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Bioprotection for foliar diseases and disorders of radiata pine: Project overview May 2020 to December 2021
Get PDFFoliar diseases and disorders are the most significant cause of economic loss for the New Zealand Forestry industry. To alleviate losses caused by existing diseases and to reduce potential impacts of biosecurity threats, ongoing work is being conducted to establish a long-term symbiotic relationship between Pinus radiata (radiata pine) and other forestry tree species, and a beneficial microbe, Trichoderma. Trichoderma fungi can induce a broad-spectrum activity response from their host plants, enhancing the speed and strength of the plant’s response to diseases. Trichoderma has also been shown to stimulate growth of plants. The products of this research project will be Trichoderma inoculated forestry tree species, with enhanced growth and improved foliar health, potential protection against biosecurity incursions, as well as reduced chemical application in nurseries and plantations
Managing carbon emissions through riparian design on an Otago farm in Aotearoa NZ : A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Landscape Architecture at Lincoln University
Get PDFThe NZ Government has established the Zero Carbon Amendment Act (2019) following the Paris Agreement (2015) to mitigate the ongoing impacts to reduce NZ’s net GHG emissions. Farmers are required to prepare farm emission budgets, fence off and plant areas around freshwater to meet the new requirements from the government. This project addresses the design side of riparian corridors within a family-farm system. The aim of this project is to use concepts from landscape ecology to guide riparian planting design on a family farm in Otago high country to better manage the farm’s carbon emissions. As plants and soils have different carbon storage capacities, this project will investigate two approaches; (a) Overseer software application to calculate the overall farm GHG emissions and (b) formulae from the literature to calculate the carbon stored in paddock soils and key plant species in a creek corridor. Over 10 years of farming in the Manuherikia Valley the system has intensified with an increase in irrigation and land conversion. At the valley and farm scale, riparian corridors have also been lost. Lauder Station’s GHG emissions have been found to be similar to the average for high country farms in NZ, with further work needed to offset the emissions. This work will be useful to demonstrate to Otago farmers how to protect waterways, manage the GHG emissions from the farm system and work towards becoming carbon zero
Effects of sustainable agricultural practices on farm income and food security in northern Ghana
Get PDFThe adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) has been recommended by many experts and international institutions to address food security and climate change problems. Global support for the Sustainable Development Goals has focused attention on efforts to up-scale the adoption of SAPs in developing countries where growth in populations and incomes compromises the resilience of natural resources. This study investigates the factors affecting smallholder farmers’ decisions to adopt SAPs (improved seed, fertilizer, and soil and water conservation) and the impacts of the adoption on farm income and food security, using data collected from Ghana. Food security is captured by the reduced coping strategy index and household dietary diversity. The multinomial endogenous switching regression model is utilized to address selection bias issues. Results show that farmers’ decisions to adopt SAPs are influenced by the social demographics of the households, plot-level characteristics, extension services and locations. Adopting all three SAPs has larger positive impacts on farm income and food security than adopting single or two SAPs. Our findings advocate for policies that enhance the quality of extension service and strengthen farmer-based organizations for the wider dissemination of adequate SAP information. Farmers should be encouraged to adopt SAPs as a comprehensive package for increasing farm income and ensuring food security
A bioavailable strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) isoscape for Aotearoa New Zealand: Implications for food forensics and biosecurity
Get PDFAs people, animals and materials are transported across increasingly large distances in a globalized world, threats to our biosecurity and food security are rising. Aotearoa New Zealand is an island nation with many endemic species, a strong local agricultural industry, and a need to protect these from pest threats, as well as the economy from fraudulent commodities. Mitigation of such threats is much more effective if their origins and pathways for entry are understood. We propose that this may be addressed in Aotearoa using strontium isotope analysis of both pests and products. Bioavailable radiogenic isotopes of strontium are ubiquitous markers of provenance that are increasingly used to trace the origin of animals and plants as well as products, but currently a baseline map across Aotearoa is lacking, preventing use of this technique. Here, we have improved an existing methodology to develop a regional bioavailable strontium isoscape using the best available geospatial datasets for Aotearoa. The isoscape explains 53% of the variation (R² = 0.53 and RMSE = 0.00098) across the region, for which the primary drivers are the underlying geology, soil pH, and aerosol deposition (dust and sea salt). We tested the potential of this model to determine the origin of cow milk produced across Aotearoa. Predictions for cow milk (n = 33) highlighted all potential origin locations that share similar ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values, with the closest predictions averaging 7.05 km away from their true place of origin. These results demonstrate that this bioavailable strontium isoscape is effective for tracing locally produced agricultural products in Aotearoa. Accordingly, it could be used to certify the origin of Aotearoa’s products, while also helping to determine if new pest detections were of locally breeding populations or not, or to raise awareness of imported illegal agricultural products
Understanding dominance: The effect of changing the definition of dominance when using TDS with consumers
Get PDFTemporal dominance of sensations (TDS) is a widely used method to assess dynamic sensory perception. While TDS has been studied more extensively with trained panels, there is growing interest in testing the method with consumers. However, little is known about how consumers interpret the notion of “dominance” to decide which attribute they should select at a given point in time. This study investigated the effect of a changing definition of dominance on TDS results. Consumers, all of who had never undertaken a TDS test before, were recruited in three separate groups where they were briefly trained on TDS where dominance was defined as either: (a) most attention-catching sensation (TDS session), (b) most intense sensation (TIS session), or (c) most changing sensation (TCS session). Results showed that TDS curves were similar between all three sessions, suggesting that consumers’ TDS results are only marginally influenced by the definition of dominance.
Practical Applications
TDS is being used increasingly by consumers, for sensory research both in academia and industry. This study demonstrates to users of the TDS method that the definition of dominance is unlikely to influence results when working with consumers. Furthermore, this study illustrates the capability of TDS using consumers for the sensory evaluation of food
Histidine kinase two-component response regulators Ssk1, Skn7 and Rim15 differentially control growth, developmental and volatile organic compounds emissions as stress responses in Trichoderma atroviride
Get PDFThe Skn7, Ssk1 and Rim15 proteins are response regulators involved in osmotic, oxidative and nutritional stress in fungi. In order to verify the involvement of these genes in Trichoderma atroviride IMI206040’s growth, conidiation, direct antagonism against plant pathogens (Rhizoctonia solani and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum), production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with fungistatic effect, and interaction with plants (growth promotion), single mutants were generated, and the phenotypic patterns were analysed in comparison to the wild-type (wt) strain. The mutants were submitted to osmotic, oxidative, membrane and cell wall stress conditions in vitro. The Δskn7 and Δrim15 mutants did not show either significant differences at morphological level, or marked decreases in mycelial growth and conidiation in relation to wt, whereas Δssk1 had altered phenotypes in most conditions tested. The plant-growth promotion of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings induced by VOCs was not quantitatively modified by any of the mutants in relation to the wt strain, although possible differences in secondary root hairs was noticed for Δrim15. The fungistatic activity was significantly altered for Δssk1 and Δrim15. Overall, the Δssk1 strain showed remarkable morphological differences, with decrease in mycelial growth and conidiation, being also affected in the antagonistic capacity against plant pathogens. The impacts demonstrated by the deletion of ssk1 suggest this gene has a relevant participation in the signalling response to different stresses in T. atroviride and in the interactive metabolism with phytopathogens and plants. On the other hand, unlike other fungal models, Skn7 did not appear to have a critical participation in the above-mentioned processes; Rim15 seemed to confirm its involvement in modulating cellular responses to nutritional status, although with a possible cross-talk with other cellular processes. Our results suggest that Ssk1 likely plays a key regulatory role, not only in basic metabolisms of T. atroviride, but also in biocontrol-related characteristics
Identifying and addressing institutional problems constraining the financial performance of rice cooperatives in the Philippines
Get PDFFarmer-controlled cooperatives contribute significantly to the growth of the rice sector in the Philippines, the country’s most important agricultural sector. Despite ongoing financial support from various government agencies, many of the country’s rice cooperatives struggle to remain viable. Cooperative failure is often attributed to poor management, inadequate capital, and opportunistic side selling by members. However, a growing body of literature views these problems as symptoms of much more fundamental flaws in the institutional arrangements that characterize traditional cooperatives. Relationships between indicators of financial performance and institutional attributes observed in case studies of four Philippine rice farmer cooperatives were identified using hierarchical cluster analysis. The results of this analysis were interpreted against causal relationships predicted by the New Institutional Economics theory. Financial performance improves when cooperatives require their members to invest in proportion to their patronage, allow members to adjust their shareholding, and periodically redeem members’ shares. Other performance-enhancing institutional arrangements could be adopted if the Philippine Cooperative Code authorized directors to issue class B shares. The findings also highlight operational and governance practices that improve financial performance, which directors can and should apply
Repository Tools 2 (RT2) migration and impacts to library publications workflow
No full textThis presentation covers the Repository Tools 2 (RT2) migration steps and lessons learnt. It also addresses changes to the deposit processing workflows and challenges the library publications processing team faced as a result
Broadening environmental governance ontologies to enhance ecosystem-based management in Aotearoa New Zealand
Get PDFEcosystem-based management (EBM) is a holistic approach to managing marine environments that can potentially reconcile cross-sectoral conflicts, scale mismatches, and fulfil sustainability objectives. In Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa NZ), the operationalisation of EBM has been uneven; however, a set of principles to guide EBM in Aotearoa NZ provides a useful foundation to enable and enhance its uptake and to support governance approaches that attend to the rights, values, interests, and knowledges of Māori, the Indigenous peoples of Aotearoa. In acknowledging the need to give attention to the governance of marine environments, we apply insights from the ‘relational turn’ in social sciences and sustainability science to explore the ontological and epistemological broadening of ‘governance’ to identify opportunities for alternative forms of governance that accommodate Indigenous ways of knowing. We propose four pou (or enabling conditions) that generate alternatives to governance models underpinned by a ‘modernist’ (dualistic, technocratic) ontology: (i) enacting interactive administrative arrangements; (ii) diversifying knowledge production; (iii) prioritising equity, justice, and social difference; and (iv) recognising interconnections and interconnectedness. Our analysis of seven governance examples exposes evidence of radical and progressive transformations occurring within Aotearoa NZ regarding conceptions of the environment and the role of people in it that could support the wider uptake of EBM. Rather than advocating a ‘perfect model’ of governance for EBM, we find potential in EBM as a strategic approach to managing marine environments because of the synergies with Indigenous and relational ontologies, which lie in the emphasis on interconnectedness, inclusivity, diversity, and relationality
An examination of changing sustainable business practices in New Zealand : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Natural Resources Management and Ecological Engineering at Lincoln University
Get PDFTo address global issues such as biodiversity loss, water pollution, urbanisation, deforestation, and climate change it is pertinent to understand the practices of one of the most significant contributors to environmental degradation globally – business. This study investigated ‘how’ and ‘why’ New Zealand businesses are changing their practices in the context of sustainability and examined the usefulness of social practice theory in a business context. A modified social practice theory-based framework was used to examine New Zealand businesses’ move towards more sustainable business operations and the recruitment, defection or continual performance of business practices. Shove’s ‘meanings’, ‘materials’, and ‘competence’ social practice model was modified to include a fourth element ‘rules’. Rules in this study are everyday directives and instructions and include social norms. Rules were found to be a prominent element in business practices and the addition of rules as a fourth element allows for business practices to be better understood and conceptualised. This research increases the current
understanding of the establishment, disestablishment, resurrection, and transformation of New Zealand businesses’ practices which could be advantageous for the successful implementation of more sustainable initiatives across the business sector