Recultivation of abandoned agricultural lands in Ukraine: Patterns and drivers

The recent rise in agricultural commodity prices and the expectation that high price will persist have triggered a wave of farmland expansion in regions where land resources are still available. One such region is the former Soviet Union, where the collapse of socialism caused massive agricultural abandonment and where some of these lands are now being brought back into production. Yet, the extent and spatial patterns of recultivation, and what determines these patterns, remains unclear. We examined the extent of recultivation of abandoned agricultural land in Ukraine since 2007 using a new, satellite-based recultivation map and assessed the effect of biophysical and socioeconomic determinants on recultivation patterns using boosted regression trees. We found key predictors of recultivation to be related to the suitability of land for agriculture (i.e., soil quality, temperature). Accessibility to major cities was also important, with most recultivation happening closer to settlements, but this influence varied across Ukraine. Variables related to agricultural management (fertilizer input, mechanization) and demography were negligible in explaining recultivation in our analyses. These factors suggest that recultivation patterns were primarily driven by factors related to land productivity, with recultivation focusing on the most promising areas. Given the remaining large amount of unused agricultural land in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and considering that much abandonment occurred in areas only marginally suited to agriculture, our findings provide important insights into where recultivation can be expected to happen and thus for assessing the potential socioeconomic and environmental impacts of recultivation.     

The Economic Contributions of Agricultural Tourism in Michigan

Family farms have long generated income from agricultural tourism including U‐picks, wagon rides, corn mazes and petting zoos, but contemporary agricultural tourism reflects much greater sophistication in terms of product variety, services, activities, and marketing. In Michigan, farm operators have moved beyond classic products and activities and the traditional consumer base. New sources of revenue derive from classes on beer, cider, mead and wine making, yarn spinning, perfume/soap‐making, farm markets, fishing, educational classes, school tours and hospitality including weddings and on‐farm restaurants. This case study of Michigan agricultural tourism reports results from a systematic survey of 154 agritourism operations conducted throughout the state during summer and fall of 2013 with a focus on the economic benefits of the fast‐changing sector. This study summarizes tax revenues, sales and employment trends for the farm operations participating in the survey but also quantitatively assesses the contribution of agricultural tourism to Michigan's economy through an extrapolation of the sample to estimate state‐wide totals. Results from OLS multivariate regression analysis intended to identify relationships between employment, advertising and scale to gross sales per day are also reported. These analyses show the importance of agricultural tourism to rural and peri‐urban places in Michigan and throughout the nation, while raising concerns about a growing division between large and small operators and what this growing gap may mean for the future of the sector.     

Spatio-temporal Distribution of Three Kinds of Flash Droughts over Agricultural Land in China from 1983 to 2015

At present, flash drought occurs globally and regionally and causes a lot of socio-economic loss in a very short time. Therefore, flash drought has been regarded as one of the hottest issues in drought research. However, flash drought monitoring, prediction and decision-making have encountered a lot of challenges due to its multiple driven factors and complex spatio-temporal process. Aiming at this problem, this paper focused on the agricultural land in China, and analyzed the spatio-temporal distribution of three kinds of flash droughts (i.e., precipitation-deficit, high-temperature, and composite flash droughts) from 1983 to 2015. We studied the occurrences, duration, spatial distribution, temporal distribution, and trend of all three kinds of flash droughts. Our results demonstrated that, the occurrences of flash drought agricultural land in China increased year by year, among which high-temperature flash drought increased dramatically; duration of flash droughts had different trends, but the variations were relatively smooth; Northeast China was identified as a vulnerable area of flash drought, indicating more flash drought events and longer duration; flash droughts in China were found to concentrate in spring (high-temperature drought) and summer seasons (precipitation-deficit drought). This study is helpful for building new flash drought monitoring method and system, and it is also valuable for flash drought preparedness on regional scale.     

Relational Agriculture: Gender,Sexuality, and Sustainability in U.S. Farming

Although 97% of U.S. farms are “family-owned,” little research examines how gender and sexual relationships – inherent in familial dynamics – influence farmers’ practices and livelihoods. Gender and sexual dynamics – shaped by race and class – affect who is considered a farmer, land management decisions, and access to resources like land, subsidies, and knowledge. We use feminist and queer lenses to illuminate how today’s agricultural gender and sexual relations are not “natural,” but when left uninterrogated are constructed in ways that harm women and queer farmers while limiting potential to develop sustainable practices. Women and queer farmers also resist, “re-orienting” gender and sexual relations in ways that expand possibilities for achieving food justice and ecological sustainability. We offer “relational agriculture” as a tool for making visible and re-orienting gender and sexual relations on farms. Relational agriculture brings sexuality into food justice and demonstrates the centrality of gender and sexuality to agricultural sustainability.     

德保县农业气候资源的保护对策

针对目前德保县在农业气候资源利用中的存在问题,提出保护当地农业气候资源的几点应对策略。     

Studies of Nitrous Oxide Emission from Farmlands in North China

Measurements of nitrous oxide emission from agricultural lands were conducted. The results show that nitrous oxide fluxes on several soils are at the range of 2-60 μg . N / m2 h. Factors influencing the production rates of nitrous oxide from the soils, such as soil temperature, soil moisture and fertilization, are discussed. The calculated amount of nitrous oxide emission from China farmlands is 9.8 × 107 Kg . N per year, which accounts for about 10% of the total source strength in China areas.     

臭氧对农作物的影响研究

臭氧(O3)是大气微量成分之一。近地层O3含量的增加，将直接影响农作物的生长发育。本文简要介绍了国外有关O3对农作物影响的研究方法和试验研究结果，以及我国有关O3对农作物影响的研究动态。     

Global change and the intensification of agriculture in the tropics

Bridging understanding of local environmental change with regional and global patterns of land-use and land-cover change (LUCC) remains a key goal and challenge for our understanding of global environmental change. This meta-analysis attempts to bridge local and regional scales of LUCC by demonstrating the ways in which previously published case studies can be compared and used for a broader regional synthesis in the tropics. In addition to providing results from a meta-analysis, this paper suggests ways to make future case studies more widely comparable.     

农业资源高效利用评价指标体系初步研究

本文从农业自然再生产和经济再生产统一体和整体性的角度出发 ,在阐述构建农业资源高效利用评价指标体系宜遵循的基本原则的基础上 ,通过对农业资源的农业生产行为特征及高效利用途径进行系统分析 ,筛选、构建和设计出了农业资源高效利用评价指标体系 ,并对其中的重要指标进行了讨论。     

基于Web GIS的上海数字农业集成系统

上海农业集成系统是基于JZ地理信息系统软件(精准农业信息公司开发的一套基于Web发布的地理信息系统发布引擎)开发的一套BS架构的农业系统。该平台采用了ASP.NET技术、SQL Server数据库管理技术以及地图发布引擎(JZ地图引擎)等技术,将传感器采集到的实时数据发布到网上,使各种不同目的的客户能够及时了解、分析和处理数据,并根据数据的实际情况及时应对农作物生长过程中的不良状态。本文对该平台的关键技术、数据管理、功能模块和安装步骤等方面作了详细的介绍。