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Tea (Camellia sinensis L.), as one of the most important cash crops in China, plays an important role in increasing farmers' incomes and guaranteeing a high quality of life. Tea production has been greatly influenced by both climate change and economic development in China. However, without a scientific understanding of the interaction mechanism of climate change and the impetus from rapid economic development on tea production practices in China, it is difficult to take adaptive actions to meet the climate change challenges for the tea industry. In this paper, we firstly assessed the potential impacts of climate change on tea climate suitability by empirical formula calculation using meteorological data; then, the effects from the additional climatic stress due to warming on tea production were detected with the annual statistical tea yield record on a municipal level. The contribution of socioeconomic development to the tea industry was evaluated with the comparison of the movement of China's national economy's and tea industry's gravity center during the period of 1987–2017. Finally, a conceptual adaptation framework was built to demonstrate the interaction mechanisms between climate change, tea production, and the economic development. The results showed that there was a negative impact of climate change on tea production in mainland China, with the percentage of high tea climate suitability (>0.9) areas dropping by 45% to 32%, while opportunities of enlarging the tea cultivating area emerged in the north tea production region where the tea climate suitability increased. We found that the tea planting area expanded northwards from 33° N in 1987 to 35° N in 2017 to take advantage of the favorable climatic resources due to warming, and tea planting decreased at an altitude of 100–400 m while increasing to higher altitude of 400–2000 m to avoid hot temperature damage and seek the optimum environment in high mountainous areas for tea production. In addition, the tea production moved westward along the longitude, decreasing obviously at 117–121° E while increasing significantly at 98–104° E and 107–110° E. Meanwhile, the tea production gravity center showed a westward movement consistent with the national economic gravity center moving trend, which means that tea industry development was driven by multiple socioeconomic factors and climatic forcings. A conceptual framework was built in this paper, aiming to show a robust adaptation mechanism for the tea system to maximize the benefits and minimize the damages from the altered climatic resources under rapid economic development in mainland China. The results in this study would help deepen the understanding of the adaptation process and practices for tea production in mainland China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. (commonly known as bermudagrass) is a member of the family Poaceae. It is a C4 grass that can grow annually and perennially with clone reproduction and seed-setting. It is not only used as forage but also as a weed in many crops. It grows along roadsides, in barren lands, irrigated lands, and seacoasts, where soil salinity is a major problem. Although bermudagrass is distributed worldwide, it shows limited growth under saline conditions. Under salt stress, the whole-plant growth is disturbed and the forage quality is compromised morphologically. At the physiological level, shoot development is affected owing to the resultant oxidative stress, although the total rate of photosynthesis is not greatly affected. Biochemical changes include a change in the K+/Na+ ratio; antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and peroxide dismutase increase, while catalase activity slows down. The anatomical changes are visible as salt crystals on the leaf surface and salt glands on the mesophyll surface. In this paper, the morphological, physiological, biochemical, and proteomic mechanisms of bermudagrass under salt stress are discussed, drawing a study of several genes such as ECA4, RAN1, MHX1, psbA1, psbB1, psbP, and psbY at the molecular level. Therefore, the current review aims to understand how bermudagrass grows and adapts well under salt conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is estimated to substantially reduce crop yields in Sub-Saharan West Africa by 2050. Yet, a limited number of studies also suggest that several adaptation measures may mitigate the effects of climate change induced yield loss. In this paper, we used AquaCrop, a process-based model developed by the FAO (The Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy), to quantify the risk of climate change on several key cereal crops in the Niger Basin. The crops analyzed include maize, millet, and sorghum under rain fed cultivation systems in various agro-ecological zones within the Niger Basin. We also investigated several adaptation strategies, including changes in the sowing dates, soil nutrient status, and cultivar. Future climate change is estimated using nine ensemble bias-corrected climate model projection results under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 (RCP--Representative Concentration Pathway) emissions scenario at mid future time period, 2021/25-2050. The results show that on average, temperature had a larger effect on crop yields so that the increase in precipitation could still be a net loss of crop yield. Our simulated results showed that climate change effects on maize and sorghum yield would be mostly positive (2% to 6% increase) in the Southern Guinea savanna zone while at the Northern Guinea savanna zone it is mostly negative (2% to 20% decrease). The results show that at the Sahelian zone the projected changes in temperature and precipitation have little to no impact on millet yield for the future time period, 2021/25-2050. In all agro-ecological zones, increasing soil fertility from poor fertility to moderate, near optimal and optimal level significantly reversed the negative yield change respectively by over 20%, 70% and 180% for moderate fertility, near optimal fertility, and optimal fertility. Thus, management or adaptation factors, such as soil fertility, had a much larger effect on crop yield than the climatic change factors. These results provide actionable guidance on effective climate change adaptation strategies for rain fed agriculture in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risk management in agriculture is at the heart of major reforms in many OECD countries and European agricultural policies. Price risks, which are generally not insurable per se, have been covered by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which has been shaped as a system of protection against market shocks and an instrument for income stabilization. However, there is an increasing propensity to combine the use of public and private risk management tools as well. In Spain, revenue insurance has not yet developed in the same way as other risk coverage insurance, although it is an upcoming target of agricultural insurance policies with the aim of ensuring income stability for agricultural producers. This paper presents the results of the methodology used to draw up a composition index or model of the average price for the season or representative market field price to be used for revenue insurance purposes in citrus fruit. High explanatory power regression models and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) were used. The results show that the average price for the season obtained reliably represents the market field prices in the country's various producer areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]