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In the context of frequent food crises, Angola needs to improve the efficiency of agricultural production to meet the rigid domestic demand for food consumption. China has accumulated experience and technology in agricultural production over the years, it is a strategic partner for Angola, and Angola has a prominent place in the destination of Chinese investments. Therefore, agricultural cooperation between China and Angola based on mutual benefits will not only help Angola solve the problem of self-sufficiency in food but also provide a broad space for Chinese agricultural technology to “go global”, thereby providing reliable domestic food security solutions. Through the SWOT method, this study analysed Angola’s agricultural development prospects and the current situation of China and Angola’s agricultural cooperation to build a SWOT matrix and formulate reliable agricultural cooperation development strategies for promoting agricultural cooperation between China and Angola.

Scale-up intensive pig farming can increase profitability by economies of large scale, but it also exacerbates environmental pollution caused by the disordered discharge of manure and sewage. Manuresewage management (MSM) is critical to mitigate environmental pressure and reuse livestock waste. However, the corresponding MSM measures adopted by pig farmers are multitudinous in reality, due to the diversity of MSM methods and heterogeneity of farmers' characteristics and behaviors. Thus, this study empirically categorized five typical MSM modes (i.e., traditional simple mode (TSM), mixed processing mode (MPM), semi-biogas mode (SBM), professional processing with simple utilization mode (PPSUM) and professional processing with full utilization mode (PPFUM)) by clustering analysis, based on the field data from 406 pig farms, and further discriminated farmers' heterogeneous characteristics on corresponding mode adoption. Results revealed that each mode was distinctive. The applicability of the corresponding mode was reflected in the synthesis deliberation, involving farming structure, land, farmers' characteristic and their subjective awareness. Farmers' education level and pro-environmental perception are significantly promoted to adopt technology-intensive MSM modes. Scale upgrading has a positive effect on mechanization adoption and diversified strategies application. Land as an unalterable objective factor restricted the extension of MSM modes based on field returning. Conclusions clarified typical MSM modes and provided references to individual pig farms on appropriate mode selection, further enhancing the efficiency of MSM and contributing to the sustainability of green development of pig farming in China.

The construction of a high-quality wheat genome variation map is important to wheat genetic studies and breeding. In this study, we developed the second-generation whole-genome genetic variation map of wheat (VMap 2.0) by integrating whole-genome sequencing data of 1,062 diverse wheat accessions from 20 species/subspecies. VMap 2.0 contains 195.96 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), 2.22 million insertions, and 4.72 million deletions, achieving a high density of variation map in which one variant exists in every 73 base pairs on average. By systematically analyzing the phylogenetic relationships and genetic diversity of tetraploid wheat, hexaploid wheat, and diploid goatgrass (Aegilops tauschii), we found that the genetic diversity of wild emmer wheat was 2.4 times higher than that of common wheat. In contrast, the genetic diversity of diploid goatgrass is 7.8 times higher than the D subgenome of hexaploid wheat. With the high-density genetic variations, VMap 2.0 is anticipated to facilitate high-resolution trait dissection and expedite prediction-based breeding of wheat.

Planting green manure is an effective way to improve the agricultural environment and the quality of cultivated land in China. However, deviation from green manure planting willingness and behavior (DWB) becomes a serious obstacle to the promotion of green manure planting technology. For economic farmers, whether to plant green manure is a rational choice made after weighing up family endowments. In addition, ecological cognition plays a moderating role in the “willingness-behavior” transformation process of farmers’ green manure planting on the basis of family endowments. We selected four counties in which to conduct a questionnaire survey in Gansu and carried out interviews with 375 farmers. Based on the survey data, our study identified determinants that influence farmers’ DWB and examined the moderating effect of ecological cognition. In our paper, results show that the probability of farmers’ DWB is 41.87%. Farmers’ DWB is not only negatively affected by social network information and ecological compensation (eco-compensation) and positively influenced by the scale of cultivated land, but also restricted by human capital endowment characteristics such as age and education. In addition, ecological cognition played a significant moderating effect on farmers’ DWB. Farmers with high ecological cognition were more aware and capable of promoting green manure planting intentions into practice. Furthermore, different groups of farmers had different characteristics of DWB. The findings are useful and helpful in better understand the influencing factors of farmers’ DWB for policy makers and managers and can provide some effective support for policies designed to encourage farmers to adopt more sustainable green manure.

Bread wheat expanded its habitat from a core area of the Fertile Crescent to global environments within ~10,000 years. The genetic mechanisms of this remarkable evolutionary success are not well understood. By whole-genome sequencing of populations from 25 subspecies within the genera Triticum and Aegilops, we identified composite introgression from wild populations contributing to a substantial portion (4-32%) of the bread wheat genome, which increased the genetic diversity of bread wheat and allowed its divergent adaptation. Meanwhile, convergent adaptation to human selection showed 2- to 16-fold enrichment relative to random expectation-a certain set of genes were repeatedly selected in Triticum species despite their drastic differences in ploidy levels and growing zones, indicating the important role of evolutionary constraints in shaping the adaptive landscape of bread wheat. These results showed the genetic necessities of wheat as a global crop and provided new perspectives on transferring adaptive success across species for crop improvement.

Deep knowledge of crop biodiversity is essential to improve global food security. Despite bread wheat serving as a keystone crop worldwide, the population history of bread wheat and its wild relatives (a.k.a. wheats) remains elusive. By analyzing whole-genome sequences of 795 wheats, we found that bread wheat originated southwest of the Caspian Sea ∼11,700 years ago and underwent a slow speciation process, lasting ∼3,300 years due to persistent gene flow from wild relatives. Soon after, bread wheat spread across Eurasia and reached Europe, South Asia, and East Asia ∼7,000 to ∼5,000 years ago, shaping a diversified but occasionally convergent adaptive landscape of bread wheat in novel environments. Opposite to cultivated wheat, wild wheat populations have declined by ∼82% in the past ∼2,000 years due to the food choice shift of humans, and likely continue to drop because of the changing climate. These findings will guide future efforts in protecting and utilizing wheat biodiversity to improve global food security.

With the raising awareness of environmental protection, straw burning ban has been implemented to control straw burning phenomenon in China. It has received significant achievement by reducing the fire spots remarkably, but fire spots still cannot be eliminated in farmland. Although considerable papers and reviews on straw burning have been conducted, there is still a lack of comprehensive and systematic review of exploring the status, obstacles, implications, and motivations of this phenomenon, especially revealing the unique circumstance and experience in China. The review first summarizes the reasons as well as hazards of straw burning in China, and then explores the dilemma of straw burning ban in terms of farmers' endowments. And then, the review discusses the limitations of subsidy from financial expenditure and suggests two alternative innovative incentives: transferred payment from stakeholders and carbon trading. It is hoped that policy suggestion about straw burning and innovative incentives can enlighten researchers and policymakers who intend to implement straw burning ban effectively in the future.

BackgroundStructural variations (SVs) pervade the genome and contribute substantially to the phenotypic diversity of species. However, most SVs were ineffectively assayed because of the complexity of plant genomes and the limitations of sequencing technologies. Recent advancement of third-generation sequencing technologies, particularly the PacBio high-fidelity (HiFi) sequencing, which generates both long and highly accurate reads, offers an unprecedented opportunity to characterize SVs and reveal their functionality. Since HiFi sequencing is new, it is crucial to evaluate HiFi reads in SV detection before applying the technology at scale.ResultsWe sequenced wheat genomes using HiFi, then conducted a comprehensive evaluation of SV detection using mainstream long-read aligners and SV callers. The results showed the accuracy of SV discovery depends more on aligners rather than callers. For aligners, pbmm2 and NGMLR provided the most accurate results while detecting deletion and insertion, respectively. Likewise, cuteSV and SVIM achieved the best performance across all SV callers. We demonstrated that the combination of the aligners and callers mentioned above is optimal for SV detection. Furthermore, we evaluated the impact of sequencing depth on the accuracy of SV detection. The results showed that low-coverage HiFi sequencing is capable of generating high-quality SV genotyping.ConclusionsThis study provides a robust benchmark of SV discovery with HiFi reads, showing the remarkable potential of long-read sequencing to investigate structural variations in plant genomes. The high accuracy SV discovery from low-coverage HiFi sequencing indicates that skim HiFi sequencing is an ideal approach to study structural variations at the population level.

In China, returning wheat straw to the field (RWSF) is the most popular way of utilizing wheat straw. RWSF can not only improve soil quality, but also help to control agricultural pollution from wheat straw burning. However, the increased production cost caused by RWSF reduces farmers' enthusiasm to adopt this approach. This study estimated farmers' willingness to accept compensation (WTA) for RWSF by using the contingent valuation method (CVM), and identified determinants that influence farmers' WTA by using an ordered choice model (OCM). It aimed to determine how much compensation should be given to farmers for encouraging them to adopt RWSF and which factors affect their WTA. The results showed that, currently, the increased cost caused by adopting RWSF was 743 RMB/ha, and which was fully burdened by farmers. Although more than 90% of the surveyed farmers adopted RWSF, only 3.8% of these farmers were willing to adopt RWSF voluntarily without any compensation. The farmers' WTA of adopting RWSF was 479 RMB/ha, and it was much higher than the current subsidy rate of 300 RMB/ha in Jiangsu, which could not effectively encourage farmers to adopt RWSF voluntarily. Farmers' WTA is not only positively affected by the increasing production cost caused by RWSF and negatively influenced by the benefits resulting from RWSF, but also restricted by social-economic characteristics such as age, education, income etc. It is costly for the Chinese government to subsidize all the farmers adopting RWSF, letting farmers to become aware of the long-term environmental value of RWSF is an effective measure to motivate them to protect environment responsibly by adopting RWSF. These findings are useful in improving the current provincial subsidy policies or designing new subsidy policies nationwide for RWSF, and helpful in encouraging famers more sustainably adopting RWSF and promoting cleaner wheat production.

Nowadays, there is a growing interest in pro-environmental foods produced by pro-environmental practices. However, consumers’ payment motivations towards such foods are currently poorly understood. This manuscript provided a critical investigation of Chinese consumers’ intention to pay a premium (ITPP) for rice grown with green manure as crop fertilizer (GMR). One focus was the establishment of an explanatory structural research framework that includes effects of environmental behavior spillover (EBS) and public information induction (PII), another focus was to analyze the impacts of the selected structural elements on ITPP by introducing education as a moderator. Results suggest that consumers’ ITPP can be largely influenced by PII, therefore, for GMR marketers and policy makers, measures should be developed to widen consumers’ access to public information related to GMR and to improve their capacity of screening effective information. EBS, when ITPP remains low, emerged as a pivotal predictor of consumers’ ITPP. This observation provides us with the enlightenment that breeding consumers’ daily environmental behaviors is highly valued to inspire their payment intention in the early stages of GMR market development. Another finding is that, with the introduction of the educational variable, the influence coefficients of EBS and PII on ITPP increased from 0.42 and 0.53 to 0.61 and 0.66, respectively, which means that it is possible to boost consumers’ payment intention by improving their educational attainment. This study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence for the GMR industrial upgrading strategy and have significant implications for the environmental governance of the agricultural sector.

Reticulate evolution through the interchanging of genetic components across organisms can impact significantly on the fitness and adaptation of species. Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum subsp. aestivum) is one of the most important crops in the world. Allopolyploid speciation, frequent hybridization, extensive introgression, and occasional horizontal gene transfer (HGT) have been shaping a typical paradigm of reticulate evolution in bread wheat and its wild relatives, which is likely to have a substantial influence on phenotypic traits and environmental adaptability of bread wheat. In this review, we outlined the evolutionary history of bread wheat and its wild relatives with a highlight on the interspecific hybridization events, demonstrating the reticulate relationship between species/subspecies in the genera Triticum and Aegilops. Furthermore, we discussed the genetic mechanisms and evolutionary significance underlying the introgression of bread wheat and its wild relatives. An in-depth understanding of the evolutionary process of Triticum species should be beneficial to future genetic study and breeding of bread wheat.

Currently, the Chinese government is promoting the transformation of clean energy in rural areas to reduce the consumption of coal to cope with the smog. It is mainly based on “coal to gas”. The development of biomass resources in agricultural areas is an alternative means of energy supply. In order to improve rural energy structure, we propose to upgrade “coal to gas” to “coal to biomass” derived from centralized biogas production (CBP) and straw-briquetting fuel (SBF). This study deals with the question of financing such projects. The public–private partnership (PPP) model is seen as a response that can mobilize social capital to finance investments in these new modes of production and energy supply in rural areas. Based on an analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) of the two projects considered above, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was carried out with the assistance of experts in order to clarify the strategic choices which are more suitable for investors. First, we built a PPP strategic-decision model. The decision model was divided into four strategies (pioneering strategy, struggling strategy, conservative strategy and striving strategy) and two development intensities (conservative and proactive). We used this method to construct a SWOT–AHP model of the PPP strategy for CBP and SBF based on the investigation from the experts. The strategic-decision model identified that a pioneering strategy based on opportunity type is promised for SBF, while a more aggressive type strategy in struggling strategy is essential for the CBP. In order to encourage investors to adopt a positive and optimistic attitude towards the two projects, the public authorities have a role of guidance to ensure the mobilization of the social capital necessary for the construction of the projects.

With the greatly increased demand for animal products, the global dairy sector has experienced rapid expansion and intensification. The correspondingly increasing manure and sewage produced has been the major contributor to environmental burden and human health, especially in developing countries like China. Both worldwide environmental concerns and growing awareness of the circular economy have focused the governments' attention on environmental policies related to sustainable manure and sewage management (MSM). However, inherently dynamic decision-making processes of individual farms result in a great diversity of MSM practices, which leads to enormous difficulties and complexity in further sustainability and policy evaluation. Hence, it is essential to explore the key MSM pathways to represent diversity at a scientific and statistic view. While it is rarely practiced, particularly in China's dairy farming. We used China as a case study to develop the key MSM pathways using data from the nationwide survey of 306 scale dairy farms via a quantitative typology methodology. The results by optimal clustering solution revealed four key pathways based on the individual practices which are associated with the collection, storage, and processing and utilization stages. Furthermore, general characteristics were compared to identify potential determinant factors. It revealed that the major indicators such as resource endowments, milk productivity and quality, and revenues and expenditure showed a consistently increasing trend among pathways. The results indicated resource availability and intensive degree, to a certain extent, affected the farmers' selection. The possibilities of performing sustainability and policy evaluation at a higher scale were also demonstrated. Overall, the identified key pathways can help to know regional waste utilization and economic potential to evolve their MSM strategies. They are especially critical for developing countries to obtain typical MSM profiles and formulate targeted policies more effectively, aiming to promote dairy sustainable development and achieve the circular economy globally.

Background: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignancies with high invasion and metastasis capacities. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) were evidenced to take part in the progression of multifarious cancers, including HCC. However, the role of circ_0091579 in HCC progression has not been fully described. This study aimed to explore the function of circ_0091579 and its potential regulatory mechanism in the progression of HCC. Materials and Methods: The expression of circ_0091579, microRNA-490-5p (miR-490-5p), and cancer susceptibility candidate 3 (CASC3) in HCC tissues and cells was detected by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. The circular characteristic and stability of circ_0091579 were verified by RNase R digestion and actinomycin D reaction assays. Cell proliferation, migration, and invasion were determined by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay and Transwell assay, respectively. The level of glycolysis was evaluated by glucose consumption and lactate production. The levels of proteins were examined by Western blot. The interaction between miR-490-5p and circ_0091579 or CASC3 was certified by Dual-luciferase reporter assay. Results: circ_0091579 and CASC3 were upregulated, while miR-490-5p was downregulated in HCC tissues and cells. Silencing of either circ_0091579 or CASC3 suppressed cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and glycolysis in HCC cells. Moreover, miR-490-5p was verified to directly bind to circ_0091579 and CASC3. Circ_0091579 upregulated CASC3 by sponging miR-490-5p in HCC cells to promote cell proliferation, invasion, and migration. Conclusion: circ_0091579 promoted cell proliferation, migration, invasion, and glycolysis partially through miR-490-5p/CASC3 axis in HCC cells.

Corn stalk return (CSR) can manage agricultural residues on the spot to avoid field open burning and protect the environment. However, the implementation of this measure encounters reluctance from farmers which hinders its sustainability. This study combined the economic (cost) and technical (return amount, crushing quality, and decomposition of corn stalk) aspects to examine the factors affecting farmers' willingness to participate in the CSR by using a logistic regression model. The level of willingness to accept (WTA) compensation and its determinants were analyzed by using a tobit model. Based on the survey of 925 farmers, this study found the likelihood of farmers' participation in CSR will be decreased when CSR has high machinery cost, an excessive amount of stalk, poor quality of crushing, and slow decomposing rate. The farmers' WTA for CSR was estimated at about 711 Chinese Yuan (RMB) per ha annually, much higher than the current compensation level of 75-225 RMB per ha in Henan. Farmers were willing to be compensated more because of the high cost and slow decomposing rate. The issues in economic and technical sides should attract more attention, and the compensation should be increased and the technical problems should be solved to stimulate farmers' willingness of CSR. By providing a fuller understanding of farmers' CSR behavior, this study can serve as a reference for the Chinese government to develop and implement better policies.

Bread wheat expanded its habitats from a small core area of the Fertile Crescent to global environments within ∼10,000 years. Genetic mechanisms of this remarkable evolutionary success are not well understood. By whole-genome sequencing of populations from 25 subspecies within generaTriticumandAegilops, we identified composite introgression from these wild populations contributing 13%∼36% of the bread wheat genome, which tremendously increased the genetic diversity of bread wheat and allowed its divergent adaptation. Meanwhile, convergent adaption to human selection showed 2- to 16-fold enrichment relative to random expectation inTriticumspecies despite their drastic differences in ploidy levels and growing zones, indicating the vital importance of adaptive constraints in the success of bread wheat. These results showed the genetic necessities of wheat as a global crop and provided new perspectives on leveraging adaptation success across species for crop improvement.

Urban air pollution generated from straw open burning after the harvest seasons in China has been one of the significant problems interfering with the city's proper functioning. This paper applied contingent valuation in a face to face survey to assess the individual willingness of urban residents in Henan, China to pay for corn straw burning ban to policy makers. Such assessments are important for policy makers to determine the investment and policy instruments for regulating environmental impacts of straw open burning. To investigate the determinants of the stated willingness to pay (WtP) a sample of 1890 urban residents in Henan, China was selected. The study used Tobit model. About 62% of respondents stated that they were willing to pay. The expected WtP was about 76.72 Chinese Yuan (RMB) per person per year for the total respondents and 142.70 RMB per person per year for observations with positive WtP bids. Aggregate value was between 3.41 and 3.90 billion RMB indicating that corn straw burning ban is of considerable economic value to Henan. Results from the study show that the experience of environmental protection, expenditure on protecting health from air pollution, influence of straw burning on respondent's health, life, work, household income, education, job place, and family size were significant variables explaining WtP. The results of the study will be useful for policy makers when making up their mind how much funds should be invested and what kinds of policy instruments could be suitable for banning straw burning. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Heavy metal(loid)s (HMs) in organic fertilizer have become a primary source of HMs pollution of farmlands, which could cause deleterious health effects in people exposed through soil-plant systems via multi-pathways. This study investigated China's main grain production area (Henan Province) to evaluate the accumulation and transport characteristics of HMs (Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd and Pb) in a soil-wheat system and conduct a health risk assessment for wheat (Triticum aestivum) grain under different nitrogenous fertilizer treatments. The results indicated that the Cr, Cu, As and Cd contents in soil were 56.21-113.66, 13.97-58.72, 5.79-22.62 and 0.04-0.23mg·kg-1, and the mean contents of Cr and As contents in wheat grains were 0.78±0.31 and 0.49±0.18mg·kg-1, respectively, which exceeded the corresponding standards. The bio-concentration factor and transfer factor were lowest in response to N-fertilization with N8-N15. Health risk assessment showed that the local population who ingested grain from culture condition of N15 experienced the lowest non-cancer and cancer risks. Among different population groups, HMs posed relatively higher non-cancer and cancer risks to children aged 0-5years. Furthermore, Cr and As exposure was the greatest contributor to Hazard Index (HI), accounting for 74.72-83.11%, while Cr exposure accounted for >90% of the total potential cancer risk. Concluding, this study indicated that, to protect human health, the current application of nitrogenous fertilizer should be controlled to an appropriate level.

Environmental impacts of milk production are depending on the production efficiency of livestock and cropland. A mode of integrated maize silage planting and dairy breeding system (IPBS) has been widely promoted in China, as a promising way to recycle manure, reduce chemical fertilizer consumption and improve soil quality. However, quantitative environmental impacts and mitigation potential of this system remains unclear. In this study, based on life cycle assessment (LCA), environmental performance of non-IPBS and IPBS were compared: non-IPBS only involved dairy cow breeding, whereas maize silage planting was incorporated in IPBS. Results indicated that, although 60% of the surveyed dairy farms adopted IPBS, the self-sufficiency rate of maize silage was 57%. Compared with non-IPBS, IPBS had apparent potential in reducing global warming potential (−14%), acidification potential (−10%), eutrophication potential (−18%), non-renewable energy use (−10%), water use (−8%) and land use (−13%). It is estimated that, in China, 81% of dairy farms could adopt IPBS, resulting in a reduction of approximately 21% in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to compared with current situation, but the premise is that 2.0 million ha cropland should be applied for maize silage cultivation. Interestingly, environmental performance of IPBS was affected by the self-sufficiency rate of maize silage and restricted by milk yield and maize silage yield. Thus, mitigation of environmental impacts of milk production could be realized by combining a short-term strategy of increasing maize silage planting area in dairy farms and a long-term plan for technological improvements in the yield of crop and milk.

This study investigated smallholder farmers' adoption preferences for cropping patterns of cover crops, duration of adoption, and supplementing technical support to reduce agrochemicals regarding sustainable farm management (SFM). A discrete choice experiment was conducted in the Hexi Corridor (D1) and the west Loess Plateau (D2) in northwest China. The results show that farmers in D1 preferred intercropping and rotating cover crops to the current single cropping system, while farmers in D2 prioritized intercropping over rotation and least preferred planting cover crops in marginal land in the double-cropping system. Farmers in both sites preferred 1 or 3 years of adoption over 5 years. Additionally, farmers in D2 preferred technical assistance to reduce the high proportion of agrochemicals. The results indicate that younger farmers with higher annual household incomes were most likely to opt out in D1. In D2, more agricultural labor inputs and raising livestock had positive effects on the adoption of the package. Moreover, farmers who cultivated cash crops were more reluctant to move away from the current cropping system. This study highlights the uses of cover crop intercropping and rotation combining with technical assistance in different agriculturally intensive cropping systems that may be useful in guiding site-specific policy.

CONTEXT Farmers' decision-making related to the use of winter fallow fields is an issue of great concern to policymakers in China. An improved agricultural system, the rice-green manure rotation system (RGRS), has attracted more and more attention because of its efficient utilization of these fields and its outstanding comprehensive benefits. Despite the government's growing promotion, unfortunately low adoption has been observed among farmers. OBJECTIVE In this case, exploring the factors that affect farmers' adoption of RGRS has become the key to crack the above dilemma. METHODS This study therefore aims to reveal the factors determining farmers' intention and behavior to adopt RGRS by extending the theory of planned behavior (TPB) based on 1217 samples collected in the southern paddy field region (SPR) of China. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Results firstly validated the applicability of the extended TPB framework in analyzing farmers' intention and behavior to adopt RGRS. Subsequently, we found that farmers' intention to adopt RGRS can be greatly influenced by the perceived behavioral control, especially the control beliefs with regard to capital restriction and the expected environmental benefits of RGRS. Therefore, supportive policies should be formulated to improve farmers' behavioral capacity and, specialized training should be organized to improve their expected environmental benefits. Subjective norm, especially those derived from interpersonal relationships, emerged as another pivotal independent predictor of farmers' intention to adopt RGRS. This observation provides policy makers with enlightenment that strengthening the interpersonal social network is highly valued to improve farmers' adoption intention. Another finding is that there was a highly positive consistency between farmers' intention and behavior to adopt RGRS, which provides a possibility to predict, strengthen and test farmers' behavior based on their intention. More importantly, the comparison between the estimation results of the extended model and the original model shows that eco-compensation significantly increased the probability of intention being converted into behavior by moderating the influence intensity of perceived behavioral control on intention. SIGNIFICANCE These results can help policy makers better understand which influence farmers' adoption of RGRS and what targeted measures can be taken to popularize the improved agricultural system.

The size of the top three leaves of rice plants is strongly associated with yield; thus, it is important to consider quantitative traits representing leaf size (e.g., length and width) when breeding novel rice varieties. It is challenging to measure such traits on a large scale in the field, and little is known about the genetic factors that determine the size of the top three leaves. In the present study, a population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) and reciprocal single chromosomal segment substitution lines (SSSLs) derived from the progeny of a japonica Asominori × indica IR24 cross were grown under four diverse environmental conditions. Six morphological traits associated with leaf size were measured, namely length and flag leaf, length and flag, second and third leaves. In the RIL population, 49 QTLs were identified that clustered in 30 genomic region. Twenty-three of these QTLs were confirmed in the SSSL population. A comparison with previously reported genes/QTLs revealed eight novel genomic regions that contained uncharacterized ORFs associated with leaf size. The QTLs identified in this study can be used for marker-assisted breeding and for fine mapping of novel genetic elements controlling leaf size in rice.

Rice production holds a significant position in the Thai economy. Although it is the world's largest rice exporter, Thailand&rsquo, s increase in rice production is the result of an expansion in the cultivation area rather than an increase in yield per unit area. The present study was designed to estimate the technical efficiency and its governing factors for certified organic rice-growing farms in Yasothon Province, Thailand. A data envelopment model was employed to assess the technical efficiency of 328 farmer groups. The data revealed that the average technical efficiency was 23% and 28% under constant returns to scale (CRS) and variable returns to scale (VRS) specifications, respectively. Farmers can reduce the use of machinery, fertilizer, seed, and labor as input factors by about 80.1%, 25.62%, 24.72%, and 19.15%, respectively, while still achieving the same level of output. Multiple regression analysis was applied to estimate factors that affect the pure technical efficiency score (PTES) in the test regions. Results show that household size, farm size, water source, market accessibility, health symptoms, income, and labor were highly related to the TES and the amount of organic rice production. The regression coefficients of the predictors show that the income was the best predictor of the PTES at a significance level of p &lt, 0.05. It is concluded that the farmers can potentially increase their yields by up to 72%&ndash, 77% under current management practices.

The influence of cropping systems on nutrition and food safety is controversial. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of an organic cropping system (OCS) on wheat nutrition and food safety at the molecular level by using a comprehensive research method. Nutrient deviation in samples from an OCS and a conventional cropping system (CCS) were detected, and 58 biomarkers were selected through multivariate statistical analysis and were further qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed. The health risk of heavy metal(loid)s (HMs) for different populations was assessed based on the estimated average daily dose and recommended ingestion reference dose, which indicated that populations ingesting grains from OCSs had higher non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic risks. Additionally, HMs posed greater non-carcinogenic risks to children under five years old and greater carcinogenic risks to adults.This study highlights the need to consider the potential risk from HMs and nutritive ingredient differences in organic food.

The influence of instrumental variables on farmers ‘perceptions using rotation fallow as sustainable agriculture practices had been the aim of our research. By using simultaneous equations models, this study tried to understand the relationship between green manure farmer’s perceptions on using rotation-fallow and planting green manure in Guangxi Province, south of China. The results showed that subsidizing green manure farmers based on standard subsidy by the unit of green manure sown area; the training on the green manure planting technology or the demonstration preaching; the green manure farmers preference for the kinds of subsidy (funds, seeds, and mechanical services) were the mostly great drivers of the program of restoring planting green manure in the study area. These incentives measures must be enhanced as priority to restore definitely green manure planting. However, the findings of the study showed that the total income of the 2017 year, the area of an agricultural field of household and the household members (16–65 years old), providing labor in the agricultural field, have some influences on planting green manure and on farmer’s perceptions on using rotation-fallow as sustainable agriculture practices. Brief, the unobserved factors which influenced the endogenous factors play an important role to enhance widely the impact of farmers’ perceptions on planting green manure.

The global dairy farming sector has markedly expanded and intensified over the past decades due to the growing demand for milk and dairy products. The interest in implementing life cycle assessments of various manure and sewage management (MSM) strategies is increasing on a global scale, which is motivated by the concerns of environmental degradation caused by unsustainable MSM and growing awareness of circular economy. Life cycle thinking concept has been widely introduced to favor the comparative studies of different MSM strategies, with the aim of identifying suitable MSM strategies and formulating related policies. This meta-analysis presented comparative results of publicly available dairy MSM pathways, including waste-to-energy, composting, recycling, and other management pathways, aiming to explore potential benefits towards a circular economy. Results showed a consensus that waste-to-energy pathway significantly reduced global warming, eutrophication, and ecotoxicity potential. More specifically, the comparative performances of various detailed technologies belonging to a specified pathway were analyzed. Results indicated that anaerobic mono-digestion decreased global warming and eutrophication remarkably; its integrated management technologies reduced global warming considerably and an obvious decrease in eutrophication potential was observed. It revealed that most of current MSM strategies had limited potential and uncertain consequences to reduce environmental impacts and costs. In terms of influence factors, besides the intrinsic factor (pathway type), key extrinsic determinants including location, country income level, and farm scale were proved to affect mitigation potential of some specific impacts. Overall, it is necessary for the scientific community and policy-makers to focus on more possible trade-offs of different life cycle performances towards sustainability and circularity.

For the sake of reducing the application of chemical fertilizers (CF) and achieve the goal of Zero Growth of CF until 2020, Chinese government released the “Action Plan for Organic-Substitute-Chemical-Fertilizer (OSCF) for Fruits, Vegetables and Tea” and initially performed it in 100 pilot counties from 2017. Each pilot county rewarded 10 million CNY as subsidy to substitute CF with organic fertilizers (OF). This study examines the effects of the OSCF policy using survey data of 281 greenhouse vegetable farmers in the Shandong province of China. The Difference-in-Difference (DID) method is employed to get the net effects of the policy on the utilization of replacing CF. The results show that the OSCF policy helps to significantly reduce the application of CF and increase OF’s utilization for vegetable farmers, and on average CF drops 111.5 kg/ha while OF increases 346.36 kg/ha for the sampling farmers. Additional analysis reveals that the effects of the policy are heterogeneous across the cost of CF and household-level characteristics. The results provide evidences for further enhancing the policy effects.

Northeast China (NEC) is the corn granary of China, with average 38% of corn sowing area, 41% of corn production and over 80% corn commodity rate, which makes a great contribution to China's food security. Straw return is the primary way for disposal after harvesting. However, it is controversial in the effect of corn straw return on corn yield, the optimal amount of corn straw return is still unclear. Furthermore, NEC farmers are unwilling to adopt, so these issues require comprehensive regional evaluation. To begin with, this paper studied effects of corn straw return on corn yield increase with meta-analysis. The results illustrated that corn straw return has positive effect on corn yield increase. Secondly, in order to find optimal proportions, n-fold cross-validation method was implemented, and an inventory of corn straw return on corn yield in NEC was compiled. The optimal scheme of corn straw return is 48% of corn straw could bring 5.83% corn yield increase. Finally, results from system dynamics with Monte Carlo (MC) simulation revealed that such production increase potential (around 6.1 million tons of corn) was being blocked by the unaffordable cost for farmers under ordinary scenario. Interestingly, this paper contrived an extreme scenario that corn straw return could be profitable. The flexible adjustment of subsidy could become the motivation for measurement adaptation. This paper concludes that, corn straw return is a sustainable safeguard that can promote corn production in NEC, thus to China's food security in the long run.