1,721,024 research outputs found
Sistemi foraggeri, ovinicoltura razionale e conservazione del territorio nelle aree interne della Toscana.
No full textWhat challenges impede the adoption of agroforestry practices? A global perspective through a systematic literature review
Full text linkDespite the extensive amount of evidence in the literature regarding the benefits of agroforestry systems including carbon sequestration, soil erosion reduction, climate change resilience, biodiversity conservation and other ecosystem services, the adoption of agroforestry practices presents several barriers for farmers and other stakeholders, thus requiring comprehensive examination from the scientific community. We performed a systematic literature review following the methodology described in the PRISMA framework, to provide a novel comprehensive and systematic overview of what is present in the literature regarding the obstacles stakeholders perceive with regards to agroforestry adoption, gathered through participatory research methods, which are methodologies that engage stakeholders in the research process. In this work, we highlighted and categorized 31 obstacles that stakeholders around the globe perceive according to the examined literature (n = 90) with regards to agroforestry adoption, pertaining to i) technical-agronomic, ii) socio-economic and iii) policy-legislative aspects. We produced a consultable database of the examined literature presenting the extracted and categorized data including 1) Region of interest; 2) Investigated agroforestry system; 3) Methodologies utilized in the papers; 4) Number, gender ratio and type of stakeholders; 5) Main relevant obstacles found in the paper. We highlighted the five most frequently encountered issues i) the availability or quality of knowledge or experience on technical and agronomic matters, or knowledge diffusion necessary to implement or maintain agroforestry systems ii) the perceived socio-economic issue related to the market, marketing of agroforestry products, supply chain or jobs in agroforestry; iii) issues related to the amount of labor or time necessary to implement or maintain agroforestry systems; iv) issues related to the upfront economic investment necessary to establish an agroforestry system and availability of capital; and v) issues related to the availability of technical support necessary to implement or maintain agroforestry systems
LIFE REWAT - sustainable water management in the lower Cornia Valley.
No full textIntroduction
The availability of water sources for irrigation is diminishing in all parts of the world, and the conflicts between urban and agricultural interests for this water are rising due to the increasing demand of food by a growing population in the next few years. This situation is exacerbated in the Mediterranean basin, where historically climate conditions were characterised by scarce annual rainfall and high summer temperature. In the last years, climate changes rise these issues by worsening of precipitation distribution (i.e. storms frequency and intensity) and increasing of heat wave phenomena (Iglesias and Garrote, 2015). This leads to a decrease of aquifer recharge and increase in fluxes towards the atmosphere by higher evapotranspiration.
The Cornia basin is 365 km2 large, and it runs through Livorno, Pisa and Grosseto provinces before flowing into the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Cornia river flows from Metallifere hills at 875 m o.s.l. and it's 50 km long. The hydrologic balance of the basin has been characterized for years by heavy quantitative imbalance, caused by an intensive use of water resource from the civil and agricultural sectors. Large part of the water resource is conveyed to Elba Island using a submarine pipe to supply about 50% of the Island water needs. Basin groundwater has been largely impacted, with head lowering of about 12 m the inland of lower Cornia plain. A volumetric calculation from the 70’s to 2001 estimates about 8 Mm3 total water deficit, with about the 50% built up in 90’s. This change had heavy effects on freshwater systems causing saline intrusion in coastal water bodies, modifying connected ecosystems (particularly coastal wetlands, like SIC/ZPS IT5160010 "Padule Orti Bottagone" and "Parco della Sterpaia") and complete salinization of the hydrogeologic units. Now, a dangerous trend of middle lower salinity is moving towards water potable fields (Bianchini et al., 2005; Pennisi et al., 2006).
Based on this, the aim of the REWAT project is to develop a participated strategy for an integrated water resources management at sub-catchment level, as a model of governance for sustainable development of the lower Cornia valley.
Project description
Life REWAT project (sustainable WATer management in the lower Cornia valley through demand REduction, aquifer Recharge and river Restoration) aims to develop a participated strategy for integrated water resource management at subcatchment level, as a model of governance for sustainable development of the lower Cornia valley.
Within the project, this strategy - adaptive towards Climate Change - is strictly linked to (re)balancing water budget of the complex hydrological system of the lower river Cornia.
Means to reach this goal will range from optimization of water consumption (civil and agricultural) to an increase of intentional groundwater recharge (through river morphological restoration and a Managed Aquifer Recharge, MAR, scheme).
As far as the lower Cornia valley, the purpose of the project consists of four specific objectives:
(i) fostering an integrated knowledge on the hydrological system and related water uses;
(ii) raising awareness and proactive involvement of water users on the importance of water saving, river restoration and groundwater banking. These actors are both public and private, individual or organized, and they make up the community which directly or indirectly affects the water budget in the lower Cornia valley;
(iii) demonstrating the technical feasibility, the economical advantages and the environmental sustainability of several technical solutions able to increase natural infiltration rates and managed recharge of aquifers, together with effective solutions for water saving;
(iv) developing an integrated and participated governance tool for surface and groundwater management at a sub-catchment scale, that will lead to sign a "Water Contract", a pioneer innovative experience in Italy of negotiated agreement involving all the waterbodies (fluvial, groundwater, transitional and coastal) and the related stakeholders.
The REWAT project will implement a number of demonstration measures in the lower Cornia valley, both structural (pilot) and non-structural (education and training), which will form the basis for a governance processes. The so-called “Water Contract” will then aim at sharing a long-medium term strategy for sustainable water management in the project area. The five demonstration actions are related to: (1) set up of a Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) facility, (2) river restoration of a Cornia river reach, (3) water saving in the civil water supply sector, (4) water saving in agriculture, (5) reduction and sustainable management of storm-water in urban areas. The strategic decision making process aiming at a long term negotiated agreement for water resources management in the lower Cornia basin will result in a voluntary governance tool for the wide scale implementation, in the medium term (post-LIFE), of the good practices developed in this project.
Water saving treatment in agriculture. Sub-surface drip-irrigation demonstration action
Globe artichoke (Cynara cardunculus L. var. scolymus L. (Fiori)), a perennial horticulture species, covers in Italy a surface of about 50,000 ha. In Tuscany, four varieties represent almost the total artichoke cropping surface. Traditional varieties “Violetto di Toscana” ad “Empolese” are still cultivated along with recent varieties derived from breeding project, “Terom” and “Tema”. In the lower Cornia valley, the artichoke cropping surface is about 600 ha and in order to increase stability and productivity of the crop, about 2000 – 4000 m3 ha-1 yr-1 of irrigation water is required. Drip irrigation systems allow to enhance water use efficiency in artichoke cultivation compared with other low efficiency systems (i.e. furrow and sprinkler) (Leskovar and Xu, 2013). Several studies demonstrated that yield of different crops increases using sub-surface drip-irrigation (SDI) system under high frequency irrigation management (Ayras et al., 1999).
The aim of the action is to demonstrate the feasibility of SDI for artichoke cultivation in order to reduce the water consumption for irrigation in lower Cornia valley. The action is located in Venturina (43°01'59.0"N 10°35'12.0"E) and cover a 4 ha surface inside the Stefano Forconi’s farm. The soil is characterized by sandy loam texture, 7.81 pH and 1.72 % of organic matter. Irrigation water is characterized by neutral pH (7.2) and 1363 μS/cm of electrical conductivity. The field test provides the comparison of SDI system respect to surface irrigation and surface drip irrigation. Moreover, deficit irrigation strategy will be investigating, in order to test the possible increasing of water saving in artichoke cultivation.
The LIFE REWAT Consortium is led by Consorzio di Bonifica Toscana Costa, a local institution devoted to water management, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, a public research university, ASA spa, a water utility, and the governing authority Regione Toscana.
References
Ayars J.E. Phene C.J. et al. 1999. Subsurface drip irrigation of row crops: A review of 15 years of research at the Water Management Research Laboratory. Agric. Water Manag, 42:1-27.
Bianchini G. Pennisi M. et al. 2005. Hydrochemistry of the high-boron groundwaters of the Cornia aquifer (Tuscany, Italy) Geothermics, 34:297-319.
Iglesias A. Garrote L. 2015. Adaptation strategies for agricultural water management under climate change in Europe. Agric. Water Manag, 155:113–124.
Leskovar D.I. Xu C. 2013. Irrigation strategies and water use efficiency of globe artichoke. Acta Hortic, 983:261-268.
Pennisi M. Bianchini G. et al. 2006. Behaviour of boron and strontium isotopes in groundwater-aquifer interactions in the Cornia Plain (Tuscany, Italy) Appl Geochem, 21:1169-1183
Exploring the potential of perennial crops in reducing soil erosion: A GIS-based scenario analysis in southern Tuscany, Italy
No full textPreserving soils is a major challenge in ensuring sustainable agriculture for the future. Soil erosion by water is a critical issue in the Mediterranean regions and usually occurs when high-erosive precipitation is in temporal association with poor vegetation cover and density. Modelling soil erosion risks over large spatial scales suffers from the scarcity of accurate information on land cover, rainfall erosivity and their intra-annual dynamics. We estimated the soil erosion risk on arable land in a Mediterranean area (Grosseto Province, southern Tuscany, Italy) and investigated its potential reduction as a response to the change in intra-annual distribution of land cover due to the increase of perennial forage crops. A GIS-based (R)USLE model was employed and a scenario analysis was performed by setting criteria for raising the performance of perennial forage crops. Statistical data on agricultural crops provided an insight into current intra-annual land cover dynamics. Rainfall erosivity was computed on the basis of 22-year hourly precipitation data. The model was used to: i) quantify the potential soil losses of arable land in the study area, ii) identify those areas highly affected by erosion risks iii) explore the potential for soil conservation of perennial crops, thereby enabling appropriate preventive measures to be identified. The erosion rates, averaged over an area of about 140'000 ha, are estimated to 33.42 Mg ha(-1) y(-1). More than 59% of the study area was subjected to soil losses higher than 11 Mg ha(-1) y(-1) (from moderate to severe erosion) and the highest rates are estimated for steep inland areas. Arable land with severe soil erosion rates (higher than 33 Mg ha(-1) y(-1)) represent about 35% of the whole study area. The risk of soil loss by water erosion in the study area is estimated to be reduced on average by 36% if perennial crops are increased in terms of 35% of the total arable land. The soil erosion data produced compared well with the published local and regional data. This study thus provides useful preliminary information for landscape planning authorities and can be used as a decision support tool in quantifying the implications of management policies. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved
Increase globe artichoke cropping sustainability using sub-surface drip-irrigation systems in a Mediterranean coastal area for reducing groundwater withdrawal
No full textDuring the last decades in coastal areas of the Mediterranean basin, human growth posed severe stresses on freshwater resources due to increasing demand by agricultural, industrial and civil activities, in particular on groundwater. This in turn led to worsening of water quality, loss/reduction of wetlands, up to soil salinization and abandonment of agricultural areas.
Within the EU LIFE REWAT project a number of demonstration measures will take place in the lower Cornia valley (Livorno, Italy), both structural (pilot) and non-structural (education, dissemination and capacity building), aiming at achieving sustainable and participated water management. In particular, the five demonstration actions are related to: (1) set up of a managed aquifer recharge facility, (2) restoration of a Cornia river reach, (3) water saving in the civil water supply sector, (4) water saving in agriculture, (5) reuse of treated wastewater for irrigation purposes. Thus, the REWAT project general objective is to develop a new model of governance for sustainable development of the lower Cornia valley based on the water asset at its core.
As per water use in agriculture, the lower Cornia valley is well known for the horticultural production. In this regard, globe artichoke (Cynara cardunculus L. var. scolymus L. (Fiori)) crops, a perennial cool-season vegetable, cover a surface of about 600 ha. In order to increase stability and productivity of the crop, about 2000 – 4000 m3 ha-1 yr-1 of irrigation water is required. Recent studies demonstrated that yield of different crops increases using Sub-surface Drip-Irrigation (SDI) system under high frequency irrigation management enhancing water use efficiency. In the SDI systems, the irrigation water is delivered to the plant root zone, below the soil surface by buried plastic tubes containing embedded emitters located at regular spacing.
Within the LIFE REWAT, the specific objectives of the pilot on irrigation efficiency is to (i) demonstrate the suitability of SDI for globe artichoke cultivation, reducing the water consumption, while maintaining (or even increasing) crop production and (ii) assess the crop water use efficiency respect to surface drip-irrigation.
The field test is located in Venturina (Italy) and it covers a surface of 4 ha. The soil is characterized by sandy-loam texture, 1.72% of organic matter at 7.81 pH. Groundwater is the main source of supply for irrigation. By the chemical point of view, a monitoring campaign in spring 2016 showed a neutral pH of 7.2, electrical conductivity of 1363 μS/cm, 373 and 243 mg/l of total sulphate and carbonate, respectively, thus demonstrating the suitability of groundwater for SDI application.
The SDI system was implemented at the beginning of September 2016. The sub-surface buried pipelines, were placed at 0.25 m depth, with emitters spaced 0.5 m. The distance between pipelines was 1.5 m, according to globe artichoke layout (1.5 m between rows, 1 m in-row spacing). Surface-buried tubes were placed in an area about 0.75 ha wide for the comparison with SDI. Artichoke var. Terom were transplanted after the SDI operation test. In the next 3 years, both crop productivity and water use will be assessed. Results will be presented and discussed with the whole farmer’s community.
Acknowledgement
This paper is presented within the framework of the project LIFE REWAT, which has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union Grant Agreement LIFE14 ENV/IT/001290
Cropping among trees to cope with climate change. Insights From Cereal Cultivated In Walnut Plantations Of Central Spain.
No full textField inoculation with mycorrhizas and rhizobia greatly increases grain quality of soybean.
No full textYIELD AND NUTRITIVE VALUE OF ALFALFA (Medicago sativa L.) IN AN OLIVE (Olea europaea L.) ALLEY- CROPPING PRACTICE
No full textCharacterization of polar and non-polar lipids of Hermetia illucens and Tenebrio molitor meals as animal feed ingredients
No full textAlthough increasingly used in animal feeding, the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens - HI) and mealworm (Tenebrio molitor - TM) larvae and pupae require the characterization and modulation of their fat profile for use in the feed industry. In this study, we provide a comprehensive fatty acid profile of the total lipid triglycerides and phospholipids, and sterol composition. For a more detailed characterization of the nutritional properties, we defined the profile of esterified fatty acids (FAs) in the sn-2 position of the triglycerides, which represents the most adsorbed fraction by animals during digestion. Twenty-four batches (12 batches per species divided into 6 batches of larvae and 6 batches of pupae) of 70 subjects were used for the analysis. For each of the developmental stages, individuals in the intermediate stage were considered (2 months and 8 days for TM larvae and pupae respectively; 9 days and 7 days for HI larvae and pupae respec- tively). Some fatty acids (decanoic, lauric, or myristic acid) were more abundant in HI than in TM. These FAs were produced de novo, indicating that HI produce them from carbohydrates as a source of acetyl-CoA. Hermetia illucens showed a higher level of conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomers, a class of fatty acids with positive health effects. In contrast, TM showed a similar fatty acid profile to the plant lipid source (such as soy and sunflower) due to the high level of linoleic acid. Analysis of the triglyceride fraction showed a different affinity for the three glyceride po- sitions. In particular, lauric acid, polyunsaturated fatty acids n-3 and CLA isomers esterified preferentially in sn-2, and therefore were the most adsorbed by the animal during digestion. As for the phospholipids, HI showed a higher level, above all in terms of the phosphatidylethanol- amine fraction. Interestingly there was no sphingomyelin in the pupae of both species. The high level of phospholipids is a useful feature for the emulsion of fats in animal feed diets. Lastly, we observed a considerable amount of phytosterol in the sterol profile of both species, which makes these insects a valid alternative to other food sources of plant origin for animal nutrition. We believe that our findings provide new nutritional information for the use of TM and HI in the
animal diet
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