Search Results (18,270)

Cirsium arvense (L.) Scop is a perennial plant of the family Asteraceae that is mainly distributed in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Despite being widely recognized as an invasive weed in agriculture, most of the scientific evidence shows its significant phytochemical and pharmacological importance. In the present review article, a comprehensive summary of the available literature on C. arvense’s botanical properties, phytochemical composition, biological activities, standardization potential, and future therapeutic prospects has been carefully provided. This plant has been used traditionally for the treatment of inflammation, infections, bleeding disorders, and liver-related disorders. Phytochemical investigations showed the presence of many bioactive compounds such as flavonoids, phenolic acids, triterpenes, sterols, tannins, glycosides, and volatile compounds. Among the reported biological activities, antioxidants and antimicrobial properties are the most studied activities. In addition, anticancer, antidiabetic, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and antiproliferative activities have also been investigated. The environmental adaptability, rapid growth, and extensive root system of C. arvense highlight its potential for development as a sustainable medicinal and industrial crop. However, there are critical research gaps present in phytochemical standardization, toxicity assessment, pharmacokinetics, and clinical validation, warranting further comprehensive studies. Full article

Pesticide-residue risk perceptions among agricultural professionals are shaped by factors that extend beyond knowledge gaps. This study examines how trust in regulatory systems and information sources jointly shape residue-related attitudes among Greek agronomists. We used principal components analysis (PCA) to identify coherent domains and then latent profile analysis (LPA) to derive person-centered profiles based on standardized component scores. Two dominant profiles emerged, differing in regulatory confidence, reliance on institutional/scientific information channels, and comparative risk framing. Residue-Concerned Skeptics expressed lower confidence in enforcement capacity (implementation and staffing) and in the system’s alignment with other EU Member States, together with concerns about chronic pesticide exposure. The System-Confident profile reported higher regulatory confidence and greater reliance on official and scientific channels, as well as stronger endorsement of IPM effectiveness and comparative risk rankings. External validation supported profile differences in perceived training adequacy, IPM beliefs, and organic avoidance behavior. Professional involvement in plant protection and older age were associated with membership in the System-Confident profile. These findings suggest that interventions should emphasize clear communication, capacity building, and address concerns about chronic exposure, beyond information provision alone. Full article

Soil pH constitutes a key factor in the nutrient availability and initial growth of maize (Zea mays L.). Inadequate management of soil pH can lead to problems in plant growth, which may result in reduced food production yields and agricultural investment. To evaluate the effects of pH dynamics on seedling development in soils, not only was a correlational and quantitative study conducted, which included a completely randomised laboratory experiment design with three treatments (pH < 6, pH > 7, and pH 6–7), each with five replicates, but a systemic analysis using a causal map also described the impacts of pH on plant growth. The initial pH was measured every four days, as were the germination rate, electrical conductivity, and final biomass. The results show that in alkaline soil, seedling germination is reduced by 87%, whilst in acidic soil it is reduced by 80% in comparison to the neutral scenario. pH values are therefore shown to affect early development due to reduced nutrient availability. These results reveal the need for the consideration of measures that influence management practices for the promotion of uniform and sustainable growth to favour the early establishment of crops such as native maize. Full article

The economic resilience of agricultural enterprises is increasingly relevant for maintaining processing continuity and food quality in highly perishable agro-food chains. This study examines the associations between financial knowledge, financial management competency, business liquidity, and operational food-processing continuity in Türkiye’s tea sector. A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed, using structured survey data from 203 senior managers across 86 public and private tea-processing firms in Rize Province. The data were analysed using Ordinary Least Squares regression, mediation analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and robustness checks in accordance with OECD/INFE guidelines. Results indicate a significant deficit in theoretical financial knowledge (mean score: 4.47/10) alongside widespread overconfidence among 85% of managers. Applied financial management competency is positively associated with perceived business liquidity (β = 0.336, p < 0.001), suggesting that practical budgeting, cash-flow planning, and financial decision-making capabilities are relevant to maintaining operational funding capacity. In contrast, cash-flow difficulties are not significantly explained by firm-level financial knowledge, managerial competency, liquidity, or ownership structure (R² = 0.014, p = 0.722), indicating that these difficulties may reflect broader seasonal and sector-wide financing constraints. The findings challenge the assumption of a linear relationship between theoretical financial knowledge and managerial outcomes. They suggest a dual policy approach that combines applied financial management training with structural financing mechanisms to ensure the continuity of fresh leaf procurement and processing. While the study does not directly measure food safety, post-harvest losses, or SDG outcomes, the results have potential implications for reducing processing disruptions and supporting more resilient agro-food processing systems. Full article

Precision Livestock Farming (PLF) requires real-time control systems that connect high-level Decision Support Systems with resource-constrained edge devices. This paper presents a hybrid Multi-Agent System (MAS) architecture for swine precision feeding designed to address the trade-off between semantic interoperability and real-time operational efficiency. The proposed Controlling Module uses a dual-layer communication strategy: a lightweight character-delimited TCP/IP protocol ensures deterministic performance for embedded controllers, while an XML-serialized format that maps to the FIPA Agent Communication Language preserves semantic interoperability. A custom serialization/deserialization algorithm was developed to process this XML structure within LabVIEW while avoiding the overhead typically associated with generic DOM/SAX parsers. The architecture was validated in a 120 h laboratory test that combined a Digital Twin simulation of 50 virtual feeders with Hardware-in-the-Loop testing of key sensing components. Under these test conditions, no communication failures were observed, all simulated network interruptions were recovered from, and the system operated with a modest resource footprint, including an average CPU use of 15% and a peak memory use of 350 MB. The platform also processed 2590 consumption events without reported data loss during the validation period. These results indicate that the proposed hybrid MAS architecture is a feasible solution for integrating interoperable decision support and deterministic edge control in PLF applications. Full article

Climate change and increasing water scarcity are intensifying pressure on irrigated agriculture, which currently represents 70% of global freshwater withdrawals. Remote sensing technologies have become essential tools for monitoring soil moisture, evapotranspiration, crop growth, and irrigation performance across multiple spatial and temporal levels. This review synthesizes 83 peer-reviewed studies published between 2002 and 2025, focusing on the use of optical, thermal, and microwave sensors to support irrigation water management under climate variability. The analysis highlights progress in multi-sensor integration, UAV-based monitoring, crop and agro-hydrological modeling, and emerging machine learning approaches that enhance irrigation scheduling, soil moisture estimation, and crop water stress detection. Despite these advancements, several methodological challenges persist, including data integration constraints, sensor-specific limitations, model transferability issues, insufficient ground validation, and difficulties in translating remote sensing outputs into operational decision support systems. In addition, structural gaps at the policy level restrict the evaluation of irrigation efficiency and climate resilience. This review aims to clarify current limitations and outline priority research directions to enhance the climate resilience and sustainability of irrigated agricultural systems. Full article

Tomato is one of Thailand’s most significant economic crops, generating substantial export value and serving as a primary source of income for local farmers. However, the traditional manual grading process often fails to comply with the Thai Agricultural Standard TACFS 1503–2007, as grading decisions rely heavily on individual experience and subjective perception, resulting in inconsistent quality. Existing automated systems face the challenges of low accuracy, high costs, and complex hardware, while many are incompatible with Thailand’s grading standards. This study presents a multi-view tomato grading system (MVT-Grader), utilizing a dataset acquired from Doi Kham Food Products Co., Ltd. (Third Royal Factory, Tao Ngoi) under controlled lighting conditions. Subsequently, MVT-Grader is built on a custom-designed lightweight CNN architecture with an adjusted spatially aware loss function to enhance the model’s sensitivity in detecting subtle surface defects and color variations. The proposed model was trained using tomato images captured from two and three different viewpoints via a low-cost webcam setup and processed by a GPU-embedded system. Experiments conducted using stratified 5-fold cross-validation on a real-world industrial dataset demonstrate average grading accuracies of 99.43% (two-view) and 99.64% (three-view). Furthermore, the proposed Real-Time Lightweight CNN with Spatially Aware Loss Optimization achieves processing speeds of 87 ms and 114 ms per tomato for two- and three-view cases, respectively. Compared with MVCNN-Siamese, SDF-ConvNets, and Multi-View Spatial Network, the proposed system outperforms the others in both accuracy and speed, improving accuracy by 1.6–6.11% and reducing processing time by 39–49 ms. Full article

In the future, agriculture will need better irrigation management options to produce more food and decrease its air and water pollution contributions. Hydroponic systems conserve water over field production, but up to 50% of applied irrigation could be discharged from open-drain systems. TVPD is an evapotranspiration model developed for greenhouse production, particularly for hydroponics. In this study, we calibrate and evaluate TVPD on environmental and evapotranspiration data from hydroponic tomato production and compare predictions to those of random forest (RF) and K-nearest neighbors (KNN). Using five time-ordered data splits, we sought to gauge prediction accuracy for data-limited settings, where the model needs to be implemented with the least calibration time possible, and we evaluated TVPD, RF, and KNN with a 10-fold cross-validation to assess overall model robustness. Across the five data splits, TVPD produced more accurate predictions (r²: 0.86 to 0.90; RMSE: 0.1739 to 0.5796 L tray⁻¹) than RF (r²: 0.06 to 0.73; RMSE: 0.7354 to 2.0505 L tray⁻¹) and KNN (r²: 0.06 to 0.59; RMSE: 0.7694 to 1.7090 L tray⁻¹). With calibration on only the first five days of data, TVPD was able to produce acceptable predictions (r² = 0.87, RMSE = 0.5796 L tray⁻¹). The mean r² for a 10-fold cross-validation was 0.81 for TVPD, 0.88 for RF and 0.81 for KNN, and mean RMSE values were slightly better for the cross-validation for RF (0.4970 L tray⁻¹) and KNN (0.4968 L tray⁻¹) than for TVPD (0.5922 L tray⁻¹). Overall, TVPD could be a useful model to predict evapotranspiration for irrigation management and could decrease the volume of discharged hydroponic waste solution. Full article

Drought remains a persistent challenge affecting agricultural and pastoral livelihoods, particularly in dryland mixed crop–livestock systems. Water Monitoring and Early Warning Systems (WM-EWS) have increasingly been promoted as tools for delivering climate information services and supporting drought-related decision-making. However, empirical understanding of how users perceive and engage with such systems in pastoral contexts remains limited. This study explores stakeholder perceptions regarding the usefulness and operational relevance of a WM-EWS implemented in the Borana zone of Ethiopia. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining survey data from 71 purposively selected mixed stakeholders with qualitative insights obtained through focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Findings indicate that respondents widely reported using WM-EWS information for water-related decision-making and perceived the system as useful in supporting drought preparedness and adaptive responses. Participants associated WM-EWS use with perceived changes in areas such as livestock management, access to water-related information, and coordination among stakeholders. Respondents also reported adopting multiple coping strategies, including early livestock sales, strategic herd mobility, and engagement with external support mechanisms. Respondents perceived fewer conflicts over water resources and greater engagement from humanitarian actors following WM-EWS implementation. Overall, the study provides exploratory insights into stakeholder experiences, perceived usefulness, and operational relevance of user-centered WM-EWS in drought-prone pastoral systems. The findings contribute to understanding how pastoral communities engage with climate information services while highlighting the need for future research using objective and longitudinal approaches to assess system effectiveness more rigorously. Full article

Agricultural supply chains operating under rural infrastructure constraints face persistent logistical inefficiencies that reduce producer income and weaken territorial sustainability. This paper assesses how collaborative and coordinated distribution architectures reshape economic performance, efficiency, and equity in dispersed networks of cocoa producers in El Carmen de Bolívar, Colombia. The unified optimization framework compares three regimes: decentralized non-collaborative individual shipments, collaborative consolidation based on distribution centers, and coordinated distribution with time-window synchronization. The findings show a reduction in average logistics costs from $0.688/kg in decentralized distribution to $0.323/kg with collaborative distribution centers, and even further to $0.282/kg in coordinated distribution, representing an overall reduction of approximately 59%. A sensitivity analysis across 64 accessibility configurations shows that the advantage of coordination increases as time rigidity increases. These structural improvements translate into a 13.97% increase in total producer utility, raising average utility from $278 to $317 per producer. In addition, the distributional assessment based on Lorenz curves and Gini coefficients indicates that inequality remains stable despite gains in welfare. These results demonstrate that spatial consolidation combined with temporal synchronization is a decisive lever for resilient and inclusive rural supply systems. Full article

Mediterranean regions are forecasted to be increasingly threatened by climate change, leading to the occurrence of extreme events. One strategy to improve the resilience of agricultural systems is to introduce rotations that combine legumes and crops with high intraspecific diversity such as evolutionary populations (EPs). These cropping systems may be characterized by lower external input needs and higher buffering capacity than traditional ones. Our objective was to test if the introduction of wheat EPs impacts soil microbial functions—including microbial biomass, community structure, and enzymatic activity—and soil organic matter composition within a crop rotation framework. We conducted a two-year field experiment at two sites in Italy comparing a modern bread wheat variety to two EPs, evolved in different areas, in rotation with legumes. The composition and processes of rhizosphere microbial communities were characterized using EL-FAME and enzyme activities. In addition, rhizosphere soil organic matter signatures were measured by mid-infrared spectroscopy, and their relationships with microbial parameters were investigated using principal component analyses. The results showed that the EP–rhizosphere relationship, as well as its influence on microbial abundance and activity, is dependent both on the site of origin and local pedoclimatic conditions, although no consistent response was observed across the two sites. These effects may be buffered by the choice of the preceding crop in rotation. Full article

Transport infrastructure is widely viewed as a key lever for integrating lagging rural regions into broader economic systems. Western China, marked by vast territory, complex topography, and historically severe spatial market frictions, offers a particularly informative setting for examining this question within the sustainable rural development agenda. Exploiting the staggered rollout of China’s National Highway Expansion Program across 276 prefectures from 2003 to 2018, we combine high-frequency wholesale prices for 93 agricultural commodities, geocoded expressway network data, and the China Family Panel Studies. A staggered difference-in-differences design is supplemented by a time-varying minimum spanning tree instrument capturing network-efficiency considerations, alongside event-study and recently developed robust estimators for staggered treatments. Two-stage least squares estimates indicate that expressway connection raises the agricultural price integration index by 0.071, reduces within-prefecture price volatility by approximately 0.040 (about 13% of baseline), raises agricultural household income per capita by roughly 16%, and improves the household food-security index by 0.571 points. Event-study results show no pre-trends, with effects materializing over three to four years post-connection. Mechanism analysis highlights expanded market linkages, and the gains are stronger in nationally designated poverty counties and prefectures with rugged terrain. Partial-equilibrium welfare accounting implies annual gains of roughly USD 4.92 billion, and unconditional quantile regressions reveal a progressive distribution across farm incomes. These findings underscore the role of transport infrastructure in alleviating spatial frictions, integrating lagging regions, and advancing sustainable rural development while warranting careful attention to the environmental externalities of large-scale infrastructure. Full article

Rice monoculture systems, often involving double- or triple-cropping cycles annually, require intensive agricultural practices that can lead to land degradation. This study evaluates land degradation within the long-term rice monoculture systems of Nakhon Sawan, Thailand, using the Sustainable Development Goal 15.3.1 framework. By focusing exclusively on persistent rice-growing areas, the study minimized the confounding signals of land-use conversion, allowing for an evaluation of the trajectories driven by combined agricultural management and climatic factors. The assessment integrated land use and land cover (LULC), soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks, and land productivity. Findings indicate that 83% of the original paddy area remained long-term monoculture, with LULC-related degradation limited to 4% of the original paddy cultivation area. While SOC depletion was observed in a few districts, a broader potential carbon accretion trend was identified across the province, likely driven by sustainable post-harvest practices such as stubble retention and organic amendments. Land productivity analysis revealed partial stress only in a few districts. The study demonstrated that long-term rice cultivation did not result in widespread deterioration of soil health on an aggregate provincial scale; however, district-localized degradation hotspots suffering from soil organic carbon depletion and climate-induced productivity stress were identified, demanding targeted regional management. Full article

Potentially toxic element (PTE) contamination in rice poses significant food safety risks, particularly in regions with intensive agriculture, industry, and traffic. This study provides a systematic assessment of the accumulation, translocation, sources, and health risks of PTEs (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) in the atmospheric deposition–soil–rice system across four distinct anthropogenic source areas (industrial, peri-urban, rural, and roadside areas) in Hunan Province, China. The rural area was categorized as clean. Industrial areas had the highest soil pollution index, while roadside areas recorded the highest atmospheric deposition flux of Pb (19.95 μg/m²/day) and As (1.93 μg/m²/day). Correspondingly, industrial areas exhibited the highest Cd (0.38 mg/kg) and Pb (0.94 mg/kg) in rice grains, whereas roadside areas showed the highest Pb (1.40 mg/kg) and As (2.99 mg/kg) in leaves. The findings indicated that rice in roadside areas primarily accumulate PTEs through foliar absorption of atmospheric deposition, whereas in industrial and peri-urban areas it was primarily through root uptake and translocation of PTEs to rice grains, particularly for Cd and Pb. Source apportionment identified natural, industrial, and traffic as the three primary sources. The Bayesian mixing model revealed that the natural source contributed the highest proportion to rice grains (48.3–70.6%) across all four source areas. Except for natural sources, industrial sources dominated in industrial areas (29.1%), traffic emissions prevailed in roadside areas (19.4%), while mixed sources had the highest proportion in peri-urban areas (28.4%). Health risk assessment revealed that the total hazard index followed the order of peri-urban > industrial > roadside > rural areas, with rice ingestion being the dominant exposure pathway, accounting for over 90% of the total risk. The primary contributors to health risks were identified as As, Cd, and Pb, particularly in industrial and peri-urban areas. These findings provide a scientific basis for developing region-specific mitigation strategies tailored to the dominant contamination pathways in each area. Full article

Arsenic represents a ubiquitous element in the environment, characterized by high mobility, complex chemical speciation and a strong sensitivity to redox conditions and biological activity, with microbial processes play a central role in its biogeochemical cycling. The present review provides a comprehensive and integrative synthesis of arsenic biogeochemical cycling across terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments, in which chemical speciation is explicitly treated as the central unifying concept controlling arsenic mobility, transformation and bioavailability, linking geological, chemical and biological processes across environmental compartments. Natural processes regulating arsenic distribution are examined from mineralogical sources and soil–water interactions to biologically mediated transformations in aquatic and marine biotic compartments, largely driven by microbial activity, highlighting the contrast between inorganic arsenic dominance in abiotic reservoirs and the prevalence of organoarsenicals in tissues of living organisms. The review further explores arsenic behaviour under natural environmental alterations and in extreme or unconventional ecosystems, where redox constraints, sulphide chemistry or intense fluid–sediment exchanges lead to deviations from the baseline speciation patterns. Against this framework, anthropogenic perturbations are discussed through several documented case studies, illustrating how industrial releases, the long-term effects of mining activities, agricultural practices and the use of synthetic arsenical compounds may change arsenic pathways primarily by altering geochemical and biological controls rather than through a generalized increase in total arsenic content. Overall, the topics covered provide an integrated framework for interpreting arsenic dynamics across environmental systems, emphasizing the complex biogeochemical processes governing arsenic cycling. Full article