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To effectively address the sustainability crises our planet faces, decision-makers at different levels of government worldwide will have to get a handle on three key challenges: learning from Global North and South initiatives in tandem, taking stock of social innovations alongside technological fixes, and nurturing grassroots sustainable development initiatives next to, or in place of, top-down corporate and government interventions. Current scientific literature and grant-making institutions have often reinforced the compartmentalized fashion in which we learn and draw policy lessons from North/South, social/technical, and bottom-up/top-down sustainability initiatives, including local food system innovations. The strategic levers for global sustainable development lying in-between are thus left out. This paper uses exploratory, multiple case study analysis to address this omission. By concurrently drawing lessons from grassroots innovations in Brazil, New York, and Senegal—three profoundly different socioeconomic and geographic contexts—we identify common pressure points that have enabled local communities to drive system-wide transformations toward climate adaptation, resilience, and sustainability in the agri-food system. The findings of this paper would be of value to scholars, government officials, and community groups engaged in agri-food systems sustainability and interested in the processes of change that have allowed budding innovations to stabilize and scale up.

Comparison of the water budget for the typical cropland and pear orchard ecosystems in the North China Plain Comparison of the water budget for the typical cropland and pear orchard ecosystems in the North China Plain

Data was either measured in situ in the field (N2O flux, soil moisture, rainfall and air temperature) or samples were taken, processed, and analysed in the laboratory (soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), ammonium, nitrate, microbial community composition and crop yield). N2O flux data was measured on a mobile gas chromatograph (GC) system and integrated to obtain peak areas on Peak490Win10Canabis programme. The times, peak areas and sample ID were then exported into a .CHR file and imported into Flux.NET.3.3 which calculated N2O flux as an output in Excel which was exported as .csv file for deposit in EIDC. N2O flux was used to calculate cumulative N2O flux using trapezoidal integration in Excel and saved in a separate .csv file for deposit in EIDC. Soil moisture was measured on Accilmas with data stored as a .csv on a DataSnap that was downloaded and sorted by treatment and saved as a .csv file. Rainfall and air temperature were downloaded from the weather station as .csv file. Soil pH and EC were recorded manually into a notebook and input into an Excel spreadsheet and exported as a .csv file. Soil ammonium and nitrate content was measured using the microplate method using a programme called Gen5. Date was exported into an Excel spreadsheet and absorbance units used to calculate ammonium/nitrate content in milligrams per kilogram using a calibration curve from a set of standards in an Excel spreadsheet. This was exported as a .csv file. Crop growth data was recorded in the field in a notebook and input into an Excel spreadsheet and exported as a .csv file. Crop yield was recorded in a notebook and input into an Excel spreadsheet and exported as a .csv file. Microbial community composition was measured using 16S gene sequencing on an Illumina MiSeq. This generated raw sequencing reads which were processed using Python and filtered using QIIME v1.3.1. creating asv.count.table.csv of counts of each Amplicon Sequence Variants (ASVs) per sample and taxa.table.csv of the taxonomic lineage for each ASVs. This dataset contains field data on nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, microbial community composition, crop yield and growth and soil biochemical properties. The field trial consisted of three different treatments of control, conventional microplastic addition and biodegradable microplastic addition where winter barley was grown. The data presented are from field and laboratory measurements. Data was collected by the data authors. The field trial was carried out from September 2020 to July 2021 at Henfaes Field Centre, UK. Research was funded through NERC Grant NE/V005871/1. Do agricultural microplastics undermine food security and sustainable development in developing countries?

SummaryThe adaptation of extra short duration (ESD) pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) genotypes to rainfed environments was studied on Alfisols and Vertisols at the ICRISAT Center between 1987 and 1989. Despite a slightly shorter crop duration, the grain yield of ESD genotypes was twice as large on Alfisols as on Vertisols. On both soil types, the rate of growth and grain yield were better in crops sown on time than in those where sowing was delayed. The population levels necessary to maximize yield varied among genotypes on Alfisols, where the grain yield of several ESD genotypes compared favourably with that of ICPL 87, a standard short duration genotype. However, none of the ESD genotypes yielded more than ICPL 87 on the Vertisols.

This paper develops a strategy for the continuing and improved supply of woodfuels to urban and industrial consumers in Sub-Sahara Africa. It argues that continued use of these fuels is not only a necessity, but is also in the best economic interest of most of the countries in this region. It shows that intensified and more orderly utilization of woodfuels can help to enhance, rather than impinge upon environmental parameters. Some examples are provided that illustrate how such strategies can be put into practice.

Climate change affects the timing of phenological events, such as the start, end, and length of the growing season of vegetation. A better understanding of how the phenology responded to climatic determinants is important in order to better anticipate future climate-ecosystem interactions. We examined the changes of three phenological events for the Mongolian Plateau and their climatic determinants. To do so, we derived three phenological metrics from remotely sensed vegetation indices and associated these with climate data for the period of 1982 to 2011. The results suggested that the start of the growing season advanced by 0.10 days yr-1, the end was delayed by 0.11 days yr-1, and the length of the growing season expanded by 6.3 days during the period from 1982 to 2011. The delayed end and extended length of the growing season were observed consistently in grassland, forest, and shrubland, while the earlier start was only observed in grassland. Partial correlation analysis between the phenological events and the climate variables revealed that higher temperature was associated with an earlier start of the growing season, and both temperature and precipitation contributed to the later ending. Overall, our findings suggest that climate change will substantially alter the vegetation phenology in the grasslands of the Mongolian Plateau, and likely also in biomes with similar environmental conditions, such as other semi-arid steppe regions.

This chapter focuses on the evaluation of adaptive capacities of community-level human systems related to agriculture and food security. It highlights findings regarding approaches and domains to monitor and evaluate behavioral changes from CGIAR’s research program on climate change, agriculture and food security (CCAFS). This program, implemented in five West African countries, is intended to enhance adaptive capacities in agriculture management of natural resources and food systems. In support of participatory action research on climate-smart agriculture, a monitoring and evaluation plan was designed with the participation of all stakeholders to track changes in behavior of the participating community members. Individuals’ and groups’ stories of changes were collected using most significant change tools. The collected stories of changes were substantiated through field visits and triangulation techniques. Frequencies of the occurrence of characteristics of behavioral changes in the stories were estimated. The results show that smallholder farmers in the intervention areas adopted various characteristics of behavior change grouped into five domains: knowledge, practices, access to assets, partnership and organization. These characteristics can help efforts to construct quantitative indicators of climate change adaptation at local level. Further, the results suggest that application of behavioral change theories can facilitate the development of climate change adaptation indicators that are complementary to indicators of development outcomes. We conclude that collecting stories on behavioral changes can contribute to biophysical adaptation monitoring and evaluation.

The Western Rajasthan commonly known as the ‘Indian Thar Desert’ is characterised by harsh climatic conditions with active dunal activities. Precipitation (150–420 mm/yr) is far lower than evapotranspiration potentials (1500–2000 mm/yr). Ground water is limited and often brakish and high (75–100 m) water table. Solar intensity in the region varies from 5.85 to 6.44 kWh/m2/day. Further, peculiarity of the region is that sun is available for 345–355 days in a year, the area being highly scarce in rainfall. On an average, rains occur only for 10.4–20.5 days in a year in the Thar Desert. Therefore, there is high scope to harness solar energy for useful purposes. Considering these solar energy technologies for entrepreneurs, the detailed cost analysis has been worked out and presented. With initial investment of Rs (Indian Rupees) 3.50 lakhs for solar drying projects for handling 60,000 kg fresh vegetables annually (300 working days/yr), the payback period and average net annual returns come to 2.17 years and ...