Search Results (65)

Flood risk mapping is spreading in the Global South due to the availability of high-resolution/high-frequency satellite imagery, volunteered geographic information, and hydraulic models. However, these maps are increasingly generated without the participation of exposed communities, contrary to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 priorities. As a result, the understanding of risk is limited. This study aims to map flood risk with citizen science complemented by hydrology, geomatics, and spatial planning. The Niger River floods of 2024–2025 on a 113 km² area upstream of Niamey are investigated. The novelty of the work is the integration of local and technical knowledge in the micro-mapping of risk in a large area. We consider risk the product of a hazard and damage in monetary terms. Focus groups in flooded municipalities, interviews with irrigation perimeter managers, and statistical river flow and rainfall analysis identified the hazard. The flood plain was extracted from Sentinel-2 images using MNDWI and validated with ground control points. Six classes of assets were identified by visual photo interpretation of very high-resolution satellite imagery. Damage was ascertained through interviews with a sample of farmers. The floods of 2024–2025 may occur again in the next 12–19 years. Farmers cannot crop safer sites, raising significant environmental justice issues. Damage depends on the strength of the levees, the crop, and the season. From January to February, horticulture is at a higher risk. Flooding does not bring benefits. Risk maps highlight hot spots, are validated, and can be linked to observed flood levels. Full article

Farmers are an important and fundamental professional class on which the food, health and well-being of all citizens depend. Recently, and similar to what has happened in other European countries, in Portugal there were also demonstrations of civic and spontaneous movements of farmers dissatisfied with the current Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan (PEPAC), with the excessive bureaucracy and with the increase in the costs of production and unfair competition from agricultural products from other countries, especially from outside the European bloc, which do not meet the same production requirements and which are available to consumers. This work consists of a synthesis and reflection on the reasons, arguments and demands made by civic movements of farmers in the northern region of Portugal (NUT II). Among the most frequent allegations was the need to consider specific aspects of the northern Portuguese region, small family farming and some specific sectors. Although the factor that triggered farmers’ indignation was the reduction in support payable under eco-schemes, the consideration of the common land areas for subsidies and for certification in organic farming (in the mountain region), the installation of anti-hail towers in the fruit growing area and compensation for increases in energy and animal feeding costs are among the most frequently mentioned reasons for which farmers require answers. Full article

As the human population has grown and expanded, increasing pressure is being put on natural habitats in Sri Lanka. This situation has led to a noticeable increase in human–primate conflicts. To understand the situation, we studied the interactions between humans and macaques in three administrative divisions of the Kurunegala District. Data was gathered from 875 informants through interviewer-administered questionnaires between 2020 and 2022. The monthly economic loss by commercial farmers due to macaque damage to fruits and vegetables doubled by 2022, amounting to approximately 5000 LKR. In non-fruiting seasons, losses from coconut damage increased, ranging from 3000 to 14,000 LKR/month, decreasing by over 50% during fruiting seasons. Property damage per household averaged between 850~4000 LKR/month. A cost of approximately 1200~3000 LKR was borne per household/month to deter monkeys from the fields. Macaques were the primary culprits for crop damage in this area, and were also responsible for property damage, surpassing that of other animals. The consensus among the community is that either relocating macaques to other forested areas or sterilizing them to control their population could mitigate the issue to some extent. An integrated management plan involving relevant stakeholders including the Forest Department, the Wildlife Conservation Department, the local agricultural agency, and local citizens is necessary to address the conflict arising from human–macaque crop utilization. Full article

Milk consumption is crucial for a balanced diet, yet recent trends indicate a decline, especially in Italy. A significant factor in this decline is the altered perception of milk quality among consumers, which has created a communication gap between them and other stakeholders. This study aimed to explore the discourse on social media and sentiment towards the concept of milk quality among consumers, farmers, and processors. The research adopted social media analysis to examine online-community messages. A sample of 19,906 Italian comments and posts mentioning keywords “milk”, “quality”, “cow”, and “vaccine” was collected and categorized using term-frequency analysis, correspondence analysis, and sentiment analysis. Results highlighted gaps in perceptions of milk quality: farmers focused on economic issues, consumers on animal welfare and health, and processors on lactose content. For farmers, almost all comments were negative, while for processors, nearly all comments were positive. Consumers presented a more mixed picture. This work contributes to the literature by expanding research on milk quality, using social media as a source of information. The findings suggest that enhancing communication and understanding among these groups could lead to more effective strategies for addressing consumer concerns, potentially reversing the decline in milk consumption. Full article

Citizen science reinforces the development of emergent tools for the surveillance, monitoring, and early detection of biological invasions, enhancing biosecurity resilience. The contribution of farmers and farm citizens is vital, as volunteers can strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of environmental observations, improve surveillance efforts, and aid in delimiting areas affected by plant-spread diseases and pests. This study presents a robust, user-friendly, and cost-effective smart module for citizen science that incorporates a cutting-edge developed hyperspectral imaging (HI) module, integrated in a single, energy-independent device and paired with a smartphone. The proposed module can empower farmers, farming communities, and citizens to easily capture and transmit data on crop conditions, plant disease symptoms (biotic and abiotic), and pest attacks. The developed HI-based module is interconnected with a smart embedded system (SES), which allows for the capture of hyperspectral images. Simultaneously, it enables multimodal analysis using the integrated environmental sensors on the module. These data are processed at the edge using lightweight Deep Learning algorithms for the detection and identification of Tuta absoluta (Meyrick), the most important invaded alien and devastating pest of tomato. The innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based module offers open interfaces to passive surveillance platforms, Decision Support Systems (DSSs), and early warning surveillance systems, establishing a seamless environment where innovation and utility converge to enhance crop health and productivity and biodiversity protection. Full article

The rational management of water, which is determined by the Framework Directive 2000/60/EC of the EU, is a contractual obligation of the Agricultural Sector of Cyprus, both towards the European Union and the next generations of Cypriot citizens. To make decisions about sustainable water use and improve water use, it is necessary to understand the water use of crops in different water-use areas. Especially in large water projects in Cyprus, there must be a good way to determine the water use of crops so that the correct use of crops can be ensured, thus eliminating problems such as a lack of new information about the crop area and agricultural evaporation, Demand, and water. In most projects, water is managed and supplied based on historical data, and current information is available to determine water demand and availability for large areas. This paper also adds, apart from the clear positive effect of remote sensing and new technologies in crop irrigation, to the emerging need for advisory services for the diffusion of innovation to Cypriot farmers since the estimation of crop water requirements is part of estimating the carbon footprint under the project CARBONICA (EU Funded) for carbon farming. Full article

Increased land use as a result of urbanization is one of the most rapid human-driven causes of biodiversity loss. Urbanization negatively affects human health because of poor nutrition, non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and health problems related to air pollution. Nature-based solutions (NbSs) for sustainable food production in combination with reduced land and water use are essential for the reduction in biodiversity loss, human health and nutrition. This systematic review aims to assess the effects of NbSs that positively contribute to biodiversity on human health and wellbeing in urban settings worldwide. Secondarily, other factors, such as safety, attractiveness, inequity and accessibility, that may have a potential role in the use of NbSs will be evaluated. For the purpose of the FENS conference, only results related to nutrition and food security will be presented. The PRISMA guidelines will be followed. Full-length articles in English language conducted in 2000 and published in 2010 will be included. Both quantitative and qualitative studies are eligible. Due to the diversity of studies, the quality assessment with diverse studies (QuADS) tool will be used for the quality assessment of the studies included. The statistical analysis will depend on the heterogeneity and the feasibility of harmonization of the data. PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus were searched. The initial search yielded 14386 publications. After the removal of duplicates, 8730 titles and abstracts were screened. Currently, 881 full texts out of 2928 have been screened, from which 69 (8%) studies reported outcomes related to human nutrition and food security. Most of the studies took place in urban gardens (61%). Urban farming (25%) and farmers’ markets followed (25%). Vegetation/greenness in cities was considered as an NbS by 6% of the studies. Less studied NbSs were green roofs, general green spaces, urban foraging and urban blue spaces (3% each). Gardening has been shown to be beneficial for the wellbeing and nutrition of various populations. Due to the high land use for the feeding of urban populations, alternative food production techniques without soil use are important. Soil-free rooftop farms and vertical farming could increase the vegetable and fruit production in cities and improve the diet quality of citizens. Full article

Establishing a unified urban–rural construction land market, facilitating factors flow within urban and rural areas, and promoting people-centered new urbanization are important strategies for China to achieve high-quality development in the new era. The land quota trading (LQT) system in Chongqing is an essential policy practice. This study analyzes the impact mechanism of the LQT policy on land and population urbanization through the lens of urban spatial expansion, population migration, and human–land coordination. Using the time-varying DID model and examining from both sending and receiving areas’ perspectives, we assesses the impact of the LQT policy on the land urbanization, population urbanization, and urbanization coordination of Chongqing’s 38 districts and counties since 2009. We also analyzes the spatial heterogeneity of the policy. The results indicate the following: (1) The implementation of the LQT policy has a significant positive effect on land urbanization, population urbanization, and urbanization coordination. (2) The impact of the LQT policy shows spatial heterogeneity; its influence on pure receiving areas’ land and population urbanization is more substantial, reflecting the further concentration of land and population elements towards the urban center due to the LQT policy. (3) At the county level, the implementation of the LQT policy only significantly affects population urbanization, with no notable impact on land urbanization, which indicates that the LQT is an import practice to realize policies of the linkage of increase and decrease of construction land, and the citizenization of farmers. Full article

In the early days of southern Taiwan, agriculture was important for living. Farmers used various agricultural implements for the cultivation and planting of rice, vegetables, and fruits for food and clothing. With the progress of the social environment, they gradually forgot the traditional agricultural implements that they depended on for a living. Recently, the government has promoted agricultural experience activities, and citizens’ health concept has been improved. Growing vegetables and fruits on farms leads to the concept of shared experience. In particular, technological equipment has become popular. For leisure activities, the public has gradually accepted novel technologies (such as virtual reality games) and integrated them into their usual leisure and entertainment. For this reason, we investigate the degree of virtual interaction with the recall farm as a development basis and use the experiential learning theory to encourage the Silvers to learn the innovative recall farm situation to bring about the effect of leisure and entertainment. The results of this study show that the Silvers experience early agricultural situations and farming implements for entertainment purposes and listen to the agricultural stories to reminisce. Full article

Turkey is a country with a migration route throughout history and has provided protection to more refugees than any other country. But, the secure deportation of refugees is stated by government officials. This research aims to determine the socio-economic characteristics of landowners who hire foreign farmworkers and the factors affecting their willingness to employ foreign farmworkers. In order to meet the objective, a survey study based on face-to-face interviews was conducted with 200 landowners producing bananas and employing foreign farmworkers in Mersin. The level of willingness to hire foreign farmworkers was calculated, and the ordinal logistic regression (OLR) model was executed to determine affective factors. According to the results, the landowners’ average age was 40.5 years, and their agricultural experience was 11.07 years, with 47% of them having a primary school degree. A total of 50% of the landowner farmers had a high willingness level, 29.5% had a medium willingness level, and 20.5% had a low willingness level. As for OLR, the factors of land size, continuity status of farmworkers, and the reasons to hire foreign farmworkers were significant (p < 0.05). Contrary to the general opinion, which is that the reason for the willingness to hire foreign farmworkers is to use them as a cheap labor force, this research found that the reason with the greatest impact is that landowner farmers have difficulty in finding local farmworkers. The shortage of agricultural labor has been filled with foreign farmworkers in Mersin province. Every foreign farmworker may be registered with one or more agricultural holdings so that the deportation of refugees does not cause a labor supply problem in agriculture; also, citizens seeking employment from other regions of Turkey may be supported to be farmworkers in regions with labor shortages. In order to avoid supply security problems in agricultural production, policymakers should urgently develop policies based on field data. Full article

Milk consumption has traditionally been recognized as a fundamental element of global dietary patterns due to its perceived nutritional advantages. Nonetheless, a substantial decrease in milk consumption has been identified within diverse populations in recent times. Specifically, consumers’ expectations and representations of milk quality have undergone notable transformations, contributing to the observed reduction in consumption. The objective of this systematic review was to conduct a comprehensive examination and categorization of the conceptual attributes associated with milk quality, considering the representations of citizen-consumers, farmers, and processing experts. This review was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The titles and abstracts of 409 articles were screened, and 20 full-text articles were assessed for eligibility. The results demonstrate the existence of a dual articulation in the conceptual definition of milk quality. Farmers and processing experts exhibited a relatively similar representation of milk quality, focusing on technical indicators. In contrast, citizen-consumers held more simplistic and subjective concepts that are challenging to quantify. This study emphasized the critical need for establishing a platform for communication and knowledge exchange to foster shared representations and expectations regarding milk quality. Full article

COVID-19 pandemic highlighted food systems’ fragility, especially concerning global trade. On the other hand, the pandemic underlined the resilient character of Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs), as citizen-consumers continued to buy through such sales channels, in order to limit virus spread, and farms developed innovations and rapid strategic responses. In a fragile context, such as that of inner areas, SFSC may represent, for farms, a significant competitive tool to increase their resilience. This study aims to investigate the degree of resilience of farms in inner areas of Campania Region (South Italy) and the role of SFSC during the pandemic. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of wineries in inner areas of Campania in order to detect their resilience score, which was measured, according to literature, through three variables: effectiveness, flexibility, and responsiveness. A linear regression was run to identify variables affecting farms’ resilience. Results show that both farmers’ and farms’ characteristics turned out to affect farms’ resilience score, such as the turnover, the use of SFSC, and farmers’ age and education. This study’s findings could be helpful for decision-making in the development of inner areas, and for providing targeted policies to manage unexpected events in different scenarios. Full article

Short food supply chains (SFSCs) are advocated as strategies to improve the sustainability of the agro-food system. The recent literature claims that SFSCs are examples of social experimentation and innovation. By scaling up the positive elements of niche alternative food networks, SFSCs can serve as a basis for changing the overall agri-food system. However, their economic impact remains a matter of debate. Local multiplier methods have been used to measure the economic impact of economic sectors at a regional scale. In the case of SFSCs, multiplier methods need to be developed at a local scale and are highly data demanding. This analysis measures the local financial flow created by the MercaTiAmo project by applying the Local Multiplier 3 (LM3) method. MercaTiAmo is organized by a group of citizens and farmers and arranges farmers’ markets three days per week in the city of Parma (northern Italy). To measure the financial flow created by the initiative, data were collected from 10 farmers representing 70% of the farmers participating in the project. The method takes into account the total annual turnover (Round 1), the local expenses of the farmers (Round 2), and the local expenses of the farmers’ suppliers (Round 3). The results suggest that farmers with a higher turnover (Round 1) and percentage of direct expenses in the local area (Round 2) also show higher values of LM3, thus suggesting a higher economic impact, while Round 3 does not affect LM3. The novelty of the study relies on the fact that here the local multiplier method is applied for the first time at the farm level, providing precise information and data on farmers’ upstream supply chain, which can be used to inform policymakers and initiators of SFSCs. Moreover, the study provides a detailed description of the main categories of costs for farmers and which categories of costs are more suited to be locally based. For this reason, the study contributes to the debate on the economic impact of SFSCs in the local area. The method can also be used to provide information to consumers on the economic impact of alternative food networks and local food production. Full article

In the past, Malaysia’s coconut sector faced several difficulties and upheavals related to the economy. However, as a result of the EU’s decision to oppose the cultivation of palm oil due to worries about forest clearing and environmental damage, the business has recently demonstrated enormous potential to be further grown and improved. Thus, this systematic review aimed to synthesize the challenges associated with the level of coconut production and its supply chain. Six electronic databases were searched for publication from 2013 to 2022 (i.e., a cumulative index to give an overview of the coconut value chain and the literature on the coconut supply chain via Scopus, the Web of Science, Google Scholar, Proquest, Science Direct, and Springer Link). Titles/abstracts and then full texts were screened independently. It was discovered that the factors contributing to the low production of coconuts and the difficulties in the coconut supply chain were categorized by some authors as severe or apparent factors, while others categorized these problems as technological, political, or socioeconomic factors, and yet others categorized them as inherent or environmental factors. Therefore, policymakers should introduce some policies such as subsidies, free tax for farmers, farm settlement schemes e.t.c that would encourage more citizens to be willing to go into coconut production. Policymakers also need to encourage scientists to carry out research on how these problems especially environmental factors will be tackled and try to recruit more extensionists. Full article

Agriculture contributes to environmental degradation by using unsustainable farming practices, such as the intensive use of chemical fertilizers and fossil fuels. With China’s growing environmental concerns, new environmental laws have begun to disseminate information about environmental preservation among residents. This legislation plays a major role in developing individual behavior. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating role of environmental laws in relation to environment-protecting intentions and behavior based on their legal cognition. Based on 1350 randomly selected farmers from Jiangxi Province, we confirm the theory of planned behavior through a structural equation model. The results demonstrate that the perceived behavior control, personal factors, and attitude of farmers directly contribute to both types of farmer’s intentions, i.e., citizen and activist; and indirectly to both types of farmer’s environmental-oriented behavior (citizen and activist). The inward attitude effect was stronger than the outward attitude in both types of intentions of farmers. The farmers’ legal cognition also moderated their environment-protecting intentions and behaviors. This implies that as the farmer’s legal familiarity grows, the direct effect of both types of farmer’s intentions on the farmer’s environmentally oriented behavior continues to increase. Awareness programs, financial support, and extension services should be enhanced in rural areas, which may develop the farmers’ proenvironmental behavior and lead to them adopting environmentally friendly farm practices. Full article