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The year 2020 celebrated the tenth anniversary of the recognition of the Mediterranean Diet as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee. This event represented a milestone in the history of nutrition, as the Mediterranean diet was the first traditional food practice to receive such award. Since then, a lot has been discussed not only on the beneficial aspects of the Mediterranean diet, but also on its complex role as a lifestyle model that includes a set of skills, knowledge and intercultural dialogue. This process ended up with the recognition in 2019 of Mediterranean diet as a possibly universal model of healthy diet from the EAT-Lancet Commission. These concepts were widely debated at the 2019 "Ancel Keys" International Seminar, held in Ascea (Italy) (for more information see: www.mediterraneandietseminar.org) with the aim to stimulate interest and awareness of a young group of participants on the current problems inherent to the effective implementation of the Mediterranean diet. The present article collects the contributions of several lecturers at the Seminar on key issues such as methodological and experimental approach, sustainability, molecular aspects in disease prevention, future exploitation, without neglecting a historical view of the Seven Countries Study. From the Seminar conclusions emerged a still vibrant and modern role of Mediterranean diet. The years to come will see national and international efforts to reduce the barriers that limit adherence to Mediterranean diet in order to plan for multi-factorial and targeted interventions that would guide our populations to a sustainable healthy living. (C) 2020 The Italian Diabetes Society, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Global warming and climate change have left developing countries fragile in terms of agricultural production, and this vulnerability is expected to increase in the near future. The surface energy budget approach is a different perspective to the investigation of energy change over a landscape. In terms of budget items, the net radiation absorbed by the earth is equal to the difference between the sum of the incoming shortwave and longwave radiation and the sum of the reflected shortwave and emitted longwave radiation. The longwave radiation has important effects on dew deposition and drying on crop leaves in agricultural meteorology. A pyranometer provides routine measurement of the daytime radiation, but the longwave part of this radiation cannot be so readily measured at night time. In this study, multiple linear regression, artificial neural networks, deep learning, adaptive network-based fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) and empirical models have been applied to model and estimate the mean incoming longwave radiation using atmospheric parameters. The ANFIS model appears to show good agreement between the measured and the estimated values for all days considered than other models.

Optimising resource use efficiency is high on many national policy agendas. Inappropriate management in agricultural production can result in increased risk of nutrient loss to the environment. Best practice in nutrient management can help to mitigate this. However, policy initiatives aimed at encouraging farmers to follow a nutrient management plan (NMP) appear to be limited in their success. We employ a typology to classify farms/farmers based on a number of policy relevant farm and farmer characteristics. The theory of planned behaviour is applied to understand the variables which influence farmers’ intentions to follow a NMP across the Republic of Ireland. The typology resulted in a total of three classes of farmers, namely ‘traditional’, ‘supplementary income’ and ‘business-orientated’. The findings from the regression analysis reveal that attitude towards the outcomes of following a NMP is a weak predictor of intentions whereas subjective norm (social pressure) and perceived behavioural control (ease/difficulty) are strong predictors of intentions across the classes. Furthermore, contact with agricultural extension (a combination of one-to-one and group based extension) is found to be critical in determining the intentions of both traditional and supplementary income classes of farmers. The results also indicate that policy, which requires certain farmers in Ireland to develop a NMP on a mandatory basis, has consistent but mixed levels of influence on intentions. Initiatives designed to further encourage farmers to follow a NMP must account for the diversity that exists among the farming population and how different groups of farmers may respond to such initiatives.

One of the major pedological changes produced by wildfires is the drastic modification of forest soil systems properties. To our knowledge, large research gaps are currently present concerning the effect of such fires on forest Haplic Luvisols soils in Central Europe. In this study, the effects of experimental fires on soil organic matter and chemical properties at different burning intensities in a Central European forest were examined. The study was conducted at Damak Forest, in Hungary, ecosystem dominated by deciduous broadleaf trees, including the rare Hungarian oak Quercus frainetto Ten. The experimental fires were carried out in nine different plots on Haplic Luvisol soils transferred from Damak Forest to the burning site. Three types of fuel load were collected from the forest: litter layer, understorey and overstorey. Groups of three plots were burned at low (litter layer), medium intensity (litter and understorey) and high intensity (litter, understorey and overstorey). Pre-fire and post-fire soil samples were taken from each plot, analysed in the laboratory and statistically compared. Key plant nutrients of organic matter, carbon, potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus were analysed from each sample. No significant differences in soil organic matter and carbon between pre- and post-fire samples were observed, but high intensity fires did increase soil pH significantly. Calcium, magnesium and phosphorus availability increased significantly at all fire intensity levels. Soil potassium levels significantly decreased (ca. 50%) for all intensity treatments, in contrast to most literature. Potassium is a key nutrient for ion transport in plants, and any loss of this nutrient from the soil could have significant effects on local agricultural production. Overall, our findings provide evidence that support the maintaining of the current Hungarian fire prevention policy. © 2019 by the authors.

A partir de l’analyse d’ouvrages édités à l’attention des masses populaires, de listes de productions et de traités agricoles, l’article propose une lecture critique des politiques agricoles mises en œuvre au Japon entre le début du XVIIe siècle et la fin du XIXe siècle. Il apparaît qu’au cours de cette période le pays a encouragé une uniformisation des productions agricoles sur l’ensemble de son territoire suite à l’application de savoirs importés de la Chine des Ming (1368-1644). Or, la capitale de l’empire Ming (Nankin) était située dans une région où les conditions climatiques subtropicales humides correspondaient à celles de l’Ouest du Japon, mais certainement pas à celles du Nord-est où les effets des famines ont été paradoxalement amplifiés. Cette aberration géographique peut s’expliquer à la fois par la sociologie de l’élite politique et par l’importance des représentations alimentaires du Kansai dans l’ensemble de la société d’Edo. Using works published for a popular readership, lists of products and agricultural treaties, this article proposes a critic of the agricultural policies implemented in Japan from the early seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century. It appears that the country practiced at this time a standardized agricultural production throughout its territory following the application of a knowledge imported from Ming China (1368-1644). But the capital of the Ming Empire (Nanking) was located in a region of China where the subtropical climate conditions matched western Japan, but certainly not to the Northeast areas where the effects of famine were amplified. This geographical misunderstanding can be explained by the sociology of the Edo’s political elite and by the importance of Kansai’s food habits representations in the whole Edo society.

On the way to make energy supply independent from fossil resources more and more renewable energy sources have to be explored. Biomass has become an important energy resource during the last years and the consumption is rising steadily. Common sources of biomass are agricultural production and forestry but the production of these sources is stagnating due to limited space. To explore new sources of biomass like in the field of landscape conservation the location and available amount of biomass is unknown. Normally, there are no reliable data sources to give information about the objects of interest such as hedges, vegetation along streets, railways and rivers, field margins and ruderal sites. There is a great demand for an inventory of these biomass sources which could be answered by applying remote sensing technology. As biomass objects considered here are sometimes only a few meters wide, spectral unmixing is applied to separate different material mixtures reflected in one image pixel. The spectral images are assumed to have a spatial resolution of 5-20m with multispectral or hyperspectral band configurations. Combining the identified material part fractions with height information and GIS data afterwards will give estimates about the location of biomass objects. The method is applied to test data of a Sentinel-2 simulation and the results are evaluated visually. Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) DLR/50EE1212 DLR/50EE1213 DLR/50EE1214

The production of biogas from animal, crops, or urban waste benefits environmental-friendly energy production, and it is also beneficial for sustainable agricultural production through the use of liquid organic fertiliser as a source of organic matter. A number of systems are available for the transportation and application of the liquid organic fertiliser but detailed in-field operations planning tools are necessary to establish safe conclusions on the advantages and disadvantages of each application system. Here, an algorithmic approach for the operational planning of liquid organic fertiliser application using the umbilical system is developed and presented. The approach provides all the key operational parameters necessary for the evaluation of a selected operational scenario, together with the relative significance of the various part operations involved, taking into account attributes of the operating environment. The whole system has been built as a web-based decision support system tool. A set of results demonstrated the use of the tool for supporting decisions on the adoption of the umbilical system as an operational system for the application of the organic fertiliser. A second set of results demonstrated the use of the tool for comparing an umbilical system in terms of cost and time with a tanker system. The comparison between these two systems quantified the benefit of such field operation models to accurately simulate in-field machine activities and provide precise case-based data rather than average norm based evaluations of selected field operation systems.

[EN] In decision-making processes, reliability and risk aversion play a decisive role. This paper presents a framework for stochastic optimization of control strategies for groundwater nitrate pollution from agriculture under hydraulic conductivity uncertainty. The main goal is to analyze the influence of uncertainty in the physical parameters of a heterogeneous groundwater diffuse pollution problem on the results of management strategies, and to introduce methods that integrate uncertainty and reliability in order to obtain strategies of spatial allocation of fertilizer use in agriculture. A hydro-economic modeling approach is used for obtaining the allocation of fertilizer reduction that complies with the maximum permissible concentration in groundwater while minimizes agricultural income losses. The model is based upon nonlinear programming and groundwater flow and mass transport numerical simulation, condensed on a pollutant concentration response matrix. The effects of the hydraulic conductivity uncertainty on the allocation of nitrogen reduction among agriculture pollution sources are analyzed using four formulations: Monte Carlo simulation with pre-assumed parameter field, Monte Carlo optimization, stacking management, and mixed-integer stochastic model with predefined reliability. The formulations were tested in an illustrative example for 100 hydraulic conductivity realizations with different variance. The results show a high probability of not meeting the groundwater quality standards when deriving a policy from just a deterministic analysis. To increase the reliability several realizations can be optimized at the same time. By using a mixed-integer stochastic formulation, the desired reliability level of the strategy can be fixed in advance. The approach allows deriving the trade-offs between the reliability of meeting the standard and the net benefits from agricultural production. In a risk-averse decision making, not only the reliability of meeting the standards counts, but also the probability distribution of the maximum pollutant concentrations. A sensitivity analysis was carried out to assess the influence of the variance of the hydraulic conductivity fields on the strategies. The results show that the larger the variance, the greater the range of maximum nitrate concentrations and the worst case (or maximum value) that could be reached for the same level of reliability. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd., The study has been partially supported by the European Community 7th Framework Project GENESIS (226536) on groundwater systems and from the Plan Nacional I+D+I 2008-2011 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (subprojects CGL2009-13238-C02-01 and CGL2009-13238-C02-02). The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestions for improving the paper.

Globalization is the term used for multidimensional set of transformative processes and outcomes that work together with spaces and people .It is indeed an issue of prime importance in today’s world. Issues of food shortages have been with the mankind from a long time. Owing to a small number of technological advancements, the food requirements of rapid increasing populations were traditionally fulfilled through cultivating more area. The world is experiencing scarcity in fertile and irrigable lands at large, additional development will rely on fallow-based farming and bringing cheaper and lesser yielding land into cultivation (Smith, 1998). The job gave the impression of all the more overpowering as progress in medication and health escorted to longer life anticipation and superior fecundity rates.

This study treats the problem of current and future climate changes and their impact on agricultural production in western Central African Republic. Observation data, simulation and climate projection were analyzed in order to apply the results to estimate crop yields future time horizons. The methodology is based on the use of agricultural STICS model, which simulates crop yields, describes future climate faces and the gap between climate situations in the future and those known (baseline). Agronomic outputs indicate that climate change is a serious threat to agricultural development in West Central Africa. The analysis of observations and climate projections show a variability of rainfall, higher temperatures and an increase in extreme weather events. The impacts of climate change on agriculture are already evident. Despite their uncertainties, future precipitation trends show a decline of up to 20 to 42 % especially in the Sudanian and Sudano-Sahelian sectors of the study area. The severity of the drought that will follow could lead to a reduction in available water supplies of arable land and changes in the duration of the vegetative growth period. The expected effects of the change will be changes in the length of growing seasons, disruption of biological cycles of crops and other organisms useful to the environment, more intense water and heat stress over longer periods. These dysfunction agricultural seasons have a great influence on the ability of farmers to plan their activities. Yield losses of grain and oilseed crops in the order of 20-50 % are expected in the study area for future horizon near and far. The analysis of simulated and compared to those observed yields indicates , with a pessimistic climate scenario, a sharp decline in yields, thus requiring more appropriate proactive adaptive strategies to reduce food vulnerability. The efforts from now on related to the integration of the adaptation to the climate change in planning at the level as well regional, national as room. In adapting a wide range of existing innovative experiences today is capitalized, especially in the field of sustainable management of land, water and forests. Implementing large scale requires considerable funding from the adaptation fund and regional and sub regional supported., La présente étude traite de la problématique des changements climatiques actuels et futurs et de leur incidence sur les productions agricoles dans l'Ouest de la République Centrafricaine. Les données d'observation, de simulation et de projection climatiques ont été analysées dans le but d'appliquer les résultats à l'estimation des rendements culturaux aux horizons temporels futurs. La démarche méthodologique est basée sur l'utilisation du modèle agronomique STICS, qui simule les rendements agricoles, décrit les physionomies climatiques futures ainsi que l'écart existant entre les situations climatiques de demain et celles connues (situation de référence). Les sorties agronomiques révèlent que les changements climatiques constituent une menace sérieuse pour le développement agricole dans l'Ouest de la Centrafrique. L'analyse des observations et des projections climatiques montre une variabilité des précipitations, une élévation des températures et une recrudescence des phénomènes météorologiques extrêmes. Les impacts des changements climatiques sur les productions agricoles sont d'ores et déjà évidents. En dépit de leurs incertitudes, les tendances futures des précipitations indiquent une baisse pouvant atteindre 20 à 42 % notamment dans les secteurs soudaniens et soudano-sahéliens de la région d'étude. La sévérité de la sécheresse qui s'en suivra pourrait engendrer une diminution des réserves en eau disponibles des terres cultivables et des modifications de la durée de la période de croissance végétative. Les effets attendus de ce changement seront les modifications de la durée des saisons de culture, la perturbation des cycles biologiques des cultures et autres micro-organismes utiles à l'environnement, des stress hydriques et thermiques plus intenses sur des périodes plus longues. Ce dysfonctionnement des saisons agricoles aura une grande influence sur la capacité des agriculteurs à planifier leurs activités. Des baisses de rendement des cultures céréalières et oléagineuses de l'ordre de 20 à 50 % sont attendues dans la région d'étude aux horizons futurs proches et lointains. L'analyse des rendements simulés et comparés à ceux observés indique, avec un scénario climatique pessimiste, une forte baisse des rendements, nécessitant ainsi des stratégies adaptives proactives plus appropriées afin de réduire la vulnérabilité agroalimentaire des populations. Les efforts sont désormais portés sur l'intégration de l'adaptation au changement climatique dans la planification au niveau tant régional, national que local. En matière d'adaptation, un large éventail d'expériences novatrices existant aujourd'hui est capitalisé, en particulier dans le domaine de la gestion durable des terres, des eaux et des forêts. La mise en œuvre à grande échelle nécessite des financements importants provenant des fonds d'adaptation et une coopération régionale et sous régionale soutenue.

The demand for carbon permits is expected to increase rapidly with the introduction in Australia of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS) in 2010. The CPRS will cap the emission of greenhouse gasses and create a market for carbon trading. Some prediction of the behaviour and impacts of the emerging market will inform potential policy responses. Introduction of a carbon market could result in strong demand for widespread conversion of land in agricultural regions to tree-based production of carbon permits which may pose a number of threats and opportunities for Australia's biodiversity, water resources, and rural environments and communities. This study aimed to quantify the potential generation of carbon permits from reforestation following the CPRS, and the potential conflicts this may cause. Carbon price was considered the main driver of adoption and this study does not consider other factors that may influence adoption. Specific focus was on the Mediterranean-type agricultural landscapes in South Australia. The potential distribution of the supply carbon permits from reforestation in South Australia's agricultural regions was modelled within a Geographic Information System (GIS). Spatio-temporal and economic models of tree growth and productivity, and agricultural profitability were used to estimate the viability of reforestation for carbon permits under various carbon price scenarios. Low diversity monocultures and high diversity native species were considered. Biodiversity conservation values were modelled spatially using a series of landscape ecology metrics and conservation planning principles. Spatially explicit water resource management priorities were modelled based on soil landscape characteristics. The impact on water yields from carbon-driven reforestation was modelled using Zhang curves. The location of threats and opportunities associated with the production of carbon permits were identified and then coupled with economically viable areas for carbon reforestation to identify hotspots where there is high potential for carbon supply that either complements or conflicts with biodiversity and water management goals. The results of this study found that reforestation for the supply of carbon permits under the CPRS may be more profitable than agricultural production over significant proportions of South Australia's agricultural landscapes, depending on future carbon prices. For example, it would be economically viable to reforest approximately 5.3 million ha (50%) of the study area if the carbon price was $20/t of CO2-e. Whilst reforestation using a diverse mix of native species was viable over 4 million ha at $20/t it could potentially cover over 40% of the high priority biodiversity conservation locations. However, significant threats are posed to zones of high priority biodiversity conservation value and high yield water run-off and aquifer recharge. The conversion of shallow-rooted annual cropping systems to deep-rooted tree-based monocultures uses more water and provides minimal biodiversity value. Approximately 1,200 GL would potentially be unavailable for surface and groundwater storage in catchments supplying a large proportion of the South Australian population if the carbon price is $20/t of CO2-e. Various policy options are available to ensure reforestation is steered toward tree species that provide biodiversity benefits (e.g. mixed planting of species with local provenance). For example, a payment for ecosystem services (biodiversity) could be paid to land owners to compensate for the difference in income from the sale of permits generated by high yielding low diversity plantings against the lower yielding diverse plantings. This study suggests those payments would have to be in the order of only $5/ha/yr if carbon price is $20/t of CO2-e, but up to $115/ha/yr if carbon price is $45/t. Regulatory measures could be applied in locations where reforestation threatens aquatic ecosystems and the availability of water resources. Similarly, hotspots could be zoned where monocultures provide high opportunity and no threat to ecosystems. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Various land-use transitions in the tropics contribute to atmospheric carbon emissions, including forest conversion for small-scale farming, cattle ranching, and production of commodities such as soya and palm oil. These transitions involve fire as an effective and inexpensive means for clearing. We applied the DECAF (DEforestation CArbon Fluxes) model to Mato Grosso, Brazil to estimate fire emissions from various land-use transitions during 2001-2005. Fires associated with deforestation contributed 67 Tg C/yr (17 and 50 Tg C/yr from conversion to cropland and pasture, respectively), while conversion of savannas and existing cattle pasture to cropland contributed 17 Tg C/yr and pasture maintenance fires 6 Tg C/yr. Large clearings (>100 ha/yr) contributed 67% of emissions but comprised only 10% of deforestation events. From a policy perspective, results imply that intensification of agricultural production on already-cleared land and policies to discourage large clearings would reduce the major sources of emissions from fires in this region. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.

Agriculture is branch of economy of special importance to the economy of the Republic of Serbia since it creates approximately 20% of gross national product and has realistic potentials for increase of production volume and processing of agricultural products. Economical potential of agriculture imposes the need for analysis of small and medium entrepreneurship which should be carrier of future development of agribusiness. Cluster analysis is method to determine how the municipalities in the Republic of Serbia are grouped according to the level of development of small and medium agribusinesses. Also, in this way we get insight into current condition of regional development of this sector as well as possibility for development of least developed municipalities in Serbia. Poljoprivreda je privredna grana koja ima poseban značaj za privredu Republike Srbije jer stvara oko 20% bruto društvenog proizvoda i poseduje realne mogućnosti za povećanje obima proizvodnje i prerade poljoprivrednih proizvoda. Ekonomski potencijal koji poseduje poljoprivreda nameće potrebu analize stanja u oblasti malog i srednjeg preduzetništva koje treba da bude nosilac budućeg razvoja agrobiznisa. Klaster analiza je metod kojim će se utvrditi kako se grupišu opštine u Republici Srbiji prema nivou razvijenosti malih i srednjih preduzeća iz oblasti poljoprivrede Tako će se dobiti uvid u trenutno stanje regionalne razvijenosti ovog sektora poljoprivrede kao i mogućnosti za razvoj najnerazvijenijih opština u Srbiji.

According to actual conditions agricultural production development was achieved by harming the environment. The traditional agricultural methods (the natural farms, and plants and animals using in a rural manner) was bequeath us the ruined environment (erosion, barren fields etc). Modern agriculture which based on technical – technological accomplishments could harms it even more and immeasurable. We couldn’t let that development and prosperity of agricultural production does more harm and endanger the environment which could lead to ecological problems with immeasurable consequences. The Agrarian policy should takes into considerations agribusiness agroecological issues in conditions like these. The major goal of a modern agricultural productions and food industry isn’t only to produce more food with lowest possible prices but to contribute the environment protection and prosperity by their activities. Production of “Eco food” was presumed by using of proper ecological technology. Normally, the profile of agribusiness managers should be changed in the first place. They should be the modern type of eco – managers. Their primary task should be to manage the control of applying eco principles with agricultural production. According to the modern agricultural enterprises business managing, beside the market realization as the business component, we should take into consideration the applying of eco principles level as well. Its applying should be considered as preventive measures in the environment protection. The point is that’s much more expensive to overhaul harming consequences provoked by ignoring of the modern agricultural eco principles than stick with them.

This study contains general background material on Colombia's physical resources--topography, climate, soils, forests, and minerals. It analyzes the factors influencing demand for agricultural products; reviews general policies and goals toward agricultural production and trade; and examines production practices and transportation and marketing facilities. The report gives location, area, and production of all leading crops grown in the country; production of vegetable oils; and location of livestock and agricultural production centers. The study also traces Colombian economic development during the past two decades. Statistical data relate to economic growth, land use, agricultural trade, and production of all principal crops and livestock products.