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As they represent an important form of agricultural operation, the sustainable development of family farms is not only an objective necessity for promoting comprehensive rural revitalization in China, but also an imperative strategy for accelerating the construction of agricultural power in China. Based on the survey data of 357 family grain farms in China, this paper uses a structural equation model to empirically analyze the relationship between market-oriented perceptions, organizational resilience, and the sustainable development of family grain farms. The results show that market-oriented perceptions have a significant positive impact on the sustainable development of family grain farms; additionally, organizational resilience plays a mediating role in the impact of market-orientation perceptions on the sustainable development of family grain farms. Based on this, the paper proposes a two-fold approach to the sustainable development of family farms: improving the level of market-orientation perceptions of family farmers and enhancing the organizational resilience of family grain farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adaptive farming behavior is a key strategy for farmers to cope with climate change. This paper aims to explore the potential impacts of climate change information sources on farmers’ adaptive farming behavior. This paper clarifies the internal mechanism of three typical information sources, namely government departments, scientific research institutions and neighborhood communication, affecting farmers' adaptive farming behavior. Based on the sample data of 1200 farmers in the main wheat producing areas of Shaanxi Province, the theoretical conjecture is empirically tested. The results showed that the climate change information from government departments and scientific research institutions has a significant positive impact on farmers' adaptive farming behavior, but in the case of considering the three sources of information at the same time, the information source of scientific research institutions has the strongest positive impact on farmers' adaptive farming behavior. After farmers have access to climate change information exchanged by government departments, scientific research institutions and neighbors, their differences in climate change adaptive farming behavior mainly depend on their climate change cognition rather than subject trust factors. Formally organized climate change information represented by government departments and scientific research institutions has a more significant positive impact on farmers' adaptive farming behavior, but this impact depends largely on whether the information obtained by farmers can improve their climate change awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines an emerging economy in terms of the correlation between poverty and greenhouse development as a tool contributing to higher returns of individual households that can be applied in the socio-economic system as a whole to address underdevelopment. Farming acts both as production and consumption factor. Favorable climatic and technical conditions for conducting this type of economic activity stimulate theoretical and practical scientific interest in the problem. The research target is farming as a type of economic activity, an integral element of a national economic complex. The subject of the study is greenhouse farming as a factor of the socio-economic system that affects living standards of the population. The research methodology is based on universally recognized systems concepts and phenomenological principles of scientific investigation, mathematical calculations and software data processing. The findings of this study demonstrate a high dependence of private subsidiary farms as greenhouses on the country’s population employment fluctuations. The paper presents an economic model that reflects the dependence of the unemployment poverty on factors of agricultural production, household structure and total household returns. The conducted research revealed a close relationship between intensified greenhouse farming with the level of poverty in the country [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased nitrogen fertilizer use has greatly boosted the agricultural production in China, however, imposed considerable environmental issues. Reducing nitrogen use in agriculture is inevitable for China to achieve the sustainable development goals. This paper established a partial equilibrium model to evaluate the reducing effects on nitrogen use under scenarios of nitrogen optimized utilization and nitrogen use efficiency improvement among seven crops and seven regions in China. Simulations revealed that: (1) nitrogen optimized utilization helps to reduce 7.73% agricultural nitrogen use in China, soybean turns to be the only exceptional crop that nitrogen use would be doubled; (2) nitrogen use could be continuously decreasing with the nitrogen use efficiency improvement, the reducing rates are 8.28% to 27.91% under 10% to 40% improvement scenarios; (3) among the crops, soybean and peanut have far greater reducing rates than other crops, maize is simulated as the least sensitive crop; (4) East, North and Central China, contribute over 60% of nitrogen use in China, while in Northeast China, nitrogen use performs the least sensitivity to the modelling scenarios. Therefore, this paper suggests that policies and incentives on nitrogen optimized utilization and nitrogen use efficiency improvement are necessary, and heterogeneities in both crops and regions indicate that flexible adjustment strategies of cropping structures in different regions should be taken into consideration towards less agricultural nitrogen use in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural productive services are fundamental in transforming the paradigm of agricultural development and exert a significant impact on farmers' behavior in managing their arable land. This paper employs the slack-based measure of the super-efficiency model, known as the Super-SBM model, incorporating unexpected output to gauge the eco-efficiency of cultivated land use (ECLU). Utilizing panel data from Hunan Province spanning the years 2007 to 2020, this study unveils the following key findings: (1) Across various quantile levels, agricultural productive services exhibit a substantial capacity to enhance ECLU, with coefficients ranging from 0.070 to 0.156. (2) The impact of agricultural productive services on ECLU is constrained by both farmers' income levels and the scale of cultivated land, revealing a dual threshold effect. As income levels rise, the corresponding coefficient increases progressively, from 0.0771 to 0.1147, and ultimately to 0.1571. Similarly, with the expansion of cultivated land, the coefficient increases from 0.1152 to 0.1443, and ultimately peaks at 0.1694. (3) The enhancement of ECLU through agricultural productive services is achieved by reducing the input of environmental factors and mitigating undesirable outputs. (4) Agricultural productive services indirectly facilitate labor transfer, accounting for 10.8% of the overall effect. Consequently, it is imperative to continually enhance the agricultural socialized service system, bolster financial support, and implement policies that foster the development of agricultural productive services to realize sustainable cultivated land utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By utilizing the center of gravity-standard deviation ellipse, kernel density estimation, and GeoDetector, this paper analyzes the spatial distribution pattern of China's agricultural green TFP and the dynamic evolution law of its distribution in different regions based on the provincial-level related input-output data of China's agriculture from 2001 to 2020. It also investigates the factors that affect its spatial differentiation. We find that (1) China's agricultural green TFP, which has a long-term upward trend and an average annual growth rate of 3.21% between 2001 and 2020, is mostly fueled by technological advancements in the field of agriculture. (2) Agricultural green TFP tends to move eastnorthward, and its spatial distribution is gradually expanding, showing a northeast-southwest pattern. (3) Agricultural green TFP in the country as a whole and the three major food regions has increased over the study period, with absolute differences within the country gradually narrowing, and cities with higher agricultural green TFP within the regions approaching the average, and the polarization phenomenon easing. (4) The main determinants of the spatial divergence of green TFP in agriculture are the replanting index, agricultural output per capita, and the degree of financial support for agriculture. The strength of the interactions between the various factors is significantly greater than the explanatory power of any one factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural industry agglomeration is an important driving force for the green and high-quality development of agriculture. Based on the perspective of agricultural industry agglomeration, this paper discusses the impact of agricultural industry agglomeration on the level of green development of agriculture, which is of great significance for the realization of sustainable development of agriculture and the implementation of the “double carbon” goal. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces (municipalities) and autonomous regions in China from 2011 to 2020, the non-expected Super-SBM model and location entropy index method were used to measure the efficiency of agricultural green development and the level of agricultural industry agglomeration. The spatial Dubin model, tradition and spatial Markov chain were used to demonstrate the influence of agricultural industrial agglomeration on agricultural green development efficiency and its spatio-temporal dynamic evolution.The results showed that: (1) There was spatial autocorrelation in agricultural green development efficiency. Areas with higher agricultural green development efficiency will drive the improvement of agricultural green development efficiency in surrounding areas, with a positive spillover effect. (2) Industrial agglomeration can improve the efficiency of agricultural green development, and this enhancement has spatial spillover. (3) The influence of agricultural industrial agglomeration on agricultural green development efficiency and its spatial spillover have regional heterogeneity. The spillover effect of AIA to AGDE in the eastern region is greater than that in the central and western regions. Based on this, it is necessary to grasp the spatial correlation law of provincial agriculture, promote the sustainable development of regional agriculture, optimize the allocation of resources, and put forward policy implications for the improvement of agricultural green efficiency from the aspects of financial support, industrialization, human capital and urbanization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural eco-efficiency is a crucial indicator for measuring the green and sustainable development of agriculture. This study utilizes provincial panel data from 2006 to 2019 to measure agricultural eco-efficiency while integrating carbon emissions and carbon sinks. A two-way fixed effect model and a nonlinear quadratic term model are utilized to investigate whether expanding farmland management scale contributes to enhancing agricultural eco-efficiency. The research results indicate that agricultural eco-efficiency is at a moderate level and exhibits a positive trend with an average annual growth rate of 1.28%. The relationship between farmland management scale and agricultural eco-efficiency is characterized by an inverted U-shaped nonlinear association. Appropriate management scale is essential for promoting green development of agriculture and is validated even after conducting endogenous and robustness tests. The research identified a significant moderating effect of service outsourcing, where a higher degree of service outsourcing results in a flatter inverted U-shaped curve mentioned above. Moreover, the non-linear relationship between the scale of agricultural land and agricultural eco-efficiency has become more significant after the reform of “separation of the three rights” and in the east and central regions. Finally, based on the above conclusions, the paper provides specific recommendations for improving agricultural eco-efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The balance between agricultural development and maintenance of agro-ecological environment becomes a huge challenge because of global climate changes. Existing literature on the low-carbon pilot policy proposed by the government of China and whether the problems of agricultural development and agricultural environmental protection can be solved or not have not been reviewed. This paper analyzes the impact of low-carbon pilot policies on agricultural eco-efficiency by using SARAR model based on the data of 281 cities in China. Results show the spatial spillover effects between low-carbon pilot policies and agricultural eco-efficiency. The implementation of low-carbon pilot policy can improve agricultural eco-efficiency. Although restrained by agricultural economic development, this policy has disequilibrium effect on agricultural eco-efficiency, has a relatively large impact on agricultural eco-efficiency in western China and other poor areas, and promotes the reduction of agricultural carbon emission. The effect of the implementation of low-carbon pilot policy is affected by the initial agricultural economic development and urban economic conditions. This research aims to improve the agricultural eco-efficiency and enforce the green development of the agricultural economy via the perspective of the low-carbon pilot policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studied the impact of new industrial activities on ecological security in agricultural and animal husbandry interlaced areas, and provided reference for eco-environmental protection and sustainable development. A pressure-state-response (PSR) assessment model was established in the case of Yanchi County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. The comprehensive weights of the indexes were determined by AHP and entropy weight, and the ecological security status of agricultural and animal husbandry interlaced areas was evaluated. The results show that the index of pressure system fluctuated and decreased, and went through the stage from "Safe" to "Unsafe"; The index of the state system showed a rising trend, from "Extremely unsafe" to "Relatively safe", which showed the sensitivity characteristic; The response system index had been increasing year by year, and had stabilized at a "Safe" level in 2019;The overall ecosystem security index showed a fairly good development trend, with significant improvement in ecosystem functions in 2019. On the basis of the stable state system, we should ease the pressure index in the ecological security system of Yanchi County, control the scale of tourists, reduce the damage of farming and animal husbandry to the cultivated layer, and stabilize the population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper presents the problem of real hazards for products (edible or inedible) and animals identified as a result of border control in international road transport. A border control system used on the Polish part of the eastern border of the European Union was selected and some data were analyzed concerning the number of checks and shipments rejected due to the epidemiological risk. The data have been collected from annual control reports for Poland. It has been shown that the biggest biological threat comes from the border with Belarus (most shipments were rejected). It was noted that the proportion of imported shipments rejected on the borders had a very strongly positive correlation (correlation coefficients: 0.96 and 0.99). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Low-carbon development has recently become a growing trend in agricultural modernization. It will provide beneficial guidance for exploring driving factors of agricultural carbon emissions in Hebei Province, a typical agricultural region, and formulate relevant policy on its reduction. Calculating carbon emissions in Hebei from 1995 to 2014 demonstrated that energy and land use accounted for more than 90% of agricultural carbon emissions, and there was an increasing tendency overall with a peak value in 2010 and, to a certain extent lately, a slight decline. This paper employed transformed Kaya identity in light of local actual conditions for selecting eight influencing factors. Meanwhile, the extended STIRPAT model and ridge regression were used to make regression analysis. Results showed that contributing factors were efficiency, agricultural import, urbanization, agricultural mechanization, and population, whose 1% increase caused 0.1852%, 0.1663%, 0.1597%, 0.1573%, and 0.1329% increases in carbon emissions, respectively, while 1% growth in industry structure and agricultural affluence were responsible for 0.1475%, and changing the elastic coefficient of (0.1314-0.2958lnA)% decrease in carbon emissions, respectively, where A represented agricultural output value per capita. Furthermore, there existed an inverted U-shaped EKC between economic progress and carbon emissions. Given the above conclusions, policy recommendations were provided for effectively achieving agricultural carbon emissions reductions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphorus (P) is an essential building block of life. It is an irreplaceable part of agriculture, as there is no substitute for its use for producing food and feed. The objective of P fertilization is to add an adequate (in regard to soil test P) amount of P to produce an economical yield. Unbalanced P management leads to P wastage, lower cost-effectiveness of production, and water quality impairment. The aim of this paper is to analyze the structure and trends in the consumption of phosphorus mineral fertilizers and to draw gross phosphorus balance in Poland (NUTS level 1) and by regions (NUTS level 2). In Poland, P for agriculture is mainly applied as a compound fertilizer, among which diammonium phosphate represents the greatest share. Average P consumption rate in Poland has declined slightly since 2008, currently reaching 24.4 kg P2O5·ha-1 UAA. The differences in intensity of farming, measured by the consumption of PMF, reached more than 200%, and this differentiation has intensified over the years. The polarization of Polish agriculture is also confirmed by GPB outcome, as differences between provinces are in the range of -1.9 kg P·ha-1 UAA in Małopolskie to 7.7 kg P·ha-1 UAA in the Wielkopolskie region. The differences in crop and animal production in Poland are largely conditioned by both organizational and production management, which conjointly affect agricultural phosphorus use efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an assessment of the water quality of the transboundary Wisznia River (Poland). The environmental state of this transboundary river is described in terms of monthly monitoring data for the main physicochemical and biological parameters. The eight indicators of water quality taken into account included: nutrients (nitrate, phosphorus), salinity, and biological oxygen demand. Long-term water quality data (for 1990-2012), collected from two sample sites was investigated. A substantial decrease in the amount of nutrient substances in the later years can be noticed. This is the result of changes in agriculture and the construction of sewage treatment plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the influence of the use of methods of Molinia meadows in eastern Poland on changes in its biodiversity and species composition. Research was carried out in 2006-10 on Molinia meadows near Uściwierz lake, located in the Pojezierze Łęczyńsko-Włodawskie (Lake District). The studied complex was classified to [Selino carvifoliae-Molinietum] meadows. Meadows were used in a specific method: 1. 1-cut meadow (June), 2. 1-cut meadow (June) + grazing (August), 3. abandoned meadow (since 2000). The above-mentioned methods of use caused the transformation of the typical structure of Selino-Molinietum meadow. I observed the initial succession of forest associations with a large share of Salix rosmarinifolia and Betula pubescens on unused meadow. The highest share of the characteristic species of the Selino-Molinietum association was characterized by abandoned meadow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hitherto the method of laser diffraction has been used only for determining particle size distribution (PSD) of mixtures. This paper presents an extension of that measurement approach to include the determination of the number of particles. The described method may find practical application in a variety of disciplines, including biology (e.g. for determination of population sizes of micro- and mesofauna), agricultural sciences (e.g. with relation to the study of soils), and Earth science (e.g. with relation to sediments and lands), among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the possibilities of using renewable sources of energy in Podlaskie Province. It shows the structure of acquisition of renewable sources of energy in the European Union, Poland, and Podlaskie province. In Podlaskie, windpower can be developed in its northern part, while hydropower can be acquired across the region. However, the greatest opportunities are connected with biofuels. Since supply of solid biomass from the four national parks and food-and-agricultural processing is limited, it is necessary to foster cultivation of energy plants as well as to use municipal waste as a source of energy. In the future, Podlaskie province should become a region of innovative economy pursuant to the provisions of the Innovative Energy program. Energetic Agriculture, liquid biofuels will be gradually replaced by gas biofuels generated by biological methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small water reservoirs play many important natural, hydrological and economical functions in the agricultural landscape. They are subjected to very strong anthropogenic pressure, leading to their quantitative and qualitative degradation. A classification proposal for small water reservoirs in an agriculturals from a deterioration point of view is presented in this paper. Classification is based on analysis of the following phenomena and processes: drainage, sewage drops, landfills, cattle pasturage, fish farming, fishing, tress and shrubs cut out as well as bordering on urban areas, country roads, landfill sites or cultivated fields. Four classes of anthropogenic impact were distinguished. Reservoirs free from any anthropogenic impact constitute the first class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]