Hasil untuk "Agricultural industries"

A. Demeyer, J. C. Voundi Nkana, M. Verloo

Bidyut Saha, C. Orvig

The presence of hexavalent chromium in wastewater is a potential hazard to aquatic animals and humans. There are various mechanisms proposed, kinetic models used and adsorption isotherms employed for the efficient removal of hexavalent chromium from industrial and municipal wastewaters using biosorbents. Biosorption of heavy metals is a most promising technology involved in the removal of toxic metals from industrial waste streams and natural waters. Metal removal treatment systems using microorganisms are cheap because of the low cost of sorbent materials used and may represent a practical replacement to conventional processes. The present review discusses hexavalent chromium biosorption properties of algae, bacteria, fungi, and agricultural products, as well as adsorption properties of non-living substances. Cell walls are responsible for biosorption of dead biomaterial; compositions of cell walls are discussed. Chemical modification of biosorbents, optimization of biosorption parameters, mixtures of different biosorbents and the study of biosorption mechanisms are the main keys to transfer the biosorption process from lab to industry.

Ali Raza, Hongliang Lu, Xiaoli Ma et al.

Abstract Agriculture remains a foundational pillar of Pakistan’s economy but faces increasing pressures from climate change, resource degradation, and production inefficiencies, necessitating a transition toward more sustainable production systems. This study examines how digitalization, behavioral factors, and eco-innovation jointly shape sustainable agricultural transformation in Pakistan, with particular attention to agricultural technology-transfer initiatives conducted under Pakistan–China cooperation. Employing a mixed-methods research design, the study integrates macro-level time-series analysis (2002-2022) using an autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model with micro-level survey data collected from 366 farmers participating in technology-transfer programs. At the macro-level, the ARDL results reveal a significant long-run association between information and communication technology (ICT) development and national grain production. At the micro-level, structural equation modeling (SEM) indicates that farmers’ green values, perceived behavioral control, green innovative intentions, and energy-use reduction influence the adoption of green production technology (AGPT), primarily through the mediating role of green production willingness. The analysis further shows that eco-innovation strengthens both technology adoption and its linkage with grain supply chain performance (GSP), while the effects of environmental regulation are context-dependent. Additional robustness is provided through machine learning models, including random forest regressor and gradient boosting, which validate predictive relationships under heterogeneous socioeconomic and environmental conditions. As the micro-level evidence is based on a purposive sample of technology-transfer beneficiaries, the findings are interpreted as context-specific rather than nationally generalizable. By explicitly integrating technological acceptance and behavioral mechanisms within a developing-country agricultural setting, this study contributes to the literature on digital agriculture and green innovation and offers targeted, actionable policy insights to enhance climate resilience, food security, and sustainable grain supply chains in Pakistan.

Lijun Chao, Siying Li, Sheng Wang et al.

This study evaluated the soil moisture monitoring performance of three satellite products (AMSR2, SMAP L3, and SMAP L4) across mainland Chinese from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2024. On-site soil moisture observations from 3293 China Meteorological Administration stations were utilized as reference data to validate satellite estimates. By analyzing the impact of site representativeness errors on the validation results, performance was evaluated across multiple times (annual, seasonal, and monthly) and spaces (seven geographical regions), and further analyzed by land cover type to clarify how different underlying surfaces affect accuracy. Four statistical metrics—Bias, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), unbiased Root Mean Square Error (ubRMSE), and correlation coefficient (R)—are used to evaluate accuracy, and Monte Carlo simulations are conducted to analyze trends and ranges of variation, providing statistical robustness through random sampling and uncertainty quantification. The results indicate that SMAP L4 performs the best, followed by SMAP L3, while AMSR2 has the largest error, and this ranking is not affected by site distribution. Among all time scales and geographical regions, SMAP L4 consistently demonstrates the highest accuracy, particularly in winter (Bias = 0.0049 m3/m3) and humid areas (such as Central China, R = 0.4891). In contrast, AMSR2 displayed dry bias, significantly underestimating soil moisture across all temporal and spatial scales (RMSE = 0.2075–0.2265 m3/m3), with pronounced vegetation interference (summer ubRMSE increased to 0.1548 m3/m3). Land cover analysis showed that SMAP L4 performed well on homogeneous underlying surfaces such as agricultural land (R = 0.4763) and grassland, and maintained good accuracy in forest areas, while AMSR2 yielded significantly increased errors in densely vegetated areas. High-heterogeneity areas such as settlements and wetland posed challenges to all products. Monte Carlo simulations further confirmed that SMAP L3 and L4 products maintained stable error distributions (SMAP L4 R-value fluctuation was merely 0.0002), indicating superior accuracy and reliability. This study reveals the mechanism driving performance differences in satellite products from the perspective of land cover types, providing a scientific basis for the application and algorithm optimization of soil moisture remote sensing products in China. As a crucial physical parameter in hydrological research, soil moisture significantly influences global water cycles, ecosystem health, and agricultural water management.

Michał Kruszyński, Katarzyna Dostaw

The article presents the theoretical foundations of agricultural economics, with a focus on economic issues in the strategic sector that ensures national food security. Various definitions of agriculture are discussed, the European Model of Agriculture (EMA) is outlined, and four paradigms concerning the state’s approach to the agricultural sector are identified. To systematize the existing knowledge on the subject, a review of the relevant literature and an analysis of legal acts related to agricultural economics were conducted. The literature review encompassed 19 publications consistent with the thematic scope of the study and 3 legislative acts. The study identifies the position of agricultural economics within the economic sciences, presenting its subject, objectives, and interdisciplinary character (linkages with natural and technical sciences). It is emphasized that contemporary agri-economic sciences, broadly understood, are increasingly converging with general economics, drawing on its tools, research methodology, and conceptual framework. The article highlights the interrelations between general agricultural economics, the economics of agricultural production, and farm economics. Given that EU regulations concerning the Common Agricultural Policy affect Polish farms, it is crucial to examine their economic implications.

Marzieh Shamshiri, Conchi Sánchez, Saleta Rico et al.

The economic value of the saffron stigma is primarily due to three crucial apocarotenoids: crocin, picrocrocin, and safranal, which contribute to its color, flavor, and aroma. These compounds make saffron highly valuable in various industries. Plant viruses like the cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) and turnip mosaic virus (TuMV) are significant threats to agricultural crops worldwide, causing economic losses. To elucidate the influence of viral stress on the quality of saffron, morphological, physiological, biochemical, and molecular indexes were assessed. Under the stress of both viruses, typical viral symptoms appeared. The lowest contents of leaf pigments, flowering performance, petal anthocyanin, greenness, and photosynthesis properties were observed in plants infected with CMV and TuMV. According to high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis, CMV inoculation led to the highest reduction in crocin and safranal content, while inducing the highest increase in picrocrocin compared to the mock treatment. Gene expression analysis involved in the biosynthesis of crucial secondary metabolites showed a high correlation with the content of each metabolite. CMV inoculation resulted in the lowest expression of <i>CsALDH31l</i> and the highest expression of <i>CsUGT709G1</i> compared with the mock treatment. Our findings demonstrate the association between virus stress and changes in the metabolism of the saffron medicinal plant.

Maribel Abadias, Guillem Segarra, Cristina Solsona et al.

Upcicling biowastes and residues from the agroindustry through the production of microorganisms used in the food industry could give rise to innovative circular practices. In this work, different agricultural and food processing wastes from the potato, wheat and tomato industries were studied as potential feedstocks to produce yeasts, using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model. After a first screening in conical flasks, tomato seeds, tomato filtration water, wheat bran and frozen potato peels-based media, supplemented with sucrose were selected for 3-L bioreactor trials. Some variability in the production was found according to the batch used. Aeration rate (0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 L/min), agitation speed (150, 300 and 600 rpm) and temperature (25 and 30 °C) did not affect the growth of S. cerevisiae in the 3-L bioreactor when frozen potato peels at 21.9 g dry matter/L supplemented with 10 g L−1 of sucrose was used as the growth medium. The population obtained by upscaling in a 90-L bioreactor (7.64 log cfu mL−1) was similar to that obtained in the 3-L bioreactor (7.76 log cfu mL−1); however, the maximum population was reached later. A commercial baker's yeast produced in this medium was used to make the bread, and although the color and hardness were significantly different, no differences were found at the consumer level. This work demonstrated that it is possible to produce a baker yeast from agricultural and food processing wastes without affecting its fermentation ability.

Hamid Moghimi, Mateusz Zawadzki, Lara Speijer et al.

In this study, a reactive transport model using HYDRUS-2D is built for an agricultural field in Kinrooi (Belgium), irrigated with treated wastewater through a sub-irrigation system. The model evaluates groundwater level fluctuations and transformations of NH₄⁺, NO₂⁻, and NO₃⁻ within the unsaturated zone and groundwater over a three-year period. Hydrodynamic and reactive transport components were calibrated against high-resolution groundwater level time series and nitrogen compound concentrations. Model shows that sub-irrigation raised groundwater levels by up to 0.4 m during dry periods, while after irrigation ceased, groundwater levels declined nonlinearly, with roughly half of the increase dissipating within the first month and the remainder gradually returning to baseline over the following three months. Although sub-irrigation slightly affected nitrogen transport and leaching, these impacts were spatially limited to irrigated zone and diminished one month after irrigation ended where concentrations within unsaturated zone for NH₄⁺ and NO2⁻ decreases by 10 %. Groundwater concentrations remained below permitted threshold values in both irrigated and non-irrigated zones. Elevated background nitrate from long-term fertilizer use reduced the relative effect of sub-irrigation on groundwater nitrate. Scenario analyses further revealed that natural processes, including plant uptake, sorption, and particularly nitrification and denitrification play a key role in regulating NH₄⁺ and NO₃⁻ concentrations, while their absence leads to higher concentrations due to reduced transformation and retention.

K. Chartzoulakis, M. Bertaki

Abstract Water is considered as the most critical resource for sustainable agricultural development worldwide. Irrigated areas will increase in forthcoming years, while fresh water supplies will be diverted from agriculture to meet the increasing demand of domestic use and industry. Furthermore, the efficiency of irrigation is very low, since less than 65% of the applied water is actually used by the crops. The sustainable use of irrigation water is a priority for agriculture in arid areas. So, under scarcity conditions and climate change considerable effort has been devoted over time to introduce policies aiming to increase water efficiency based on the assertion that more can be achieved with less water through better management. Better management usually refers to improvement of water allocation and/or irrigation water efficiency. The former is closely related to adequate pricing, while the latter depends on the type of irrigation technology, environmental conditions and the scheduling of water application. Agricultural practices, such as soil management, irrigation and fertilizer application and disease and pest control are related with the sustainable water management in agriculture and protection of the environment. Socio-economic pressures and climate change impose restrictions to water allocated to agriculture. The adoption of sustainable water management in Mediterranean is not only a technological problem but involves many other considerations relative to social behavior of rural communities, the economic constrains, or the legal and institutional framework that may favor the adoption of some measures and not others. Sustainable water management in agriculture, which has a multi-functional role in Southern Europe, can be achieved by adopting improvements in irrigation application, soil and plant practices, water pricing, reuse of treated wastewater, farmers’ participation in water management and capacity building.

Mohamed Rawidean Mohd Kassim

The rapid development of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies created tsunamis almost in every industry across the world and particularly in agriculture. This massive changes are shaking the existing agriculture methods and creating new wave of opportunities. Due to the increase of world population by 30%, agriculture products will have a very high demand by 2050. Human resources for agriculture development is becoming less due to migration of young people to big cities and land use for agriculture cultivation is being used for rapid development. As a result, most of the agriculture activities need to be automated to fulfill the food demand. IoT and related technologies will be the potential solution to solve the above agricultural and food demand issues. This paper will explore the latest trends in IoT agriculture applications and highlight the issues and challenges particularly in network and open source software for smart agriculture.

P. González-De-Santos, R. Fernández, Delia Sepúlveda et al.

Estimations of world population growth urgently require improving the efficiency of agricultural processes, as well as improving safety for people and environmental sustainability, which can be opposing characteristics. Industry is pursuing these objectives by developing the concept of the “intelligent factory” (also referred to as the “smart factory”) and, by studying the similarities between industry and agriculture, we can exploit the achievements attained in industry for agriculture. This article focuses on studying those similarities regarding robotics to advance agriculture toward the concept of “intelligent farms” (smart farms). Thus, this article presents some characteristics that agricultural robots should gain from industrial robots to attain the intelligent farm concept regarding robot morphologies and features as well as communication, computing, and data management techniques. The study, restricted to robotics for outdoor farms due to the fact that robotics for greenhouse farms deserves a specific study, reviews different structures for robot manipulators and mobile robots along with the latest techniques used in intelligent factories to advance the characteristics of robotics for future intelligent farms. This article determines similarities, contrasts, and differences between industrial and field robots and identifies some techniques proven in the industry with an extraordinary potential to be used in outdoor farms such as those derived from methods based on artificial intelligence, cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things, Big Data techniques, and cloud computing procedures. Moreover, different types of robots already in use in industry and services are analyzed and their advantages in agriculture reported (parallel, soft, redundant, and dual manipulators) as well as ground and aerial unmanned robots and multi-robot systems.

T. C. Sparks, B. Lorsbach

Jiutan Liu, Zong-jun Gao, Zhenyan Wang et al.

Leonello Trivelli, A. Apicella, F. Chiarello et al.

Purpose Circumstances that are have a significant impact on it. In particular, environmental sustainability related to the increase of worldwide population, and market demand for agricultural products (with consumers more and more aware about cultivation and breeding techniques and interested in healthy and high-quality products) represent two of the key challenges that the agricultural sector is going to face in next years. In such a landscape, technological innovations that can support organizations and entrepreneurs to face these problems become increasingly important, and Industry 4.0 is the most striking example. Indeed, the Industry 4.0 paradigm aims to integrate digital technologies into business processes to raise productivity levels and to develop new business models. Accordingly, digital technologies play a similar role in the precision agriculture domain, and the purpose of this paper is to understand if the technologies at the basis of these two paradigms are the same or not. Design/methodology/approach The present work investigates how the two domains of Industry 4.0 and precision agriculture are connected to one another by analyzing the most used technologies in both the fields in order to highlight common patterns and technological overlaps. To reach such goal, an approach combining manual and automated analysis was developed. Findings The research work generated three main results: a dictionary of precision agriculture technologies including 324 terms; a graph, describing the connections between the technologies composing the dictionary; and a representation of the main technological clusters identified. Originality/value These show how the two domains under analysis are directly connected and describe the most important technologies to leverage when approaching digital transformation processes in the agricultural sector.

X. Pham, M. Stack

Wioletta Wrzaszcz

The aim of European Green Deal (EGD) is to implement a pro-environmental and pro-climate policy, which should be translated into economic practice. EGD concerns agriculture, including organic, hence the importance of recognizing the current path of development of this management system and future prospects. The aim of this paper is illustration of current challenges in organic farming and its environment in Poland, taking into account European strategic and market goals. The population of organic farms and other organic entities operating in this segment were analyzed. The period covered 2004-2020, and data of Agricultural and Food Quality Inspection and Statistics Poland. Indicator analysis methods were used and trends were established. A comparison of the statistics for 2020 and 2004 showed the development of organic farming in Poland, taking into account the farms’ number and the agricultural land in organic system. The period 2004-2020 was not homogeneous, and the last years can be considered as a period of stagnation. In the adopted perspective, the production profile of organic farms changed, which more and more often carried out only crop production, omitting livestock production. The further development of organic farming will be an important challenge, also taking into account the level of development of the market environment of organic farms, in particular the number of processors and operators involved in the supply of certified seed. The main determinant of the development of organic farming in Poland was, and in the next few years probably will be, the institutional factory.

Zhou Yang , Du Juan

Agricultural microbial industry is a kind of biotechnology industry and high value-added agriculture formed by using agricultural microbial resources and biotechnology, involving in many fields such as planting, breeding and agricultural environment. Agricultural microbial industry is now becoming an important growth point of national strategic emerging industries, which plays vital roles in ensuring national food security, improving the quality of cultivated land and increasing agricultural emission reduction. The purpose of this paper is to study the development strategy of agricultural microbial industry, to elaborate the characteristics, pain points and opportunities of industrial development, and to put forward suggestions and countermeasures. The results show that microorganisms and their related technologies have become the key way to solve the sustainable development of agriculture in China: the breakthrough of basic research and key technologies has promoted the agricultural microorganisms into a new round of technological revolution; the exploration and utilization of microbial resources has reached a new stage; the subdivision industries have ushered in a period of rapid development opportunity. At the same time, China's agricultural microbial industry is also faced with problems such as low rate of core strain autonomy and sharing, relatively weak basic research, and lagging product development. It is suggested that China's agricultural microbial industry should strengthen source innovation, break through cutting-edge key technologies, accelerate the construction of national microbial germplasm resources scientific equipment, and build a new platform for scientific and technological innovation and industrial development.

Lucir Reinaldo Alves

Esse artigo analisa as especializações produtivas das Regiões Geográficas Intermediárias (RGInt) do Paraná entre 1985 e 2019. Utiliza-se o Quociente Locacional, medida de localização e especialização internacionalmente consolidada, para identificar as especializações e as mudanças das estruturas produtivas regionais. Os resultados ressaltaram as alterações do perfil produtivo de cada RGInt paranaense, sendo a RGInt de Curitiba a mais multiespecializada em todo o período. A RGInt Cascavel, Maringá e Londrina se destacaram na Ind. Alimentos e Ind. Têxtil, enquanto as RGInt de Guarapuava e Ponta Grossa na Ind. Madeira e do Papel, com ambas as regiões de referência utilizadas. Este trabalho se mostrou eficaz em ressaltar as especializações regionais, bem como mostra o potencial dessa metodologia em estudos sobre processos ou políticas de desenvolvimento regional.

A. Fleming, E. Jakku, L. Lim-Camacho et al.

C. Blattner

Just Transition has become an established discursive and conceptual framework to transition economic industries toward a low-carbon and climateresilient future. In the coal and mining industry in particular, it has gained a foothold and transformed politics and livelihoods. In other areas, like animal agriculture, which is equally damaging to the climate, the need for change and the deployment of Just Transition to achieve it are not yet established. Drawing on the most recent scientific insights by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this viewpoint argues that transitioning toward a low-carbon production is just as imperative in agriculture. Specifically, it demands that we move away from animal agriculture. The viewpoint concludes by sketching possible areas and means of intervention.