Although the findings are categorized based on the three overarching research questions, there were overlaps in some of the themes. The editor and reviewers’ affiliations are the latest provided on their Loop research profiles and may not reflect their situation dandelifeon automation at the time of review. Irrigation with saline or high-sodium water may damage soil structure owing to the formation of alkaline soil. In countries where humid air sweeps through at night, water can be obtained by condensation onto cold surfaces.
Pest-resistance has most commonly been conferred to crops through the expression of foreign inserted genes for the expression of Bt toxins, derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. The insecticidal proteins produced by Bt are a class of natural insecticides, which are pest-specific, and also used in powdered or liquid form in organic agriculture (Caldwell, Sideman, Seaman, Shelton, & Smart, 2013). Large-scale monocultures are widely reported to result in agricultural problems ranging from depletion of soil fertility due to continuous extraction of the same nutrients, to the intensification of pest problems by providing uninterrupted breeding grounds for specialized pests.
Even Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer, once a vocal critic of utility computing, has turn into a true believer. A few months later, the computer software giant place an exclamation point on its CEO’s words when it announced it would commit hundreds of millions of dollars on a international ??? Traditional food-processing and preparation practices to enhance the bioavailability of micronutrients in plant-based diets.
Since World War II, the system has tripled its output across many categories of foods to keep pace with population growth and changes in food demand patterns . As we discuss in more detail in Chapter 3, the continued increase in resource throughput accompanying this expansion has placed ever greater stresses on both the biophysical resource base of the food system as well as the people and animals influenced by it. In this chapter we present some of the trends and underlying dynamics of the food system in order to better understand how its current shape and direction have evolved. The resource flows linked to different aspects of the food system have not grown uniformly.
Losses through spoilage typically affect developing countries more, as they lack these basic infrastructure provisions. In addition to their use on crop lands, pesticides are used in aquaculture to treat parasite outbreaks that are generally promoted by the overcrowded and stressful conditions the fish are bred in . Pesticides are also used to control weeds and pests, and to eliminate certain fish and invertebrates.
The canals at that time irrigated crops such as peanuts, squash, manioc, chenopods, a relative of Quinoa, and later maize. The Ancient Nubians developed a form of irrigation by using a waterwheel-like device called a sakia. It largely depended upon the flood waters that would flow through the Nile River and other rivers in what is now the Sudan. Moreover, as environmental concerns have taken on greater significance for the general public, studies of agricultural science have begun to merge with environmental studies.
Ecosystem services, like pollination, soil fertility, pest control, and water purification, are difficult to account for and their importance to agriculture is systematically under-appreciated . These services can be classified as “emergent systemic features” that are dependent on the healthy maintenance of commonly shared resources, such as air and water quality, forests, and healthy soils (see relevant discussion on the “Tragedy of the Commons” in section 4.4). In Africa in particular, large-scale land acquisitions are pushed by investment programs and food security concerns, as well as local small-scale farmers scaling up (Cotula et al., 2009). The uproar over specifically African land-grabbing arises, because newly established farms are export driven to serve the domestic needs of investor countries at the expense of local livelihoods, and especially that a lot of deals have a complete lack of transparency.
These concerns have led to calls for a modified, mixed approach to rural development that recognizes traditional, sustainable practices. California’s tomato harvesters and “robots in the fields” seem far away from farms in low-income countries. Nonetheless, increasing agricultural labor productivity in the developing world will require increased use of technologies that enable the agricultural labor force to become more efficient and remain inter-sectorally competitive (Fuglie et al., 2020). As a result, agricultural productivity gains in much of the world may need to be induced primarily by more basic technologies, like small tractors, or mechanical devices that automate repetitive labor-intensive tasks, such as mechanical rice transplanters. One of the results of trade liberalization has been the expansion of global supply chains and increases of power of transnational corporations, which manage this trade, vis-à-vis consumers and producers. This is especially relevant in less developed countries, where smallholder farmers lack access to production inputs, capital, and better practices.
Their academic study has been surprisingly limited and biased towards Africa and Asia, with Latin America relatively neglected. Conversely, social demand has created pressure for respectful treatment of the environment and the well-being of humans. These objectives result in new and challenging problems that can only be resolved by applying advanced information and control technologies to production management of processes and farms . In this paper, a specially-designed agricultural machine named Wide-Span Implement Carrier is used as the platform for the automatic control of the cranberry harvesting operation.
