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The profitability, resource-use efficiency and technical efficiency of organic crops in the Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh is estimated from primary data collected from 60 organic farmers selected randomly using three-stage sampling. The cost return data showed that maize and paddy were profitable organic crops, and increasing return to scale was supported by the Cobb-Douglas production function. Mean technical efficiency was 75, 55, 47, and 31% in maize, followed by barley, wheat, and paddy, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public certification standards have received limited scholarly attention, especially the institutional capacity of public authorities that develop and implement these standards to address complex challenges, such as the promotion of industrial ecology and industrial symbiosis for enhancing resource use efficiency. This research uses an institutional capacity assessment framework to examine the ways in which a voluntary public standard for certifying eco-industrial parks affected the Vietnamese state's capacity to coordinate and implement industrial ecology. The article draws upon the interviews and a review of official documentation to show that the benefits of public standards extend beyond compliance to the enhancement of state capacities to coordinate complex policy domains such as industrial ecology. The findings contribute to providing a basis to redesign standard-setting processes to move beyond end-user compliance and provide insights into how public actors can more effectively address 'systemic' sustainability challenges – from circular economy ambitions to the Sustainable Development Goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) has the potential to reduce food loss and waste (FLW) due to a direct connection between consumers and producers, lower standards regarding product aesthetics and consumer-related values. Accordingly, CSA could compensate for possible yield gaps compared to conventional agriculture. Here, FLW and yields were assessed for one year in four CSA initiatives in the area of Leipzig, Germany, and compared to reference data. The results show that FLW during production, distribution and consumption were on average 22–70% lower compared to reference data. On average, due to lower FLW, the CSA initiatives could compensate for yield gaps of 32%, which reflects yield gaps typically observed between organic and conventional agriculture. Actual yield gaps in CSA might be lower, as agroecological approaches to increase productivity are widely adopted. The co-evaluation of the results with CSA gardeners showed that FLW could be further reduced in all stages. Reducing FLW was mentioned as an important sustainability goal of the investigated CSA initiatives, yet they also indicated a focus on biodiversity, education, food quality or the reduction of fossil fuels. This pilot study indicates that CSA can contribute to the transition towards sustainable and resilient food systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there has been a remarkable increase in rice production owing to genetic improvement and increase in application of synthetic fertilizers. For sustainable agriculture, there is dire need to maintain a balance between profitability and input cost. To meet the steady growing demands of the farming community, researchers are utilizing all available resources to identify nutrient use efficient germplasm, but with very little success. Therefore, it is essential to understand the underlying genetic mechanism controlling nutrients efficiency, with the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) being the most important trait. Information regarding genetic factors controlling nitrogen (N) transporters, assimilators, and remobilizers can help to identify candidate germplasms via high-throughput technologies. Large-scale field trials have provided morphological, physiological, and biochemical trait data for the detection of genomic regions controlling NUE. The functional aspects of these attributes are time-consuming, costly, labor-intensive, and less accurate. Therefore, the application of novel plant breeding techniques (NPBTs) with context to genome engineering has opened new avenues of research for crop improvement programs. Most recently, genome editing technologies (GETs) have undergone enormous development with various versions from Cas9, Cpf1, base, and prime editing. These GETs have been vigorously adapted in plant sciences for novel trait development to insure food quantity and quality. Base editing has been successfully applied to improve NUE in rice, demonstrating the potential of GETs to develop germplasms with improved resource use efficiency. NPBTs continue to face regulatory setbacks in some countries due to genome editing being categorized in the same category as genetically modified (GM) crops. Therefore, it is essential to involve all stakeholders in a detailed discussion on NPBTs and to formulate uniform policies tackling biosafety, social, ethical, and environmental concerns. In the current review, we have discussed the genetic mechanism of NUE and NPBTs for crop improvement programs with proof of concepts, transgenic and GET application for the development of NUE germplasms, and regulatory aspects of genome edited crops with future directions considering NUE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this two-year field study, influence of seed size on the growth and performance of wheat sown under different sowing methods was evaluated. The experiment comprised of three seed size classes viz. bold size, medium size and small size and five sowing methods, (1) broadcast, (2) line sowing, (3) no-till sowing, (4) bed planting, and (5) broadcast augmented with furrows. Among sowing methods highest yield (4.59 and 4.40 t ha−1) and water productivity (2.02 and 1.92 kg m−3) were recorded in bed planting. During both years, yield of bed planted wheat was significantly higher (5–29%) compared with other sowing methods. However, less cost of production in no-till sowing resulted in higher resource use efficiency (0.91, 0.73) than other wheat planting methods. Among seed size classes, the crop raised from bold seeds performed better for weed competitiveness, nutrient uptake, and resource use efficiency (0.79 and 0.63). The yield of crop raised from bold seeds was the best in all sowing methods except in broadcast where medium sized seeds performed better for yield (4.19, 4.35 t ha−1), nutrient uptake and resource use efficiency (0.73, 0.63). Therefore, planting bold wheat seeds on beds may help harvest better productivity and profitability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study employed cost-return analysis, Cobb-Douglas production function and marginal value product-marginal factor cost (MVP-MFC) approach to estimate and analyze profitability, productivity and resource use efficiency, respectively, of banana production in the Hetauda-Dumkibas road corridor. Primary data and information were collected from a total of 160 banana producers, 80 from each district, using pretested semi-structured questionnaires. The benefit-cost ratio (BCR) of banana was 1.57 in the first cropping season and 1.92 in succeeding cropping seasons, indicating that one USD spent on banana production yielded 57 cents profit from the first cropping season and 92 cents from succeeding cropping seasons. Suckers, fertilizers, labors and fixed variables were found to have positive and significant effects on gross income of banana production. The return to scale (1.037) was found slightly increasing. The analysis of resource use efficiency showed that fixed variables (mainly, rental value and insurance), suckers and labors were underutilized resources while plant protection chemicals and manures were over-utilized resources. Expensive and poor insurance coverage, insufficiency of quality suckers and timely unavailability of labors were major reasons for underutilization, while easy availability of manures and higher occurrence of pests and diseases were reasons for overutilization of manures and plant protection chemicals, respectively. Therefore, research on tissue culture technology should be promoted to produce a large scale of disease and pest resistant varieties of bananas. Moreover, policy efforts to enhance reliable distribution networks of insurance companies and intercultural agro-machineries are recommended to increase profitability and productivity from banana production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing resources use efficiency in intensive cultivation systems of maize (Zea mays L.) can play an important role in increasing the production and sustainability of agricultural systems. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate DM yield and the efficiency of inputs uses under different levels of water, nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in maize. Therefore, three levels of irrigation including 80 (ETc80), 100 (ETc100) and 120% (ETc120) of crop evapotranspiration were considered as the main plots, and the factorial combination of three levels of zero (N0), 200 (N200) and 400 (N400) kg N ha−1 with three levels of zero (P0), 100(P100) and 200 (P200) kg P ha−1 was considered as the sub plots. The results showed that increasing the consumption of water and P was led to the reduction of N and P utilization efficiency, while RUE increased. WUE was also increased in response to application of N and P, but decreased when ETC increased. DM yield under ETc80 treatment reduced by 11 and 12%, respectively, compared to ETc100 and ETc120 which was due to reduction of cumulative absorbed radiation (Rabs(cum)) and RUE. Under these conditions, changes of stomatal conductance (gs) had little effect on DM yield. It was also found that N limitation caused 11 and 20% reduction in DM yield compared to N200 and N400, respectively. This yield reduction was mainly the result of decrease in RUE. By decreasing Rabs(cum), P deficiency also reduced DM yield by 5 and 9%, respectively, relative to P100 and P200 treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan’s Indus Basin irrigation system, conceived initially as a vast network of gravity-fed canals, has evolved into a quasi-conjunctive management system in which pumped groundwater increasingly augments surface water supplies. Analysis of the evolution of on-farm energy use for agriculture in Punjab Province over the last 15 years finds that while total crop production increased 31%, direct energy intensity for agriculture increased 80%. Moreover, direct energy use is chiefly driven by groundwater pumping (61%). Important knowledge gaps are identified in the critical water-energy-food interdependencies that need to be addressed for sustainable management of scarce natural resources in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gratefully, the quality of life for billions of people will improve drastically during the coming decades. This implies that the production of virtually every commodity will have to increase dramatically. Agriculture-related activities ought to provide food, feed, and non-edible plant-based products. The availability of natural resources per person will, however, continue to decline. Resource degradation like erosion, soil fertility decline, and water pollution further constrain production increases. Hence, the use efficiency of natural resources will have to be boosted drastically, while variability should be curtailed through enhanced buffering capacity of the production base to prevent shock in food systems. These changes in agricultural strategies also call for interdisciplinary research groups to seek for synergies between production factors. This paper provides an overview of the challenges to meet the above mentioned production conditions and stresses the need for agro-ecological intelligence in choosing agricultural development strategies and, therefore, in designing agro-ecosystems. Plant production is taken as a starting point where global change, including climate, are considered in an integral manner. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentale Hook. F.) and its cultivation are gaining popularity. Profitability and resource use efficiency of fluted pumpkin production was examined using data collected from 200 farmers. A budgetary technique and ordinary least squares regression analysis were used for analysis. The enterprise had annual profit of ₦116, 891.39 ha-1 (₦ is Nigerian currency) and return on investment of 1.43, but allocation of resources was inefficient among growers. Factors affecting production were fertilizer (α0.01) and seed (α0.01). Increased amounts of seed sown and fertilizer used would improve leaf yield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to determine the effect of intercropping of fodder crops on growth and yield attributes of the essential oil-yielding multi-harvest aromatic plant geranium (Pelargonium graveolens L. Her. ex. Ait) under field conditions during 2005-2007. In addition aggressivity, land equivalent ratio (LER), area time equivalent ratio (ATER) and land use efficiency % (LUE%) as an index of intercropping advantage were determined to assess the resource use efficiency of intercropping systems. The main crop geranium was intercropped with oat (Avena sativa L.) and berseem or Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrum L.) in different combinations. All crops were also grown in pure stands. The study indicated that the growth and yield of geranium was affected at first harvest compared to sole. But the second harvest in different intercropping systems compared to sole did not affect biomass and oil yield of geranium. Intercrops produced bonus yields over and above that of geranium. The resource use efficiency values were higher in intercropping systems over sole geranium. The study clearly showed that geranium-based intercrop treatments might provide the highest total yield as well as resource use efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature of resources available and how they are combined and utilized in aquaculture largely determine its economic viability and social profitability. Using a novel Resource Cost Ratio (RCR), this study analyzes resource use efficiency and social profitability of an integrated aqua farm located in Tripura, India. RCR, a variant of the Domestic Resource Cost Ratio (DRCR), is the ratio of the net cost of non-marketable resources and the net value addition by using marketable resources. The RCR for the integrated farm was found to be -0.24. The negative value of RCR shows positive profitability for the integrated farm. The corresponding value for a specialized farm was found to be 0.52. The difference is the greater resource use efficiency of the integrated approach. Private and social profits per unit cost for the integrated farm (0.26 and 0.08, respectively) were higher than for the specialized farm (0.11 and 0.04, respectively). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biointensive agriculture (BIA) is a suite of small-scale agricultural practices that include the use of high-density mixed plantings. It has been promoted to gardeners and resource-limited farmers as a sustainable organic vegetable production method that makes efficient use of land, water, and other resources. Certain crop mixtures are popularly recommended for use in BIA systems (e.g., tomato, Lycopersicon esculentum Mill., and basil, Osimum basilicum L.); others are discouraged (e.g., tomato and Brussels sprout, Brassica oleracea L.). Rain-fed BIA gardens were planted in 2001 and 2002 to compare land-use efficiency of pure stands and two-crop mixtures of tomato, basil, and Brussels sprout. Brussels sprout was the most competitive crop among the three tested, accounting for at least two-thirds of the land equivalence ratio (LER) in mixtures; basil was the least competitive component crop, accounting for less than one-third of LER. Mixtures made more efficient use of land than pure stands only in 2002, which was hotter and drier than 2001. Potential land-use efficiency of mixtures was likely underestimated in both years because the method commonly recommended for calculating inter-plant spacing in BIA mixtures tends to result in lower total density in mixtures than in segregated pure stands, and does not account for different mixture proportions. New recommendations are proposed to address these problems, and are incorporated into a companion planting spacing calculator available for download. Marketable Brussels sprout yield was poor because of excessive heat for the cool-season crop, not because of poor plant growth. The popularly recommended mixtures did not make more efficient use of land than the popularly discouraged mixture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]