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Institutional linkages and information flow between agricultural organizations play a critical role in addressing sustainability issues and promoting agrarian innovation. The aim of this study was to evaluate institutional relations and information between the various actors within the agricultural knowledge and information system (AKIS). The study focused on eight actors within the AKIS in Dakahlia governorate of Egypt, namely policy, extension, research, agricultural cooperatives, higher education, secondary education, credit, and the private sector. Thus, the survey sample included 11 representatives of each actor with 88 respondents. Data were collected by a standardized questionnaire distributed online. The graph theoretical technique was used for the quantitative assessment of information flow and institutional linkages established among actors. The findings indicated that agricultural extension ranked first about their real cause and effect on the rest of the system, having a value of 7.95. Two critical information pathways within the AKIS sustained innovation outcomes: (1) higher education–extension–agricultural cooperatives, (2) research–extension–agricultural cooperatives. The results also revealed that agricultural cooperatives ranked second after the extension component on the extent of supplying information to other members in the AKIS, with a value of 4.8. In contrast, the highest component received information from other components (7.6). By analyzing institutional linkages and information flow, this article gives insights to policymakers on the mechanisms that still need to be strengthened and the information gaps between actors to address the challenges of sustainable rural development.

Drought is one of the natural hazards that have negatively affected the agricultural sector worldwide. The aims of this study were to track drought characteristics (duration (DD), severity (DS), and frequency (DF)) in South Africa between 2002 and 2021 and to evaluate its impact on wheat production. Climate data were collected from the South African Weather Service (SAWS) along with wheat yield data from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (2002–2021). The standard precipitation index (SPI) was calculated on 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month time scales, and the trend was then tracked using the Mann–Kendall (MK) test. To signify the climatic effects on crop yield, the standardized yield residual series (SYRS) was computed along with the crop-drought resilience factor (CR) on a provincial scale (2002–2021). The output of the SPI analysis for 32 stations covering all of South Africa indicates a drought tendency across the country. On a regional scale, western coastal provinces (WES-C and NR-C) have been more vulnerable to meteorological droughts over the past 20 years. Positive correlation results between SYRS and wheat yield indicate that the WES-C province was highly influenced by drought during all stages of wheat growth (Apr–Nov). Historical drought spells in 2003, 2009, and 2010 with low CR = 0.64 caused the province to be highly impacted by the negative impacts of droughts on yield loss. Overall, drought events have historically impacted the western part of the country and dominated in the coastal area. Thus, mitigation plans should be commenced, and priority should be given to this region. These findings can assist policymakers in budgeting for irrigation demand in rainfed agricultural regions.

The impact of climate change on biodiversity has been the subject of numerous research in recent years. The multiple elements of climate change are expected to affect all levels of biodiversity, including microorganisms. The common worldwide fungus Fusarium oxysporum colonizes plant roots as well as soil and several other substrates. It causes predominant vascular wilt disease in different strategic crops such as banana, tomato, palm, and even cotton, thereby leading to severe losses. So, a robust maximum entropy algorithm was implemented in the well-known modeling program Maxent to forecast the current and future global distribution of F. oxysporum under two representative concentration pathways (RCPs 2.6 and 8.5) for 2050 and 2070. The Maxent model was calibrated using 1885 occurrence points. The resulting models were fit with AUC and TSS values equal to 0.9 (±0.001) and 0.7, respectively. Increasing temperatures due to global warming caused differences in habitat suitability between the current and future distributions of F. oxysporum, especially in Europe. The most effective parameter of this fungus distribution was the annual mean temperature (Bio 1); the two-dimensional niche analysis indicated that the fungus has a wide precipitation range because it can live in both dry and rainy habitats as well as a range of temperatures in which it can live to certain limits. The predicted shifts should act as an alarm sign for decision makers, particularly in countries that depend on such staple crops harmed by the fungus.

The need for exploring nonfood low-cost sustainable sources for biodiesel production is ever increasing. Commercial and industrial algae cultivation has numerous uses in biodiesel production. This study explores S. elongata as a new algal feedstock for the production of biodiesel that does not compete with food production. The major fatty acids identified in S. elongata oil were oleic (30.5%), lauric (29.9%), myristic (17.0%), and palmitic (14.2%) acids. Transesterification to FAME was conducted using basic (KOH), acidic (HCl), and Zeolitic catalysts for assessment. The yields with acidic (54.6%) and zeolitic (72.7%) catalysts were unremarkable during initial screening. The highest biodiesel yield (99.9%) was achieved using KOH, which was obtained with the optimum reaction conditions of 1.0% catalyst, 60 °C, 4 h, and an oil-to-methanol volume ratio of 1:4. The resulting S. elongata oil methyl esters exhibited densities, CNs, and IVs, that were within the ranges specified in the American (ASTM D6751) and European (EN 14214) biodiesel standards, where applicable. In addition, the high SVs and the moderately high CPs and PPs were attributed to the presence of large quantities of short-chain and saturated FAME, respectively. Overall, the composition and properties of FAME prepared from S. elongaae oil indicate that S. elongata is suitable as an alternative algal feedstock for the production of biodiesel.

Climate change constitutes a major threat to agricultural production, food security, and natural resource management. Saudi Arabia is particularly susceptible to increasing temperatures and extreme climatic events, such as arid weather and drought. The purpose of this study is to assess farmers’ beliefs and concerns as regards climate change. Extensive interviews were conducted with 164 farmers in the Jazan region. Results revealed that 89.6% of the farmers believed that climate change is due to human activities and 93.3% believed that it is because of natural change. Seventy-five percent of the farmers were concerned about insects and 73% about the prevalence of weeds on their farms. Findings of cluster analysis revealed that farmers who are more likely to believe in climate change are more in agreement with the role of extension services in capacity building. Farmers’ beliefs about climate change were significantly influenced by membership of agricultural cooperatives, access to loans, use of extension services, age, farm size, and level of soil fertility. Access to loans was the only significant factor to explain the differences in farmers’ concerns. These results suggest the need for capacity-building activities targeted at improving farmers’ adaptability to manage climate variability.

Seasonal quantification of a crop’s evapotranspiration (ET) and water footprint (WF) is essential for sustainable agriculture. Therefore, this study was conducted to estimate the ET and WF of an irrigated potato crop using satellite imagery of Landsat and Sentinel-2 sensors. The Simplified Surface Energy Balance (SSEB) algorithm was used to evaluate the crop water use (ETa) for potato fields belonging to the Saudi Agricultural Development Company, located in the Wadi-Ad-Dawasir region, Saudi Arabia. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), soil-adjusted vegetation index (SAVI), and land surface temperature (LSD) were computed for Landsat and Sentinel-2 datasets, which were used as inputs for mapping the potato tuber yield and, subsequently, the WF. The results indicated that the NDVI showed the best accuracy for the prediction of the potato tuber yield (R2 = 0.72, P > F = 0.021) followed by the SAVI (R2 = 0.64, P > F = 0.018), compared to the field harvested actual yield (YA). A comparison between the satellite-based ETa and the actual amount of water applied (WA) for irrigation showed a good correlation (R2 = 0.89, RMSE = 4.4%, MBE = 12.9%). The WF of the potatoes in the study area was estimated at values between 475 and 357 m3 t−1 for the early (September–December) and late (December–April) growing periods, respectively. A major portion (99.2%) of the WF was accounted for from irrigation with variations of 18.5% and 3.5% for early- and late-planted potatoes, respectively, compared to the baseline (crop planted in season). In conclusion, the results showed the possibility of satisfactorily estimating the WF using the SSEB algorithm by integrating the Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 datasets. In general, the high rates of ET in the early planting season led to higher WF values compared to the in-season and late planting dates; this will help in selecting suitable planting dates for potato crops in the study area and areas with similar environments, which enhances the opportunities for sustainable management of irrigation water.

Chromium (Cr) is among the most widespread toxic trace elements found in agricultural soils due to various anthropogenic activities. However, the role of micronutrient-amino chelates on reducing Cr toxicity in crop plants was recently introduced. In the current experiment, the exogenous application of micronutrients [iron (Fe)] chelated with amino acid [lysine (lys)] was examined, using an in vivo approach that involved plant growth and biomass, photosynthetic pigments and gaseous exchange parameters, oxidative stress indicators and antioxidant response. The uptake and accumulation of Fe and Cr were determined under different levels of tannery wastewater (33, 66, 100%) used along with the exogenous supplementation of Fe-lys (5 mM) to Spinacia oleracea plants. Results revealed that tannery wastewater in the soil decreased plant growth and growth-related attributes, photosynthetic apparatus and Fe contents in different parts of the plants. In contrast, the addition of different levels of tannery wastewater to the soil significantly increased the contents of malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and electrolyte leakage (EL), which induced oxidative damage in the roots and leaves of S. oleracea plants. However, S. oleracea plants increased the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase (APX), which scavenge the over-production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cr toxicity can be overcome by the supplementation of Fe-lys, which significantly increased plant growth and biomass, improved photosynthetic machinery and increased the activities of different antioxidative enzymes, even in the plants grown under different levels of tannery wastewater in the soil. Furthermore, the supplementation of Fe-lys increased the contents of essential nutrients (Fe) and decreased the contents of Cr in all plant parts compared to the plants cultivated in tannery wastewater without application of Fe-lys. In conclusion, the application of Fe-lys is an innovative approach to mitigate Cr stress in spinach plants, which not only increased plant growth and biomass but also decreased the Cr contents in different plant organs.