Search

The contradiction between rural socioeconomic changes and residents' demands for a better life poses challenges for sustainable development. Industrial revitalization is a core issue in promoting rural economic development. Specialized villages, which focus on specific industries and excel in certain areas, are important pathways for increasing farmers' income, promoting industrial prosperity, and advancing agricultural modernization. However, there has been limited research on the spatial distribution and transformation patterns of rural industrial development models. In particular, in the context of rapid rural restructuring, understanding the spatial evolution of specialized villages is important for future rural development. Taking Henan Province—an important agricultural province in China—as a case, this study finds that the spatial evolution of specialized villages can be divided into six stages and three transformations corresponding to time period. The specialized villages show a spatial pattern of center–periphery, spatial agglomeration, and periphery–center development. In line with China's shift from quantitative expansion to qualitative reform, the types of specialized villages gradually diversified, driven by socioeconomic development and human behavioral factors in different periods. Although China's specialized villages show diversified development patterns, there remains a need to identify development patterns that are consistent with different types of villages to achieve high-quality development, fully implement rural revitalization, and provide typical cases for global sustainable development. By summarizing the development patterns of specialized villages, this study helps to accurately determine the value of specialized villages in rural development and to design more targeted paths for the development of rural industries, which is significant for promoting sustainable rural development and enhancing human well-being. • A typical model of rural industrial development is studied - specialized villages. • Evolutionary process was categorised following historical periodisation of China. • Spatial structure has evolved from discrete and isomorphic to diversified network. • Transformation mechanisms under the combined effect of multiple factors is explained. • Differentiated patterns go beyond linear transformation in contemporary China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crassostrea nippona has recently been recognized as a preferred alternative to C. gigas in summer due to its firm flesh and high glycogen content. To promote industrial development, the mass selective breeding program was initiated to improve growth performance of C. nippona in 2014. Although a steady genetic gain of approximately 10% for growth traits was achieved in each of the first three generations of the selected strains, little is known about the cumulative genetic progress in desired traits contributed by the selective breeding in the genetic improvement program. In this study, the aquaculture performance of the selected population was comprehensively evaluated by comparing the production performance and reproductive traits of the progeny (WF1 and SF4) from the wild population and the third-generation selected line in commercial farming environments. The results showed that the diameters of eggs from both populations were at similar levels, but the fertilization and hatching rates of the progeny from the selected lines were significantly higher than those of the wild population (P < 0.05). At larval stages, the shell height and cumulative survival rate (CSR) of individuals from SF4 were consistently superior to that of WF1, especially on day 6 post-fertilization, in which CSR of the improved C. nippona was increased by 25.08% compared to that of wild oysters. Meanwhile, a significant 12.10% enhancement in the metamorphosis rate was observed in SF4 when compared with WF1. During the grow-out stage, SF4 displayed distinct advantages in growth performance and survival compared to the wild strain, with 23.19, 33.48, 34.18 and 79.11% improvement in shell height, body weight, CSR and final yield at harvest on day 800, respectively. Meanwhile, relative brood amount (RBA) associated with initial development of offspring was found to be significantly higher in SF4 compared with WF1 (P < 0.05). Remarkably, the gonadal development, sex ratios and biochemical composition of oysters from both populations were at similar levels at final harvest, implying that high-intensity artificial selection had no significant effect on reproductive characteristics and nutritional quality of C. nippona. The encouraging results in the present study suggest that the overall genetic progress contributed by genetic breeding is considerable in the fast-growing strain of C. nippona , and such gains are expected to continue to increase with further selective breeding. • Genetic progress obtained in C. nippona after three-generation mass selection is considerable. • Production performance of improved C. nippona was superior to that of wild individuals. • Survival of improved C. nippona was significantly enhanced, especially at the early larval stage. • Selection for growth had no clear effect on gonad development and nutritional quality of C. nippona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water quality of floodplain lakes in the Yangtze region which supports ca. 450 million people is being severely compromised by nutrient pollution, climate change and dam installation resulting from intensive socio-economic development. However, due to a lack of long-term monitoring data, the onset and causes of ecosystem degradation are unclear. Here, we used chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments in dated sediment cores from six lakes spanning the region to reconstruct changes in algae and cyanobacterial HAB (harmful algal bloom) taxa alongside sedimentary nutrient flux measurements and historical archives. Sedimentary N fluxes are linked to changes in agriculture, while urbanization has had greater influences on P fluxes. Over the last 70 years algal and N 2 -fixing HAB pigments increased markedly in lakes (Luhu, Wanghu) that are strongly influenced by urbanization/industrialization. Algal assemblages in two other lakes (Futou, Honghu) changed gradually and responded primarily to agriculture and associated N fluxes; diazotrophic HAB pigments were absent and the lakes retained macrophyte cover. Local dam installation had no discernible effect on pigment assemblages in three of the four lakes in the past 70 years, but in the two hydrologically-open lakes (Poyang, Dongting), increasing algal production was significantly related to the upstream installation of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) and to urban/industrial and agricultural stressors. Temperature only influenced phototrophs in the most degraded lakes (Luhu, Wanghu). This spatial and temporal overview identifies that nutrient pollution is the primary regional driver of lake phototrophs, but that diazotrophic HABs are stimulated by P-enriched urban wastewater pollution, and agriculturally-derived N pollution favors non-N 2 -fixing cyanobacteria. Despite negative effects of the Three Gorges project, free connection to the river appears to help mitigate excess HABs in freely connected lakes. Management thus needs to be tailored appropriately to specific lake conditions and palaeolimnology can be valuable in identifying appropriate strategies. • The middle Yangtze lakes have undergone unprecedented increases in algal production during the Anthropocene. • Diazotrophic HABs are stimulated by P-enriched urban wastewater pollution. • Agriculturally-derived N pollution favors non-N 2 -fixing cyanobacteria. • Hydrological connections of lakes with the main channel mitigated against HABs occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expression “wage transition” refers to the fact that over the past three decades in almost all developed economies wage increases have leveled off. There has been a widening divergence and decoupling between wages on the one hand and GDP per capita on the other hand. Yet, in China wages and GDP per capita climbed in sync (at least up to now). In the first part of the paper we present comparative statistical evidence which measures the extent of the wage transition effect. In a second part we consider the reasons of this phenomenon, in particular we explain how the transfers of labor from low productivity sectors (such as agriculture) to high productivity sectors (such as manufacturing) are the driver of productivity growth, particularly through their synergetic effects. Although rural flight represents only one of these effects, it is certainly the most visible because of the geographical relocation that it implies; it is also the most well-defined statistically. Moreover, it will be seen that it is a good indicator of the overall productivity and attractiveness of the non-agricultural sector. Because this model accounts fairly well for the observed evolution in industrialized countries, we use it to predict the rate of Chinese economic growth in coming decades. Our forecast for the average annual growth of real wages ranges from 4% to 6% depending on how well China will control offshoring and the development of its healthcare sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decades of groundwater overexploitation for agriculture and industrial development have resulted in substantial land subsidence in the Rafsanjan plain of southeastern Iran. This work presents the results of an InSAR time series analysis obtained by the exploitation of Envisat, ALOS and Sentinel-1 (S1) SAR data archives between June 2004, and May 2016, to investigate land subsidence in the plain. The InSAR analysis revealed an area of approximately 1000 km 2 within the study area showing subsidence of > 5 cm/year and locally exceeding 30 cm/yr in the last decade. This area of significant subsidence is limited in its spatial extent to the agricultural land and is partly influenced by Quaternary faults. The temporal and areal relationships of subsidence and groundwater level data suggest that a significant part of the observed subsidence in the Rafsanjan region is caused by intense groundwater extraction that has led to widespread compaction within the upper parts of the up to 300 m thick unconsolidated sediments, causing irreversible and inelastic deformation of the aquifer. The average volume storage loss of the aquifer system due to overexploitation is estimated to have been approximately 300 million cubic metre (mcm)/yr over the last decade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digitalisation is promoted by both private and public actors as a way of contributing to the ecologisation of agriculture. However, this idea remains controversial. The debate is all the more crucial, as different ecologisation models exist, and as agriculture is experiencing new levels of industrialisation. In the literature, use of digital technology in agriculture has mainly been approached from a linear perspective of adoption but is rarely linked to ecologisation. In this paper, we aim to define digital use profiles of farmers and explain how they relate to ecologisation models. We distinguish production and information technologies. Based on 98 interviews with crop farmers in Occitanie (France), we show that there is a diversity of digital profiles. Through a mixed-method, we relate these profiles to a set of variables representing ecological and economic transformation in agriculture. It highlights links between some digital profiles and the further industrialisation of agriculture intertwined with weak or symbolic ecologisation. However, some digital uses associate with new forms of ecologisation that are based on input substitution. Digital use does not appear to support stronger ecologisation of farming. This study highlights the risk of a single model of digitalisation that only promotes one type of ecologisation pathway. • A diversity of digital technology use profiles exists. • Some digital uses are linked to the industrialisation of farming models. • Some digital uses are associated with the industrial development of organic farming. • Digital technology for information helps ecologisation changes already underway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the natural environment and agricultural systems induced by economic and industrial development, including population dynamics (growth, urbanization, migration), are major causes resulting in the persistence, emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases in developing countries. In the face of rapid demographic, economic and social transformations, the People's Republic of China (P.R. China) is undergoing unprecedented environmental and agricultural change. We review emerging and re-emerging diseases such as schistosomiasis, dengue, avian influenza, angiostrongyliasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis that have occurred in P.R. China due to environmental and agricultural change. This commentary highlights the research priorities and the response strategies, namely mitigation and adaptation, undertaken to eliminate the resurgence of those infectious diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The ideal of the intensification of agriculture has vanished in developed market economies as the outcomes of conventional production have caused growing environmental problems, in particular in areas with a high concentration of livestock. There is also a growing concern notable about animal welfare issues, accompanied by the belief that agricultural production needs to move away from an conventional agriculture towards one that is loosely defined as ‘alternative’. This paper uses the concept of multifunctionality as a lens for describing and explaining the nature of rural change in Germany. I argue that the case study example of the Oldenburger Münsterland illustrates that multifunctionality rates weakly as agricultural practice in production systems dominated by a conventional food regime and – hence – a transition towards diversity and resilience has to occur within conventional agriculture. In spite of the popularity of the idea that areas of intensive livestock farming might have been gradually transformed into emerging alternative economic spaces, the principle of coexistence between ‘productivist’ and ‘non-productivist’ practices poses major challenges. In particular the scarcity of agricultural land hinders the transition into ‘alternative’ food futures in the Oldenburger Münsterland, while the doubts about conventional agriculture and the industrialized food industry rise in an unprecedented way in German society. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Over the last 20 years, the US dairy industry has experienced a significant transformation from small farm operations to an industrialization of the milking process. This transformation has resulted in improvements in process efficiency and product quality. Milking tasks in large-herd parlors are highly-repetitive involving awkward postures and high muscle loads of the upper extremity. Field-based direct measures of physical exposures have been limited in challenging work settings such as dairies. This study evaluated full-shift exposures of posture and motion of the upper extremity among large-herd parlor milkers using wireless inclinometry. Results suggest large-herd parlor workers may be exposed to high exposure levels (posture, movement velocity, repetition, and inadequate rest) associated with the development of shoulder pathology. Compared to other high-risk occupations involving shoulder-intensive work, parlor workers may have higher exposure levels. These findings warrant the need for continued field-based research with larger sample sizes to facilitate the development of cost-effective intervention strategies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We test the early anthropogenic hypothesis that greenhouse-gas emissions produced by early agricultural activities in recent millennia kept the climate warmer than its natural level and offset an incipient glaciation. We use versions of the NCAR''s Community Climate System Model to investigate the natural climate that might exist today if CO2 and CH4 concentrations had fallen to their average levels reached during previous interglaciations (while ignoring the effects of aerosol changes). The model is run in a coupled atmosphere–slab ocean configuration with fixed land cover in one experiment and interactive vegetation changes in the other. With lowered greenhouse-gas concentrations, global-mean temperature falls by 2.75K under fixed land cover and by 3.0K with vegetation feedbacks included. Of the total global cooling with fixed land cover, 38% (62%) is attributable to early agricultural activities (industrialization), while early agriculture accounts for approximately half of the expanded permanent snow cover area. The large-scale cooling is amplified in polar regions, where mean-annual temperatures fall by up to 9K and sea-ice area more than doubles in the Southern Hemisphere. In high latitudes, boreal forest is replaced by tundra and tundra by polar desert, causing a higher surface albedo that amplifies regional Arctic cooling by up to 2K annually and 5K during spring. The greenhouse cooling in our simulations triggers widespread glacial inception in the Northern Hemisphere, where permanent snow cover expands by 80% (206%) without (with) vegetation feedbacks. The regional pattern of incipient glaciation is strongly influenced by both vegetation feedbacks and atmospheric circulation changes. While these results are fully consistent with the early anthropogenic hypothesis, further simulations with a dynamical ocean, higher spatial resolution, and other models are still needed to investigate the origin of human influence on global climate. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The industrialisation and intensification of agriculture over the last 50 years had a negative impact on landscape diversity and habitat values. During the last two decades, farmers have become increasingly engaged in landscape activities, to maintain or create habitats on their property. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between landscape changes in rural areas and farm characteristics. In addition, the results are used to determine if farms with certain farm characteristics or combinations of characteristics can be related to different patterns of landscape changes. The analysis is based on a case study of the landscape activities carried out by 104 farmers between 1990 and 1995 in two parishes in central Jutland, Denmark. A multivariate analysis, consisting of a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) and cluster analysis, is used to identify groups of farmers with distinct farm characteristics and landscape activities. The results indicate that 57% of the farms in the study area had engaged in landscape activities. Hedgerow planting and removal, and water point digging and cleaning were the most popular activities in terms of number of farmers involved. The planting of Christmas trees and cultivation of permanent grassland covered the largest area. In total, the activities concerned 125 ha or 1.5% of the study area. A parameter to parameter relationship could be identified between some landscape activities and farm characteristics. In particular, forest removal was closely related to intensive arable production while a range of activities were correlated with “hobby” farm characteristics. The results indicate that a range of motives influence farmers’ landscape activities and that more information is needed to understand and model complex decision-making processes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

WATER systems around the world are under increasing pressure due to demands from continued industrialisation and urbanisation; growing populations; and increasing pressure on agricultural systems. This is driving the early stages of a revolution in the technologies and business models used in the water industry. Desalination is already part of this mix, but could the technologies'' high demand for energy open up a new market for renewable energy technologies? [Copyright &y& Elsevier]