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Agriculture and livestock farming are activities that depend on energy consumption. Photovoltaic self-consumption systems can reduce the production costs of these actors, especially in periods of high-energy price volatility. This work aimed to determine the degree of implementation of photovoltaic self-consumption systems, their relationship with the economic impact of the energy crisis, and the perception of producers to use renewable energy sources in the Spanish agricultural system as it is one of the most important at European level. For this purpose, a survey of the Spanish agricultural and livestock system, involving 396 primary producers, was carried out between December 2022 and March 2023. The results suggest that self-consumption systems are in place in 49.1% of all farms and that these have had a positive effect in alleviating the rising energy costs suffered by the Spanish primary sector. In summary, Spanish primary producers generally have a favorable perception of the use of renewable energies on their farms, especially photovoltaic. However, the cluster analysis shows the fact that there are two types of producers, active and passive, from an environmental point of view. The characterization of this type of producers can help the Spanish Administration to improve the efficiency of its energy strategy, and can be a source of inspiration for the governments of other countries., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

As of now, circular economic production models of the circular economy (CEPMs), which include circular economy, bioeconomy, and circular bioeconomy, are among the main tools characterizing development policies in different countries. During the last five years, policies and strategies regarding CEPMs have promoted and contributed to the development of research on this topic. The evolution and most relevant aspects of the three CEPMs previously mentioned have been analyzed from a sample of 2190 scientific publications obtained from the Scopus database. Bibliometric analysis has been used to evaluate the approach of these models in agriculture and to introduce the ways in which they address the management of agricultural waste biomass (AWB). Results show that the circular economy is the most studied and prioritized model in China and most European countries, with the UK leading the way. Germany leads in topics related to the bioeconomy. The management policies and strategies of the circular bioeconomy are key to promoting research focused on AWB valorization since bioenergy and/or biofuel production continue to be a priority.

The high-yield agricultural model in Almería is based on eight different crops. Having led fruit and vegetable exports in Spain for more than 50 years, a decrease in melon and watermelon growing areas in Almería caused a change in supply that affected the model's profit. Papaya cultivation could reactivate the profit of the agricultural model in Almería and also improve the available product range. The papaya crop needs greenhouse infrastructures high enough to contain the growth and size of the plants during a cycle crop, which is possible in most of the greenhouses of the Horticultural production model of Almería. The papaya harvests obtained in the region meet the quality requirements demanded by European markets. Furthermore, yields obtained are equal or higher than yields obtained by other producing countries. This crop improves profit compared with the profit obtained from the rotation of other horticultural crops that have been traditionally grown in the region.

The monoculture of melon in Guatemala has caused the massive appearance of plants with an analogous syndrome for the well-known disease commonly called melon collapse, or vine decline, causing significant losses in crops. Methyl bromide is commonly used to sterilize soil prior to planting in Guatemala, but it must be phased out by 2015. The objective of this study was to evaluate the technique of grafting melon onto hybrids of Cucurbita (Cucurbita maxima x Cucurbita moschata), as an alternative to using soil disinfectants (such as Metam sodium, 1,3-dichloropropene, and methyl bromide) for the control of collapse. The results suggested that both soil disinfection and grafting were not necessary in these locations, since there were no statistical differences in terms of yields between the treatments and the untreated control. Furthermore, these results demonstrate that decisions to disinfect the soil must be based on the firm identification of the causal agents, in addition to preliminary assessments of yield losses.