Food and Energy Security最新文献

Pistachio thrives in semi-arid and arid environments and is highly adaptable to various abiotic stresses. However, soil salinization significantly threatens productivity, leading to considerable osmotic and ionic stress for these plants. Roots are the primary sites for stress perception and response; however, they remain understudied in woody crops, such as Pistachio. This study examines the alterations in root protein expression and metabolic pathways in response to sodium chloride-induced salt stress through biochemical and proteomic analyses. One-year-old pistachio rootstocks were treated with four different saline water regimes over a 100-day period, and the total proteins were isolated from these samples. Over 1600 protein identifiers were detected, with comparative analysis revealing 245 proteins that were more abundant and 190 that were less abundant across three stress levels. Key pathways associated with stress tolerance, such as protein modification, folding, and heat shock protein (HSP) protection, were upregulated. An increase in secondary metabolites played a crucial role in detoxification. As salt stress intensified, the abundance of trafficking proteins increased, enhancing transporter activities. Active signaling pathways were observed at lower stress levels, while structural proteins became more critical at higher stress levels for maintaining cell membrane integrity. This cultivar exhibited enhanced kinase activities that regulate lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, thereby aiding in ion homeostasis and maintaining redox balance. The protein interaction network, mapped to orthologous proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana, revealed clusters associated with cytosolic, carbohydrate, and amino acid metabolism contributing to salinity stress tolerance. The validation of proteomic data was performed by assessing corresponding changes in transcript levels. The study expands upon previous work by providing a comprehensive proteomic map of UCB-1 pistachio rootstock across multiple salinity levels. The findings have practical implications for developing more resilient cultivars, supporting sustainable pistachio production in regions prone to salinity.

In the wake of mounting environmental pressures and growing demands for food security, agricultural subsidy programs have emerged as critical policy tools in developing countries. In Pakistan, the Kissan Card Subsidy Program (KCSP) represents a key government effort to modernize agriculture and improve farmer welfare. Against this context, the current study investigates the determinants and impacts of farmers' participation in the Kissan Card program in Punjab, with a particular focus on its influence on the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs). Employing a two-stage recursive bivariate probit (RBP) approach, the analysis first identifies key drivers of subsidy participation, highlighting the pivotal role of access to digital tools and targeted support services. Farmers equipped with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources and guided assistance are significantly more likely to engage in the program, whereas off-farm participants and tenant farmers remain less likely to benefit due to time, financial, and tenure constraints. In the second stage, the study uncovers a nuanced pattern: participation in the subsidy program substantially increases adoption of improved stress-tolerant high-yield crop varieties (STV) but reduces uptake of integrated pest management (IPM) and organic manuring (OM). This dual effect indicates that while the program alleviates liquidity constraints and facilitates modern input adoption, it may inadvertently promote input-intensive practices at the expense of long-term ecological sustainability. The findings underscore the need for more inclusive and sustainability-oriented subsidy frameworks, including expanded digital infrastructure and targeted financial and technical support for ecological practices. Although limited by the cross-sectional design, the study provides important insights into the behavioral and systemic impacts of agricultural subsidies, highlighting the challenge of aligning short-term productivity gains with long-term environmental stewardship.

Over the past three decades, the share of agricultural employment in Senegal's economy has steadily declined as part of a broader structural change. While this shift plays a crucial role in enhancing the welfare of rural households by expanding off-farm income sources, there remains a limited understanding of how these changes directly impact the welfare of Senegalese farming communities. To fill the knowledge gap, we evaluated the welfare effect of household-aggregated income and on-farm and off-farm income sources on fourteen food and nonfood expenditures using Engel's law. Our estimation techniques addressed sample selection bias and system equations by employing the Heckman selection model and Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) models for a sample of 1369 households. We also estimated the welfare effect of the structural change variable through a multilevel model. Estimating the structural change variable for six food items disclosed the harmonization between agricultural structural change and dietary transition towards protein-intensive diets. The results showed that rural households initially depend on off-farm income sources to enhance their intake of calories from livestock-based foods and to afford essential nonfood items. We concluded that it was the responsibility of regional food markets to proceed with the welfare improvement. Regional food policies should be updated to include strategies that support technological innovation, enhance resource mobility, and promote the reallocation of cropland from food crops to feed crops. These solutions regulate the demand and supply sides of the food market against dietary transition consequences of off-farm employment in rural areas.

Potassium (K) is vital for crop growth, but there is little information on the impacts of long-term different K application rates on single rice productivity and soil K dynamics. Here, a long-term field experiment with single rice cropping was conducted in southern China. The experiment comprised four K fertilization rates: no K application (CK), 50 kg K ha⁻¹ (K1), 75 kg K ha⁻¹ (K2), and 100 kg K ha⁻¹ (K3). The rice yield was determined annually and the soil K indices every 3 years. K fertilizer significantly increased rice yield by 8.0%–13.7% compared with CK. The grain yield was highest under K3, but there was no statistical difference among K1, K2, and K3. Straw K concentration of K1, K2, and K3 at the maturity stage was significantly improved by 31.2%–33.5% relative to CK. Soil K balance was negative under different K treatments. The soil available K and slowly available K of K3 were significantly increased by 44.5% and 20.3% relative to CK. Further, the slowly available K showed a positive relationship with grain yield. Taken together, a K fertilizer application rate of 100 kg K ha⁻¹ is recommended for obtaining high grain yield and alleviating soil K deficiency under single rice cropping in southern China. Those findings can provide a basis for sustainable agriculture development and reasonable K fertilizer management practices.

Plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) enhance crop yields by altering the physiological responses of plants. A deeper understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in interactions among bacterial strains and nutrients may clarify the inconsistent effects of molybdenum (Mo) and the key regulators associated with multi-trait PGPB on the physiology and development of sugarcane. This study aimed to identify the proteins that exhibit differential accumulation in sugarcane (RB867515 variety) when inoculated with a consortium of five PGPB strains (GHABH: Gluconacetobacter diazotrophicus, Herbaspirillum seropedicae, Nitrospirillum amazonense, Burkholderia tropica and Herbaspirillum rubrisubalbicans) in conjunction with Mo and nitrogen (N) fertilization. Differential protein analysis was conducted using a MALDI-ToF-ToF platform. The consortium of bacterial strains can promote sugarcane development, particularly when combined with nutritional enhancements, although notable differences exist. The application of Mo led to an increase in the dry weight and biomass N in the inoculated plants (only without the application of N). The proteomic profile indicates that inoculation with GHABH in sugarcane activates specific mechanisms related to N metabolism, including purine metabolism and synthesis, as well as the induction of NH₄⁺. In contrast, the application of Mo + GHABH resulted in the accumulation of proteins primarily associated with enhanced photosynthetic efficiency and an increase in the foliar nitrate content. The development of sugarcane inoculated with the N + Mo combination involved photosynthetic, hormonal, and protective molecular mechanisms. Conversely, the management strategy without the addition of Mo (N + GHABH) resulted in the differential accumulation of only one protein associated with plant growth. In conclusion, Mo nutrition is a key driver for the development of inoculated sugarcane, combined or not with N-fertilizer.

In the context of rural revitalization and agricultural modernization in China, increasing farmers' income has been a focal point. Based on the Agricultural Value Chain theory, this paper systematically analyzes how the Agricultural Value Chain theory promotes farmers' income growth from the perspective of the “second-round effect” of the agricultural value chain. While the “second-round effect” of the multi-round effects of the Agricultural Value Chain mainly aims at promoting farmers' input to increase their income and attracting more farmers to join the Agricultural Value Chain. This paper analyzes the mechanisms of the Agricultural Value Chain in promoting increased farmers' income through enhancing farmers' input of production factors. It is based on survey data from 1194 households in 11 provinces in 2019, employing a Simultaneous Equation Model. The findings are that: Firstly, the Agricultural Value Chain significantly boosts farmers' income by promoting land transfer-in, increasing agricultural productive investments, and reducing the proportion of non-agricultural employment among farm family members. Secondly, land transfer-in positively affects agricultural investment, while the proportion of non-agricultural population exhibits a bidirectional negative impact on land transfer-in. The increase in the proportion of non-agricultural members reduces agricultural investment through land scale as an intermediary variable. Lastly, with the increase in the degree of off-farm activities by households, the marginal income impact of the Agricultural Value Chain on farmers shows a trend of first declining and then rising. The Agricultural Value Chain, to some extent, diminishes income disparity among farmers, fostering household member specialization at the micro-level and differentiation among households at the macro-level. Consequently, the paper suggests further encouragement of innovative benefit linkage mechanisms within the Agricultural Value Chain to enhance income for more farmers. Additionally, it recommends emphasizing specialized training for farmers to facilitate their development toward higher quality. Furthermore, enhancing the inclusiveness of the Agricultural Value Chain, reducing entry barriers for low-income farmers, narrowing income gaps, and achieving common prosperity and agricultural modernization are considered essential.

Improving carbon (C) sequestration has become a critical research priority for global agricultural sustainability. Carbon-dynamics and their influences on microbial-populations and crop-productivity in maize-soybean intercropping system (MSI) remain unclear. Experiments were carried out at Renshou, Lezhi, and Yaan to investigate the carbon-balance in terms of C-sequestration across plants-organs and its mechanistic influences on microbial-populations and crop-productivity in MSI. Soybean was planted with maize in two different relay-intercropping patterns (R11, 40:60 cm and R12, 50:50 cm) and the results compared against maize-monoculture (MM) and soybean-monoculture(SM). Results showed that carbon-accumulation in MSI was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than in sole-cropping. Carbon accumulation was 5.96%, 23.9%, and 217.6% higher in MM, SM and R11 respectively, compared to the R12. Contrast to MM, the two MSI pattern (R11 and R12) showed increased carbon accumulation by 27.5% and 18.1% in straw, 19.1% and 15% in grains, and 22.2% and 18.6% in roots, respectively. Compared to the SM and MM, the MSI (R11 and R12) improved the fungi by 45%–60% and 33%–45%, bacteria by 51%–56% and 33%–35%, and actinomycetes by 47%–49% and 35%–38%, respectively. Maximum grain-yield of 11356.2 kg ha⁻¹ and 10370.3 kg ha⁻¹ in R11 and R12 at the Lezhi, which were 117.76% and 452.02%, higher than MM and SM, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that PC1 explained 93.89%, and PC2 explained 5.2% of the variation. Microbial-numbers showed strong positive-correlation with carbon-accumulation in root (R² = 0.9207, p < 0.05), straw (R² = 0.8683, p < 0.05) and grain-yield (R² = 0.8639, p < 0.05). These findings suggest that intercropping enhances soil-fertility, microbial-community, and mitigation of climate-change and boosts crop-productivity.

Frequent global geopolitical conflicts, climate change and food security are threatening the global human living environment. This study aims to investigate the spatial and temporal dynamic evolution and spatial correlation between agricultural mechanization and agricultural energy efficiency in China in the context of sustainable development, and to explore whether agricultural mechanization in China can contribute to the improvement of agricultural energy efficiency in China. Based on panel data from 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2022, this study calculated China's agricultural energy efficiency and agricultural mechanization levels, and used spatial analysis methods to explore the spatiotemporal dynamics of these two factors. Furthermore, the Spatial Durbin Model (SDM) was used to analyze the impact of agricultural mechanization on agricultural energy efficiency at the provincial level. The results show that China's total agricultural energy consumption has been increasing annually, with a shift in energy structure from indirect to direct energy. Agricultural energy efficiency has generally improved, but significant regional differences persist. Between 2010 and 2022, agricultural mechanization exhibited clear spatial correlation and agglomeration effects. Prior to 2014, agricultural energy efficiency showed no spatial correlation, but after 2014, spatial correlation gradually emerged. A U-shaped relationship exists between agricultural mechanization and agricultural energy efficiency: initially, higher mechanization is negatively correlated with energy efficiency, but after reaching a critical point, this correlation becomes positive. This study innovatively combines the EBM-DEA model with spatial econometrics to more comprehensively capture efficiency measures and spatial spillover effects. It identifies and verifies the U-shaped nonlinear relationship between agricultural mechanization and agricultural energy efficiency in China. The study also reveals significant regional differences and spatial agglomeration patterns in both agricultural mechanization and agricultural energy efficiency, enriching theoretical and empirical research in the field of agricultural energy efficiency. The study concludes that the promotion of agricultural mechanization should be combined with the promotion of energy-saving equipment, the utilization of renewable energy, and regionally differentiated policies to achieve the goal of sustainable agricultural development.

As China advances its ecological civilization goals, understanding the role of social capital in shaping ecosystem service outcomes is critical for ensuring long-term food and energy security. This study examines how social capital influences ecosystem services across 28 counties in the Qinba Mountains area of southern Shaanxi Province. A comprehensive social capital index is constructed using the entropy method, while ecosystem services are evaluated through the value equivalent factor per unit area method. The results indicate that social capital exerts a significant positive influence on ecosystem services, and ecological compensation policies are shown to strengthen this relationship. Furthermore, the impact of social capital and the moderating effect of ecological compensation policies exhibit pronounced regional heterogeneity across different areas and land types. Regionally, social capital most strongly promotes ecosystem services in Ankang, whereas ecological compensation policies exert the most pronounced positive moderating effect in Shangluo. Regarding land type heterogeneity, social capital enhances ecosystem service value in grasslands and watershed areas but suppresses it on unutilized land. In woodland regions, ecological compensation policies significantly amplify the positive effects of social capital. These findings highlight the importance of regionally tailored compensation mechanisms and the strategic use of social capital to sustain critical ecosystem functions and promote food and energy security.

Global wheat production is extending to dryland and tropical environments prone to drought and heat stress due to breeding and deploying new-generation ideotypes with desirable product profiles. However, yield gains are low and stagnant under these environments, attributable to abiotic stresses, primarily drought. Genotypes with drought-adaptive root traits will enhance grain yield and productivity under dryland and drought-stress conditions. Root traits are valued and related to high biomass production, nutrient and water extraction, ultimately boosting yield and yield components, notably in dryland agro-ecologies. Hence, the objective of the current review is to explore and document the opportunities, challenges and progress in wheat breeding targeting novel root traits to enhance drought adaptation and improve productivity under dryland agro-ecologies. The review presents a detailed account of the available genetic resources of wheat possessing desirable root traits for breeding programs. This is followed by outlines on the genetic gains for breeding for wheat root system architecture traits and the potential of high-throughput phenotyping techniques. Challenges and limitations on root phenotyping methods are presented. Lastly, the paper discusses the potential utilities of molecular breeding approaches, including marker-assisted selection, genomic-assisted breeding, and next-generation sequencing for accelerated breeding targeting root system architecture traits. The review can guide wheat breeders and agronomists in developing drought-tolerant varieties by exploiting the root system and climate-smart wheat varieties for moisture-deficient production environments.