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Increasing food demands are causing rapid transitions in farming systems, often involving intensified land and resource use. While transitioning has benefits regarding poverty alleviation and food outputs, it also causes environmental and social issues over time. This study aims to understand the transitions in farming systems in a region in Telangana, from 1997 to 2015, and their effect on livestock rearing and smallholder livelihoods. We also examine the impact of the transitions on lower caste groups and women in particular. We collected data using a combination of methods, i.e., a household survey, focus group discussions, and secondary data sources, to build a comprehensive picture of the transitions in the region. We found that subsistence mixed farming systems transitioned to market-orientated specialized systems over a short time span. As the transition process gained momentum, households either intensified their production or got marginalized. Technological interventions, development programs with integrated approaches, and market demand for certain agricultural produce triggered increased regional production but also led to the scarcity of water, land, and labor. The transitions marginalized some of the households, changed the role of livestock in farming, and have been inclusive of both lower caste groups and women in terms of increased ownership of large ruminants and access to technologies. However, for women specifically, further increase in workload in the context of farming is also found.

Considerable attention has been paid to the establishment of an appropriate cropping patterns for the restoration of saline-alkali lands. This study’s goal was to explore changes in nitrogen-cycling (N-cycling) gene (nitrogen fixation: nifH; nitrification: AOA, AOB, and nxrB; denitrification: narG, norB, and nosZ) abundance of three cropping patterns at two soil depths in saline-alkali soils. Results showed that rotation and mixture promoted soil nutrients. N-cycling functional genes were significantly influenced by soil depths and cropping patterns. Compared with monoculture, rotation decreased the abundance of nifH, AOA, narG, and nosZ and increased the abundance of AOB; mixture decreased the abundance of AOA, narG, and nosZ and increased the abundance of AOB and nxrB in the 0–15 cm soil depth. Rotation increased all genes abundance; mixture increased nosZ abundance and decreased nxrB abundance in 15–30 cm soil depth. Soil protease, cellulase, nitrate reductase, pH, AK (available potassium), and AP (available phosphorus) were important factors influencing N-cycling gene abundance. In conclusion, rotation and mixture not only reduced soil salinity but also improved soil fertility and nitrogen cycling. These findings can provide some theories for the sustainable development of N-cycling during the restoration of saline-alkali soils.

Water-stressed countries need to plan their food security and reduce the pressure on their limited water resources. Agriculture, the largest water-using sector, has a major role in addressing water scarcity and food security challenges. While there has been quite some attention to water management solutions like soil mulching and improved irrigation, less attention has been paid to adapting the cropping pattern to save water. Here, we investigate how a change in which crops are grown where and when can influence the green and blue water footprint (WF) of crop production, save blue water, reduce blue water scarcity and increase both food and cash crop production, using FAO's AquaCrop model. The performance of two potential solutions, first a strategy of mulching plus drip irrigation, and second a strategy with changing the cropping pattern in addition to mulching and drip irrigation, were compared in one of the most water-stressed catchments in the world, the Upper Litani Basin in Lebanon. Our results show a substantial potential for more efficient use of green water resources for food production while saving scarce blue water resources. Whereas mulching and drip irrigation together decrease the blue WF in the basin by 4.5%, changing the cropping pattern as well can decrease it by 20.3%. Food and cash production could increase by 3% and 50% by changing the cropping pattern, compared to 1.5% and 2.1% by mulching and drip irrigation. Changing the cropping pattern could thus significantly reduce water scarcity and enlarge food and cash production in the basin. © 2020 Authors are thankful for the support from the UN-FAO headquarter and FAO-Lebanon. The ground data used for the simulation and modelling were collected during the field visit of the Litani Basin funded by the FAO-WaPOR project (FRAME consortium)

In the Argentina Pampas, one of the most extensive agricultural areas in the temperate fringe of southern hemisphere, soil health is jeopardized mostly by the decline of physical and biological properties due to soil fragility and agricultural managements, even under No-tillage (NT). In this study, topsoil physical health of three Mollisols and one Vertisol under two agricultural managements with no-tillage (good and poor agricultural practices -GAP and PAP-, differing mostly in their cropping intensity -CI-) was evaluated by the indirect measurement of porosity features. Two types of pore features derived from soil water release curves (SWRC) of undisturbed samples at three depths (0.0–0.05, 0.05–0.010 and 0.010–0.20 m) were employed: a) pores size distribution (>1000, 300, 50 and < 50 µm) and b) pore volume density parameters: location (Dmode, Dmean and Dmedian) and shape (SD, Skewness and Kurtosis). Pore parameters were related to management variables, to clay mineralogy and to several soil physical and chemical properties allowing to i) evaluate the effects of cropping intensification on soil physical properties; ii) evaluate the effects of intrinsic and dynamics factors on the behaviour of pore variable; iii) build an optimal pore size frequency curve to assess soil health. Among all porosity features assessed, PMac>300 µm and Dmode showed close relationships with agricultural management variables and were positively related to a labile organic carbon fraction (POCc) and to the aggregates stability tests, regardless of the soil type. Thus, they both may be selected as sound indicators of physical health status of different pampean soils under NT cultivation. Particularly, in the PAP treatments and for the three depths evaluated, PMac>300 µm showed values below critical thresholds, highlighting the physical deterioration of soils subjected to this management. Cropping intensification expressed by the CI index was also strongly related with large pores and soil properties (i.e. organic carbon and aggregates stability). These results demonstrate that cropping intensification expressed by the CI index was effective to counteract compaction processes in a variety of soils of the Pampa region and must be seen as an important strategy to avoid porosity loss and to improve the benefits of NT. Fil: Kraemer, Filipe Behrends. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Cátedra de Manejo y Conservación de Suelos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Castiglioni, Mario Guillermo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Cátedra de Conservación y Manejo de Suelos; Argentina Fil: Morras, Hector. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Suelos; Argentina Fil: Fernández, Patricia Lilia. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Cátedra de Manejo y Conservación de Suelos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Alvarez, Carina Rosa. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina

Nitrogen and phosphorus are essential for plant growth and are the primary limiting nutrient elements. The loss of nitrogen and phosphorus in agricultural systems can cause the eutrophication of natural water bodies. In this paper, a field simulated rainfall experiment was conducted in a typical small watershed of the Danjiang River to study the nutrient loss process of nitrogen and phosphorus in slope croplands subjected to different crops and tillage measures. The characteristics of the runoff process and nutrient migration of different slope treatments were studied, which were the bare-land (BL, as the control), peanut monoculture (PL), corn monoculture (CL), bare land (upper slope) mixed with peanut monoculture (lower slope) (BP), corn and peanut intercropping (TCP), corn and soybean intercropping (TCS), downslope ridge cultivation (BS) slope, and straw-mulched (SC), respectively. The results showed that the runoff of CL, SC, TCS, BS, BP, PL and TCP slope types were 93%, 75%, 51%, 39%, 28%, 12%, and 6% of the those of the bare land, respectively. The total nitrogen concentration in runoff on different slope types decreased in the order of BP &gt, PL &gt, BS &gt, SC &gt, TCP &gt, BL &gt, CL &gt, TCS. The BL was characterized with the highest NRL-TN (the loss of total nitrogen per unit area), with the value of 1.188 kg/hm2, while those of the TCP is the smallest with the value of 0.073 kg/hm2. The total phosphorus concentration in runoff decreasd in the order of BS &gt, BP &gt, TCS. The PRL-TP (the loss of total phosphorus per unit area) of BL is the largest (0.016 kg/hm2), while those of TCP is the smallest (0.001 kg/hm2). These indicate that the loss of nitrogen is much higer than that of phosphorus. The loss of nitrogen in runoff is dominated by nitrate nitrogen, which accounts for 54.4%&ndash, 78.9% of TN. Slope croplands in the water source area should adopt the tillage measures of TCP and PL.These measures can reduce 85% of the runoff of nitrogen and phosphorus compared to the bare land. The results may assist in agricultural non-point source pollution control and help promote improved management of the water environment in the Danjiang River&rsquo, s water source area.

[EN] This paper aims to analyze the evolution in recent years of the water situation in Riegos del Alto Aragón (127.210 ha), a major irrigation scheme in north-eastern Spain. We study the evolution of water demand, irrigation efficiency, cropping patterns and crop profitability for the whole irrigationarea and for each of its 58 community members. We have obtained significant figures in the current levels of irrigation efficiency and they are of immediate application for the improvement of water management policy. On the one hand, the findings show the need to stop the current expansion of irrigation in this community, and on the other hand, they indicate that water scarcity is now provoking shocking changes in the cropping pattern removing towards less water demanding crops and with lower profitability, instead of the expected evolution (more weight of fruits, vegetables, corn,...) [ES] Este trabajo profundiza en la evolución de la situación hídrica de la Comunidad General de Riegos del Alto Aragón (127.210 ha), localizada en el noreste español. Se analiza para el conjunto de esta zona regable y para cada una de sus 58 comunidades de regantes la evolución de las demandas de agua, los niveles de eficiencia, los patrones de cultivos y su rentabilidad económica. Las cifras obtenidas de los niveles de eficiencia son muy significativas y de aplicación inmediata para la mejora de la política de gestión del agua. Los resultados muestran por una parte la necesidad de detener la actual expansión del regadío en esta comunidad, y por otra que la falta de agua está provocando cambios en los patrones de cultivo hacia cultivos menos exigentes de agua y con menor rentabilidad económica, en lugar de lo esperado (más frutales, hortalizas, maíz,…). El presente trabajo ha sido financiado por el proyecto OTRI-2011/0155 financiado por la Comunidad General de Riegos del Alto Aragón y también por la beca FPU AP2010-3729. Los autores agradecen a los evaluadores anónimos de EARN por sus útiles comentarios.

This article attempts to determine the long-term productivity and sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the Indian and Pakistan Punjabs by measuring trends in total factor productivity for production systems in both states since the advent of the green revolution. These measurements over time and across systems have resulted in three major findings. First, there were wide spatial and temporal variations between the two Punjabs. Although output growth and crop yields were much higher in the Indian Punjab, productivity growth was higher by only a small margin. Moreover, the lowest growth in productivity took place during the initial green revolution period and in the wheat-rice system in both states. The time lag between adoption of green revolution technologies and realization of productivity gains is related to learning induced efficiency gains, better utilization of capital investments over time, and problems with the standard methods of productivity measurement that downwardly bias estimate, particularly during the green revolution period. Second, input growth accounted for most of the output growth in both Punjabs during the period under study. Third, intensification, especially in the wheat-rice system, resulted in resource degradation in both Punjabs. Data from Pakistan show that resource degradation reduced overall productivity growth from technical change and from education and infrastructure investment by one-third.

Could the simplifying assumptions made in project appraisal be so far from the truth that the expected benefits of public investments are not realized? Using data for Vietnam, commonly used estimates of the benefits from irrigation investments based on means are compared with impacts assessed through an econometric modeling of marginal returns that allows for household and area heterogeneity using integrated household-level survey data. The simpler method performs well in estimating average benefits nationally but can be misleading for some regions, and, by ignoring heterogeneity, it overestimates gains to the poor and underestimates gains to the rich. At moderate to high cost levels, ignoring heterogeneity in impacts results in enough mistakes to eliminate the net benefits from public investment. When irrigating as little as 3 percent of Vietnam's non-irrigated land, the savings from the more data-intensive method are sufficient to cover the full cost of the extra data required, ignoring other benefits from that data.