Farming systems form the backbone of the world food system. The food system, in turn, is a critical component in sustainable development, with direct linkages to the social, economic, and ecological systems. Weeds are one of the major factors responsible for the crop yield gap in the different regions of the world. In this work, a plant and weed identifier tool was conceptualized, developed, and trained based on artificial deep neural networks to be used for the purpose of weeding the inter-row space in crop fields. A high-level design of the weeding robot is conceptualized and proposed as a solution to the problem of weed infestation in farming systems. The implementation process includes data collection, data pre-processing, training and optimizing a neural network model. A selective pre-trained neural network model was considered for implementing the task of plant and weed identification. The faster R-CNN (Region based Convolution Neural Network) method achieved an overall mean Average Precision (mAP) of around 31% while considering the learning rate hyperparameter of 0.0002. In the plant and weed prediction tests, prediction values in the range of 88–98% were observed in comparison to the ground truth. While as on a completely unknown dataset of plants and weeds, predictions were observed in the range of 67–95% for plants, and 84% to 99% in the case of weeds. In addition to that, a simple yet unique stem estimation technique for the identified weeds based on bounding box localization of the object inside the image frame is proposed.
Rice is the staple food for more than half of the world’s population. In South Asia, rice farming systems provide food to the majority of the population, and agriculture is a primary source of livelihood. With the demand for nutritious food increasing, introducing innovative strategies in farming systems is imperative. In this regard, intensification of rice farming is intricately linked with the challenges of water scarcity, soil degradation, and the vagaries of climate change. Agroecological farming systems like the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) have been proposed as water-saving and sustainable ways of food production. This study examines the effect of intercropping beans with rice under SRI management on the growth of weeds and on the different plant growth parameters. Intercropping led to a 65% decrease in weed infestation on average, which is important given that weed infestation is stated as a criticism of SRI in some circles and is a major factor in limiting yield in rice-producing regions. In addition to the water savings of about 40% due to the SRI methodology, the innovation led to an increase in rice yield by 33% and an increase in the net income of farmers by 57% compared to the conventional rice farming method. The results indicate that intercropping can be a positive addition to the rice farming system, hence contributing to social–ecological sustainability.
The discrepancies in our food systems have become more pronounced in the last couple of years due to natural disasters of huge magnitude and the current pandemic, that have served to make them visible to a wider range of population. As a result, a shift to agroecological food and farming systems is currently being advocated at different levels. An agroecological approach to food systems involves consideration of all their interactions with the major challenges of our time—food security, water scarcity, climate change, socioeconomic disparity. This paper presents a bibliometric study of peer reviewed literature about the role of agroecology in relation to either or all of these challenges, published between 1990 and 2020. 1990 was the year in which IPCC published its first assessment report that set into motion many framework agreements and protocols regarding climate change. In 2019 and 2020, IPBES and iPES-Food released separate reports advocating an urgent agricultural transition based on agroecological methodologies. There has been an exponential increase in the published research in this field in this time period, whereas an overwhelming majority of the publications were filed under the subject areas of agricultural and biological sciences, environmental sciences, and social sciences. In addition to the increasing acceptance of the role of agroecology to address the challenges of our times, the results of this analysis point to the cross-cutting nature of issues agroecology caters to.
Food security and energy transition are among the current major global environmental challenges. Although these issues individually are significant in their own right, they are connected to each other in a nexus with different interrelationships and dependencies. In the quest for non-fossil alternatives for energy, cultivation of bioenergy crops has become an important part of the energy policy in many countries. In this regard, the use of fertile agricultural land for growing crops for energy production rather than for food supply affects the global food security. Recent conflicts and the geopolitical crisis in Europe, leading to increased food, fuel, and fertiliser prices, the existing climate crisis, and the crisis caused due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have further reinforced the understanding of this nexus, with certain countries mulling limiting biofuel production from agricultural land and others banning food grain exports to safeguard food supply. The idea of growing non-food energy crops on marginal lands in general and closed landfill sites in particular is hence ever more relevant, to avoid land-use concurrence between food needs and energy needs. Landfilling has been the dominant waste management strategy until recently in European countries and is still the dominant mode of waste management in low-income regions like South Asia. This paper provides a review of the economic as well as environmental benefits of growing Ricinus communis L., Jatropha curcas L., and Populus deltoides as energy crops on closed landfill sites in the South Asian context. While as the cultivation of Miscanthus X Giganteus, Silphium perfoliatum L., and Panicum virgatum (Switchgrass) is reviewed in the European context. The cultivation of non-food energy crops like these on closed landfill sites and marginal lands is presented as a potential component of an integrated food-energy policy, with an increased relevance in the current times. In the current times of multiple crises, this measure is of increasing relevance as a part of the overall strategy to achieve resilience and environmental sustainability.
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