lands
No full textRisk index tools have the potential to assist farmers in making strategic decisions regarding their farm design to manage losses of nutrients. Such tools require a vulnerability framework, and these are often based on scores or rankings. These frameworks struggle to take account of interactions between elements of the physical environment. Process-based simulation models inherently take account of interactions and may be a viable alternative to score-based methods. We describe the method to populate a database of transport factors that covers the agricultural lands of New Zealand that is designed for usage as the susceptibility framework within a risk index tool. The method gives both leaching and runoff transport factors and gives values by month. The simulation model used had already been validated for simulating water and nitrogen balances and the generated spatial patterns of the transport factors was validated via expert assessment. These features allow good representation of the risks posed across a wide range of farming activities.
• Use of a simulation model to quantify transport factors.
• Captures the interactions between soil and weather factors in the physical environment.
• Produces a country-wide database intended as a susceptibility framework for a risk index tool
Motivating residents to volunteer for urban waterway restoration: A segmentation approach
Get PDFUrban landscapes play a crucial role in the health of freshwater ecosystems. The task of protecting and restoring urban freshwater waterways requires concerted efforts from all sectors of society, including volunteers. The recruitment and retention of volunteers is often a challenge for community environmental organizations as urban residents are diverse and influenced by a blend of personal, societal, and environmental factors. We surveyed a representative sample of 1901 urban residents across Aotearoa New Zealand and used the Behaviour Change Wheel framework and audience segmentation to understand the underlying factors influencing volunteering for waterway restoration projects and to identify potential target audiences to recruit new volunteers. We identified four segments within the target audience (“Supportive,” “Receptive but unsure,” “Hesitant and lack opportunity,” and “Reluctant”) each with its own unique profile of capabilities, opportunities, and motivations for volunteering. Recommendations for appropriate intervention designs to increase levels of volunteering include providing tailored messaging and events for those who are “Receptive but unsure” or “Hesitant and lack opportunity” and information about volunteering opportunities to “Supportive” individuals. This knowledge lays the groundwork for future initiatives focused on increasing urbanites' volunteering with community freshwater restoration groups
Assessing geographical origin of Diqing wines based on their elemental and isotopic profiles
No full textCharacterization of grape and wine elemental constitution is essential in tracing their geographical origin. The traceability of wine provenance in China is conducive to implementing regional product quality protection. The aim of the present study was to investigate the multi-element profile of subregions and combine the variables of grapes and wine to assess the geographical origin. Grape and wine samples were collected from three towns in Deqin County, plateau of Diqing, China. The oxygen and carbon stable isotope ratios and the concentrations of 45 elements were measured. The interannual variability of element contents in grape and wine samples was less than 40 %. The correlation of elements between grape and wine samples can form fingerprint information of different regions. No significant variability in stable isotopes was observed among micro-vinifications from different wine-producing of the county. The grape data classification accuracy was 88.9 % by stepwise discriminant analysis (DA), and wine data classification accuracy was 95.2 % by an artificial neural network (ANN) model. The conclusion was that multielemental and isotopic information of grapes and wine will help to discriminate wine origin at the county level in China
Forming loyalty toward green food: Food or environmental issue? Evidence from plant-based food
No full textThis study examines the formation of loyalty toward plant-based food (PBF) by including environmental factors (i.e. environmental concern and knowledge) and the perceived benefits and cost of the food as its drivers. This research employed data from 403 PBF customers, collected via an online survey from the Greater Jakarta region, Indonesia. To appraise the proposed loyalty formation toward PBF, this study used partial least square modeling. The results from data analysis show that incorporating the environmental concern theory and the valence theory offers an improved explanation of loyalty formation toward PBF. Environmental concern, environmental knowledge, and perceived benefits are predictors of loyalty. Additionally, three dimensions of PBF benefits have been identified: physical, social, and psychological. This study suggests that to gain loyalty among PBF customers, managers need to educate customers on salient environmental issues and highlight the benefits of consuming PBF for customers’ health and the environment
Enhancing resilience for red meat producers by understanding the options, barriers and enablers in selling direct to New Zealand consumers : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied Science at Lincoln University
No full textThere is growing interest from farmers in New Zealand in selling their produce direct to local consumers. There are a number of drivers for this trend, not least of which is farmers’ desire to capture more value from their produce via shorter supply chains, and by increasing consumer demand for ‘local food’. This study explores livestock farmers’ perspectives on the barriers and enablers to selling red meat products direct to consumer [D2C] through a series of semi-structured interviews (N=14). Through the lens of the Values, Rules and Knowledge Framework, this research reveals a highly regulated supply chain with limited and expensive transport, slaughtering and processing options for small scale D2C farmers. A small number of entrepreneurial producers have created on-farm butcheries and/or micro-abattoirs, but this has prohibitively high set up and compliance costs, with flow on impact on pricing. Despite current economic conditions, there is good local demand for sustainable, locally produced meat. However, with limited economies of scale for producers, financial and logistical barriers remain. To be competitive, these red meat products must offer consumers added value, be that connections with producers or a contribution to environmental and regional sustainability. or a contribution to environmental and regional sustainability
Routine stream monitoring data enables the unravelling of hydrological pathways and transfers of agricultural contaminants through catchments
No full textCatchment-scale understanding of water and contaminant fluxes through all pathways is essential to address land use and climate change impacts on freshwater. However, few options exist to obtain this understanding for the many catchments worldwide for which streamflow and low-frequency water chemistry, but little other data exists. We applied the Bayesian chemistry-assisted hydrograph separation and load partitioning model (BACH) to 47 catchments with widely differing characteristics. As BACH relies on concentration differences between pathways, chemodynamic behaviour of a water constituent indicates its likely suitability as tracer. Typical tracers (e.g. silica, chloride) were unavailable, but Electrical Conductivity and a few monitored nutrients proved chemodynamic in most catchments. Using one of two tracer combinations (Total Nitrogen + Electrical Conductivity, Total Nitrogen + Total Phosphorus) allowed in 85 % of the catchments to estimate streamflow contributions by near-surface (NS), shallow groundwater (SGW), and deep groundwater (DGW) pathways and pathway-specific tracer concentrations and yields with acceptable confidence. In 46 catchments, at least two pathways contributed ≥20 % of the streamflow, and all three ≥20 % in 12 catchments, cautioning against the notion of a single ‘dominant’ pathway. In contrast to hydrometric hydrograph separation, BACH allows differentiation between ‘young’ (NS + SGW) and ‘old’ (DGW) water, which is crucial for the understanding of pollution in catchments with strong temporal gradients in land use intensity. Consistent with generally increasing land use intensity, and groundwater denitrification occurring in some catchments, Total Nitrogen (TN) concentrations were in most catchments higher in NS and SGW compared to DGW. In most catchments, the greatest fraction of the TN yield was conveyed by SGW (≈ 40–90 %). Exceptions were wet and hilly catchments under bush, where the NS transferred most of the very low yields, and three young volcanic catchments where the DGW transferred the majority of the yield due to particularly high DGW flow contributions
Food import demand with structural breaks, economic embargo and the COVID-19 pandemic in a wealthy, highly import-dependent country
No full textPurpose - Qatar, a wealthy country with an open economy has limited arable land. To meet its domestic food demand, the country heavily relies on food imports. Additionally, the over three year-long economic embargo enforced by regional neighbors and the covariate shock of the COVID-19 pandemic have demonstrated the country's vulnerability to food insecurity and potential for structural breaks in macroeconomic data. The purpose of this paper is to examine short- and long-run determinants of Qatar's imports of aggregate food, meats, dairy and cereals in the presence of structural breaks.
Design/methodology/approach - The authors use 24 years of food imports, gross domestic product (GDP) and consumer price index (CPI) data obtained from Qatar's Planning and Statistics Authority. They use the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) cointegration framework and Chambers and Pope's exact nonlinear aggregation approach.
Findings - Unit root tests in the presence of structural breaks reveal a mixture of I (1) and I (0) variables for which standard cointegration techniques do not apply. The authors found evidence of a significant long-run relationship between structural changes and food imports in Qatar. Impulse response functions indicate full adjustments within three-quarters of a year in the event of an exogenous shock to imports.
Research limitations/implications - An exogenous shock of one standard deviation on this variable would reduce Qatar's food imports by about 2.5% during the first period but recover after the third period.
Originality/value - The failure of past aggregate food demand studies to go beyond standard unit root testing creates considerable doubt about the accuracy of their elasticity estimates. The authors avoid that to provide more credible findings
The use of weather, water, ice and climate (WWIC) information in the Polar Regions: What is known after the decade-long Polar Predication Project?
No full textIn the face of climate change, increasing human activity, compounding risks and limited infrastructure and rescue capabilities, improving weather, water, ice and climate services in Antarctica is vital to people's safety, operational success, adaptation and environmental protection
Regional spillover of housing (un)affordability: An empirical study on the residential housing markets for first-time buyers in the U.K
Get PDFThis study examines the lead–lag relationships between the levels of housing affordability of different regions of the U.K. By utilizing government data, a number of housing affordability indicators are constructed to explore whether spatial diffusion exists between different regional submarkets of first-time homebuyers over the period of 2000 – 2021. The results reveal that during periods of economic expansion, housing unaffordability tended to diffuse from regions of slower economic growth to regions of higher economic development. It is further evident that in the aftermath of the GFC, the London housing market Granger-caused other regional markets in terms of housing (un)affordability. Lastly, the U.K’.s decision to leave the EU in 2016 seems to have led to more divergence between the submarket regions, which in a Granger causal sense, have become less causally correlated in terms of pricing. We conjecture that the causal interactions between the different regional housing submarkets exist with the lead–lag relationships governed primarily by their underlying macroeconomic fundamentals
Research on university agribusiness education: A systematic review of research themes and an analysis of research gaps
No full textUniversity agribusiness graduates confront significant challenges in a rapidly evolving agrifood sector with major technological changes combined with global issues like environmental sustainability and the impacts of climate change. At the same time, there are further challenges for the agrifood sector from increasing food demand due to projected population growth and dietary shifts that include more animal protein. Furthermore, university agribusiness education faces challenges where the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to digital learning, prompting a reassessment of teaching methods. This study aims to evaluate existing literature on agribusiness education, identifying key themes and topics for future research. It marks the first systematic review of the agribusiness education literature.
Using bibliometric and co-occurrence analysis, the study identifies key themes in agribusiness education literature. Initial data from the Web of Science yielded 138 publications; however, further screening identified 17 specifically addressing university agribusiness education. The VOSviewer network visualization software was used to analyse and present results.
The findings revealed a significant lack of scholarly output in the area of university agribusiness education, with no significant increase in publications over time. The study evaluates the limited literature on agribusiness education, emphasizing the need for more scholarly attention. Key themes identified in the literature include entrepreneurship, curriculum flexibility, innovative teaching methods, and gender issues. The study’s implications for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and academic institutions highlighted the need to collaborate to reshape agribusiness education. Furthermore, evidence-based approaches to agribusiness education are needed to effectively prepare graduates for the evolving challenges. The study highlights the crucial role of agribusiness education research for guiding curriculum development and ensuring graduates possess technical and soft skills essential for future leadership in the sector